The Western Front Today - Brooding Soldier, Canadian Memorial
Updated - Saturday, 21 June, 2003

Situated in St. Juliaan village at Vancouver Corner, the Brooding Soldier memorial is a 35ft-high statue of a Canadian soldier with bowed heads and hands resting on arms reversed.  The memorial was carved from a single shaft of granite.

St. Juliaan village was taken by German forces on 24 April 1915 on the first day of the second gas attack, and was held for a further two years.

Late on the afternoon on 22 April 1915 the fields to the left of the village were covered by a greenish-yellow blanket of deadly chlorine gas.

Designed by Chapman Clemesha and unveiled on July 8 1923 the memorial is famed for its moving simplicity.

A plaque at the foot of the memorial reads "This column marks the battlefield where 18,000 Canadians on the British left withstood the first German gas attacks (from) the 22-25 April 1915. 2,000 fell and lie buried nearby."

	Film Footage of Brooding Soldier
	400kb, 8 seconds, Windows Media .WMV format

References:
Before Endeavours Fade, Rose E.B. Coombs, After the Battle 1994
Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide - Ypres Salient, Leo Cooper 2000

The average life expectancy of a pilot on the Western Front was just three weeks by 1917.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-09, SafeSurf Rated