Berthe, Edmond Henry

Edmond Henry Berthe was born on 8 Feb 1890 in Buctouche, New Brunswick, to Henry Berthe, a farmer, and his wife Mary (née Allain). By 1911 the family consisted of six mostly adult children, still living in Kent County, New Brunswick, with their parents. Edmond attended St Anne College in Digby and then spent a year at Fredericton College. He passed his Civil Service competitive examinations in May 1918. At this time he also joined the Canadian militia, serving five years with the 73rd Regiment (Northumberland).

By the time he attested to the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on 8 February 1915, he was working as a civil servant with the Secretary of State’s office. He was taken into the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He sailed for the United Kingdom on 23 March 1915 and by April was attached to the Director of Medical Services in London. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was promoted Sergeant in May, Staff Sergeant in June and Quartermaster Sergeant in September of that year. By August 1916 he was made Sergeant Major and Acting Warrant Officer and sent to Shorncliffe. On 26 October 1916 he was commended to the Secretary of State for War for valuable services to the war effort. On 14 March 1917 he was made Regimental Sergeant Major at the Kitchener Military Hospital in Brighton. This was a general hospital in the United Kingdom established to care for Canadian soldiers. It became the No. 10 General Hospital in the fall of 1917, at which time Berthe was returned to Shorncliffe. By 1918 he is shown on the strength of the Canadian Garrison Regiment in Shorncliffe. By October 1917 he had been sent to the Convalescent Care Hospital Epsom, likely as a patient, suggesting that he was suffering from some medical issues. On 26 April 1918 he was repatriated on the S.S. Mauritania back to Canada, apparently on the advice of a medical review board and, on 1 October 1918, he was discharged as medically unfit in Kingston.

He had given an address on Gloucester Street in Ottawa on discharge, but his medal card and post war pay file list a Veterans’ block in Regina as a forwarding address. On 5 November 1924 he married Nora Eileen Judge in Fredericto, then returned to Ottawa. In 1938 he was living on Lyon Street, giving civil servant as his occupation and, in 1963, he was living in Abbey Road, Ottawa as an accountant. By 1968 he was retired and he died in Ottawa on 29 June of that year. He is buried in Ottawa in Notre Dame Cemetery.