Born September 8, 1875 in Woolwich, England, John George Pattison emigrated to Canada in 1906 with his wife, Sophia Louise Pattison, and their four children. They moved to Calgary where Pattison found work with the Calgary Gas Company. He enlisted with the 50th Battalion on March 6, 1916 at the age of 40 in a move to look after his son Henry.

At 5 ft. 3 in., Pattison was not an imposing figure but he proved himself, however, to be one of the battalion’s most-courageous members, quite willing to put himself in harm’s way to protect his comrades.

Pattison proved this first at Vimy Ridge where he won the Victoria Cross, Canada’s highest military honour, and again at Lens where the 50th Battalion fought to capture an electric generating station.

During the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge on April 10, 1917, the 50th Battalion’s advance up the ridge was stopped by a well-placed German machine gun. With the advancing company pinned down and quickly losing men, Pattison leapt from cover and attacked the machine gun post, tossing grenades and then bayonetting the crew.

Victor Wheeler, a signaller with the 50th Battalion and author of No Man’s Land, described what he saw... “Private John George Pattison, several hundred feet to my right and forward, leaping ahead like a maddened jaguar, plunged into the mire, bombed and then bayoneted all the men of the German machine-gun crew that were hindering our progress, and came through without a scratch. His fearless act and courageous initiative enormously encouraged us to continue toward our final objective,” wrote Wheeler.

The 50th Battalion reached its objective that day, and along with the 44th Battalion, captured Hill 145, largely in part, as Wheeler pointed out, because of Pattison’s courageous act. Pattison was one of four Canadian soldiers to receive the Victoria Cross during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Following Vimy, the Canadian Corps was sent northeast to attack the Hindenburg Line near the city of Lens. The 50th Battalion was assigned to capture the Central Electric Generating Station, located north of the hamlet of La Coulotte. It was during this 18-hour battle, on June 3, 1917, that Pattison and his crew were killed by German artillery shells while manning a machine gun in an advance post beyond the generating station.

Pattison was initially listed as missing until three months later when the Canadians found a wooden cross bearing his name. German soldiers had buried Pattison.

Pattison’s body was then interred at the La Chaudiere Military Cemetery, located near Lens on the northwestern outskirts of Vimy. Pattison Bridge in Calgary and Mount Pattison in Jasper National Park are named in honour of John George Pattison.

Alberta’s lieutenant-governor, Dr. Robert G. Brett, presented Pattison’s Victoria Cross to his wife, Sophia, on April 10, 1918.

“It must have been a damned good sniper that got Norwest.”

Those words were emblazoned on the temporary grave marker of Henry “Ducky” Norwest, a 50th Battalion sniper, after he was killed by German sniper killed on August 18, 1918.

Henry Louis Norwest, a quiet, reserved but warm man known as “Ducky” for “ducking” the girls of London, England, was also one of the best snipers among the British forces with 115 confirmed kills. There is no record of how many unconfirmed kills Norwest had.

As a sniper, Norwest often travelled into No Man's Land or behind enemy lines to do his work, which earned him the Military Medal during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and after his death, a posthumous bar for gallantry in the field.

Norwest was born in Fort Saskatchewan in 1884. Married with children and using only his first and middle names, he first enlisted on January 2, 1915 with the 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles, but he was discharged for drunkenness. He re-enlisted on September 8, 1915, this time joining the 50th Battalion.

On the day of his death, Norwest and his spotter, Oliver Payne, had been searching for enemy soldiers during the Canadian push towards Amiens, France. Norwest, whose patience, skill and keen eye had earned him great respect, had aimed down the sights of his .303 Ross rifle at an enemy sniper. He was about to pull the trigger but his target shot first, shooting the Cree sniper through the head.

Immediately following Norwest's death, General Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, ordered all Canadian guns in the area—from heavy and medium artillery to mortars and machine guns—to fire on Dead Wood where the Germans snipers were located.

“This was due and fitting respect to pay our famous Indian Sniper – and the Corps' appropriate expression of sorrow for the death of the Empire's greatest Sniper... Never before had a Private soldier been so honoured by his Battalion, Brigade, Division and Corps!” wrote 50th Battalion signaller Victor Wheeler in his book, No Man's Land.

Norwest was buried near Amiens, France, in the Warvillers Churchyard. The canteen at the Royal Canadian Legion in Fort Saskatchewan was named in honour of Norwest in 2010, as was the field of honour at the Fort Saskatchewan cemetery.

One of Norwest's .303 calibre Ross rifles in on display at the King's Own Calgary Regiment gallery at The Military Museums in Calgary, Alberta.