Military service
Burial/memorial information
Son of W. T. and Abigail J. Gilchrist, of Pictou, Nova Scotia.
Digital gallery of Corporal Thomas Gray Gilchrist
Digital gallery of
Corporal Thomas Gray Gilchrist
The man in the centre is Thomas Gray Gilchrist, aged 19. He went out west from Pictou, Nova Scotia for a year to be a teacher in Regina before he signed up with the 13th Bn., Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment). He hadn't liked teaching much, and was excited to be going into action. He was a young man, of course, and the nation was crazy about war as an adventure in those
days. A shell hit his trench, and he convalesced in Glasgow. He returned to the front, only to be wounded again, in the hip, and was lost in France; rescuers could not find him when they returned to where they'd seen him fall. That was on the first day of May, in 1918. He was 23 years old.<br>
His brother Alec, to the left, came home with a metal plate in his head and spent many subsequent years in military hospitals.<br>The brother to his right is Don, who lived to realize a career as a renowned educator in Nova Scotia.
Digital gallery of
Corporal Thomas Gray Gilchrist
His name as it is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial. Over 11,000 fallen Canadians having no known place of burial in France, are honoured on this Memorial. May they never be forgotten. (J. Stephens)
Digital gallery of
Corporal Thomas Gray Gilchrist
Canada's Vimy Memorial, located approximately 8 kilometres to the north-east of Arras, France. May the sacrifice of so many never be forgotten. (J. Stephens)
Image gallery
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The man in the centre is Thomas Gray Gilchrist, aged 19. He went out west from Pictou, Nova Scotia for a year to be a teacher in Regina before he signed up with the 13th Bn., Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment). He hadn't liked teaching much, and was excited to be going into action. He was a young man, of course, and the nation was crazy about war as an adventure in those days. A shell hit his trench, and he convalesced in Glasgow. He returned to the front, only to be wounded again, in the hip, and was lost in France; rescuers could not find him when they returned to where they'd seen him fall. That was on the first day of May, in 1918. He was 23 years old.<br> His brother Alec, to the left, came home with a metal plate in his head and spent many subsequent years in military hospitals.<br>The brother to his right is Don, who lived to realize a career as a renowned educator in Nova Scotia.
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His name as it is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial. Over 11,000 fallen Canadians having no known place of burial in France, are honoured on this Memorial. May they never be forgotten. (J. Stephens)
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Canada's Vimy Memorial, located approximately 8 kilometres to the north-east of Arras, France. May the sacrifice of so many never be forgotten. (J. Stephens)
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 414 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.
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VIMY MEMORIAL Pas de Calais, France
Canada's most impressive tribute overseas to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Vimy Memorial, which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge, about eight kilometres northeast of Arras on the N17 towards Lens. The Memorial is signposted from this road to the left, just before you enter the village of Vimy from the south. The memorial itself is someway inside the memorial park, but again it is well signposted. At the base of the memorial, these words appear in French and in English:
Inscribed on the ramparts of the Vimy Memorial are the names of over 11,000 Canadian soldiers who were posted as 'missing, presumed dead' in France.
A plaque at the entrance to the memorial states that the land for the battlefield park, 91.18 hectares in extent, was 'the free gift in perpetuity of the French nation to the people of Canada'. Construction of the massive work began in 1925, and 11 years later, on July 26, 1936, the monument was unveiled by King Edward VIII.
The park surrounding the Vimy Memorial was created by horticultural experts. Canadian trees and shrubs were planted in great masses to resemble the woods and forests of Canada. Wooded parklands surround the grassy slopes of the approaches around the Vimy Memorial. Trenches and tunnels have been restored and preserved and the visitor can picture the magnitude of the task that faced the Canadian Corps on that distant dawn when history was made.
On April 3, 2003, the Government of Canada designated April 9th of each year as a national day of remembrance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The Poppy Design is a trademark of The Royal Canadian Legion (Dominion Command) and is used with permission. Click here to learn more about the poppy.
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