Jim Hair

🇨🇦 THEY STOOD ON GUARD Private George Gordon Laing (1896–1917) 58th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force He was just 21 years old when his life ended on the muddy battlefields of Passchendaele. Born on July 15, 1896, in London, Ontario, George Gordon Laing was the son of James Laing and his wife, whose family later lived on Essex Avenue in Toronto. On December 6, 1915, at just 19 years old, George enlisted with the 110th Battalion. He would eventually be transferred to the 58th Battalion and sent into the fighting of the First World War. On October 26, 1917, Canadian troops began their offensive at Passchendaele, Belgium. The battlefield was a nightmare of flooded shell craters, shattered trees, deep mud, and relentless artillery and machine-gun fire. Soldiers struggled to advance across ground that had been devastated by months of fighting. Among those who lost their lives that day was Private George Gordon Laing. He was only 21. George has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium, alongside thousands of soldiers whose final resting places remain unknown. Back home in Ontario, a family was left to mourn a young man whose life had barely begun. Today, 109 years later, we remember George not simply as another casualty of war, but as a son, a young Canadian, and an individual whose life mattered. Private George Gordon Laing July 15, 1896 – October 26, 1917 Forever 21. We will remember him. #TheyStoodOnGuard #LestWeForget #WWI