Windsor's poppy streets

Ypres

These street-sign photographs also appear on Rose City Roots, Street Names. They are shown here because this page is about those signs and the people tied to the battles. The same files are used, not a second set of shots.

Veterans Affairs Canada dates the Second Battle of Ypres from 22 April to 25 May 1915. It was the Canadian Corps first major action on the Western Front. On 22 April the Germans released chlorine gas against the line in front of Ypres. Canadian troops helped close the gap and held on through the fighting that followed, including the battle at St. Julien, which has its own street and its own section below. In those first 48 hours, more than 2,000 Canadians died, and 6,035 became casualties.¹

The street is named Ypres, not only the fighting of April 1915. Canadians also served and died later in the Ypres salient, including at Mount Sorrel in June 1916, and in 1917 at Passchendaele, sometimes called the Third Battle of Ypres. Those later names are listed here in separate subsections, so a death in 1916 or 1917 is not described as a death in the 1915 battle.

The Essex and Kent Scottish First World War honours, from the official lineage, include Mount Sorrel and Passchendaele. The 18th Battalion, raised in this area, had not yet landed in France during the 1915 battle; it landed on 15 September 1915.²

Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915

Names below, other than the 1st Battalion group gathered under St. Julien, are men on the Army roll who died in that date window and are buried or commemorated in the Ypres area. John Hatchman, of Windsor, died on 8 May 1915, the day the Battle of Frezenberg began, which Veterans Affairs includes in the Second Battle of Ypres. He is listed here, not as a St. Julien death.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Later in 1915, Ypres salient

One name on the Army roll is buried in the Ypres area later in 1915, outside the April to May battle window. The listing is not treated as a death in the Second Battle of Ypres.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

The Ypres salient in 1916, including Mount Sorrel

The Battle of Mount Sorrel was fought from 2 to 13 June 1916, in the Ypres salient.³ Names below died in 1916 and are buried or commemorated in the Ypres area. A June date near Mount Sorrel is noted by the cemetery and date only; this page does not assign every June death to that named action without a further record.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Passchendaele (Third Ypres), 31 July to 10 November 1917

Veterans Affairs Canada dates the Battle of Passchendaele from 31 July to 10 November 1917. Canadian soldiers entered the later stage of the fighting that autumn and captured the village on 6 November. More than 4,000 Canadians died there, and almost 12,000 were wounded.⁴ There is no separate poppy street named Passchendaele in the City's 2005 list, so those names are gathered here under Ypres. The list is men on the Army roll who died in that window and are commemorated or buried in the Ypres area.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

St. Julien

These street-sign photographs also appear on Rose City Roots, Street Names. They are shown here because this page is about those signs and the people tied to the battles. The same files are used, not a second set of shots.

The City's 2005 list includes St. Julien among the streets marked with the poppy. Other St. Julien signs were not photographed on the 12 November 2026 run. This page records what that one blade showed.

St. Julien was part of the Second Battle of Ypres. On the night of 22 April 1915, Canadian troops mounted a counter-attack toward Kitcheners' Wood, near St. Julien. The fierce fighting around St. Julien itself followed, including a gas attack against the Canadian line on 24 April.¹

A War Chest chronology section, already live, covers four men of the 1st Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Western Ontario Regiment), with Windsor-Essex ties, who died in April and early May 1915: Private Henry Reginald Glasser, Private Christopher Ritchie Gordon, Corporal Albert Edward Thomas and Private Arthur George Buchanan. Their full biographies, and the limits of what the records show, remain on that page. Photographs of them are still held pending permission, and they are not published here.⁵

This page extends that 1st Battalion group. Canadian Virtual War Memorial records also name three more 1st Battalion men who enlisted at Windsor and died in the same battle window: Private Edwin John Davis (22 April), Private David Anderson (23 April) and Private Oliver Aloysius Duffy (27 April). They are not on the Army roll as Verified, because their CVWM records do not name a Windsor-Essex home. They are listed here as enlisted at Windsor, not as Verified under the roll's current rule. The earlier chronology wording that four 1st Battalion men with Windsor-Essex ties died in that fighting is true of the four already profiled; it is not a complete count of 1st Battalion men who had enlisted at Windsor.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

See also the live section, The 1st Battalion at St. Julien, April 1915, and the Ypres section for other men in the wider 1915 battle.

Somme

These street-sign photographs also appear on Rose City Roots, Street Names. They are shown here because this page is about those signs and the people tied to the battles. The same files are used, not a second set of shots.

Veterans Affairs Canada dates the Battle of the Somme from 1 July to 18 November 1916. Canadian troops faced months of hard fighting there in the late summer and fall, including the attack on Courcelette in mid-September.⁶ Flers-Courcelette is one of the Essex and Kent Scottish First World War honours, through the 18th Battalion's lineage.²

The roll below lists men on the Army roll who died in that date window and are buried or commemorated in the Somme sector, including those named on the Vimy Memorial whose dates fall in this window and whose burials are not in the Ypres area. A death date alone, at a cemetery far from the Somme, is not treated as a Somme death.

War art of Courcelette, and a photograph of Canadian wounded at Flers-Courcelette, are already on the Army page and are not repeated here.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Died during the Somme period, place of wounding not confirmed

These men died between 1 July and 18 November 1916 and are buried at hospital or casualty clearing station cemeteries used in that period (Contay, Etaples, Abbeville, or St. Sever at Rouen). They may have been wounded on the Somme, or they may have died of illness or of wounds from another part of the front. The Army roll does not, by itself, settle that. They are listed separately so they are not presented as confirmed Somme battle deaths.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Vimy

These street-sign photographs also appear on Rose City Roots, Street Names. They are shown here because this page is about those signs and the people tied to the battles. The same files are used, not a second set of shots.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought from 9 to 12 April 1917, as part of the wider Arras offensive. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together. Veterans Affairs Canada says some 100,000 Canadians served there and that they suffered more than 10,600 casualties, nearly 3,600 of them fatal.⁷ Vimy, 1917 is one of the Essex and Kent Scottish First World War honours.²

The roll lists men who died from 9 to 14 April 1917 (allowing two days after the official end of the battle for deaths of wounds in that sector) and who are buried or commemorated in the Vimy and Arras area, or named on the Vimy Memorial. Arras fighting after mid-April is in the Arras section, with a cross-reference back here.

Richard Jack's painting The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday 1917 is already on the Army page and is not repeated here.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Arras

A photograph of this poppy street sign is still to come. The City lists the street among those marked with a poppy in 2005. See Street Names. Dieppe is planned as a later stop on the same photo run; Arras, Amiens, Alsace, Lorraine and Verdun can be finished on a return pass.

The name Arras covers more than one Canadian operation. Veterans Affairs Canada's map of the Western Front marks the Battles of the Scarpe, April to May 1917, after Vimy, and the Battle of Arras, 26 August to 3 September 1918, at the start of the Last Hundred Days.³ This section keeps those two periods apart. Men already listed under Vimy are not repeated in the 1917 list below.

Arras and the Scarpe, 15 April to 16 May 1917

These men died after the Vimy dates and on or before 16 May 1917, and are buried or commemorated in the Arras and Vimy area, or named on the Vimy Memorial.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Arras, 26 August to 3 September 1918

These men died in that window and are buried or commemorated in the Arras area, or named on the Vimy Memorial. A death date in this window at a cemetery outside that sector is not included.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Lens

These street-sign photographs also appear on Rose City Roots, Street Names. They are shown here because this page is about those signs and the people tied to the battles. The same files are used, not a second set of shots.

The Canadian fighting tied to the name Lens is the Battle of Hill 70, 15 to 25 August 1917, including attacks on the town of Lens itself. Veterans Affairs Canada says the Canadian Corps, about 100,000 strong, suffered some 9,200 casualties in those days. The Canadians took the hill and held it against repeated German counter-attacks; they did not take all of Lens.⁸ Hill 70 is one of the Essex and Kent Scottish First World War honours.²

The roll lists men who died from 15 to 25 August 1917 and are buried or commemorated in the Lens area, or named on the Vimy Memorial in that window.

David Milne's watercolour Loos from the Trenches on Hill 70 is already on the Army page and is not repeated here.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Amiens

A photograph of this poppy street sign is still to come. The City lists the street among those marked with a poppy in 2005. See Street Names.

The Battle of Amiens was fought from 8 to 11 August 1918 and opened what Veterans Affairs Canada calls Canada's Hundred Days. Canadian troops, with Australian, British and French forces, attacked by surprise and advanced about 20 kilometres in three days.⁹ Amiens is one of the Essex and Kent Scottish First World War honours.²

The roll lists men who died from 8 to 12 August 1918 and are buried or commemorated in the Amiens sector, or named on the Vimy Memorial in that window.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Dieppe

A photograph of the Dieppe poppy street sign is still to come, planned as stop 29 on the next day of the photo run. See Street Names.

The Dieppe raid was fought on 19 August 1942. Canadians made up most of the attacking force. Veterans Affairs Canada says that of 4,963 Canadians who embarked, only 2,210 returned to England, many of them wounded; 916 Canadians lost their lives, and 1,946 were taken prisoner.¹⁰

The Essex Scottish landed on Red Beach, in front of the town. The official historian, C.P. Stacey, wrote that out of 553 all ranks, it brought back only 52, of whom 28 were wounded. The regimental association gives different figures for killed and captured, so no combined total is given here. That is the same careful wording already used on the Army page, which also has the photographs of returning Essex Scottish men, the operation map, prisoners in Dieppe, and a wounded soldier landed at Portsmouth. Those pictures are not repeated here.¹¹

The roll lists men on the Army roll who died on or shortly after 19 August 1942 in connection with Dieppe, or who are buried at the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery. Most are Essex Scottish; a few served in other units on the raid, including the Royal Canadian Engineers. Status flags follow the Army roll.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Alsace

A photograph of this poppy street sign is still to come. The City lists the street among those marked with a poppy in 2005. See Street Names.

The City of Windsor lists Alsace among the streets marked with a poppy in 2005, named after battles Canadians fought during the war.¹² This page has not found a Canadian Corps battle officially titled Alsace. In 1944 and 1945 the main Canadian army operations in Northwest Europe were in Normandy, the Channel ports, the Scheldt, the Rhineland and the Netherlands, not in Alsace, where American and French armies were the principal Allied forces. No one on the Army roll is buried in an Alsace cemetery that this search could identify.

The street name may commemorate the region, or fighting there by other Allied forces, rather than a named Canadian battle. That is a gap, not a finding that no one from Windsor-Essex ever served in Alsace with another unit. No such service has been verified here from the sources used for this page.

Lorraine

A photograph of this poppy street sign is still to come. The City lists the street among those marked with a poppy in 2005. See Street Names.

The City lists Lorraine the same way, as a poppy street named after a battle Canadians fought.¹² As with Alsace, this page has not found a Canadian Corps battle officially titled Lorraine, and no Army roll burial in a Lorraine cemetery was identified in this search. The same limit applies: absence from this list is not proof that no local person ever served there.

Verdun

A photograph of this poppy street sign is still to come. The City lists the street among those marked with a poppy in 2005. See Street Names.

The City lists Verdun among the 2005 poppy streets.¹² The Battle of Verdun, 21 February to 18 December 1916, was a French battle. The Canadian Corps did not fight at Verdun as a formation. No one on the Army roll is buried in a Verdun-area cemetery that this search could identify. If a Windsor-Essex person served there with another force, that has not been verified from the sources used here.

How these lists were made, and what is still missing

The starting list is the live Army roll of those who died, which is drawn from the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, with each name flagged Verified, Enlisted at Windsor, or Held. This page then places a name under a battle only when the date of death falls in that battle's accepted window and the burial or memorial belongs to that sector, or when a CVWM or service record already used on War Chest ties the person to that fight. Men who served and lived are included only where War Chest already has a verified account (Marchant, Gleason, Stapleton, Jasperson, Ross).

This is not a complete roll of everyone from Windsor and Essex County who fought in these battles. Many who served and came home are not yet named. Battalion war diaries and personnel files were not read name by name for every man on the roll. Where a record only shows a death date and a cemetery, this page does not invent a more precise action.

Streets and signs

The City's list of poppy streets is: Ypres, Vimy, Lens, Dieppe, Alsace, Lorraine, Arras, Amiens, St. Julien, Somme and Verdun.¹² Kyle L. Stewart photographed poppies on the Ypres, Vimy, Lens and Somme signs on 12 November 2026, and photographed the St. Julien Road sign at Walker Road, which had no poppy that day. Photographs of Alsace, Lorraine, Arras, Amiens, Dieppe and Verdun signs are still to come. Mons, Cambrai, Festubert, Givenchy, Passchendaele, Ortona, Normandy, Caen and Falaise were checked against that City list, the Street Names page and these photographs. They are not poppy streets on the 2005 list, so they do not have their own sections here. Passchendaele names appear under Ypres. Ortona already has two named photographs on the Army page.

Pictures

Kyle's sign photographs are used first. Battle, memorial and cemetery photographs on this page are official Canadian or British photographs now in the public domain, or openly licensed modern photographs, each with a caption and credit. Portraits, grave photographs and memorial close-ups uploaded to the CVWM by named or unnamed contributors are held until permission is clear. No paid image is used. No medal card is used; British medal index cards and most service-file page scans were not cleared item by item for this page. Pictures already published on the Army page (including the Dieppe set, the Courcelette wounded photograph, and the Jack, Weirter, Milne and Comfort paintings) are not repeated; this page links to them instead.

Died during the Somme dates, not listed as Somme deaths

These men died during the Somme date window but are buried in Britain, in Ontario, or at a cemetery this page could not place in the Somme or Ypres sectors. They are not listed as Somme deaths.

Verified means the Canadian Virtual War Memorial record itself names a Windsor-Essex place, which is the Army roll's current rule. Enlisted at Windsor means the record shows enlistment here, and the CVWM record does not name a Windsor-Essex home. Held names stay on the roll with the reason shown; they are not counted as confirmed Windsor-Essex. A date in this battle's window, plus burial or commemoration in that sector, is the basis for listing. This page does not treat every death date as proof of a named action, and it does not claim a complete list of everyone from here who served.

Sources

1. Veterans Affairs Canada, 2nd Battle of Ypres, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/2nd-battle-ypres.
2. As already cited on the Army page: the official lineage of the Essex and Kent Scottish, including First World War honours (Mount Sorrel, Flers-Courcelette, Vimy, 1917, Hill 70, Passchendaele, Amiens and the Hindenburg Line) and the 18th Battalion's dates of sailing and landing in France.
3. Veterans Affairs Canada, Map of the Western Front, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/map-western-front.
4. Veterans Affairs Canada, Battle of Passchendaele, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/battle-passchendaele.
5. Windsor War Chest, The 1st Battalion at St. Julien, April 1915, /war-chest/chronology/#st-julien-1st-bn, and the rights file for that section.
6. Veterans Affairs Canada, Battle of the Somme, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/battle-somme.
7. Veterans Affairs Canada, Battle of Vimy Ridge, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/battle-vimy-ridge.
8. Veterans Affairs Canada, The Battle of Hill 70, historical sheet. Official battle dates are also on Veterans Affairs Canada's First World War list, 15 to 25 August 1917.
9. Veterans Affairs Canada, The Last Hundred Days, Battle of Amiens, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/first-world-war/last-hundred-days.
10. Veterans Affairs Canada, The Dieppe Raid, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/military-history/second-world-war/dieppe-raid.
11. C.P. Stacey, Six Years of War (Ottawa, 1955), as already quoted on the Army Dieppe section; and the live Army and chronology pages for Marchant, Gleason, Stapleton and Jasperson.
12. City of Windsor, Street Naming and Municipal Addressing, commemorative poppy, 2005, https://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/property/street-naming-and-municipal-addressing.
13. Windsor War Chest, Army roll of those who died, drawn from the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada.
14. Rose City Roots, Street Names, Poppy streets, including photographs by Kyle L. Stewart, 12 November 2026.