A couple of months back I was contacted by Nigel Jones, the
Senior Archeologist for the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, one of four of
the Welsh Archaeological Trusts. They had been excavating a walkers’ cairn on
top of what may be a Bronze Age burial cairn, which is on the summit of
Penycloddiau Hillfort, near Ryhl. At the base of the walkers’ cairn, they found
a stone inscribed “Carly(e) D Chamberlain, Canadian Army, Prospect, Kentucky, USA.” Although there was no date on
the stone, other stones had dates between 1898 and 1922. Nigel was intrigued by
the stone and asked if I could help out. Looking at the attestation papers, I
told Nigel that I suspected that Private Carlyle De Haven Chamberlain
(regimental number 2140651) had enlisted late in 1918, and had likely been
en-route to Europe when the armistice was
signed. He was likely in Kinmel Camp, near Ryhl, in early 1919, as this was one
of the major demobilization camps for the Canadians in the U.K.
Nigel was nice enough to send us a photo of the stone, and
to include the Canadian Great War Project in the acknowledgements for their
project report.
