Service highlights
- Service number: 127059
- Unit: 1st Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Western Ontario Regiment), “D” Company
- Enlisted: 30 July 1915 (London, Ontario), 71st Battalion
- Overseas: Sailed 20 Nov 1915 (SS Metagama), arrived England 30 Nov 1915
- Front line: Joined 1st Battalion in the Ypres Salient, 16 May 1916
- Wounded / hospitalized: 25 Jun 1916 (shell shock and a gunshot wound to the chin), released 29 Jun 1916
- Killed in action: 30 Aug 1918 (Vis-en-Artois / Upton Wood area, France)
- Burial: Upton Wood Cemetery, Hendecourt-les-Cagnicourt, France (Grave B.7)
- Remembered in St. Marys: Name commemorated on the St. Marys Cenotaph
A Life and Service, Remembered
Albert George Bodenham was born in London, England on December 9, 1896, the second-oldest of seven children. In July 1907, the Bodenham family immigrated to Canada and settled in St. Marys. His father James worked as a plasterer, and the family lived on Salina Street North. Like many working families of the time, the children went to work young. Albert was described as a railway section hand, and a brief 1916 note also tied him to St. Marys Wood Specialty, one of the local employers that relied heavily on young men and boys for piece work.
On July 30, 1915, Albert enlisted in London with the 71st Canadian Infantry Battalion. After training, he sailed from Montreal on November 20, 1915 in a 250-man draft aboard the SS Metagama, arriving in England on November 30. He was posted to the 34th Reserve Battalion at Shorncliffe and completed the standard ten-week infantry syllabus.
On May 16, 1916, he joined the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion in the Ypres Salient and entered the unbroken routine of front-line service. In June 1916 the battalion was thrown into the fighting at Mount Sorrel in Belgium. On June 25 Albert was admitted to hospital suffering shell shock and a gunshot wound to the chin. The wounds were not considered serious and he was released on June 29, 1916, returning to duty as the war pressed forward.
From there his service followed the major battles that marked Canada’s hardest years on the Western Front. After the Somme in 1916 came Vimy Ridge in 1917, then Arleux and Fresnoy, and later the mud and exhaustion of Passchendaele. In 1918 the fighting shifted into a sustained advance, including Amiens, where the momentum of the war changed.
Albert’s last action came near the end of that advance. During an attack on German trenches at Vis-en-Artois near Upton Wood, his company had just reached its objective when he was killed by enemy shellfire on August 30, 1918.
He is buried in Upton Wood Cemetery at Hendecourt-les-Cagnicourt, France. His headstone bears an epitaph chosen by his mother: “Gone from us, but never forgotten. Never shall thy memory fade.” His name is also commemorated on the St. Marys Cenotaph, ensuring he is remembered in the town where he grew up.
Major battles and operations mentioned in the book
- Mount Sorrel (Belgium, 1916)
- The Somme (1916)
- Vimy Ridge (1917)
- Arleux (1917)
- Fresnoy (1917)
- Passchendaele (1917)
- Amiens (1918)
- Arras area fighting near Vis-en-Artois / Upton Wood (30 Aug 1918)