PASSCHENDAELE, Belgium — Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice led a Canadian tribute and personal pilgrimage to the site of one of the First World War's bloodiest battles.

Accompanied by his wife, Karen, Prentice placed a photo of his great-uncle, Pte. Roy Urquhart, at the foot of a Canadian memorial on a ridge overlooking the Belgian village of Passchendaele on Saturday.

Urquhart fought and died during the opening hours of the Canadian offensive, on Oct. 26, 1917, which led to the end of the Passchendaele combat. He was 22 when he died.

The Battle of Passchendaele, which ended 90 years ago this weekend with the capture of a small village church, left 500,000 soldiers from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand dead, wounded or missing.

Canadian troops ultimately succeeded where other Allied forces failed. They seized the Passchendaele Ridge and the nearby village of Passchendaele on Nov. 6, 1917, at a cost of 16,000 casualties, including more than 4,000 killed.

At the end, only eight kilometres of land had been gained. But the battle helped end the war by depleting German troop and machinery reserves.

Prentice stood near the spot where he believes his great uncle was killed, trying to reach a ridge where German machine guns cut down thousands of Commonwealth troops.

"He died in the opening hours of the battle and his body was never recovered,'' Prentice said in an interview.

"It's a remarkable story. The Canadians rise out of the trenches and march essentially up this hill and suffer 16,000 casualties in 10 days to capture this ridge that no one else was able to capture, and they do so under horrific circumstances ... marching essentially directly into the machine-gun fire.''

From the time he was a small boy, Prentice had seen Urquhart's picture on the mantel at his grandmother's house.

"It's an important part of who I am,'' he said. "It's extremely emotional.''

His uncle's name is listed among the 55,000 missing soldiers engraved on the walls of the arched limestone Menen Gate war memorial in nearby Ieper, better known to the soldiers by its French name, Ypres.

A further 35,000 names of the missing are listed on memorial walls at the Tyne Cot military cemetery, which contains 12,000 graves -- the largest Commonwealth military burial site in the world.

Prentice and other Canadian officials unveiled a plaque at the memorial to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the battle, which has also been commemorated by other Commonwealth leaders this year, including the Queen.

Experts believe 100,000 soldiers, including Canadians, remain unaccounted for.

Many of the 200,000 people who visit the 150 war cemeteries dotting Flanders Fields each year come to look for relatives with no known graves.

Officials anticipated more than 10,000 visitors this weekend.