Finnie, Private Frank

Service highlights

  • Service Number: 6554
  • Born: 1 February 1889, St. Marys, Ontario
  • Early connection: volunteered through the local militia community, the 28th (Perth) Regiment
  • Taken on strength: 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, 22 September 1914
  • Training and reinforcement draft: 9th Reserve Battalion at Bhurtpore Barracks, Tidworth, February 1915
  • Posted to France: 3 April 1915 (3rd British Infantry Base Depot)
  • Rejoined unit: 30 April 1915, back to the 1st Battalion in France
  • Missing: after the action at Givenchy, 15 June 1915
  • Commemoration: no known grave, commemorated on the Canadian Memorial to the Missing at Vimy Ridge and on the cenotaph in St. Marys

A Life and Service Remembered

Frank Finnie was born in St. Marys on 1 February 1889, part of a town where work, family, and the local militia often overlapped. His father, James L. Finnie, worked at the limekiln on Widder Street East and was an electrician by trade. He also belonged to the local militia unit, the 28th (Perth) Regiment, the same community that helped shape Frank’s early step into service.

When the call for volunteers came in August 1914, Frank went forward. Like many from the 28th, he was sent to the new army camp at Valcartier, Quebec, where the first division was being built quickly and the early weeks were marked by constant reshuffling. By 22 September 1914 the chaos had settled enough for him to be officially taken on strength with the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion.

That autumn, the contingent sailed to England and quartered at Aldershot to complete training. By February 1915, with the 1st Battalion placed on a war footing, Frank was among the surplus men moved into the reinforcement stream. He trained with the 9th Reserve Battalion at Bhurtpore Barracks in Tidworth on the Salisbury Plain, preparing for the kind of casualties everyone knew were coming.

On 3 April 1915 he was transferred to the 3rd British Infantry Base Depot in France, and on 30 April he returned to the 1st Battalion as it recovered from the carnage of the Second Battle of Ypres. Just weeks later, on 15 June 1915, the battalion was ordered to attack the German front line near Givenchy, aimed between two strong points known as Stony Mountain and Dorchester. Dorchester was taken, but Stony Mountain, protected by machine guns and heavy wire, held out. The 1st Battalion reached the trenches at Dorchester, but the attack stalled and the survivors were forced to withdraw before sunset.

Frank’s file reduces what followed to a stark line: missing after the action at Givenchy. That single phrase holds all the unanswered questions a family would live with. He has no known grave, and his name is carried on the Canadian Memorial to the Missing at Vimy Ridge. At home, St. Marys also remembers him on the local cenotaph, a permanent place for someone whose resting place was never found.

Major battles and operations

  • Valcartier mobilization and formation period, 1914
  • Second Battle of Ypres aftermath, rejoined 1st Battalion in France on 30 April 1915
  • Givenchy, 15 June 1915, attack on the Stony Mountain and Dorchester strong points

Learn More

https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=47074
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/5867356
The Fallen, Richard Holt, 6554 Private F Finnie, Pg 21