When conversation lags one of the topics I raise is asking about places people have lived or travelled to. Picking up on the idea, occasionally, let’s examine some of the sites with Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials.
The most easterly CWGC burials in Canada are at longitude 52.69934W, in St John’s Anglican Cemetery, St. John’s City East. Tucked between a soccer stadium and penitentiary, south of Quidi Vidi Lake, it contains 42 burials from both wars.
For the 14 FWW burials, the median age is 21. Most were with the (Royal) Newfoundland Regiment. Two were with the Royal Navy, two with the Royal Navy Reserve. Extensive research of these and others who Died in Service is documented in a recebtly compiled commemorative database featuring some 1,800 individual wartime biographies of those from Newfoundland and Labrador, or who died there, during the First World War.
The 28 SWW burials have a median age of 33. Twelve were from the merchant navy and five the Royal Navy. Four were assigned to a secret shore establishment, H.M.C.S. Avalon, that “facilitated the safe and timely arrival of the Atlantic convoys.”