Ronald Philip Hudson was born in 1913 in Sidcup, Kent, England to Thoman and Elsie Hudson. He married Barbara Scott Nelson on Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1942.
Ronald’s family was living in Nova Scotia when he enlisted in Halifax on 11 November 1942. He has a very good education with one Batchelor of Science degree in Chemistry & Physics and another in Mining Engineering from Nova Scotia Technical College. He had been working in Copper Cliff, Ontario for the International Nickle Company (Inco) for the past four years.
He was classed as a reinforcement officer in the 33rd Quota at the time at the rank of Second Lieutenant. He was immediately sent to the Officer Candidate School in Brockville, Ontario for basic training and then on to A5 Canadian Engineer Training Centre in Camp Petawawa where he started Engineer Officer Training in February 1943. He was also given a driving qualification. He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1943 and attached to the chemical warfare establishment in Suffield, Alberta for two months. He was transferred from A5 CETC to A6 CETC in Camp Chilliwack, British Columbia for a short time before embarking for the United Kingdom from Halifax on 9 November 1943.
After a few months in the Engineer Reinforcement Unit, he was posted to the 2nd Field Survey Company in February 1944 and took some survey training before being sent to the Survey Training Centre until being posted to Europe on 9 October 1944 to 1st Canadian Air Survey Company. Survey companies were never far from Army HQ and detachments were often forward with the advancing divisions. A key reason was to keep artillery units ‘on-grid’. Without continued map updates and traverse lines, the accuracy and effectiveness of supporting fire would be lost.
On the morning of 28 October, the 2nd Field Survey Company HQ and the 6th Topographic Section had just moved into new billets in a château at Maria-ter-Heide, just northeast of Antwerp. From there, survey parties would be sent forward. The area was heavily mined and clearing crews were at work. Lt Hudson, working with the company, along with L/Cpl E. W. Gibbons and Spr G. J. Turcotte, were one such crew. They soon discovered a slit trench filled with explosives and mines about 70 yards to the north. There was a booby-trap switch and a trip wire attached to the lot. After Lt Hudson safely disarmed the trap, the three were asked by a civilian farmer to clear some mines near the gateway leading into the camp. At 1130 hours, one of the mines, likely a booby trapped S-mine, exploded and killed all three as well as a Belgian labourer.
That afternoon, Lieutenant Robert Philip Hudson, Lance-Corporal Ernest Wilfred Gibbons and Sapper Gabriel Turcotte were buried in the Pelouse d’Honneur in the parish churchyard of St. Joseph Wuestwezel in the village of Gooreind. His remains were later moved the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery in Antwerp.
Sidenote: The Château at Maria-ter-Heide had been used as a prison by German forces and there were many graves of executed prisoners on the site. The company’s war diary reports that the company was badly shaken by the incident. There area strong feeling the château was haunted and the unit’s Padre, H/Capt Hall was unsuccessful is dispelling the myth. However, they stayed there and continued their survey work for some weeks.
.Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt