Sergeant Henry Forbes

Sergeant Henry William Forbes, 16th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Canadian Scottish). He died from wounds in the 1st South Midlands Casualty Clearing Station at Hazebrouck in Belgium on 27th April 1915, aged 35. He had been born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire and was the son of Arthur and Mary Forbes of Mellerstain, Gordon. He is buried in Hazebrouk War Cemetery, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” Asleep In Jesus “. He had been employed as a plumber in Earlston before emigrating to Canada and working as a Water Inspector in Canada with the Canadian Pacific Railroad and had lived in Vancouver for five years. The untried Canadians played a great part in resisting the German attacks which included the first use of poison gas on the Western front on 22nd April. The photograph shows troops trying on their rudimentary gas masks.