Herbert Maxwell Lawless (1872 – 1917)

Herbert Lawless was born in Toronto, Ontario. He served with the Governor General’s Foot Guards before joining the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in March 1898.1) He was posted in the Yukon for five years.2) One of his postings was a Gold Run Creek.3) He was a prospector in 1914 when he enlisted to serve in the First World War.4)

Herbert Lawless joined the Yukon Motor Machine Gun Battery in Vancouver in November 1914. He was awarded the Military Medal for bravery after his unit, the 78th Battalion, conducted a raid in February 1917 and he was promoted to corporal in March 1917. He was killed by shrapnel near the Farbus-Vimy Railway and he is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery in Pas de Calais, France.5) He was the only Yukoner to be killed at Vimy Ridge.6)

1) , 5)
D. Blair Neatby and Michael Gates, The Yukon Fallen of World War I. Whitehorse: Whitehorse Legion Branch 254, 2018: 67.
2)
WWI Reg. #107379. November 7, 1914 in Vancouver. Attestation Paper, Library and Archives Canada.
3)
Email to Sally Robinson from Rod Dewell, April 2017. Anniversary of Vimy Ridge.
4)
WWI Reg. #107379. 7 November 1914 in Vancouver. Attestation Paper, Library and Archives Canada.
6)
Michael Gates, From the Klondike to Berlin: The Yukon in World War I. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd. 2017: 104.