Private Thomas Hunter

Private Thomas Kirkwood Hunter, 49th ( Edmonton ) Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed in action in France on 15th September 1916, aged 28, during the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, Vimy , France. He had been born in Ancrum and was the son of James and the late Joan Hunter of Howden, Ancrum.  He had emigrated to Canada in 1911 and was working as a carpenter in Calgary when he enlisted in February 1915 joining his Battalion in France in May 1916. He fell in the Battle of Flers- Courcelette where tanks were first used by the British Army. The photos show troops on the Somme in 1916 and the colour photo shows how it looks today with no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now”.