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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War I
Yarmouth Connections
Alcide Raymond Doucette
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Alcide Raymond
Doucette
4050130
Private
1st Depot Battalion NS
Regiment
Canadian Machine Gun Corps
(3rd Battalion)
November 19, 1896
Springhaven, Yarmouth Co., NS
January 30, 1918
Halifax NS
Springhaven, Yarmouth Co., NS
22
5 feet, 5 inches
dark
black
brown
Single
Roman Catholic
Farmer
Thomas H. Doucet (Father) Springhaven, Yarmouth Co., NS
May 1, 1919 (at Halifax on demobilization)
January 23, 1982 Yarmouth
Roman Catholic Cemetery, Yarmouth, NS
Alcide Raymond Doucette was the son of Thomas and Charlotte (LeBlanc) Doucette of Springhaven,
Yarmouth Co., NS.
He completed his medical at Yarmouth on November 16, 1917 and officially enlisted with the 1st
Depot Battalion, NS on January 30, 1918. He served in Canada for two months and embarked at Halifax
on April 7, 1918 and disembarked at Liverpool, England on April 19, 1918. He sailed on the SS Ulua.
In England, Private Doucette was taken on strength with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps on June
12, 1918 and assigned to the Canadian Machine Gun Reinforcement Unit at Seaford. East Sussex. He then
joined the 3rd Battalion Canadian Machine Gun in France on August 29, 1918. On September 30, 1918 at
Cambrai, Private Doucette was wounded, suffering a shrapnel wound to his left leg. He was returned to
England and hospitalized until March 13, 1919. Although scarred from the wound he experienced no
disability.
On April 16, 1919 he embarked Liverpool on the SS Belgic and disembarked at Halifax on April 23,
1919. He was discharged at Halifax on May 1, 1919 having served two months in Canada, ten months in
England and two months in France and Belgium.
Alcide married Florence Muise on October 21, 1924.
(Alcide Raymond Doucette’s official records list the spelling of his last name as “Doucet”)
Background photo:
Battery of machine guns in the 3rd Battalion, Canadian Machine
Gun Corps. The most Eastern Outpost on the British Western Front
held by Canadians East of Mons.
(November, 1918)
[Photo: Canada - Dept. of National Defence Library and Archives
Canada
Sources:
Photo of Alcide Doucette: Courtesy of Phyllis Pothier
Library and Archives Canada
The machine gun battalions played an active role in the war's final battles, beginning
at Amiens in August 1918. A massive Allied counter-attack set the static front in
motion, creating a situation much more suitable for the weapon than static trench
warfare. Portable and easily deployed, machine gun battalions supported advancing
infantry with strategic 'indirect fire' and were called to the front lines when stiff
enemy resistance halted their steady advance.
During the period from August 22 to October 11, 1918, infantry and machine gun
battalions participated in battles at Canal du Nord and Cambrai, suffering significant
casualties. Infantry units recorded 4367 men killed in action, 1930 missing and 24,509
wounded during this time. Machine gun battalions, much smaller in size, nevertheless
paid a heavy price, with 282 men killed in action, 23 missing and 1502 wounded.
Source:
Testing a Vickers Gun, 1916
Alcide Raymond
Doucette