LETHBRIDGE – A mass grave recently discovered near Vimy Ridge is believed to contain the remains of 44 Canadian soldiers killed in the famous World War One battle, including 10 members of the Lethbridge Highlanders.
Two of those Lethbridge Highlanders were brothers, Clarence and Earl Betts, who fought side-by-side on April 9, 1917 at Vimy Ridge. Earl Betts was killed in action.
“Dad said he was buried on the spot, right there on the ridge.”
Jim Betts was not aware that his Uncle Earl was never properly buried in France. In November they were told E.E Betts was one of 44 Canadian soldiers buried in the mass grave at Vimy Ridge.
“They picked up all the dead bodies from no man’s land and they buried them in a crater,” said Norm Christie, an author and History Television host. “Then they made it into an official cemetery and that’s where it gets its name: CA 40.”
Ten members of the 113th Battalion Lethbridge Highlanders were supposed to be exhumed and relocated to a nearby cemetery, but it never happened. Now, a large effort is under way to bring those soldiers home.
Christie and his supporters are trying to raise money for non-destructive testing to find the exact location of the mass grave, which he suspects is in the middle of a farmer’s potato field.
“The question of course is: where are they?” Christie said. “That’s what this fundraiser is all about.”
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‘Help Recover our Vimy Heroes’ is the name of the project. Its goal is to raise $110,000.
When Lethbridge social studies teacher and history buff, Brett Clifton, found out – he jumped at the chance to help with the costly and risky recovery.
“It would be way too dangerous to dig with any equipment… just because there are so many unexploded shells, gas shells, grenades, things like that,” Clifton said. “We totally have to clear the area before we can even think about digging.”
Christie says it’s important to take on this task and honor the veterans who fought for our country.
“In Canada today there is a lack of sense of pride in what we have accomplished. We sort of buried a lot of the things we have done and I think this is one way of reclaiming some of that national pride that we – all Canadians – should have.”
It’s a pride still very strong in Jim Betts and his family.
So far, the ‘Help Recover our Vimy Heroes’ project has raised over $24,000. Christie says residents in the village of Thelus, France, and area farmers have given their consent to have the area explored.
Six of the men in the Lethbridge Highlander buried near Vimy Ridge were from Lethbridge, two from Claresholm, one from Cardston and another from Raymond.
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