Citation(s);
Military service
Burial/memorial information
Baptized Joseph Alexandre Laverdière. Son of Joseph Laverdière (deceased in 1894) and Ludivine Blais, of Montréal, Québec. His mother died on July 3rd, 1916, two weeks after her son.
Enlisted in the 41st Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he reported having served for one year in the 65th Mount Royal Carabiniers Regiment. He sailed for Great Britain on October 18, 1915, and landed in Plymouth, England, on the 28th. On February 29, 1916, he was assigned to the 23rd Reserve Battalion and, on May 25 of that year, to the 22nd Battalion. He crossed the English Channel on the 26th and landed in Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais, France. On the 31st, he joined his new unit in combat at Zillebeke, Belgium. He was initially reported missing and later declared killed in action on June 19, 1916, by a German shell, while his unit was relieving the 8th Battalion in the trenches at Zillebeke, in the Ypres Salient, Belgium. The German shelling resulted in one fatality, eight wounded, and eight missing. His body was never found.
Digital gallery of Private Alexandre Laverdière
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Memorial
Inscription on the Menin Gate … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens -
Circumstances of death registers
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Wartime diary
War Time Diary of 22e Bataillon, June 14-19, 1916.
Digital gallery of
Private Alexandre Laverdière
Digital gallery of
Private Alexandre Laverdière
Digital gallery of
Private Alexandre Laverdière
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 116 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.
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MENIN GATE (YPRES) MEMORIAL Belgium
The Menin Gate Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town of Ypres (now Ieper) in the Province of West Flanders, on the road to Menin and Courtrai. It bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War. Designed 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 YPRES 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 Ypres Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, of St. Catharines, Ontario, in Ypres in April 1915."
For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The Poppy Design is a trademark of The Royal Canadian Legion (Dominion Command) and is used with permission. Click here to learn more about the poppy.
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