Private
Shaver, Clifford
Unit
38th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Ottawa)
Branch
Infantry
Service Component
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Service Number
633382
birth
1896/06/30
Mountain, Ontario, Canada
death
1917/10/30
Ypres, Belgium
grave
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
Gender
Male
Clifford Shaver was born in Mountain Township, Ontario, on 30 June 1896. He was the son of William and Jessie Shaver.
A farmer like his father, Shaver enlisted in the 154th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry) in South Mountain, Ontario, on 10 February 1916. He was later transferred to the 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Ottawa). He died in Belgium on 30 October 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele, and his body was lost.
The day Shaver died, the 38th Battalion was held in reserve while the other three battalions of the 12th Brigade (the 72nd, 78th, and 85th) assaulted German positions. This did not stop the unit from suffering causalities. Indeed, the battalion’s war diary states the following: “Our losses in the Reserve Area were considerable…. [the position] being heavily shelled after the advance of the Brigade commenced. Hostile artillery activity was very intense throughout the entire day.”
Clifford Shaver is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, in Ypres, Belgium.
