Private Douglas Anderson

Private Douglas Macclesfield Anderson, 7th Battalion ( 1st British Columbia Regiment ) Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action in Flanders on 24th April 1915 near Keerselaere during the Second Battle of Ypres, aged 22. ( His brother John was severely wounded in the same action). He had been born in Morebattle was the son of Colonel W.M. and Mrs Edith Anderson of Morebattle Tofts and is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. He and his brother John were ranching near Kelowna, British Columbia when they enlisted in the 102nd Rocky Mountain Rangers landing in France with the 7th Battalion in February 1915 ( John was severely wounded in the same action leading to his discharge from the army in November 1915 ).That period saw very heavy German attacks on the Canadians in their attempt to break through the British lines. The line was held despite the German use of gas but at severe cost. The artist’s impression gives some idea of the Canadian’s desperate defence. and the photograph shows troops trying on their rudimentary gas masks. ( The Germans had first used poison gas on the Western Front on 22nd April ).