Student Tour Blog

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial holds a profoundly personal place in my heart. My great-grandfather, Wallace Frail, fought at Hill 145 with the 42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), part of the 3rd Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. On the first day of the assault, he was shot through the hip. Owing to the severity of his wound, Wallace was evacuated to England. While recovering, he met my great-grandmother. In a very real sense, I owe my existence to Vimy Ridge.

One hundred and eight years after my great-grandfather shed blood on French soil, I had the privilege of once again walking in his footsteps—following the path he and his regiment took through the Grange Tunnel system on 9 April 1917. I thought my connection to this site, anchored in ancestry, could go no deeper.

Yet, over time, my bond with Vimy has grown beyond lineage. I have had the fortune to serve here twice as a guide, sharing its stories, secrets, and sacrifices with others. Today, though, was different. I returned, not as an interpreter, but as a keeper of memory—one who came to honour not only my family but also someone I had come to know thanks to the Canadian Battlefields Foundation: Corporal Murray “Jack” Welsh of the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

Murray, just 28 years old and a native of Kincardine, Ontario, was killed on 30 March 1918 at Moreuil Wood and is among the 11,285 Canadians inscribed on the memorial. The butcher-turned-trooper has no known grave and left behind his loving parents, Matthew and Christina Welsh. He died on horseback, and so I left a horseshoe at the base of the monument in his honour.

There are ties we are born into, and others we choose to carry. Today, I carried both.