Dawlish World War One Project

Attestation paper for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force shows that he had served five years with the French Navy before he enlisted on 20th October 1916 at Calgary, Alberta. There is no information about his emigration from France to Canada.

He was assigned to the 211th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and sailed from Halifx on the S.S.OLYMPIC on 15th December 1916, arriving Liverpool on the 28th December. He was first sent to a depot at Purfleet in Essex and was transferred to the 8th Battalion Canadian Railway Troops Depot on 17th March 1917 before landing in France on 20th April 1917.

He also had medical problems, shown only as ‘gastritis’ in September and October 1917, requiring short periods of admission to the General Hospital at Le Treport.

He was returned to Britain aboard the GRANTULLY CASTLE and was admitted to Queen Mary’s Military Hospital, Lancashire on 24th October 1917. On 15th November he was transferred to the Woodcote Park Hospital, Epsom, Surrey where treatment continued until 9th January 1918.

During this period he was transferred to the books of the Purfleet Depot until 5th March 1918 when he moved to the Canadian Forestry Corps (CFC) based at Sunningdale and on 30th March moved to 54 District.

At the inquest into his death, Frank Baldue’s Commanding Officer, Major George Alexander Ramsden, identified the body and said that he was stationed at Luscombe Camp. Baldue had been with the company for about five weeks and he had no complaint of him whatever.

No 104 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps was formed from No 4 Company and from April 1917 was working in woodland at Stover and Mamhead, near Chudleigh, Devon. Their work involved felling trees for trench props, boxes and temporary huts in France where the war had devastated woodland sources.

Frank Baldue died at 7.50 a.m. on Sunday 9th June 1918 at Strand Hill, Dawlish. This precise hour was given at an inquest held by Sidney Hacker, Coroner, on the 11th June which determined that cause of death was fracture of the skull due to having fallen over an embankment next to the road and was accidental.  see Document for more detail