Norm christie historian biography of mahatma

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He began a quest and search for the bodies of soldiers – wherever they were buried – and he discovered the existence of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – which administers war graves at 23,000 locations throughout the world. Norm is Canada’s leading expert on the battlefields and cemeteries of the two World Wars. Their connection to the Dead, and their grief, even after a century, is still palpable.

But what if some of these men could be found?
Military Historian Norm Christie believes he knows the whereabouts of forty-four of these missing men.

CA40 lies beneath one of the world’s deadliest battlefields, full of unexploded high explosive and poison gas shells.

In a flea market, he had bought a Dead Man’s Penny – a medallion or plaque given to the families of men who died in the First World War 1914-1918.

Norm originally trained and worked as a metallurgical engineer, but, on a holiday he crossed to Europe on a freighter, and then got a van and began to tour.

Which is CA40?

The families of the 44 soldiers, along with Christie, are now on a mission to find the missing men and give them the proper commemoration they deserve – before they are lost forever.

Full Name

Norm Christie

Job Title

Author, Historian & Founding Director

Company/ Organization

King & Empire Foundation

Speaker Bio

Norm Christie is an author and historian and leading battlefield guide.

Less well known is that its white stone facades are inscribed with the names of over 11,000 men killed in France during the War who have no know grave – men who are missing.

Covers Norm Christie’s quest to find and recover forty-four Canadian burials in the lost Vimy cemetery, CA40. The search won’t be easy. Many Canadians know that the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 is Canada’s most famous and greatest victory – yet many are not aware that thousands of those men killed in the battle are still missing.

For the families of those missing men, their stories are still unfinished. Searching for Vimy’s Lost Soldiers is a documentary special, which follows Norm Christie and his team of geophysicists, bomb disposal officers, and forensic investigators on a mission to locate and recover the men of CA40.

The bodies of the 44 men were reported to have been re-buried in a local military cemetery at the end of the war, but Christie has discovered that this never happened.

He convinces local town councils and farmers to allow an investigation.

Norm Christie

The Canadians at Mount Sorrel, June 1916 (For King & Empire Vol VIII)

4.13 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions

The Canadians at Vimy: April 1917, Arleux, April 28, 1917, Fresnoy, May 3, 1917 : a social history and battlefield tour

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1996

Winning the Ridge: Canadians at Vimy Ridge, 1917

4.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1998

Gas attack!: The Canadians at Ypres, 1915 (The access to history series)

4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1998

The Canadians At Passchendaele, October To November 1917: A Social History And Battlefield Tour (For King & Empire, Volume 4)

4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1966 — 2 editions

Futility & sacrifice: The Canadians on the Somme, 1916 (The access to history series)

4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1998

The Canadians at Ypres, April 1915 (For King & Empire, Volume 1)

3.71 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions

The Canadians at Cambrai and the Canal du Nord, September-October, 1918: A social history and battlefield tour

4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2004

Slaughter in the mud: The Canadians at Passchendaele, 1917 (The access to history series)

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2007

FOR KING AND EMPIRE THE CANADIANS ON THE SOMME SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 1916

3.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1996

Searching for Vimy’s Lost Soldiers

Convinced he has located the lost cemetery Norm puts together a team of Bomb Disposal Men, geophysicists, and archaeologists, to find CA40.

Norm became curious about how the man had died and where he was buried. He has hosted and written many historical documentary series including For King & Empire, For King and Country, In Korea, and The Great War Tour. Families of the Lost Men walk in the footsteps of their fallen family members. Christie reveals how he discovered that CA40 is missing, deciphering clues from 100 years ago.

He has written twenty-four books on the roles played by Canadians in the First and Second World Wars.

Turning a passion into a vocation, from 1990 to 1993, Norm was the Chief Records Officer of the Graves Commission, a huge task that involves detailed forensic and detective work.