LANCE SERJEANT JOSEPH GUDMUNDER JOHNSTON
CANADIAN INFANTRY
26TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 26
BURIED: TYNE COT CEMETERY, BELGIUM
It would appear that Mrs Gertrude Johnston, Lance Serjeant Johnston's mother, was a widow. This is an assumption. The only facts I have been able to discover about Joe Johnston are: that his middle name was Gudmundur, that he was born in Gimley, Manitoba and that before he joined up on 3 August 1915 he had been a fisherman. Gudmundur is an Icelandic first name so I'm going to make another assumption - that his origins were Icelandic, especially if Gimley is a mis-spelling of Gimli, an area of Canada that was once known as New Iceland. If I could read his Attestation Paper better I'd be able to see his mother's name, which doesn't appear to be Gertrude, yet that's the name she gave to the War Graves Commission.
Johnston served with the 43rd Battalion Canadian Infantry, the Cameron Highlanders of Canada. He was killed on 26 October 1917, the opening day of the Battle of Passchendaele. We don't know what happened to him. The battalion war diary hasn't yet been transcribed but because Lieutenant Robert Shankland, of the same battalion, won a Victoria Cross that day there are descriptions of the action.
Bellevue Spur was a critically strategic piece of raised ground guarding the way to the village of Passchendaele. Two costly attempts had already been made to take it when the Canadians were given the job. D Company of the 43rd Battalion managed to achieve the objective. But when they became dangerously isolated, enduring hours of incessant shelling and German attacks, Lieutenant Shankland returned to battalion Head Quarters to pick up reinforcements and lead a counter attack, which secured the position.
Johnston was one of the many casualties of the day, his body discovered in an unmarked grave in February 1920; unlike so many bodies found on the battle field it was possible to identify it because it still had its identity disc.