Military service
Burial/memorial information
Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Gittins.
Digital gallery of Private Joseph Norman Gittins
Digital gallery of
Private Joseph Norman Gittins
Inscription - Vimy Memorial … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens
Digital gallery of
Private Joseph Norman Gittins
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
Private Joseph Norman Gittins
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)
Digital gallery of
Private Joseph Norman Gittins
This plaque, which memorializes Private Joseph N. Gittins, 2nd Canadian Battalion (Eastern Ontario Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force, is located in the Guthrie Cemetery, Highway 11, Guthrie, Ontario (northeast of Barrie). It shows a surname of "Gittins Wearing"; Wearing was the surname of an uncle and aunt with whom Gittins and a sister lived after the death of their parents. There is some confusion about Gittins's age. His CEF Attestation Paper shows his date of birth as being Sept. 16, 1899; but the same document shows his apparent age at the time, in January 1916, as being 17 years and four months. Further, the 1911 Census of Canada shows that he was born in Sept. of 1898; and this plaque too shows his age to have been 19 years when he died in May 1917 (which may well have been his age rounded ahead to his nearest birthday). He was, in any event, a young man when he went missing in action on May 3-4, 1917. (Image taken by Gregory J. Barker of Barrie, Ontario, in 2015.)
Image gallery
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Inscription - Vimy Memorial … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens
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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)
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This plaque, which memorializes Private Joseph N. Gittins, 2nd Canadian Battalion (Eastern Ontario Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force, is located in the Guthrie Cemetery, Highway 11, Guthrie, Ontario (northeast of Barrie). It shows a surname of "Gittins Wearing"; Wearing was the surname of an uncle and aunt with whom Gittins and a sister lived after the death of their parents. There is some confusion about Gittins's age. His CEF Attestation Paper shows his date of birth as being Sept. 16, 1899; but the same document shows his apparent age at the time, in January 1916, as being 17 years and four months. Further, the 1911 Census of Canada shows that he was born in Sept. of 1898; and this plaque too shows his age to have been 19 years when he died in May 1917 (which may well have been his age rounded ahead to his nearest birthday). He was, in any event, a young man when he went missing in action on May 3-4, 1917. (Image taken by Gregory J. Barker of Barrie, Ontario, in 2015.)
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 244 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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