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j i m v a l l a n c e . c o m > j a m e s y o u n g > f r a n c e 1 9 1 8 | ||||||
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My grandmother's
older brother, Jim Young, owned a small grocery store at
the corner of 22nd and Slocan in Vancouver. The store
was a one-man operation, so when war broke
out in
1914
Jim didn't enlist voluntarily. Then, on August 29, 1917
Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act, making it compulsory
to
serve
in the military.
Uncle Jim enlisted on January 10, 1918. In February he travelled to Halifax by train, then by ship to England. He joined his battalion in France in August 1918, just in time to participate in some of the last great battles of the war (Amiens and Arras). He was killed on the morning of September 27, 1918 during the Canal du Nord operation, just a few weeks before the war ended. Jim Young is buried 20 kilometers west of Arras in a British cemetery near the village of Sains-les-Marquion. |
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