PRIVATE ROBERT BLAKE ALLAN
16TH BN. CANADIAN INFANTRY
31ST MAY 1915 AGE 20
BURIED: CHOCQUES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Private Allan was wounded on his 22nd birthday, 29 May. A record survives of the letter written the next day to his parents by an army chaplain, "at the request your son". Far away in Stavely, Alberta, they cannot have been reassured: "I am sorry to say that the wound is rather serious. One injury being in the stomach and the others in the legs. The legs are only flesh wounds and should heal quickly ... we are hoping that his more serious wound will heal without further complications, as many of that kind have been known to do." Robert Allan died the next day.
In August 1914 the Dominion of Canada was constitutionally a subordinate member of the British Empire. When Britain was at war, Canada was at war. There was no other legal option. However, it was the Canadian government in Ottowa that determined the actual nature of Canada's contribution to the war effort, not London. From a population of 8 million, 400,500 Canadian soldiers served overseas, of whom 60,661 died. Many believed what the recruiting posters told them, that if England fell Canada would fall too.