Epilogue - We stand on guard for thee

The Battle of Vimy Ridge began at 5:30 a.m., Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, with some of the heaviest artillery fire of the war. Behind this, the first wave of 20,000 Canadian soldiers advanced.

Battalions in the first waves of the assault suffered great numbers of casualties, but the Canadian assault proceeded on schedule. Hill 145, the main ridge, was taken on the morning of April 10. Two days later, the Canadians took "The Pimple," as the other significant height on the ridge was called. The Germans fell back and the Battle of Vimy Ridge was over.

The Battle was a success, but at great cost. Canadians suffered approximately 11,000 casualties, of these, nearly 3,600 of them fatal.

Sadly, Dorval and Iver were among the 3,598 poor souls who never returned home.

 Private Dorval Augustus Saunders

First World War Book of Remembrance, p. 322, Veterans Affairs Canada (Source: 8)

Nineteen-year-old Dorval Augustus Saunders, of the 16th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment), died on April 11, 1917. His gravestone in the Barlin Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, records that he "Died of wounds received at Vimy Ridge."

"Died of Wounds, at #6 Casualty Clearing Station."

Born in Meaford, Ontario, Dorval was the third child of Willie Price Cooper Saunders and Annie Elizabeth Saunders. By 1916, according to the Prairie Census, Dorval, his father Willlie, and his brother George (with wife Flossy - Zelma's sister) were farming in the Roseisle district. Dorval's occupation was listed as Soldier.

Records are unreliable. Census records list four children: Kathleen (b. 1892), George (b. 1896), Dorval (b. 1898) and Clifford (b. 1905). The website Ancestry.ca lists five children: Annie Kathleen (1891-1997), Zella Beatrice (1894-1895), George Washington (1895-1981), Dorval Augustus (1898-1917), and William Hilton (1901-1902).

The obituary of Dorval's brother, Clifford Brown Saunders (1905-2001) notes siblings: Hilton and Zella, who died of tuberculosis in childhood, Dorval, who died of wounds received at Vimy Ridge, George Washington of Roseisle, Margaret Mills of Meaford, and Kathleen Kellough of Owen Sound, who passed away at the age of 106 years.

Private Dorval Augustus Saunders' gravestone in the Barlin Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France (Source: 39)

Barlin Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France (Source: 17)

War Memorial in Dorval's home town, Meaford, Ontario (Source: 6) 

*---*---*---*

Private Iver Bernhardt Werseen 

First World War Book of Remembrance, p. 347, Veterans Affairs Canada (Source: 8)

Private Iver Bernhardt Werseen, of the 78th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, died on April 9, 1917 at the age of 23.

Iver was born on August 31, 1894 to Isaac and Caroline Sibley Werseen of Roseisle, Manitoba.

The burial site of Iver Bernhardt Werseen near Lens, France was obliterated by shell fire, but a memorial cross with his name was erected in the Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery near the Vimy Memorial.

"Burial area obliterated by shell fire, all trace of grave lost, but a Memorial Cross No. 3 has been erected in the Memorial Plot in Canadian Cemetery Givenchy-en-Gohelle, on which the name of Pte. Werseen appears with other soldiers."

Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian Cemetery, France (Source: 36) 

Iver's name is engraved on the Vimy Memorial along with 11,284 other Canadian soldiers whose final resting places are unknown.

Iver Bernhardt Werseen's name on the Vimy Memorial (Source: 16)

Private Werseen and Private Saunders are, of course, noted on Roseisle's own war memorial:

War Memorial in Roseisle, Manitoba (Source: 7)

Stevens brothers (Edmond, Charles, Albert, and Ernest) are noted for their service in WWII. Wes was too young.

A hundred years later, battlefield scars remain, another very real reminder of our lost men. Many areas at Vimy Ridge are off limits because of undetonated explosives. (Source: 38)

As for Zelma, one can only imagine how she reacted to the news of Dorval's and Iver's deaths. Clearly they were dear friends at least, potential mates at best. She did keep their letters her entire life.

But Zelma did not have much time to grieve. The war was still raging on November 14, 1917, when she married Fredrick Guise Stevens, a young man from Cornwall, England. Their first child, Edmund, was born December 11, 1918, one month after Armistice Day. Five more children followed in quick succession.

Imagine how Zelma felt watching her four oldest sons head off to fight in World War II.

We all pay our respects on Remembrance Day each year on November 11. But there is a second memorial day we should acknowledge. In 2003 the Canadian Government declared April 9 as "Vimy Ridge Day." The Canadian flag on the Peace Tower of Parliament Hill is required by law to fly at half-mast.

You might want to wear your poppy on that day, and bow your head to our brave soldiers, Saunders and Werseen.

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