IF I FALL
I SHALL HAVE DONE
SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE
WORTH DOING

PRIVATE GEORGE LAWRENCE HOLMDEN

5TH BATTALION CANADIAN INFANTRY

19TH AUGUST 1915 AGE 20

BURIED: BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, BELGIUM


George Holmden's father used his son's own words for his epitaph. Twenty-year-old George, a piano stringer from Grenfell, Quebec, volunteered on 16 September 1914. Both his parents had been born in Britain, emigrating to Canada in September 1877. Many of the earliest Canadian volunteers were young men who had been born in Britain; George Holmden, who was also an early volunteer, was born in Montreal.