On this day in 1915, Benjamin Ridgwell (sometimes Redgwell) signed up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was born in Walthamstow, England on July 24th, 1895 to Charles Redgwell and Alice (née Jaggard). The family (Charles, Alice, their four sons: Beniah, Sidney, Frederick and John and their daughter, Lilly [Lillian]) left Liverpool, England for Canada on the SS Dominion which arrived in Montreal on July 14th, 1907.
SS Dominion, courtesy of GreatShips.net
Ben’s younger brother Sidney had signed up in Kingston in October 1914. Ben was described as having a medium complexion, brown eyes and brown hair when he enlisted. He was five feet, three and three quarter inches tall and had scars on his face. He joined the 53rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force with the regimental number 440095. He gave his next of kin as his father, Charles, in Deseronto. His service record shows that he left Canada on March 29th, 1916 on the SS Empress of Britain and joined the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in France on June 10th.
Deseronto Archives 
October 24, 2017 at 11:13 am
[…] Casualty Clearing Station near Ypres in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele. Ridgwell had enlisted in Saskatoon in 1915. At the time of his death he was serving in the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles […]