30 Day of Remembrance- Day 14 - Dominick Naplava

In memory of 

Private 

Dominick Naplava 

who died on November 12, 1917

Military Service:

Service Number:

294914

Age:

25

Force:

Army

Unit:

Canadian Pioneers

Division:

107th Canadian Pioneer Battalion.

Additional Information:

Date and Place of Birth:

February 11, 1892

Son of Josef and Kristina Naplava, of Zadovice, Morava, Czechoslovakia.

Cemetery:

TYNE COT CEMETERY, Belgium

Grave Reference:

Levi Cottage Mem. 2.

Commemorated on Page 300 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

Unlike all of the previous soldiers I've researched, Dominick Naplava was neither Canadian nor UK born. According to his Attestation papers, Dominick was born in Zadovice, Moravia, Bohemia,one of the historical Czech lands which became part of Czechoslovakia after 1918, (and currently Czech Republic).

How Dominick came to join the Canadian Forces is a bit of a mystery. Searching on Ancestry gave me 3 possible immigration records that seemed likely; a Dominick Zaplava born 1892 in Moravia, left Germany and arrived in Galveston Texas in May of 1911, and again in Feb 1914. I haven't found anything to indicate how or when he arrived in Canada but he signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg in 1917.

Dominick was killed in action near Wieltje, Belgium and buried in the Levi Cottage Cemetery.

Sadly his grave was completely destroyed by shell fire so Dominick Naplava is memorialized at the Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Dominick Naplava died Nov 12, 1917