On November 6, 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele, Corporal Fraser Barron was leading a Lewis gun squad to a German pillbox. The structure had eighteen-inch-thick concrete walls and three machine guns, creating almost a 360 degree field of fire.

Barron managed to worm his way around the pillbox alone without being seen. He opened fire on the Germans at point blank range, rushed the guns, killed four of the crew members, captured the rest, seized one of the guns, and turned it on the rest of the Germans. “The remarkable dash and determination displayed by this N.C.O. in rushing the guns produced far-reaching results, and enabled the advance to be continued,” wrote the London Gazette in January 1918. Barron earned the Victory Cross for his work that day with the 3rd Battalion.

He survived the war and married Helen M, Milne of Toronto. They had two daughters, Helen and Marjorie.

He died on August 15, 1958 in Toronto.

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