It’s a scene not unlike countless others that unfolded during the Great War: a wounded man on a stretcher being offered a drink and soothing words as he awaits treatment. But this photo, shot on the morning of August 15, 1917, was published around the British Empire—made famous by the man on the stretcher and especially his regimental number: 1.

Major Arthur Reginald Bawden, the wounded man, was the first Canadian to enlist in the Great War. The person offering the drink—and likely, a few prayers—is Captain James W. Whillans, chaplain of the 8th Canadian Battalion, Winnipeg Rifles. The photo was taken on the first morning of the Battle of Hill 70, near Lens, France, near the border with Belgium. A few moments after the photo was taken, Bawden died on the stretcher. The photograph of Whillans and Bawden ran in newspapers the next day in Paris, and later, in Montreal, London and Melbourne. Bawden, 31, left behind a widow, Lillian, back in Winnipeg. He’s today buried at Hersin Communal Cemetary in Pas de Calais, France.

Lee-Anne Penny, Whillans's great-granddaughter, notes that he served at the front for 22 months straight with no relief. Whillans, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Scotland in May 1880. He came to Canada in 1904, and graduated from Manitoba College in Winnipeg in 1910. After the Armistice, he returned to Canada and held pastorates across the prairies. In Regina, he made history as the first clergyman in the British Empire to broadcast a sermon over the radio. He died in June 1954 at the age of 74.

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