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| Essex Farm ADS |
Our day started in Flanders Fields. Ypres is a central town, around which battles raged throughout the Great War, some of which featured Canadians. Here was the site of the first large-scale gas attack on the Western Front (2nd Ypres), the Battle of Passchendaele, Hill 60, etc. Like at Verdun, there is too much to take in during one day, so we limited ourselves to two sites. The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 bills itself as an "experience", which is pretty accurate since it has two large-scale recreations - one of the underground dugouts and the other a trench system. You can also pick up a real rifle and wear a German coalscuttle helmet and trench armour. We then traveled down to Essex Farm, site of a cemetery and the remains of an advanced dressing station (ADS). It was at this station during the 2nd Battle of Ypres that Dr. John McCrae, surgeon in the Canadian Artillery, wrote "In Flanders Fields". Since Yolanda had lived just a few blocks away from McCrae's family home in Guelph, it was almost like a homecoming.
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| Great Uncle Cecil |
Driving back into France, we detoured to Vimy to look for Great Uncle Cecil again. The first time we were there, we only had the Canadian Book of Remembrance to go by, which was ambiguous as to his location. The search is further complicated by our family's history - Cecil's birth certificate has him as "McKinnon", but his enlistment record is "MacKinnon", and his father (or grandfather, I forget which) went by "McKenna", so we needed to check them all. Finally, after some searching on the Commonwealth War Graves British website, Craig discovered yet another spelling: "Cecil Alvernon MacKinon, born Charleston N.S." Presumably this is a typo, but as you can see, this is how his name is inscribed on the Vimy memorial.
Hi again Craig. I left a comment on your 2014 blog on Cecil Alvernon Mackinnon. I mentioned that the family is listed on the 1901 and 1911 census of Charleston Queen's County NS as "Mckenna". Our whole family changed their names from time to time. Not sure why. If you've ever seen the military records for Cecil (they are now on line), someone went through them after he was killed and changed the name to Mackinon, same as the entry on the Vimy memorial. I'm not sure why but I think it may have to do with his signature on his attestation papers. Not a good policy because at the time many people couldn't spell their names properly anyway. My daughter and I are currently searching for two family members, Cecil and Samuel Maxwell Mckinnon. There are no known graves for these soldiers but through a lot of research we may be able pinpoint their whereabouts. Bob Mckinnon.
ReplyDeleteBob - thank you for your comments. As you say, there is a lot of confusion about name spelling - not uncommon I'm sure among immigrants. I certainly realize that our family may not be MacKinnons or McKinnons, or even McKennas - there are all kinds of reasons why a name might change especially during the transition from Europe to Canada (hiding a criminal record, hiding ethnicity, bureaucratic incompetence or indifference, illiteracy). As for Uncle Cecil, I agree that it is likely his remains are buried as an unknown soldier somewhere, or worse, there wasn't enough remains to bury due to artillery strike or mine explosion. Cheery thoughts!
DeleteCraig : Our original ancestor in NS was an Irishmen with the British Navy who used the name John Mckenne. A variation from the Irish Clan Mckenna. He was granted land in Yarmouth County NS for service to the King. He married a lady from Beverly Mass. named Rebecca Lovitt who's father (Andrew Lovitt) also took a land grant in Yarmouth. One of his sons (a mariner)named John Mckenne moved to the Liverpool NS area, I suspect as a Privateer during the War of 1812 and married a lady from Port Medway named Elizabeth Cahoon in 1815. All except 1 of their 9 kids either took the name Mckenna or Mckinnon. The oldest son, Rev John Freeman Mckenne, a Baptist minister, kept that name. His son Charles Bernard Mckenna married Maria Louisa Tupper and were the grandparents of Cecil Alvernon Mckenna (Mackinnon for you). Cecil's parents of course were Charles Netson Mckenna and Annie Iscilda Freeman. I hope that clears up a bit of the name stuff and some history if you didn't already know.
DeleteCraig : We visited 3 other WW1 family members when we were at Vimy in April. Joseph Lester Mckenna who was also a grandson of Charles Bernard. He was with the NS Highlanders who took Hill 145 where the Vimy Memorial now stands. He was killed in action near Lens on June 1917 and is buried in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery. Ingram Porter Mckinnon was also with the NB Regiment and killed during the Somme offensive and is buried in the Crouy British Cemetery. Frank Hirtle (my grandmother's cousin) was killed in the 1st Battle of Ypres. He was with the RCR's and is buried in the Menin Road South Cemetery. What an honor it was to visit these grave sites in April.
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