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Wartime Heritage ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War I Yarmouth Connections
Name: Frank Sanderson Rogers Regimental Number: 733237 Rank: Private Battalion: 112th Battalion/Royal Canadian Regiment Date of Birth: June 29, 1887 Place of Birth: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: December 20, 1915 Place of Enlistment: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Address at Enlistment: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 28 Prior Military Experience: 29th Battery, CFA, Yarmouth N.S. Height: 5 Feet 9¼ Inches Complexion: Fair Eye Colour: Grey Hair Colour: Brown Marital Status: Single Trade: Merchant Religion: Methodist Next of Kin: Myra Belle Rogers (Mother) Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Date of Death: October 30, 1917 (Passchendaele) Age at Death: 30 Memorial: Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial, Belgium (Panel 10) Commemorated on Page 318 of the First World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on July 12 Listed on the Nominal Roll of the 112th Battalion. Commemorated on the Yarmouth Monument Frank Rogers was a member of the Providence Church and Sunday School. He was Secretary of St. George Fire Engine Co, a Mason of Hiram Lodge and an Orangeman. He was a charter member of the Yarmouth Young Men’s Booster Club and its first President. For several years he held the position of Collector of Water Rates for the Town of Yarmouth. His father had died four years prior to his enlistment and at that time he resigned the Collector of Water Rates and together with his brother entered into a partnership to run the grocery business established by his father. He enlisted with the 112th Battalion and left for Windsor, Nova Scotia on April 3, 1916 to take courses in physical drill and bayonet fighting. He returned to Yarmouth as an instructor. He was then transferred to Halifax to take the Non-Commissioned Officer course and was promoted to Sergeant. He embarked Halifax on July 23, 1916 and disembarked in Liverpool, England on July 31, 1916. In England he was initially with the 112th Battalion and on February 2, 1917 was transferred to the 26th Reserve Battalion at Bramshot Camp. He reverted to the rank of Private and transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) on April 11, 1917. He landed in France on April 22, 1917 and joined the RCR in the field on May 5, 1917. He was killed during an attack west of Passchendaele on October 30, 1917. He was with a companion and they took cover in a shell hole when a shell burst very near. Frank Rogers was killed instantly from the concussion of the blast. He was not struck and his body had no bruises or marks on his body. His companion survived. He had earlier written home of an experience with a shell burst: “I remember Pat Wyman telling me once in a physics lesson that no two bodies could occupy the same space at the same time. I have proved it. I was occupying my dugout at the observation post when Fritz sent over a 5.9 shell to occupy it. The shell being the stronger, why, it sent me outside and then buried me with the earth and timbers. The Lord only knows why I did not get killed but I was only badly shaken up. Such was my Christmas present.” At Yarmouth, on September 21, 1919 the Masons assembled under the auspices of Hiram Lodge to unveil a tablet to Frank Rogers who was a senior Deacon at the time of his enlistment.
Frank Sanderson Rogers
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Sources: Library and Archives Canada Commonwealth War Grave Commission Canadian Virtual War Memorial Additional Information: “A Monument Speaks” A Thurston; 1989 (pp 284-288)