Private Alexander SHAND (447909)
D Company, 50th Battalion (Alberta Regiment) Canadian Infantry

Date of birth: 13th February 1889
Date of death: 24th October 1917

Killed in action aged 28
Commemorated on the Menin Gate Panels 24, 28, 30
He was born at Strondow, Knockando on February the 13th 1889 the second son of Alexander and Jane Shand (nee Burgess) of Strondow.

He was educated at Knockando Public School and emigrated to Canada.

He served for three years in the 12th Manitoba Dragoons and enlisted for war service in Calgary Canada on November the 15th 1915 where he worked as an engineer. At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was 5 feet 10 and a half inches tall with fair hair, a fair complexion and blue eyes.

On the night of the 22nd/23rd of October 1917 the 50th Battalion Canadian Infantry relieved the 11th Australian Brigade in trenches at Levi Cottage, Zonnebeke during the Third Battle of Ypres. The weather was cold and showery and conditions in the trenches were poor but D Company undertook a patrol during the afternoon in which they lost one man. On the 24th the British artillery fired several ranging salvos as well as some concentrated fire on German positions and particularly of Decline Copse.

This resulted in retaliatory fire from the German artillery on the outposts and front line positions of the 50th Battalion. One of the casualties was Alexander Shand.
Strondow

Back