212966 Lt. Thomas Russell "Buck" Buchanan Canadian Expeditionary Force. 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company from:Thessalon, Ontario My grandfather, Thomas Russell Buchanan, born February 21st 1891, graduated as a Mining Engineer at the University of Toronto, and signed on in Valcartier, Quebec to the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on July 17th 1916. Lt. Buchanan, and is mentioned in the 1st Canadian Tunnelling engineers war diaries a few times. He was there to experience the June 7th Messines Ridge explosions. He was injured during his service according to his service records, listed as a head injury.
Close family members have said that he is also believed to have had a collision on a motorbike with 2 horses that had to be put down. He was devasted at the loss of the horses. He did not speak of his service in the war apart from this. Thomas is believed to have moved towards Arras later in the war, and then spent some time in England as a training officer in Surrey. He sailed back to Canada on the SS Olympic on 18th March 1919 and was involved in gold mining in the Kirkland Lake area of Ontario sometime after the war. He was married to Lily Mary Betteridge on December 27 1940, and died circa 1944 near Elgin Mills, Ontario.
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