Edmund Vincent McNeill signature

On this day in 1917, Edmund Vincent McNeill was killed in action in the trenches west of Fresnoy in France. German forces retook the village of Fresnoy on May 8th during the Battle of Arras. The war diary of the 19th Battalion describes the attack and the unit’s withdrawal (page 1, page 2, page 3). On the day following the attack, the men of the four companies of the 19th Battalion were re-formed into two companies.

McNeill’s body was never found. He is commemorated on the Vimy memorial and in Deseronto.

Deseronto memorial