Pte. Gordon Kidd
1st Eastern Ontario Depot Battalion Regimental Number 3321217
Gordon
Earle Kidd was born on December 20, 1889 in Warsaw, Ontario. He lived with his
parents, Robert and Elizabeth Kidd, who farmed there. Sometime in his late teens-early twenties,
Gordon moved to the city of Peterborough where he boarded at 196 Dalhousie St.
and worked at the Canadian General Electric Company.
Sometime
after 1911, Gordon moved to the city of Renfrew. It was there on October 5th, 1917
that he was called to report for medical inspection under the Military Service
Act. He was nearly 30 years old at the
time and was working as a druggist in that town. He was single, listed his religion as a Baptist
and declared that he had no previous military service. Gordon stood 5 feet 3
inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. He sported
a fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair.
At the end of the examination he was considered category A.2, which
meant he was fit for overseas service.
Gordon
returned to his work as a druggist in Renfrew and was not called to report for
duty until mid-April. On the 19th
of that month he reported to Eastern Ontario Regiment 2nd Depot in
Ottawa. He was given the rank of Private and received a month of basic military
training there before being sent to England.
He
left Halifax on May 15th aboard the H.M.T. City of Marseilles and
arrived in England ten days later. He
was sent to the 6th Canadian Reserve Battalion stationed at Seaford to
continue training and await a posting to a battalion already engaged in
France. After four months, Gordon was
among a draft of men sent to France to join the 21st Battalion, a
unit raised in Eastern Ontario.
He
left England on September 26th 1918 and arrived at the Canadian
Infantry Base Depot in France the next day.
Though initially assigned to the 21st Canadian Battalion,
before he could join them, he was reassigned to the 44th “New Brunswick”
Battalion which he joined in the field on October 3rd.
The
Canadian Corps. was in the ending stages of the war having continually pushed
the Germans back in a series of battles referred to as the Last Hundred Days. Pte. Gordon Kidd was one of the desperately
needed reinforcements to rebuild the battered remnants of the Canadian
forces. He joined the 44th
Battalion (which at the time was at nearly half of its original strength) far
behind the lines in the captured French city of Arras. He was lucky to receive close to a month’s training
and initiation to trench warfare before being sent “over the top” at the Battle
of Valenciennes with the 44th in their last major attack of the War.
The
attack took place on November 1st, with the 44th Battalion
being ordered to take clear the Germans off high ground in front of the town of
Valenciennes. After giving the enemy positions
a crushing artillery bombardment, Gordon Kidd and the men of the 44th
stormed up the hill and captured their objectives within forty five minutes. Apart
from taking hundreds of prisoners, the 44th captured an astounding
83 heavy machineguns that had previously defended the hill. The attack cost the lives of seventeen of the
44th’s men, as well as seventy wounded and two missing.
Among
those wounded during the assault was Gordon Kidd, who had received a
machine-gun bullet in the right arm between his elbow and shoulder. He was evacuated off the field to No.6
Casualty Clearing Station where his wounds were stabilized. He was sent down the line five days later to
a Canadian hospital in Camiers, France.
After three days of treatment there, he was transported across the channel
to a British hospital in Colchester. After
twenty days in their care, he was once again transferred to the No.11 Canadian General
Hospital at Shorncliffe. Gordon
continued his recovery there until he was sufficiently healed and able to be
discharged on December 6, 1918. By then
the war was over, and Gordon was assigned to the 13th Canadian Reserve
battalion at Witley Camp to await his voyage home.
Gordon
sailed home from England in mid-January aboard the SS. Empress of Britain. He arrived safely in Halifax on January 22nd
1919 and made his way to Kingston where he was fully discharged from military service
on February 12th 1919.
 |
| Gordon Kidd's Grave, Peterborough Ontario |
It
is likely that Gordon returned to Warsaw upon his discharge as there is a record
of a request for a train ticket to the C.P.R. station in Peterborough as well
as a note attached to notify a Mr. William Bell of Warsaw of his arrival.
Gordon
Kidd died in 1954 in an Ottawa hospital at age 65. He is buried in Peterborough.
Sources
Archives of Ontario. Registrations of
Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. Toronto,
Ontario, Canada: Series: MS929;
Series: 95; Reel: MS929.
Library
and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Census
Place: Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; Roll: T-6363; Family No: 107.
Library and Archives Canada. Census
of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Year: 1901; Census Place: Dummer,
Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 2; Family No: 10.
Library and Archives Canada. Census
of Canada, 1911. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Year: 1911; Census Place: 20 - South
Ward, Peterborough West, Ontario; Page: 3; Family No: 28.
Library and Archives Canada. Sixth
Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Renfrew (Town), Renfrew South,
Ontario; Page Number: 23.
Canada. "Military Service File
of Gordon Earl Kidd." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Record Group
150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5136-21. Item Number 498647.
The Ottawa Journal. “Deaths: Kidd-Gordon Earl”. Saturday, July 31, 1954. P.20
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