Boy hero of Great War remembered
A team of Shropshire volunteers placed flowers on the grave of a teenage Canadian war hero who is buried in Shrewsbury to mark the centenary of his death.
Alfred Gyde Heaven, the eldest of six children, died of wounds at Berrington War Hospital, near Shrewsbury, on April 21, 1917. He had turned 18 only at the start of that month, and is buried at Shrewsbury cemetery.
Project leader Bob Davies said: "Although Alfred was given a memorial service in September 2012, and a new military headstone placed on his grave, over the past few weeks his grave has been cleaned and a frame placed around it to help and maintain the site for the foreseeable future."
Alfred was described as a rancher, and joined up in 1916, saying he was 19 when in fact he was only 16. He won the Military Medal during fighting on the Somme in November 1916. During an attack with the Canadian infantry on Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, he was seriously injured in the jaw and face.
He was brought to England for treatment but Corporal Heaven was found to be dangerously ill, dying at the hospital at Cross Houses.
Because he died before the War Graves Commission was set up, he did not automatically qualify for a marked grave, but after a local campaign a gravestone was unveiled in 2012 at a memorial service attended by members of the Canadian military.
Alfred’s family owned a farm and a street, Heaven Road, is named after them in Grand Forks, British Columbia.
Phil Morris of Shrewsbury said: "We placed some flowers and carried out some minor cleaning of his grave."
