Harry McEwan
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born in Stockton-on-Tees on 6th February 1894, at the age of six Harry and his younger brother Luke were boarding with Catherine Dolan in Thornaby and in July 1906 Harry was one of a party of boys sailing to Canada with the Catholic Emigration Society. By 1916 Harry and his brother Luke, who had arrived in Canada in 1910 were farming near Maple Creek in Saskatchewan and their mother Elizabeth was living with them.
Harry enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Regina, Saskatchewan on 25th February 1916 becoming Private 907143 of the 195th Battalion and was assigned to “A” Company. After completing their summer training at Camp Hughes, the Battalion sailed from Halifax on 1st November on board the SS Empress of Britain, arriving in Liverpool ten days later. Posted to East Sandling Camp the battalion was immediately absorbed into the 32nd Battalion, and barely two weeks after arriving, Harry was posted to the 5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion fighting in France as part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. Sometimes referred to as the "Dismounted Horse" he joined the battalion at the village of Houdain, just to the northwest of Vimy Ridge, in January 1917 having spent three weeks with the 1st Entrenching Battalion.
Harry was killed in action during the assault on Vimy Ridge on 9th April 1917. The 5th Battalion was part of Phase One of the attack, going only as far as the first German trenches, and the War Diary noted that most casualties were from machine gun fire.
His name does not appear on any local war memorial.
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, and in the National Album of Canadian Heroes, published in 1919.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private McEwan