Fort Langley farmer Alfred Trattle enlisted in 1916 and was killed the next year near Vimy. He left behind a wife and two small children; his wife’s brother, Jesse Wright, was also killed at Vimy Ridge. Trattle and Wright Streets on the western edge of Fort Langley are named for them.
Langley’s Brian Harper Butler was born in Yorkshire and enlisted at age 23 with the 11th Canadian Mounted Rifles, describing himself as a “woodsman”. He assigned his $15 monthly pay to his father, a minister at Gibsons. Brian Butler served with the 29th Battalion at Vimy Ridge on April 9th, 1917 but died on April 23rd from a gunshot wound in the back. He is buried in the Boulogne East Cemetery at Pas de Calais, France. Learn more about those who sacrificed during the Great War in Warren Sommer’s book, Canucks in Khaki.
Eugene Allard was the grandson of Ovid Allard, Chief Trader at the HBC’s Fort Langley post, and Seraphine, an Indigenous woman from the Port Townsend area. Eugene’s father Jason helped survey routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway, spoke 5 Indigenous dialects and became an interpreter in courts across the province. Eugene was a Fort Langley logger called “Shorty” when he signed up in 1916 (he was 5′ 4 1/4″). While helping hold a support line east of Ypres he was killed at the age of 30; his older brother Alexander was gassed and died in 1924. The youngest brother Billy was awarded the Military Cross for bravery at Vimy Ridge. Allard Crescent was named in honour of Eugene following the war.
