Philippe had a cousin come and stay for a week of skiing last season. She had been researching the family history and showed Philippe the family tree she had developed using Ancestory.com Her name was Marie and her Father had also enlisted and gone to war at the same time as Antoine his brother in-law. Philippe was vaguely aware that he had a Great Uncle who served in the First World War, but did not know the details. He learned that Antoine was ostracised from the family for daring to fight for Britain and its King and that he had been killed.
Philippe had no idea where or how. He decided to find out. He found the Back-Roads Touring Co’s website and decided he would take the tour.
In 1916 Antoine was twenty- one and looking for adventure. The war in Europe had been going for two years and Canada had been involved from the start. The war was unpopular in French Canada as most of the French Canadians did not want to support Britain and were not too keen about supporting France either. As a result not many volunteers came from Antoine’s neck of the woods.
This did not stop him from enlisting despite his family’s protests and on the 21st of March 1916, he became Private Bellepoire. Antoine started his basic training immediately, at Val Cartier, Quebec and endured the hard slog for six weeks. He then boarded the Andania and sailed off to England.
After an initial four-week training period at Sling Camp he, along with his Canadian brothers in arms, set foot on French soil for the first time. He took part in and died in the Third Battle of Ypres along with 4000 of his countrymen. He died at Passchendaele, a hero.
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