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Archives provinciales du Nouveau-Brunswick

Les soldats de la Grande Guerre : Projet de biographies historiques sur les soldats de Fredericton

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Machum, Ronald Sutherland

Lieutenant 
104th Battalion
52nd Battalion
55th Battalion

Background

Lieutenant Ronald Sutherland Machum was born September 15, 1892 in Saint John. New Brunswick to Edward R. Machum and Leila R. Harrison. According to census records, Ronald had three sisters named Elva, Marion, and Elizabeth, and together the Machum family resided in Westfield, Saint John prior to war. After attending school, later graduating from Mount Allison University, Ronald would become a broker in his father’s life insurance business in Saint John, the Manufacturer’s Life Insurance Company. While little is known regarding how they met, Ronald would meet a young woman named Mildred Meredith Walker of Fredericton prior to the war. At twenty-two years of age, Ronald and Mildred married one another August 19, 1914 in Fredericton, witnessed by his sister Elva. As Ronald’s work was in Saint John, they would live in the Port City before occupying a family residence at 230 York Street in Fredericton during the war.

According to records, Ronald stood approximately five feet four inches tall and weighed a slight one hundred and forty pounds at the time of his enlistment for service. While he did not have extensive military experience, Ronald was granted a commission at the rank of Lieutenant in February of 1915 prior to enlisting at Sussex in November of that same year. Later, he would be attached to the 55th Battalion at Camp Valcartier and the 104th, the unit he would sign his officer’s declaration papers with the spring of 1916 in Fredericton. According to his official service documents, just prior to leaving for England with the 104th Battalion, Lieutenant R.S. Machum was twenty-three years old, married, and had approximately one year of military service in Canada with the 62nd St. John Fusiliers and 55th Battalion. It is unclear whether he was aware at the time that his wife, Mildred, was pregnant with their first child prior to leaving. While he was overseas, Mildred Marion Machum would be born May 31, 1917 at the Maternity Hospital on 260 Princess Street in Saint John. Documents reveal that after her daughter’s birth, Mildred would move back to Fredericton where she would find the support of her family as her husband was away.

Wartime Experience

On June 28, 1916, Ronald embarked from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the S.S. Olympic for Liverpool, England with the 104th Battalion. Approximately one week later, Lieutenant Machum arrived in England July 5, 1916 and would train over the next few months with his unit before landing in France in the winter of 1916. Just prior to leaving for France, Ronald would sign his form of will October 31, 1916, naming his wife as his sole beneficiary. Over the winter and spring of 1916-1917, little is known of Ronald’s movements with the 104th in France and Belgium; however, between March 15 and October 17, 1917 it appears Lieutenant Machum was back in England on training with Canadian 5th Division. He would be admitted to a military hospital in the fall and winter that year at Bramshot for a short period of time suffering from a skin infection.

By early April 1918, Ronald would again be in France, this time with a Manitoba Reserve Regiment and then the 52nd Battalion out of Ontario. According to his active service record, Machum was with the 52nd as they prepared for the Amiens offensive in early June and late July, a battle that would begin August 8, 1918, the start of what has been called Canada’s Hundred Days. Arguably one of Canada’s greatest periods of the war, Lieutenant Ronald Sutherland Machum was with the 52nd Ontario Battalion in the early morning on August 27, 1918 near Lens when shrapnel caught him in the right leg wounding him severely. He was brought back from the front line to receive medical treatment at No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station and to amputate his leg, however, medical reports reveal that he bled too quickly. According to his circumstances of death record, Ronald passed away August 28, 1918 as a result of his wounds. News of his death spread quickly throughout New Brunswick and was reported in the Daily Gleaner on Wednesday, October 9, 1918 revealing that his wife had received a letter indicating Ronald had passed away on the “firing line” and that condolences were being received from the King and Queen, the Governor General, and Premier Borden. “Praised by everyone who knew him” Lieutenant R. S. Machum was twenty-six years of age when he died less than three months before the Armistice, leaving behind his wife and young daughter, his widowed father, and three sisters.

Lest We Forget

Lieutenant Ronald Sutherland Machum is buried and remembered with honour at Ligny-St. Flochel British Cemetery located in Averdoingt, France. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Ronald is one of approximately six hundred and thirty burials honoured in this cemetery. The cemetery is about 6.5 kilometers east of St. Pol, off the main road to Arras, approximately 24 kilometers from Arras.

*This biography was researched and written by Rachel Boucher 8A, and Brianna Coburn 8E, Grade 8 students at George Street Middle School located in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

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