Canada's first WWI combat death: Cpl Raymond of Windsor, Ont.

Page 565 of First World War Book of Remembrance

Canada suffered 172,000 casualties in the First World War, the last being the death by sniper of George Price, shot at 10:58 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918 — two minutes before the the end of the war. But who was the first? Researchers at Library and Archives Canada have an answer. It was a Canadian serving with a British unit in the first days of the Great War:

Corporal Charles Raymond served with the British infantry, 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Raymond was born in Windsor, Ontario, and was killed in combat on September 14, 1914, at the age of 32. He is buried in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial cemetery, Seine-et-Marne, France.

Raymond is commemorated on page 565 (above) of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

 

2 thoughts on “Canada's first WWI combat death: Cpl Raymond of Windsor, Ont.”

  1. Cpl Raymond is not buried at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Cemetery, he is commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial. Like very many of the Commonwealth dead in 1914, Cpl Raymond has no known grave, so he is commemorated along with 3738 others on the memorial. In the nearby La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Communal Cemetery are buried five British soldiers (four of whom are identified).

  2. Cpl Raymond was likely killed along with 320 of his fellow soldiers of the 2nd Bn King’s Royal Rifle Corps when they assaulted and captured the Sugar Factory in Cerny-en-Lannois, along the Chemin des Dames, in what was later called the Battle of the Aisne. This battle was the first in which soldiers of both sides began to dig the trenches that later typified the Western Front.

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