Pvt. George Ernest Richardson    #228553

George Ernest Richardson was born in Vandorf, Ontario on November 8, 1895. At the time of his enlistment, he was a farmer. He was active in his local militia and had served briefly in the Canadian Officer Training Corps as a private. Standing 5 ft 6 ½ in, he had brown hair and eyes, and was nearing his 21st birthday when he signed up in Toronto on September 4, 1916.

Originally assigned to the 201st Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, they were soon amalgamated with the 198th Battalion. After some basic training, they sailed from Halifax on March 25, 1917 aboard the S. S. Metagama, arriving in Liverpool thirteen days later. They were then assigned to the 12th Reserve Battalion, stationed at East Sandling Camp, Kent, in the southeast corner of England. 

The 12th prepared soldiers for the tasks they’d face in France, and supplied fresh troops to several battalions. They trained in trench warfare for four months, learning how to march, dig trenches, make bombs and throw them at the enemy, signal with semaphore and wireless, and fire machine guns, among many useful skills. 

From the camp they could hear the guns firing incessantly on the Western Front. Those daily sounds made the war very real and very close.  On a clear day, from the top of Tolsford Hill where they trained, they could see the coast of France less than 30 miles away across Dover Strait. It served as stark realization of their impending fate, and motivation to quickly perfect those skills they’d need to survive. They sailed to France from the nearby port of Folkestone.

Pvt. Richardson was with the 75th Battalion briefly, then was transferred to 3rd Battalion of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, and would have seen action, as part of the Canadian Corps, at Ypres, Arras, Hill 70, Amiens, the Hindenburg Line and several other battles in the Hundred Days Offensive. He survived the war, with a scar on his right hand from an infection, and returned to Canada on the S. S. Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic, sailing on March 17, 1919. He was discharged from service March 29, 1919 in Toronto, and was awarded the War Service Badge, Class A. 

NM