Today, Mel and I visited the Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa's east end—our first visit to this beautiful site. We went in search of the grave markers of my great-great-great-grandfather James Hollington (1805-1891) and my great-great-grandfather (William) James Hollington (1845-1923).

Perhaps because it was the day before Remembrance Day, we were especially struck by the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood, which honours members of Canada's Armed Forces who served their nation with distinction in both war and peacetime.

Until starting my genealogy project this year, I wasn't aware that one of my great-great-grandfather's sons had served in the First World War and died in France just a few weeks before the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Leonard Hollington enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on February 15, 1915, in Ottawa. He was 19 years old. He signed his attestation paper on February 24, 1915, joining the 38th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment) with the service number 410113. As per his medical history sheet, he was 5'10" tall and weighed 135 lbs. On March 9, 1915, he married Anna Laura Veitch in Ottawa. On March 18, 1915, he was admitted to a hospital in Ottawa for appendicitis and released on March 30, 1915.

According to his military service record, Leonard sailed from Halifax to Bermuda on August 9, 1915. Why Bermuda? In his paper Canadian Soldiers in Bermuda During World War One, social historian Jean-Pierre Gagnon notes that three Canadian infantry battalions served in Bermuda during the First World War. When Great Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, it was maintaining a garrison in Bermuda because of the strategic importance of the islands. With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, Britain repatriated its forces in Bermuda and asked Canada to provide replacement troops. The 38th Battalion, of which Leonard was a member, was the second of three battalions to serve in Bermuda.

On May 29, 1916, Leonard sailed from Bermuda to England, landing in Plymouth on June 9, 1916. He arrived in Le Havre, France, on August 14, 1916. These details were corroborated in the notice of his death that appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on April 4, 1917. According to the article, Leonard was sent to England in May 1916, arriving in June 1916, and "crossed with comrades to France" in August 1916. A member of the No. 1 Ottawa Salvation Army band and a bugler in the Orange Young Britons before he enlisted, "He played in the band of his regiment but when it was broken up he was transferred to the machine gun section," the article said.

Private Leonard Hollington was killed in action on March 22, 1917. He was 21 years old. He was buried in Villiers Station Cemetery in Villiers-au-Bois, a village in the Pas-de-Calais department of France. The personal inscription on his grave marker is Asleep On His Saviour's Breast. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "This cemetery was begun by the French but was used by Commonwealth divisions and field ambulances from the time they took over this part of the front in July 1916 until September 1918.... Villers Station Cemetery now contains 1,208 Commonwealth burials of the First World War."

Leonard Hollington is commemorated on page 257 of the First World War Book of Remembrance, which resides in Canada's Parliament buildings.

On the four-year anniversary of Leonard's death, his brother Daniel Hollington published a memoriam in The Ottawa Citizen of March 22, 1921, saying:

In loving memory of Pte. Leonard Hollington, killed in action somewhere in France, March 22, 1917.

Somewhere in France he lies at rest,

For King and country he did his best,

With other comrades, he played his part,

And did his duty with a loyal heart.

Lest we forget.

[2023-11-10] Remembering Georgina Pope - the story of Georgina Pope, called Canada's Florence Nightingale, who served in both the South African War and the First World War and was appointed the first matron of the Canadian Army Nursing Corps