The Story of the 102nd Canadian Infantry Battalion
From BC to Baisieux by Sgt Leonard McLeod Gould HQ 102nd Canadians WW1
The Story of the 102nd Canadian Infantry Battalion
From BC to Baisieux by Sgt Leonard McLeod Gould HQ 102nd Canadians WW1
Bio of 1003653, Pte Gordon Howard Dobson, a signaller with the 102nd Battalion, was a railway clerk from Northern Ontario and died at the end of the Battle of Passendale in November 1917.
He has no known grave and lies near the village of Passendale in Belgium where, on Nov 14, 1917, his company had taken up positions in range of enemy artillery just west of this famous land mark in Canadian Army History. It is believed he was caught in a German barrage early in the morning as the Germans, who had just been forced out of Passendale, were keeping the Canadians off balance and trying to gain time before they were pushed back even farther. His name lives on forever on the Menin Gate,
(MENIN GATE) MEMORIALDesigned by Sir Reginald Blomfield and erected by the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, it consists of a "Hall of Memory", 36.6 metres long by 20.1 metres wide. In the centre are broad staircases leading to the ramparts which overlook the moat, and to pillared loggias which run the whole length of the structure. On the inner walls of the Hall, on the side of the staircases and on the walls of the loggias, panels of Portland stone bear the names of the dead, inscribed by regiment and corps.
Carved in stone above the central arch are the words:
TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918 AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE.
Over the two staircases leading from the main Hall is the inscription:
HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL IN SALIENT BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH.
The dead are remembered to this day in a simple ceremony that takes place every evening at 8:00 p.m. All traffic through the gateway in either direction is halted, and two buglers (on special occasions four) move to the centre of the Hall and sound the Last Post. Two silver trumpets for use in the ceremony are a gift to the Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, of St. Catharines, Ontario, in in April 1915.
Visit the Area and see the Menin Gate at Marco Hovelings "Unfortunate Region Web Site". Tell him we sent you - that's an order!
Further reading - see "With the 50th Battalion in No Man's Land" by Victor Wheeler - try book stores like Chapters. Victor Wheeler did the same work as Gordon Dobson.
BATTLE HONOURS
"SOMME, 1916", "Ancre Heights", "Ancre, 1916", "ARRAS, 1917, 18", "VIMY, 1917", "Hill 70", ", 1917", "PASSCHENDAELE", "AMIENS", "Scarpe, 1918", "Drocourt-Queant", "HINDENBURG LINE", "CANAL du NORD", "VALENCIENNES", "France and Flanders, 1916-18".
Be sure and visit the 102nd Battalion`s Sister Unit - the 54th Kootenay Battalion
Visit the 21st Battalion from Eastern Ontario
