Beaudoin, Frederick Rodolphe de Lovelace

Frederick Rodolphe de Lovelace Beaudoin was born on 2 January 1897 in Montreal to Rodolphe, a bookkeeper, and Emily Beaudoin. Frederick is noted in the 1901 and 1911 censuses as living in Montreal as a boarder with his parents and a younger sister. By the time the war started in 1914 there were three more girls in the family. Frederick joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on 23 February 1916 in Montreal indicating that his civil occupation was a clerk. His father also joined the CEF at the same time.

Beaudoin was enlisted into the Canadian Engineers Training Depot but, on reaching the United Kingdom in August of 1917, was transferred to the 10th Reserve Battalion in Shorncliffe. After some time in England he agreed to transfer to France in September 1917, where he was transferred to the 22nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (French Canadian). Nearly a year later, on 31 August 1918, he was transferred again to the 2nd Canadian Motorized Machine Gun Corps, which had just been stood up in June of that year. When Beaudoin joined the unit, it was at the Arras - Cambrai sector preparing for the assault in that area, which began the next day. From this time on, the unit, part of Brutinel’s motorized machine gun corps, was in continuous action, pushing all the way to the outskirts of Mons by the end of the war. The unit seems to have been organized in Batteries like an artillery unit and appeared to be employed providing direct and indirect machine gun fire in support of the advancing infantry. While casualties were significant, Beaudoin escaped any physical injury.

Beaudoin remained in France until 1919, not returning to the United Kingdom until 7 March of that year. He was repatriated to Canada on 6 May 1919 and discharged from the CEF ten days later. He returned to live with his family, who by now had moved to Ottawa. In 1921 he was living with his parents and three sisters on Nelson Street and working once again as a clerk. On 21 April 1926 he married Muriel Webster in Ottawa, where he presumably continued to live. He died on 12 August 1977 and is buried in the Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.