PRIVATE EDWIN GRANT
CANADIAN INFANTRY
26TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 33
BURIED: TYNE COT CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Mrs Grant's plea does not go unheeded. People often drop a flower on her husband's grave, and this is quite apart from the flowers that permanently fill the beds in front of all the graves. Far away in Vancouver, British Columbia one doubts that Bella Grant would ever have been able to make the journey herself - few did.
Her husband, Edwin Grant, had been born in Aberdeen. He worked there as an engineers' labourer before emigrating to Canada where he became a steel worker. He enlisted in February 1916 and served with the 47th Battalion Canadian Infantry. He was killed sometime between the 26th and the 28th October 1917, the War Graves Commission does not have a firm date. The battalion were in 'close support' at Abraham Heights:
26 October: B Coy moved forward to the NE side of Passchendaele Rd. Lt Hinckesman, 2nd in command of B Coy was killed by a machine gun bullet late in the evening.
27 October: During the day the enemy shelled our new line. At night the whole battalion, in conjunction with the 44th was ordered to advance & occupy the ridge in front and throw outposts.
28 October: Terrific and intense bombardments of our lines by guns of all calibres marked this day. ... Enemy aeroplanes travelled over our lines throughout the day & directed the enemy's artillery.
After the war, Grant's was one of the thousands of bodies gathered up from the surrounding battlefields and buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery. Of the 11,961 soldiers buried here 8,373 were never identified - some of them, no doubt among the 35,000 missing dead named on the surrounding walls.
Seven years after Edwin Grant's death, Bella married his brother, James.