Cameron,  Gunner Colin Lachlan 

Service highlights

  • Born: 12 September 1899, near Anderson in Blanchard Township, Ontario.
  • Enlisted: 6 January 1917, Canadian Field Artillery.
  • Service number: 334115
  • Unit recorded in official listings: Canadian Field Artillery, 5th Brigade
  • Rank: Driver
  • Died: 24 April 1918.
  • Buried: Lenham Cemetery, Kent, grave 249.

A Life and Service Remembered

Colin Lachlan Cameron was born near Anderson in Blanchard Township and moved with his family to St. Marys while he was still young. He was eager to go overseas, and in January 1917 he enlisted in the Canadian Field Artillery while he was still underage. Like many teenagers of the time who were determined to serve, he put forward an older birth year so he would be accepted.

After training in England, Colin was posted to France in the summer of 1917. He joined the gunners at a brutal point in the war, when artillery work meant long days of constant firing, relentless counter battery pressure, and exhaustion that wore down even the strongest. He spent his real 18th birthday in uniform, in the middle of active operations.

That autumn he was at Passchendaele, where the guns were dragged and anchored in mud so deep it could swallow equipment. Not long after, his health collapsed. Over the following months he was moved through medical stations and hospitals as his condition worsened, and he eventually died in England on April 24, 1918.

Colin’s story is one of determination and sacrifice, not only in battle but also in the long struggle that followed. He is buried at Lenham in Kent, and he is commemorated on the cenotaphs in both St. Marys and Rannoch, remembered in the places that knew him as a neighbour and a son.

Major battles and operations

  • Hill 70 and Lens (August 1917): The Canadian Corps fought for ground around Lens in August 1917.
  • Passchendaele (mid to late 1917): The Canadian Corps was ordered to the Passchendaele front in mid October 1917.
  • Wartime medical system in England (1917 to 1918): Lenham was associated with a Canadian special hospital for tubercular cases during the war.

Learn More

Veterans Affairs Canada, Canadian Virtual War Memorial entry
https://veterans.gc.ca/en/node/581086

Canadian Great War Project, Colin Lachlan Cameron
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=19388

The Fallen by Richard Holt, 334115 Gunner C.L. Cameron, pg 12