Abendana, Eric Montague

Service highlights

  • Conflict: First World War
  • Rank: Lieutenant
  • Enlisted: November 17, 1915
  • Unit: Canadian Engineers (served with engineer units in Canada and overseas; later with B Company, 2nd Battalion Canadian Engineers)
  • Service notes: Worked as an engineer officer and later helped build airfields in England before being posted to France in 1918
  • Died: 16 October 1918 (pleurisy), after falling ill in France
  • Burial: Duisans British Cemetery, France
  • Commemorated: St. Marys Cenotaph and St. James Anglican Church, St. Marys

A Life and Service, Remembered

Eric Montague Abendana was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, on July 10, 1892. In 1910 he came to Canada and built a life that bridged two worlds. He studied at St. Andrew’s College and the University of Toronto, joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, and spent time in a local militia unit, the Corps of Guides (Cavalry). After earning a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1914, he came to St. Marys to work as a chemist with the St. Marys Cement Company. Though he came from a Sephardic Jewish family prominent in Jamaica, his daily life in St. Marys included St. James Anglican Church and a home on Church Street South.

When war pulled at Canada’s young men, it pulled at Eric too. On November 17, 1915, he left his work at St. Marys cement company and was commissioned in the 7th Company, Canadian Engineers, a London militia unit. Soon after, he was called out for full-time service and posted to the Canadian Engineer Training Depot in Ottawa. On December 7, 1915, he was formally attested as a lieutenant in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. In March 1916 he transferred to the 14th Field Company, mobilized for overseas service. He was granted leave to visit family in Jamaica, but the urgency of wartime needs recalled him back.

On May 22, 1916, Eric sailed for England aboard the SS Baltic. When the 14th arrived at Shorncliffe on May 31, it was quickly reorganized to reinforce a newly mobilized unit. With a surplus of junior officers, Eric did not go forward with the reshuffled company. Instead, he was transferred to the Canadian Engineer Training Depot at Shorncliffe, where his skills were still needed.

In 1917, the war reached across the Channel in a new way as raids over England increased. Eric was appointed Resident Engineer by the War Office on August 8, 1917, assisting in the construction of three airfields in southern England. It was engineering under pressure, shaped by the threat of bombers and airships, and it placed him in the work of building defence rather than destroying.

But by 1918, the Canadian Corps expanded its engineer units and France needed qualified officers. Eric was posted overseas again and on July 24, 1918, he joined B Company of the 2nd Battalion Canadian Engineers. There, his work moved right up to the forward area, where engineers cleared obstacles, built and maintained roads and bridges, and kept the army moving.

He arrived for the final, relentless push known as Canada’s Hundred Days. The pace was brutal, the stakes immediate, and the work never clean or safe. Then, just as the war’s end began to come into view, Eric fell ill on October 11, 1918. He was admitted to the 4th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, and on October 16, 1918, he died of pleurisy.

Eric was buried in Duisans British Cemetery in France. His headstone bears a Mogen David and an epitaph chosen by his father: “If love could have saved thee, thou wouldst not have died.” He was survived by his parents, Israel Moses and Rebecca Abendana of Port Antonio, Jamaica, and his siblings Kenneth, Viva, Karline, Elliott, and Vincent. He was predeceased by his sister Naomi. In St. Marys, his name endures on the cenotaph and within the church community that knew him in life.

Major battles and operations

  • Canada’s Hundred Days (1918)
  • Battles of Amiens and Arras (1918)
  • Breaking of the Hindenburg Line (1918)
  • Capture of Cambrai (9 October 1918)

Links and sources