Ypres-Salient Archie MacDonald
KILBRANDON war memorial lists another name killed at Ypres: Lance Corporal Archibald MacDonald, of the 43rd Battalion, (Manitoba) (79th Cameron Highlanders of Canada) Canadian Expeditionary Force (Canadian Infantry).
Helen Glennie records: ‘Archie was born on February 8, 1886, at Toberonochy, Luing. With the bottom falling out of the slate industry, Archibald, like others, went to Canada in search of work, where he married Mary Brown, daughter of the baker in Ellenabeich, in 1911 in Manitoba. They lived in Lipton Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and had a family of three children.
‘Between April and August 1916 the Canadian corps defended the southern stretches of the Ypres Salient. Battles at St Eloi Craters, Hill 62, Mount Sorrel and Sanctuary Wood marked the first occasion in which Canadian divisions engaged in planned offensive operations during the First World War. In these actions the Canadians reconquered the vital high ground positions that denied the Germans a commanding view of the town of Ypres.
‘Archie Macdonald died on June 11, 1916, at the Battle of Mount Sorrel, The third battle of Ypres, Belgium, where he is buried at Sanctuary Wood Cemetery – the centre of the Battle of Mount Sorrel (June 2-13, 1916) involving the 1st and 3rd Canadian Divisions.’