Private Reginald John BEARDSWORTH (21794)
27th Battalion Canadian Infantry (City of Winnipeg)

Date of birth: 31st March 1893
Date of death: 3rd May 1917

Killed in action aged 24
Commemorated on the Vimy Memorial
He was born in Astley Bridge in Lancashire on the 31st of March 1893 the second son of the Reverend John Edward Beardsworth, Vicar of Harbury, and Alice Ann (nee Whitlock) later of Harbury Vicarage, Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.

He was educated at Greyfriars School, Leamington and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1906 to July 1909. He was known as “Rex”.

He left for Canada from Liverpool on the 6th of April 1910, landing at Halifax on the 16th of April. He took up farming near Winnipeg before working as a clerk for the Dominion Bank of Canada.

He enlisted in the 11th Battalion Canadian Infantry at Valcartier in Quebec on the 26th of September 1914, having previously been a member of the 95th Regiment (Saskatchewan Rifles). At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was five feet nine inches tall with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and brown hair and that he weighed 155lbs.

He sailed to England from Quebec and, on arrival, he spent a short time in hospital suffering from an illness brought on by the severity of the weather. On his recovery, he was posted to work as a clerk at the Officer’s Pay and Records Department at Shorncliffe in Kent from the 4th of February 1915. He was promoted to Acting Sergeant on the 6th of February and to Staff Sergeant on the 21st of May 1915. He was appointed as Group Clerk for the department on the 1st of November 1915 and reverted to the rank of Private when he re-joined C Company, 11th Battalion Canadian Infantry at Shorncliffe on the 27th of September 1916. He was awarded a Good Conduct Badge on the 26th of September. On the 27th of October 1916 he was posted to the 27th Battalion Canadian Infantry, embarked for overseas the same day and joined them in the field the next day.

On the 2nd of May 1917 the battalion moved into the front line trenches near the village of Fresnoy in front of Vimy Ridge in preparation for an attack the following morning. At 3.45am the next morning the battalion attacked, but the darkness and heavy machine gun fire meant that casualties were heavy among the assaulting units. The enemy front trenches on the right of the attack were taken and, on the left, the battalion bombing parties worked their way up the German line where they built a block across the trench to prevent the battalion’s left being unprotected. Reginald Beardsworth was killed by a shell during the attack, and in the words of his Captain: - "He died doing his duty gloriously."

Five officers and forty other ranks were killed or died of wounds during the attack with seven officers and one hundred and seventy nine other ranks wounded; thirty men were reported missing.
 

Back