Bliault, Ralph Clement

Ralph Clement Bliault was born on 11 November 1888 in St Helen, Jersey Island, found in the English Channel. His father, Adolphus George Bliault, was a mariner. By the 1891 United Kingdom census his mother is listed as a widow, living in the family home with Ralph and an older brother. In 1901 Ralph was a schoolboy in Essex in a merchant seamans’ orphans asylum. By 1911 Ralph had moved back to St. Helen where he lived with his mother and worked as a tobacconist’s assistant. At this time, he joined the local militia unit, the 3rd Royal Jersey Light Infantry. Not long afterwards he appears to have emigrated to Canada and in 1913 shows up in the pay lists of the 5th Royal Highland Regiment of Canada (the Black Watch) in Montreal.

He attested for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Montreal on 23 January 1915, listing his occupation as musician on his service records, and trained as a stretcher bearer. He joined the 24th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Victoria Rifles of Canada) and shipped out on 11 May 1915 aboard SS Cameronian, arriving in the United Kingdom nine days later. On 19 September the unit left Folkstone for France. When he joined the unit Bliault had a significant vision impairment in his left eye, so he could only serve close to the front lines in a support role. He was a unit bandsman through the war and his medical records indicate some throat problems aggravated by musical instruments. In 1916 he suffered a sprain while running rations up to the forward trenches which sent him to hospital several times that year. Ralph survived the war and was promoted to Sergeant on 19 October 1918, and sent back to the United Kingdom in April 1919. He was repatriated to Canada aboard SS Olympic in May of that year and demobilized in Montreal on 21 May.

Ralph returned to Montreal and worked as a clerk. He was married by 1935. In 1953 he and his wife Isabella travelled to Jersey Island and, by his return trip to Canada in 1954, he listed himself as retired. Ralph Clement Bliault died in September 1976.