Pte. Hilliard C. Kidd, 46th Battalion, Aug. 21 1917

Pte. Hilliard Cecil Kidd 910989

 

Hilliard Kidd was born in Warsaw, Ontario, to Edward A. and Eveline (nee. Johnson) Kidd.  The family farmed in Dummer Township.  By 1906 the family had uprooted and moved to farm in Saskatchewan.  Both the 1906 and 1916 Census’s list them in Kindersley and Zealandia.  The 1916 Saskatchewan census shows the family located in Marriott municipality, and notes that Hilliard was a soldier stationed at Camp Hughes at the time.

 Hilliard enlisted on April 14, 1916 in Saskatoon, into “B” Company, the 196^th Canadian Overseas Battalion.  He listed his occupation as student and indicated that he was not married and had no previous military experience.  He was 20yrs, 1 mos. old, stood 5’6”, had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.  He indicated that he belonged to Christ Church (Baptist).   The 196^th was reorganized and Pte. Kidd eventually ended up in the 46^th Battalion, a Saskatchewan unit that was dubbed the “Suicide Battalion” because of its high casualty rate.

On August 21^st 1917 Hilliard Kidd and the 46^th Battalion were part of what a British War Correspondent of the time called “the most frightful episode of warfare on the Western Front”.  The attack on the ruins city of Lens was a follow-up to the successful Canadian attack on the outskirts of the town a few days earlier.  The battle was characterized by brutal street fighting, where the Canadians fought house to house, cellar to cellar, trench to trench.

Hilliard's Birth Record

It was in this ruined town that Hilliard Kidd was killed in action.  His body was recovered and buried in the 46^th Canadian Cemetery with many of his comrades who also fell that day.  Unfortunately, enemy shelling obliterated the cemetery and all trace of his grave.  His name is included on the Vimy Ridge Memorial as well as the Dummer Township Cenotaph.

Sources
Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2007. <http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1911/index-e.html>. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels T-20326 to T-20460.
Canada. "Census returns for 1916 Census of Prairie Provinces." Statistics of Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm T-21925 to T-21956. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
Library and Archives Canada. Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2008. <http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1906/index-e.html>. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: T-18353 to T-18363.
Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2004. <http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1901/index-e.html>. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556.
Canada. "Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918)." Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4930 - 35. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. MS 929, reels 1-245. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario.
War Graves Registry: Circumstances of Death Records. Record Group 150, 1992–1993/314, Boxes 145–238. Library and Archives Canada. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
War Graves Registry: Circumstances of Death Records; (RG150, 1992-1993/314, Boxes 39-144); Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
 

Pte. Kidd's inscription on the Vimy Memorial