Also of . . .

When I was researching Gordon’s family, we came across a gravestone at the little St John Lee Church, near Hexham, Northumberland. We had been looking for other family members, but a bit at the foot of the stone caught our eyes: Also of Robert Malcolm their son Killed in Action 9th April 1917 aged 27 years. This was Gordon’s grandmother’s younger brother and I had wondered what had happened to him. However, the story was not as simple as we thought.

I immediately went to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, but was disappointed that I could not at first find Robert Malcolm in their listings. I had come across someone who fit the description, but dismissed it as it said he was of the Canadian Infantry. That couldn’t be right could it . . . so a story unravelled.


Robert Malcolm was born in 1890 in the village of Wall, Northumberland. He was the eighth of thirteen children. Their father was a Lead Miner, who later became a farmer. In 1911 Robert was 21, living at home in Acomb and he was a Cartman working on the family farm.

Two years later he decided to emigrate to Canada and sailed in May 1913. At this time Canada was in need of people to work on the land and the Canadian Government was offering incentives for people with farming skills to go over from the UK. A year later, presumably when Robert had found them somewhere to live, a young lady Ursula Ann set sail for Canada ‘to be married’. The couple were married in July 1914 and set up home in Toronto. They had a baby, born in 1915.

In January 1916 Robert enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in France. The Canadian Government had encouraged the nation to get behind Britain in World War 1 and many thousands of young men volunteered to go to France to fight.

Robert Malcolm was killed on the 9th of April 1917, during the battle for Vimy Ridge. The battle was won, but at the cost of 11,000 Canadian lives.

A few years ago Gordon and I went in search of his great uncle’s grave and we found it – in the Bois-Carre cemetery in Thelus. We found the gravestone and a nearby monument. We also visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. We have visited this most awe-inspiring and moving place a few times since. It never fails to make one reflect.

I often wonder how Ursula coped with the loss, so far away from home and with a small baby. She was only one of so many to have their hopes and dreams shattered by war.

The picture is: the gravestone amongst many others, the plaque on the monument close by and a statue from the Canadian Memorial.