Name
Eric Rodnight
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/10/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Canadian Machine Gun Corps
15th Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 32.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial
Pre War
Born in Bedford on 20 March 1893 and baptised at St Leonard’s, Bedford on 2 July 1893, Eric Rodnight was the youngest of ten children of William and Elizabeth Ann (nee Walker) Rodnight. Two of the children died in childhood. His parents were married in the second quarter of 1877 in the registration district of Potterspury, which spanned the boundaries of Nottinghamshire and Buckinghamshire. William died, aged 73, in 1917 in the registration district of Aylesbury and was buried on 17 December at St James’ Church, Bushey. Elizabeth died on 16 August 1930 in Kenton, Middx, aged 79, and was buried on 20 August in Wealdstone Cemetery, Middx.
Eric attended Ampthill Road Boys’ School in Bedford from 16 October 1899 to 25 September 1903, and then at Wendover National Boys’ School, Bucks, from October 1903.
At the 1901 Census, Eric was eight years old and living with his parents and six siblings at 37 Ampthill Street in Bedford. William and Elizabeth were 58 and 49 years old respectively and William was working on his ‘own account’ as a coal merchant. Eric’s siblings included Hilda, Reginald, Harold, Harry, Alice and Wakelin, who were 20, 17, 15, 13, 12 and 10 years old respectively. The birthplaces are given as Blakesley in Northants for William, Wolverton, Stoney Stratford in Bucks for Elizabeth, Buckingham for Hilda, [illegible] in Northants for Reginald, Hanslope in Bucks for Harold, Buckingham for Harry, Bloxham in Oxfordshire for Alice, Brackley in Northants for Wakelin.
By the time of the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 13 Canterbury Road in Watford. William (Snr.) was aged 69 and working as a commercial traveller dealing in coal, William Bertie was aged 31 and working for the county council as an elementary school teacher, Alice Mary was aged 22, Wakelin Case was aged 20 and working as a railway clerk and Eric was a 17-year-old student.
His father, a coal merchant, moved his family to Watford in the early 1900s, where he became a commercial traveller dealing in coal. Two of his sons took apprenticeships, one became an elementary school teacher and another worked for the railway. In 1911, when the family was living at 13 Canterbury Road, Watford, Eric was 17 and a student.
Eric migrated to Canada at some point between the 1911 Census and the date of his enlistment in Canada in 1915 and it may have been Eric, described as a labourer, aged 30, who embarked at Liverpool on 24 May 1912 sailing to Quebec aboard the Allen Line Virginian.
In about 1916, Eric’s mother moved to “Bealings” in Belmont Road, Bushey.
Wartime Service
Eric enlisted in Ottawa, Canada on 4 February 1915 as Sapper 646 with 6 Company of the 2nd Division of the Canadian Engineers. He gave his trade as a baker and his mother E A Rodnight of Nascot Road, Watford as his next of kin. He was 21yrs 9mths old, 5ft 9ins tall, had a 34in chest with a 3ins expansion and was of fair complexion with light brown hair. He had no vaccination scars and a mole on his right shoulder.
He embarked for France on 16 September 1915 and was treated for a contusion at the Divisional Rest Station No. 6 Canadian Field Ambulance on 7 January 1916, returning to duty on 12 January 1916. He was appointed to Lance Corporal at the end of 1916 and sent on a command course in March 1917. He re-joined his unit in April and was awarded a good conduct badge in May.
Eric was granted a commission in the field as temporary lieutenant on 6 June 1917, with the appointment being confirmed on 13 July 1917. From 1st July 1917, his pay was split between his mother at 4 Belmont Road in Bushey and Miss Alice Walker at Clarence Road, Stoney Stratford, Bucks.
He served as Lieutenant in the 15th Company of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps and was killed in action, aged 24, on 29 October 1917, in positions south-east of Passchendaele whilst engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Passchendaele village. An entry in the Canadian Corps diary states: “On 28 October the Enemy shelled our barrage positions and killed one officer, Lieutenant Rodnight.”
The following extract from a private diary of a senior and experienced officer describes the conditions during the battle: “The reasons for our failure lay rather in the inevitable weakness of our artillery barrage, the nature of the ground, the strength of the machine gun resistance from the pillboxes, and above all in the unbroken wire entanglements. You cannot afford to take liberties with the Germans. Exhausted men struggling through mud cannot compete against dry men with machine guns in ferro-concrete boxes waiting for them.”
Eric is remembered with honour at Panel 32 of The Menin Gate memorial in Ypres, Belgium. He is also commemorated on the Bushey Memorial at Clay Hill, the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and at St Paul's Church in Bushey.
There is a brief article about and a Death announcement for Eric in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 10 November 1917.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
