Freeman, Alexander

Service highlights

  • Name: 602842 Private Alexander Freeman
  • Born: 18 November 1891, London, England
  • Immigrated to Canada: 1905
  • Home in the St. Marys area: lived on Queen Street West, worked as a grocer’s clerk
  • Community: member in good standing of St. Marys IOOF Lodge 36
  • Enlisted: 28 July 1915, 34th Canadian Infantry Battalion
  • Overseas ship: SS California, sailed from Quebec City on 23 October 1915
  • Transferred in England: to the 23rd Reserve Battalion
  • Posted to the front: 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), 2 May 1916
  • Reported missing: 8 October 1916, after the attack on Regina Trench on the Somme
  • Burial: Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont, France (body found in August 1917 and reinterred after the war)
  • Remembered at home: commemorated on the cenotaphs in St. Marys and Rannoch, and on a memorial erected by his lodge brothers in St. Marys Cemetery

A Life and Service Remembered

Alexander Freeman’s life crossed an ocean long before he ever wore a uniform. Born in London, England on 18 November 1891, he came to Canada as a boy in 1905. By 1911 he was working as a farm labourer in Blanshard Township, and not long after he moved into St. Marys, living on Queen Street West and working as a grocer’s clerk. He belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in St. Marys, he had a place where people knew him, relied on him, and later mourned him.

He enlisted on 28 July 1915 with the 34th Canadian Infantry Battalion and sailed overseas with his battalion from Quebec City on the SS California on 23 October 1915. In England, the 34th became a holding battalion for younger soldiers, and Alexander was transferred into the reinforcement system, first to the 23rd Reserve Battalion. On 2 May 1916 he was posted to the 13th Canadian Infantry Battalion, the Royal Highlanders of Canada, serving in the Ypres Salient.

His first major fighting came quickly. He was with the 13th Battalion during the Battle of Mount Sorrel in mid June 1916, when ground lost earlier in the month was retaken, but at a heavy cost. Afterward the battalion moved south, trained at Warloy, and reached the Somme area on 2 September 1916. Over the next weeks they rotated through the front in short, punishing tours and were repeatedly called on to attack.

On 8 October 1916, the 13th Battalion went forward against Regina Trench. The bombardment did not cut the German wire well enough, and the assault turned into a disaster in front of the entanglements. After that attack, Alexander did not return. He was reported missing, and for months there would have been nothing but uncertainty for those who cared about him.

Nearly a year later, in August 1917, a Graves Registration team found his body and buried him in a temporary cemetery near Courcelette. After the war, he was reinterred in Adanac Military Cemetery at Miraumont, France. His family is recorded as including two sisters in London, England, and a brother in London, Ontario.

St. Marys remembered him in more than one way. His name appears on the cenotaphs in St. Marys and Rannoch, but there is also a quieter kind of remembrance in the cemetery itself, where his IOOF lodge brothers erected a memorial to honour the lodge members who died overseas. It is the kind of marker that tells you a town did not only grieve privately. They chose to carry the names forward together.

Major battles and operations

  • Battle of Mount Sorrel, Ypres Salient, 13 to 16 June 1916
  • Somme operations, September to October 1916
  • Attack on Regina Trench, Somme, 8 October 1916 (reported missing)

Learn More

https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/575130
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=9351
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B3299-S052
https://somme-roll-of-honour.com/Units/canadian/13th_Canadian_Infantry_CEF.htm
https://firstworldwaronthisday.blogspot.com/2016/10/1614-died-on-this-day-sun-08101916.html
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/william-near/
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/frank-ellis/
The Fallen, Richard Holt, 602842 Private A Freeman, Pg 28