William Bain
The British War Medal
and Victory Medal were sent to his father, John Bain of Flatlands NB, but no date is
recorded in the file for this. No
Cross of Sacrifice was sent to the family as he was single, and his mother was not alive. What follows is a quote from
page 78 of the Diary of Sandy Bain, a signaler from the 21st Battalion:
“We had to wear our gas masks until about 4 a.m, when bombardment ceased. Every half hour or so I would simply
have to take mine off and wipe my mouth and chin, holding my breath all the time. This would cause my eyes to water every time I did
so.
Some of the men suffered very much in our dugout and in the Company dugouts, and
also among the men in the trenches there were quite a few gas casualties. One
signaller died as they were carrying him out to the dressing station - a former 55th
Battalion man, Billy Bain from Flatlands, N.B. He was very fine boy and I was sorry to
hear of his death.
After the shelling stopped, I was able to get some sleep”
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2008 During the Remembrance Day ceremonies in 2008, Veteran's Affairs Canada conducted a vigil each night for the week leading up to November 11. This vigil consisted of projecting the names of every Canadian soldier who is listed with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on various buildings and monuments across Canada, and in London England. The photo below shows William Bain's name being projected on the outside wall of Canada House in London England.
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2010 For the 7 nights leading
up to November 11, 2010, the names of all Canadian soldiers were projected onto the
Belgian War Memorial in Ypres. At the same
time, the same names were being broadcast via the internet to schools across Belgium and
Canada. The image above shows the opening
ceremonies at the Belgian War Memorial on November 4, 2010. Below on the left is the
name of William Bain being projected on that wall. Below right shows the name being broadcast to the
schools. Each name appeared for 25 seconds
and each night 9,700 names were shown. |
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