On April 9, millions of Canadians will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, one of the most pivotal events of the First World War and a defining moment in Canadian military history.

But three Vancouver-area men will make a special pilgrimage to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France on Sunday to honour a family member who fought in the deadly battle and the soldiers who served alongside him.

Donald, Craig and Cole Matheson are the first, second and third generation descendants of First World War veteran John Matheson.

“I think it’s hard for any of us to understand the horror of what it was like,” Donald Matheson told CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro. “(There were) so many casualties.”

At the age of 30, John Matheson volunteered to serve his country. He enlisted as a private and, years later, left as a decorated officer.

“I don’t think they had any idea what they were in for. “I don’t think anybody did.” said Craig Matheson, John’s grandson.

But the photos and letters John left behind suggest he knew how lucky he was to have made it back home.

“I was the only one to survive the war,” he wrote under a wartime photo of him and his friends.

Located in Vimy, France, the memorial was unveiled in 1936 as a tribute to more than 10,500 who were wounded or killed during the bloody four-day battle.

A then-four-year-old Donald attended the opening of the Canadian National Memorial in Vimy with his father.

“I understood how important it was for my father to take his family over there,” Donald said.

And that significance was not lost on the next two generations of the Matheson family.

Donald’s son Craig has been collecting war artifacts for as long as he can remember. He would read letters John had sent home during the war and ask his grandfather about the conflict.

Craig remembers John teaching him that “the job is nasty and grim, but we just have to do it. We have to finish this.”

For 15-year-old Cole Matheson, it was a school project that prompted him to learn about a war where some of those who fought were only a few years older than he is.

“It’s hard to imagine,” Cole said.

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro