25 April 2017

A Footnote in Canadian Military History

Harry B. Little's grave is the only one with a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in the Lutheran Cemetery at Czar, Alberta. 


Little died 10 days after the start of the First World War, the first man serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force to die. While the circumstances were not militarily glorious, he died of a heart attack in the train heading east having left Edmonton just a few hours earlier, he gets the same dignified recognition as all other casualties.

Both his father and grandfather had seen service in Canada with the British Army.

The headstone is set apart, about 20 yards north of the hilltop entrance to the cemetery, no longer the main entrance as stated in the CWGC report.

Little was one of the many British immigrants who joined up early with the CEF. Born in Stroud, on the edge of the scenic Cotswolds, his grave site has a certain Prairie charm.


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