CANADA D-DAY COIN SOLDIER IDENTIFIED

A reassuring pat on the shoulder and a glance back at a fellow soldier. A fleeting act of camaraderie shared between two Canadian soldiers just seconds before they joined their comrades and stormed Juno Beach in France on D-Day.

"We felt that that image certainly represented sort of the soldiers of the day. There was a lot of meaning in that image, it's very powerful," said Ian Graham with the Royal Canadian Mint. That moment recorded on grainy black and white film lasted only a second, but it was enough to inspire the design of the Royal Canadian Mint's 2019 proof silver dollar, commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

But no one knew the identity of the soldier who was glancing back, until now.

Researchers working with the mint have identified the soldier as Pte. George Herman Baker of Liverpool, N.S. He was a member of the No. 3 Platoon, A Company of the North Shore Regiment.

He was 20 years old when he headed out to Juno Beach. He survived the war, and moved back home and raised a family. Baker died in 2003 at age 80.

On Tuesday in Liverpool, the mint presented Baker's daughter, Karen McLeod, with one of the coins inspired by her father's image.

"When they had the 50th anniversary of D-Day, I remember him mentioning about the landing and how the soldiers had died. It was awful. You had to walk over people and you couldn't do anything to help them."

Baker carried grim reminders of the war with him. He had shrapnel embedded deep in his shoulder and McLeod remembers pieces of it coming out even years after the war.

To read the complete article, see:
Mystery D-Day soldier featured on silver coin ID'd as Nova Scotia man (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/coin-soldiers-military-wwii-d-day-royal-canadian-mint-1.4988054)

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