On April 9, 1917, the soldiers in the 72nd Battalion left the Gobron tunnel on Vimy Ridge and filed into the trenches. There was a slight snowfall and it quickly turned into a driving sleet. After the ridge was captured, Sergeant Thomas Victor (Tod) Bayne Rutherford volunteered to bring in his platoon as reinforcements. Rutherford was hit with shrapnel in his left side but said nothing until the soldiers took their positions—he refused to be taken out of the fight until the reinforcements were sent up. By this time, it was too late. The sergeant died that day at age twenty-five.

Rutherford was born in Balmoral, Manitoba in 1892. He was an avid runner and competed in running competitions when the soldiers were on leave during the war. He enlisted on September 17, 1915 from Vancouver and also fought at Somme.

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