Produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams.  Associate producer Jim Vallance.  Recorded by Bob Clearmountain, September 1986, at Cliffhanger Studios, West Vancouver.  Mixed by Bob Clearmountain, January 1987, at AIR Studios, London.

	James Wellington Young England, May 1918

In the early 1900's my great-uncle Jim Young operated a grocery store at the corner of 22nd Avenue and Slocan Street in Vancouver. The store was a big responsibility, a one-man operation, so Jim didn't enlist voluntarily when war broke out in 1914.

As the war dragged on and hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers perished in France, the need for replacements became desperate. In 1917 the Canadian government passed the Conscription Act, thus guaranteeing an uninterrupted supply of "cannon fodder" for the remainder of the war. Jim was drafted in January 1918. His younger sister Ethel (my grandmother) took over the store.

In February 1918 Jim Young left Vancouver by train, traveling across Canada to Halifax harbour. From there he sailed to England for training. In June 1918 he joined the British Expeditionary Force in France and participated in some of the last great battles of the First World War.

On September 27, 1918, just a few weeks before the war ended, Jim Young was killed by shrapnel from a German shell, shortly after crossing the Canal du Nord. He's buried in a small British war cemetery near the village of Sains-les-Marquion, France. I've visited his grave on many occasions.

The war ended at 11:00 a.m. on the 11th day of November 1918. In Canada, every November 11th, we celebrate Remembrance Day, to remember the soldiers who died in various conflicts during the past 100 years.

In 2005, researcher and author Michel Gravel included a reference to Uncle Jim in his book "Tough As Nails", a history of the 14th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 1914-18.