07/11/2025
Pte Elmer Langford, 14th Bttn, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was admitted to Etaples Military Hospital in June 1916 having received a gunshot wound to the shoulder at Ypres.
He returned to the UK where he received treatment at Epsom Hospital.
In December 1916, a medical board found him only fit for a stint at base duty on a temporary basis. He had a heart murmur & was suffering from shortage of breath.
He was ‘struck off strength’ & removed from his unit & transferred to the 1st Quebec Regimental
Depot at Hastings. This was a unit used to assemble men & to store & administer equipment & materials.
On 17th April 1917, Pte Elmer Langford’s body was recovered from the sea at Bexhill.
He had not been seen since the end of December, & the inquiry that followed heard that it was likely
that his body had been in the sea for at least 3 months.
There was nothing in his medical records to suggest there might have been anything the matter with his mind, & there was nothing to suggest that anything sinister had happened.
An open verdict was recorded by the jury.
Pte Langford was buried at Hastings Cemetery, East Sussex.
Personal Inscription – ‘He fought the good fight and won the crown of glory’
