MY COUNTRY BEFORE EVEN YOU
MOTHER DEAR
(HIS PARTING WORDS
ON LEAVING HOME)

LIEUTENANT JOHN CLARENCE HANSON

104TH BN CANADIAN INFANTRY ATTD. 55TH SQUADRON ROYAL FLYING CORPS

14TH JULY 1917 AGE 24

BURIED: LONGUENESSE (ST OMER) SOUVENIR CEMETERY, FRANCE


John Clarence Hanson was a school teacher born in 1893 in St John, New Brunswick, Canada. He enlisted in the Canadian Infantry on 20 March 1916. He later transfered to the Royal Flying Corps, serving with the 55th Squadron, a daytime bombing squadron. He was "accidentally killed" on 14 July 1917.
It appears to me that he was an only child, which gives his inscription an added poignancy - how vividly his father has managed to convey the tensions of his last good-bye.