Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 41 Alexander Griswold Viets was born on 25 April 1878 in Digby, Nova Scotia, his parents were John Moors and Jane Snow Viets. He served in the Boer War, 1899-1902, with the 3rd Canadian Rifles. A few weeks after the start of WWI, he joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry on 3 September 1914. During intense fighting at the Ypres Salient in May of 1915, a mortar bomb landed beside him destroying his eyes and wounding his face, arms and legs. After an extended recovery, he became the first soldier blinded in WWI to return to Canada. He married Mary Elizabeth Moody on 25 April 1917. Alexander Viets wrote in the St. Dunstan’s Review of 1917, “The care and education of the blind in Canada generally ... is in a very bad state ... We think it will be through the returned blinded soldiers that considerable interest will be aroused, and when the war is over a lot of good can be done in ... educating and interesting the general public.” This proved correct. In 1918 Viets was instrumental in founding the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the returned Canadian war blinded took on leadership roles in the blind community in general, and were to become ambassadors for their disability. Alexander Viets worked for an insurance company until his death on 22 April 1949, he is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. Alexander Griswold Viets, BOER WAR & WWI
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