Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Newspaper Clipping – From the Calgary Herald. Submitted for the project, Operation: Picture Me

Group Photo – Photo:Machine gun section, 82nd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Calgary, Alberta. L-R back row: W. de Mandey; F. Hills; F. Telford; H. Clowes; L. Allison; H. Hickey; W. Smitherun; F. Wells; M. Birchenough; S. Brown. (All others in the photograph are unidentified.) + Herbert Charles Hickey (marked with X in the back row), was born in 1893 and killed at Vimy Ridge in 1917. He is buried in Quatre-Vents Military Cemetery in Estree-Cauchie, Pas-de-Calais, France. He was born in Bristol and had worked for the CPR in Calgary. Glenbow Archives credit

Monument – In April of 2006, my two young daughters and I had occasion to visit France and Belgium. A significant part of our visit was directed at visiting the scenes of Canadian battles of the First World War. We got lost while driving in the backroads of northwestern France, and happened to stumble across "Quatre Vents Military Cemetery". On the spur of the moment, we happened to stop in and visit. We quickly learned that there were 77 Canadians buried there. It also became apparent that no Canadians had been there for months, if not years. So, my girls and I decided then and there to place a poppy on the headstone of each and every Canadian lying there. It was a deeply fulfilling experience to do so. Months later, I happened to be wandering around St. Mary's Cemetery in Calgary. I just happened to see the civilian stone that you see in the picture. Private Hickey's date of death (09 April 1917) immediately said "Vimy". Out of curiosity, I checked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site to see where he was buried or commemorated. I was stunned to learn that, of the hundreds cemeteries that dot the Western Front, that he was buried in Quatre Vents...the very same place where we had marked the grave of every Canadian months earlier, and thousands of kilometers away. It was an honour to place a poppy on his grave in France, and it is an honour to include some images that help to tell this story.

Entrance – This is the entrance to Quatre-Vents Military Cemetery in the Pas de Calais area of France.

Cemetery – As noted in another caption for Pvt. Hickey, he is buried in Quatre Vents Military Cemetery in France. This is a picture of part of that cemetery, taken after my daughters had placed a poppy on the headstone of every Canadian soldier buried there. Pvt. Hickey's grave is at the far end of the row that my daughters are standing in front of.