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Home Canada Remembers Records & Collections The Canadian Virtual War Memorial Search Details

In memory of
Sergeant
 HARRY  CRANSTON
who died on November 10, 1917

Military Service:

Service Number: 150057
Age: 24
Force: Army
Unit: Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment)
Division: 8th Battalion
Citation: On April 28, 1917, Lance Corporal Cranston was awarded the Military Medal for conspicious gallantry and coolness during the attack on Arleux-en-Gohelle, when the wave he was supporting was held up by fire from the enemy machine guns. He immediately organized his section and sent them to engage one of the guns. He sucessfully bombed the other gun, putting it out of action. With the assistance of his section, he took 20 prisoners, thus relieving what might have been a critical situation.
Honours and Awards:  Military Medal

Additional Information:

Date of Birth: April  25, 1893
Date of Enlistment: August 10, 1915
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Son of J. Cranston, of Merrickville, Ontario.

Commemorated on Page 222 of the
First World War Book of Remembrance.
[CLICK HERE FOR AN IMAGE OF THIS PAGE]
[TO ORDER A COPY OF THIS PAGE CLICK HERE]

There is a digital photo collection relating to
HARRY  CRANSTON .

[CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS]
[CLICK HERE TO ADD TO THE COLLECTION]

Burial Information:

Cemetery:
MENIN GATE (YPRES) MEMORIAL
Belgium

[CLICK HERE FOR CEMETERY PLAN]
Grave Reference: Panel 24 - 26 - 28 - 30

Location:The Menin Gate Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town of Ypres (now Ieper) in the Province of West Flanders, on the road to Menin and Courtrai. It bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War.

Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and erected by the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, it consists of a "Hall of Memory", 36.6 metres long by 20.1 metres wide. In the centre are broad staircases leading to the ramparts which overlook the moat, and to pillared loggias which run the whole length of the structure. On the inner walls of the Hall, on the side of the staircases and on the walls of the loggias, panels of Portland stone bear the names of the dead, inscribed by regiment and corps.

Carved in stone above the central arch are the words:

TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918 AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE.

Over the two staircases leading from the main Hall is the inscription:

HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL IN YPRES SALIENT BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH.

The dead are remembered to this day in a simple ceremony that takes place every evening at 8:00 p.m. All traffic through the gateway in either direction is halted, and two buglers (on special occasions four) move to the centre of the Hall and sound the Last Post. Two silver trumpets for use in the ceremony are a gift to the Ypres Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, of St. Catharines, Ontario, in Ypres in April 1915.


Information courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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Updated: 2003-2-24
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