As an Ontario farmer’s son, Arnold Davidson was naturally intrigued by the way Englishmen worked their land. Shortly after arriving in England as a new recruit with the Canadian Army, he wrote home to his parents, William and Margaret, remarking on the canal system used to transport crops.

“The farmers transport all their grain in boats,” he wrote in spring 1916. “They have canals dug all through the country. They hitch a horse to a big scow and draw it up to the canal. It’s worth a fortune to see how they work.

“Here, though, I don’t think they have as good a way as the Canucks. It takes two Englishmen to plough where in Canada it only takes one Canadian.”

Born February 15, 1897, in Beachburg, Ontario, Davidson was just 18 when he enlisted on July 5, 1915, with the 59th Battalion. A blacksmith by trade, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion on June 28, 1916 and sent to France. He headed to the front on July 12, arriving on July 16. One week later, he was a casualty, wounded severely in his chest, left arm and head. He died just over three weeks later, on September 11, 1916.

The Renfrew Mercury ran Davidson’s photo on its front page, and carried an obituary inside; he was the first “local soldier boy” to die in the war.

“Just entering manhood, a splendid specimen of physical strength ... he has gone down with the many others in defence of his country and of the right principles for which she stands in this tremendous struggle,” the obituary read.

Davidson’s two older brothers, Herbert and Clarence, would survive the war. Arnold Davidson is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France. On his gravestone, the inscription reads: “They loved not their lives unto the death, Rev. 12:11.”

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