Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 19, 1888
Place of BirthClackmannan, Clackmannanshire
CountryScotland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinWilliam James Snaddon (brother), 776 Jessie Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingBanking
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental NumberNA
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion4th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentApril 1, 1915
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarNo
Death Details
Date of DeathOctober 8, 1916
Age at Death27
Buried AtAdanac Military Cemetery, France
PlotV. C. 27.

Snaddon, Andrew Johnston

Major Andrew Johnston Snaddon enlisted in the spring of 1915 and served in France with the 4th Battalion. He was killed in October 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.

Andrew was born on 19 October 1888 in Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. His parents were Andrew Snaddon and Margaret Sharp. Margaret was born in Clackmannan and her husband in the nearby village of Alloa. They were married in 1880 and they had a son, William James, who was born in Alloa on 19 September 1883. Andrew immigrated to Canada around 1907 and his brother William followed in 1909. When the 1911 census was taken they were living together in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Andrew was working as a clerk for the Dominion Bank and William was a salesman at a drug store.

The war started in August 1914 and Andrew enlisted the following spring, signing up in Winnipeg on 1 April 1915 with the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion. He had trained with the 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers, a local militia unit, and he also said he served for two and a half years with the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders in Scotland. He joined the 52nd Battalion as a Lieutenant. The battalion was based in Port Arthur and recruited in towns throughout northwestern Ontario, including Kenora and Keewatin. According to an article in the Kenora Miner and News, Andrew was one of the officers put in charge of the Kenora contingent around the third week in April. There were about 150 Kenora and Keewatin recruits in the 52nd Battalion and they left town on the morning of 17 June 1915, heading to the camp in Port Arthur. A large crowd gathered at the train station to see them off and wish them well.

While they were training the 1st Canadian Division was fighting in France and Belgium. Men were needed to replace casualties in the front line units and battalions in Canada were asked to send reinforcements. Andrew returned to Kenora in August to re-open the recruiting depot. In September he was sent to the UK with the 2nd Reinforcing Draft, one of 250 men and officers from the 52nd Battalion. They embarked from Montreal on 4 September on the SS Missanabie and arrived in England about nine days later. Andrew was transferred to the 12th Reserve Battalion and two months later he was drafted to a front line unit, the 4th Battalion, and sent to France. He joined them in the field around the end of November.

In January 1916 Andrew was attached for instruction to the 1st Divisional Training School and in March he had nine days leave in the UK. He rejoined his unit in early April. He became ill with influenza in July and spent about two weeks recovering in the hospital. During that time he was appointed Acting Major. The Somme Offensive began in July and the Canadians started moving south to the Somme area in August. The 4th Battalion arrived at Albert on 31 August and had two rotations in the trenches in September. On 8 October they took part in the assault near Courcelette, part of the Battle of Ancre Heights. Andrew was reported wounded and missing in action that day. Six months later he was declared killed in action on 8 October. His body was recovered from his original burial place and reinterred in Adanac Military Cemetery, located near the town of Albert.

Andrew’s brother William had married Christine Stewart Scobie in 1913 in Toronto. By the early 1950s William was retired and they were living in Calgary, Alberta. They moved to Vancouver around 1966. William passed away in 1968 and his wife Christine followed in 1972. They are both buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Burnaby.

Andrew is commemorated on the Next of Kin Monument in Winnipeg, Manitoba and on the Clackmannan War Memorial in Clackmannan, Scotland.

By Becky Johnson

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Grave marker photo courtesy of Geraldine Chase on findagrave.com.


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