Private John Gladstone

Private John Gladstone, 50th ( Calgary ) Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium on 26th October 1917, aged 38, during the Battle of Third Ypres. He was the son of Betsy and the late Robert Gladstone of Hartshaugh Mill, Bonchester Bridge and was the husband of Annie Gladstone of Blackadder West, Edrom, Berwickshire. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He had been born at Kirkton and emigrated to Canada in 1913 and was farming at Leo in central Alberta when he enlisted in March 1916. The photographs show the desolate state of the Flanders battlefield where the fragile drainage systems had been destroyed by the incessant shelling.