Lest we forget - canadian grave

[Gil Boyd]

As some may already be aware I am heavily involved in a system called GRAVEWATCH which I founded many years ago, looking after the graves of PARACHUTE REGIMENT soldiers buried around the UK and the rest of the world.
There I was having taken my wife to Jersey for a four day break for her birthday last week, and having a meal in a pub, as you do, overlooking St Marys Churchyard on the Island.
I spotted a lone Commonwealth Portland gravestone in the cemetery and went over to see who it was.
I recorded what it said on the stone:
PTE 105442 PHILIP FRANCIS LE CORNIJ 14TH BN CANADIAN INFANTRY DIED ON THE 14TH SEPT 1918 AGED 24 YEARS

On return home I decided to find out how this young lad met his fate and also how he was repatriated, when no one was allowed to be repatriated unless you were a wealthy family from other stock!!
Here was this solitary grave in a fairly large graveyard. I searched my CWWG spreadsheet and could not find him anywhere. I contacted my direct liaiason at the head office at CWWG and he too was baffled.
Through a lot of searches between us, we established two important factors. One his service number was incorrect it should have read 1054442 and his surname was spelt LE CORNU.
It then became easy to establish how he had died and how had eneded up in Jersey miles from the battlefield but off the west coast of France.
He was wounded on the 15th August 1917 at one of the worst battles which was the Battle of Passchendaele, and died on the 14th September 1918 of his wounds on the island.

I attach a copy of the families background from CWWG papers held as he clearly decided to go back to his roots for whatever reason and join up in a Quebec based unit probably reflecting relatives and his families birthplace before coming to live in Jersey.

Most of these lone gravestones provide so much history as to how someone died and always worth a look at.................LEST WE FORGET his sacrifice on our behalf.

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