Mr. Speaker, as we pause this week to honour the brave men and women who have served our country, I would like to pay tribute to Private Leonard William Elliott, a Canadian infantry soldier who fought in the First World War.
Private Elliott was one of the more than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who courageously answered the call to defend the values of freedom and peace in the war that was meant to end all wars, and one of the more than 66,000 who never came home. He was also my great-grandfather.
Leonard was killed in action in August 1917 in the Battle of Hill 70, leaving behind a wife and five children, among them the six-month-old daughter he would never meet, my grandmother Edith. Like so many others, he left his home and family, stepping into the unknown to protect a future he would never see. He fought not just for his generation but for every generation to come.
I had the honour of visiting my great-grandfather's grave in northern France in 2017. I was the first family member to do so, 100 years after his death. The solemn promise I made that day was to ensure that his memory and legacy would live on. Lest we forget.