27494 Private Alexander Allan Henderson was a 29 year old electrician from Ottawa, 27764 Lance Corporal George Warden was a 29 year old gardener originally from Dundee, Scotland and 27576 Private Douglas Breckenridge Tickner was 19 year old chauffeur originally from Hampstead, England when they all attested into the 15th Battalion in September 1914 at Valcartier. All three died on August 7, 1915 from wounds received during the battle of 2nd Ypres in April 1915.
During the gas attack on April 24, 1915, Warden was serving in No. 1 Company on the right flank of the battalion’s forward line while Henderson and Tickner were with No. 4 Company on the opposite left flank. No. 1 Company was heavily gassed and effectively annihilated and No. 4 Company was overrun as the Germans rolled up the front line from right to left. All three men were initially reported as MIA but that status was changed to DOW while a POW. The Germans buried Private Henderson in Poelkapelle German Cemetery No. 2 which was destroyed in later fighting. During the post war exhumation of that German cemetery and the relocation of the remains to Poelcapelle British Cemetery, his remains, like many buried there, could not be identified. Therefore, his headstone is in a section marked with a Special Memorial which explains that although his grave has a headstone because he was known to have been buried, his remains were not identified and likely not in the grave. Private Tickner who was wounded, captured and moved further to the German rear, died shortly after capture and was buried in a German cemetery at Roulers which is now the CWGC cemetery named Roeselare near Ypres.
Lance Corporal Warden was also buried by the Germans and his identified remains were reburied in Poelcapelle British Cemetery.
