Military service
Burial/memorial information
Son of John and J. Grace Irvine Laird, of Quebec.
Digital gallery of Lieutenant John Hewitt Laird
Digital gallery of
Lieutenant John Hewitt Laird
Lt. John Hewitt Laird, 24 Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment)
Killed in action August 15, 1917, at 19 years of age.
Born in Quebec City and previously educated at Bishop¿s College School, Laird entered Appleby in September 1913 and stayed for one year. He played for the First Rugby (Football), Hockey and Cricket teams. Following a period of employment with the Bank of Montreal, he joined the army in 1916, and received a commission in the Eighth Royal Rifles. After training in England, he left for France in June 1917. George L. Thompson, a machine-gunner in his platoon, said in a letter to Laird's father, Perhaps you heard he was wounded in the cheek, and I advised him to return to the dressing station, but was of no avail, and I bandaged it as well as I could, and we went along together until he made the supreme sacrifice. Nearly all of Laird's men were killed or wounded in the attack on Hill 70. From the Appleby College Archives
Digital gallery of
Lieutenant John Hewitt Laird
Lieutenant Laird, a student of Appleby College, was killed in "August 1917, after three consecutive months of fighting without letup, he was wounded in the cheek. He rejected any notion that he should leave the lines. The next bullet that hit him was fatal". From "The Appleby Story"
Image gallery
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Lt. John Hewitt Laird, 24 Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment) Killed in action August 15, 1917, at 19 years of age. Born in Quebec City and previously educated at Bishop¿s College School, Laird entered Appleby in September 1913 and stayed for one year. He played for the First Rugby (Football), Hockey and Cricket teams. Following a period of employment with the Bank of Montreal, he joined the army in 1916, and received a commission in the Eighth Royal Rifles. After training in England, he left for France in June 1917. George L. Thompson, a machine-gunner in his platoon, said in a letter to Laird's father, Perhaps you heard he was wounded in the cheek, and I advised him to return to the dressing station, but was of no avail, and I bandaged it as well as I could, and we went along together until he made the supreme sacrifice. Nearly all of Laird's men were killed or wounded in the attack on Hill 70. From the Appleby College Archives
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Lieutenant Laird, a student of Appleby College, was killed in "August 1917, after three consecutive months of fighting without letup, he was wounded in the cheek. He rejected any notion that he should leave the lines. The next bullet that hit him was fatal". From "The Appleby Story"
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 270 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.
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AIX-NOULETTE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION Pas de Calais, France
Aix-Noulette is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, about 13 kilometres south of Bethune on the main road to Arras. From Arras take the D937 towards Bethune. At Aix-Noulette, turn right at the church. The Communal Cemetery and Extension are a few hundred metres on the left side of the road to Bully-Grenay.
For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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