WW1
JUST OVER a mile to the southeast of the Belgian city of Mons is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery of St Symphorien. It is, writes Robert Mitchell, like no other cemetery on the Western Front, for it is there that the first British soldier and last Commonwealth soldier to be killed in action during the First World War are buried.
The latter is Private George Lawrence Price. It is his medal group and memorial plaque that have been donated to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.
Born in Falmouth, Nova Scotia, Price was a 24-year-old farm labourer in Saskatchewan when he was conscripted into military service. After training in Canada, he travelled to the UK, being posted to Bramshott Camp in Hampshire. It was there that he joined the ranks of the 28th (Northwest) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
The battalion was eventually posted to France. Indeed, two months before his death, Private Price survived a gas attack during the fighting to cross the Canal du Nord in France.
At 05.05 hours on the morning of 11 November 1918, the Armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed. At 06.50 hours a message was sent from Field Marshal Haigh’s headquarters. It read: ‘Hostilities wi…
