Service highlights

• Birth: 20 November 1879
• Service number: 727651
• Unit: Enlisted with the 110th Battalion, later served in the field with the 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, later posted to Canadian labour and works formations
• Enlist date: 2 March 1916
• Death: 13 February 1964, London, Ontario
• Burial: Not confirmed in the material provided so far

A Life and Service Remembered

Robert Lindsay Gardiner was a farmer, a husband, and a father before he ever became a soldier. He was married to Isabella Gardiner, and together they were raising two children, Harola and Verda. When he enlisted on 2 March 1916, he did it as an adult with a home life already built, not as a teenager chasing adventure. He was the third of 4 in his family to enlist, his brother William was already over seas and Earl was bound for England

He went overseas on 31 October 1916 aboard the SS Caronia along with his brother Earl. In early 1917 he moved through the 8th Reserve Battalion at Shorncliffe and was then posted to the 58th Battalion. On 6 February 1917 he proceeded to France and served in the field with the 58th.

The story of the Gardiner brothers is hard to separate from the cost of the war. Robert served in the same battalion as his brother Earl, and when Earl was killed in June 1917, Robert was part of the party that brought him out that night. Days later, on 29 June 1917, Robert himself was hit. He suffered a gunshot wound to his right hand with a fracture to the metacarpal of his ring finger. Over time he was also treated for a gunshot wound to his left thumb. His records show a medical evacuation and hospital chain, including an operation on his right hand on 18 July 1917 and ongoing treatment and physiotherapy with improving function noted.

He returned to England on 21 September 1917, then went back to France on 16 October 1917. Shortly after he returned to France, on a field near Passchendaele Ridge he would lose another brother, Edwin who was killed when an enemy shell landed near the crater where he and others had taken cover. Robert’s postings placed him on the same battlefield, but the record can’t tell us what the brothers knew of each other’s presence, or when Robert learned of Edwin’s death. By the time the shattered village of Passchendaele was taken on 6 November 1917, the Canadian Corps, a formation on the order of 100,000 men, had been fed into a battle already months long, and paid roughly 16,000 casualties in the Passchendaele assault alone, for only a few kilometres of ruined ground.

In 1918 his service shifted away from infantry work into Canadian labour and works formations. Even there, the war followed him in smaller, grinding ways, with further admissions and transfers, including a medical episode in June 1918, then back to duty by 24 August 1918. In October and November 1918, more sickness is recorded, including “piles,” followed by return to duty on 18 November 1918.

By 13 December 1918 he was medically downgraded, classed “B,” and sent to England. He returned to Canada on 15 January 1919 via Saint John, New Brunswick on the Scotian, then passed through depot processing. He was discharged on demobilization at London, Ontario in March 1919, with documents showing 6 March 1919 and a separate stamp showing 8 March 1919.

What stands out in Robert’s record is his endurance. He kept serving after serious wounds to both hands, after long medical recoveries, and after the family tragedy of losing 2 brothers in the war. When he finally came home, it was with a body that had paid for the uniform and a life that still had to be lived with what the war left behind.

Major battles and operations

• Vimy Ridge: 9 to 12 April 1917
• Lens sector trench fighting: June 1917 (wounded 29 June 1917)
• Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele period: 26 October to 10 November 1917 (in France from 16 October 1917)
• Canadian labour and works formations in France: 1918

Learn More

https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=983763
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?IdNumber=410036&app=pffww&ecopy=B3410-S046
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B3410-S046
https://www.ancestry.ca/genealogy/records/robert-lindsay-gardiner-24-2gt8yy?geo_a=t&geo_s=us&geo_t=ca&o_iid=41015&o_lid=41015&o_sch=Web+Property&geo_v=2.0.0.
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/gardiner-private-william-john/
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/gardiner-private-edwin-lincoln/
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/gardiner-private-earl-edward/