William Howard Gemmell

Died of gunshot wounds to the abdomen on the 30/09/1918 at the 14th General Hospital, Wimereux

William and the Battalion left Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 02/06/1916 aboard H.M.T. (Hired Military Transport) "Olympic" 2810. They arrived at Liverpool on the 08/06/1916. William was appointed Acting Corporal on the 08/06/1916. He arrived in France on the 03/03/1918. He joined the 10th Battalion on the 06/04/1918. They were part of the 2nd Canadian Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. The Canadians were spared the brunt of the German spring offensives of 1918, and participated in the Allied offensives of the autumn. The offensive Allied campaign under the command of Marshall Foch of the French Army cleared the Germans from positions near the important rail centre of Amiens. Consisting of a series of battles fought from August to September of 1918, it signalled the beginning of the end of the war on the Western Front. The 10th's battle honour for Scarpe recognized a defensive operation which found the 10th Battalion once again in the Somme sector in a successful defence of the Fampoux area on the Anzain - Arras Road, beside the Scarpe River, between 27th April and 4th May 1918. The Drocourt-Quéant (or D-Q) Line was but a part of the famous Hindenberg Line, a large series of German fortifications and defensive positions. During the Amiens campaign above, the 10th Battalion was part of a successful advance along the Arras-Cambrai road towards Viller-lez-Cagnicourt. Acting Sergeant Arthur Knight was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his exemplary courage during this action. The Hindenburg Line was the last line of defence for the German Army in the Amiens campaign, broken when Cambrai fell on 9 October 1918, and the beginning of a German retreat that did not end until the Armistice on 11 November. Canal du Nord was the last major operation of the 10th Battalion, during the Battle of Cambrai. The Fighting 10th mounted a crossing of this obstacle on the 27th - 28th September 1918, suffering heavy losses. See photos for H.M.T. "Olympus" 2810, men of the 10th (Alberta) Battalion pass Stonehenge, William's CWGC Grave Registration x 2, his Headstone Report x 2, Williams name in the Canadian Book of Remembrance, Terlincthun British Cemetery, Canadian Infantry Cap Badge, William's Service Record x 28 and photos x 31 for the Battalion War Diary September 1918.