Welcome to the 4CMR website; a place of remembrance to those who served with
the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles in World War 1.
This simple website is not intended to be a site of any expertise on the matter of the First World War,
but to be a point of focus for all who had relatives or research subjects who served at any time
with the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles.
The site came about following my discovery that my great-grandfather's brother, Cpl. Frank Forsdike,
served and lost his life with the 4CMR. This discovery affected me deeply and more so when I found
that his medals remained unclaimed because his wife and daughter could not be traced in 1920.
After 12 years of unsuccesfully trying to determine if Frank's family had perpetuated, and after almost three years
of this website being in place, Bert Layton, trying to find information on his grandfather, Frank Forsdike, stumbled
across this website and made contact. What a day that was! Please see Frank Forsdike's
page for Frank's biography and for details on the subsequent and long overdue memorial ceremony, in which his medals were
finally presented to his daughter, Florence, in May 2008, and details on his name consequently being honoured in the
Nova Scotia House of Assembly!
In succesfully honouring Frank's memory, pivotal then to this website is the In Memoriam page,
where you will find a "Wall of Honour" to the memory of those who served with the Regiment. Standing alongside the names
of the men who served are the names of relatives or researchers who contacted me and now represent those men today. If you
have a relative or research subject who served with the 4CMR, let us honour their memory by adding their details to the
In Memoriam page.
Through my own research efforts, and being fortunate enough to be able to visit sites associated with the 4th CMR
around Ypres in Belgium, it is my hope to provide some tangible link to the men, the places and the memorials associated
with the Regiment. Through this site we can now come together and say that it was not “all for nothing”, and that
whilst they are gone, they are not forgotten. I feel very strongly about that.
So, please, explore and enjoy the site, contribute (please), and do check the Latest News page for updates as this
is a work-in-progress. With our common bond I do look forward to hearing from you soon, as together “We will remember them”.
Best wishes, kindest regards,
Ian Forsdike MBE