Reginald Minchinton

PART EIGHT IN A SERIES ON SAINT MARGARET’S AND THE GREAT WAR

Reginald Minchinton grew up in Napanee, outside of Kingston. At age 17, having attended a course at the Ontario Business College in Belleville, he came west and joined his older brother Gordon in Winnipeg. Gordon was eight years his senior and worked as a signalman for the CPR. He had lived in Brandon for several years, where he’d met and married his wife Margaret, and his job had brought them and their two children, Florence and James, to Winnipeg. For some reason they moved a lot. They lived on Bannatyne in 1911, on McDermott in 1912, on Agnes in 1913 and 1914, and on Langside in 1915. At the time of the 1911 Census, Reginald had just recently arrived in Winnipeg and was boarding with Gordon and family. He listed his occupation as stenographer, but he doesn’t seem to have a job yet. He likely remained living with Gordon and family until 1914, at which time he is listed in Henderson’s Directory as living on Edmonton and working as a stenographer for Codville & Company, a large wholesale grocery firm.

When war was declared, Reginald was already a member of the 90th Winnipeg Rifles militia. He made his way to Valcartier with many other 90th Winnipeg Rifles militiamen, and was enlisted. He was assigned to C Company of the 8th Battalion, and given the regimental number of 474. He was 20 years old. His enlistment papers give his height as 5’ 5”, and his picture from the Business College shows that he had a very slight build.

I believe that Minchinton was the only St. Margaret’s parishioner, apart from A. W. Woods, who belonged to the 8th Battalion right from the moment of its formation at Valcartier. Exactly in what sense he was a parishioner is not clear. Did he attend services regularly? Did they count him a member because Gordon’s house on Langside was within the parish bounds? I don’t know, but a Free Press story from 1916 headlined “St. Margaret’s Men Have Few Casualties” includes him, so he was clearly on the parish’s Honour Roll during the war. Which makes me feel sure that Woods would have considered him a charge doubly, as both a parishioner and a private in his battalion.

After training on Salisbury Plain, the 8th Battalion arrived in France in February 1915. The list of Minchinton’s various appointments is confusing, at least to me. He seems to have been attached on multiple occasions to the Divisional field headquarters - because of his training in stenography? And then he’s also attached to a Field Ambulance unit - is it because of his poor eyesight? So exactly how much he was in frontline fighting, and how much of the war he spent in administrative or ambulance work, I can’t tell. But he was certainly there for three years of trench warfare.

According to The War Work of the County of Lennox and Addington (the Ontario county from which he hailed) - and this information is confirmed or perhaps just repeated in Menin Gate South by Paul Chapman - Minchinton took part in the fighting in the following battles: 

Neuve Chapelle [Mar 1915]

2nd battle of Ypres / St Julien [Apr 1915]

Festubert [May 1915]

Givenchy [May 1915]

The Somme Campaign [Sept 1916]

Hill 70 [Aug 1917]

Passchendaele [Nov 1917]

It seems to me that this list has the ring of truth to it because it doesn’t just list every battle that the 8th Battalion fought. It doesn’t include, for example, Mount Sorrel, Arras, or Vimy. So I take it face value. In which case, like A. W. Woods, Minchinton was there in the action when the 8th was gassed at the 2nd battle of Ypres. He fought in the quick succession of battles afterward - Festubert (“the most forlorn and useless battle fought by the Canadians in the entire course of the war”) and Givenchy. He was there through the long, tedious, dangerous, stalemated months of trench life between the spring of 1915 and the fall of 1916. He was there through the months-long slog of the Somme Campaign.

In April 1916, Reginald’s brother Gordon enlisted and, upon arrival in France in January 1917, was attached to the 27th Battalion, in the 2nd Division. Margaret and the children moved to St. Thomas, Ontario, to stay with Reginald and Gordon’s mother. For whatever reason, Gordon was not included in the St. Margaret’s Honour Roll. 

In January 1917, Reginald was in the hospital, ill with influenza. 

In April 1917, both the 8th and 27th Battalions were at Vimy Ridge. And I do think that Reginald was at Vimy Ridge, even if he didn’t take part in the battle, because there is a picture of an inscription scrawled into what appears to be the wall of a chalk cave, and I think that it is in the tunnels under Vimy Ridge. It says: 

FRANCE, 1915-17

PTE R. A. MINCHINTON

No. 474.

No. 9 PLATOON

C. Co. 8th BATTLN

1st CAN DIV.

Gordon was killed in the aftermath of the battle of Vimy Ridge. “The hill had been taken. He was acting as liaison officer and was leading his party up to assume their new headquarters when a bomb exploded near him, causing instant death.” He had been in France less than four months. After Gordon’s death, Margaret and the children moved back to Brandon, where her family lived. 

In June 1917 Reginald was awarded a good conduct stripe. In August he fought in the battle of Hill 70, north of Vimy Ridge. In September he got to go to Paris on leave. On November 10, some weeks into the carnage of the second battle of Passchendaele, Reginald Minchinton’s war came to an end. “The Canadians were attempting to consolidate their gains under heavy bombardment of their position by the enemy. Private 474 was bending over a wounded companion endeavouring to dress his wounds and stop the flow of blood until medical help could be secured, when he was shot in the head by a sniper and immediately killed.” 

He has no marked grave, his body having been either unrecovered or unidentified; his name is inscribed on the Menin Gate at Ypres.