"If ye break faith ~

             we shall not sleep"  ~John McCrae, In Flanders Fields, Punch, Dec. 8, 1915.

(Photo:  lbwalker) 

Nine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium

The town newspaper wrote, "the news cast a gloom over the community for Will was well liked by everybody and his parents have the sympathy of the community in their loss."

The main action had taken place on November 6 where William Duff was wounded in the heel by a shell and was taken to the number 44 casualty clearing station apparently in good spirits.  Tragically on November 8, 1917 Duff died of his wounds and was buried in the Nine Elms British Cemetery in Belgium.  He was just 22 years old.

Later in a letter to the Advocate, Lt. Colonel Andrew T. Thompson of Ruthven, Cayuga, wrote "He (Drew Thompson) served in the 4th Battalion, and poor brave Billy Duff was out with him on many a wiring party in no mans land.  The young men thought very highly of each other, and my son feels the death of his old Cayuga comrade very keenly."

~ Research by Brendan Oliver of Hamilton, Ontario.  Brendan has put together the facts about this young soldier.  He continues to look for "more personal accounts."  If you have information about William or his family ~ however seemingly insignificant ~ please contact Brendan at griffs8_@hotmail.com

Duff Family Stone, Cayuga, Ontario

"Our home can never be the same for out of it went much of its joy and light in the person of my third son William Selkirk, who was slain at Passchendaele and sleeps in a soldiers grave in Belgium." ~ David A. Duff