The 25th Infantry Battalion of Nova Scotia Highlanders left Canada in May, 1915 on the Saxonia and landed in France on September 15, 1915. The 25th Bat- talion had been newly organized from elements of the 95th Argyles and Sutherlanders in Nova Scotia.

In April, 1917, he received his first wounds and was hospitalized in the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Millbank, England until August, 1917 when he was sent to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital, Bromley, Kent, England. This latter hospital had opened on May 11, 1915 and was closed on January 31, 1918. George Wilkinson was in this hospital for one week and then was discharged. A year later, on August 9th 1918 on the Second Day of the Battle of Amiens, he was killed in action against the ememy.

Named for his Uncle George Mclnnis, his grandfather, Robert McInnis, and a beloved pastor of the Miminegash Methodist Church, the Rev. John Goldsmith, who served the Alberton Circuit form 1896 - 1900, George Robert Goldsmith Wilkinson, the son of Albert B. and Elizabeth Alice (McInnis) Wilkin- son, was born on July 19, 1897, in Miminegash, Prince Edward Island and died at the age of twenty-one years in Amiens, France.

At the time when he received his first wounds in April, 1917, the family of George Wilkinson received notification that their son had been selected by an artist as the subject of an oil painting attempting to capture some of the realities of war.

Following the conclusion of the war, the Wilkinson Family made some futile attempts to trace the name of the artist involved or the title of the painting since they were assured that such paintings were usually commissioned by the govern- ment in Ottawa. Neither the official military record of George Wilkinson or his War Diary gave any clue to the name of the artist or the name of the painting.

Upon examination of RF. Wadehouse, Check List of the War Collection, National Gallery of Canada, (Ottawa, The Queen’s Printer, 1968) and Art and War, Canadian War Memorials, Canadian War Records, (London, England, Colour Ltd., 1919) it was determined that the name George Wilkinson, was not used as a title for the painting. It is entirely possible that this portrait does exist and is in another collection, possibly a private one. In addition, the painting could have been given another title, difficult to locate in any index, such as The

Wounded Soldier, etc.

Prince Edward Island sources for the periods April 1, 1917 to October 31, 1917 and from August 1, 1918 to September 30, 1918 in the Guardian and the Journal Pioneer as well as the extensive collections of the Prince Edward Island

Museum and Heritage Foundation may possibly contain some clue to the ex- istence of this portrait of military art in either a private or public Canadian

gallery of art. Most of the Collections of War Paintings have been housed at the Canadian War Museum, Sussex Street, Ottawa, Ontario. Exhibits are organized

and sent to art galleries throughout Canada, and quite possibly, the Harris Art Gallery in the Confederation Centre, has been the recipient of such a collection.

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