Private Benjamin Cossar

Private Benjamin Cossar, 3rd (Toronto) Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed in action in Belgium, aged 27, on the 6th November 1917 during the final stages of the Battle of Third Ypres. He had been born in Galashiels and was the son of Agnes and the late Alexander Cossar of 26 Kirkbrae, Galashiels. He had emigrated to Canada in 1913 to join his brother Robert and was working as a motor cycle engineer. He enlisted in Toronto in August 1915 and after a period of illness finally joined his Battalion in France in May 1917. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He fell during the third attack by the Canadian Corps on Passchendaele Ridge which was finally captured at heavy cost in appalling conditions. The photos try to show the atrocious conditions of the Battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile Flanders drainage systems.