Sapper Frederick Arthur Bidwell and his twin brother Percy Albert were born in South Wimbledon, Surrey, England to Percy Albert Bidwell and of Mary Louisa Bidwell (nee Stillwell). He had come to Canada with his family as a boy.
Frederick enlisted in North Bay, Ontario where he was living on 9 May 1940. He was employed as a hard rock miner. He was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers and started his training in demolitions, field works, small arms and water supply in Camp Petawawa in July. In February 1941, he arrived in England and was sent to the Engineer Reinforcement Unit before being posted to the 2nd Battalion in May.
In late September 1941 after being qualified as Pioneer Group ‘C’, Frederick was posted to 2nd Road Construction Company. The 2nd Road Construction Company, with a strength of over 350 all ranks worked on a series of construction tasks, primarily road-building both in the many camps being built in southern England, but also on major civilian routes, an underground HQ and a bomber airfield in Dunsfold.
From May 1943 until May 1944, Frederick served in the 1st Workshop and Field Park Company when he was posted to the 11th Field Company in preparation for deployment to Normandy in July.
The main body of the 11th Field Company arrived in France on 9 July as part of 2nd Canadian Division Engineers. They participated fully in all operations during the Battle of Normandy and the advance across the Seine and through the clearing of the Channel Ports, clearing routes and building bridges. In late September, they finished their bridging tasks in the Boulogne area on the English Channel and moved inland to the area just south of Antwerp in Belgium.
The Battle of the Scheldt officially began on 2 October 1944 when the 2nd Canadian Division crossed the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal to clear the Beveland approaches. For the RCE, the Battle of the Scheldt started a few days earlier. On the night of 30 September, the Number 3 Platoon struggled under fire to build an 80-foot Class 40 bridge across the canal just west of a weaken bridge built the night before by the 7th Field Company near Lockenberg. The task was costly when a direct hit on the bank seat party early on 1 October, killed two and wounded four more. Continued mortaring slowed the work during the day, but the bridge was open to traffic before the evening.
The following day, in support of the 6th Brigade, Number 2 Platoon was tasked to build another Class 40 bridge over the canal. This work was also costly. S-mines at the site killed one and wounded two others, including the Platoon Commander who was replaced with an officer from the 7th Field Company. Later in the day, two more men – Cpl Slade and Spr Bidwell, were killed when they drove a stake into a deeply buried mine.
Cpl Slade and Spr Bidwell were both given a temporary grave near the place where they fell in Hoboken, southwest of Antwerp. In July 1945, Frederick’s father petitioned the government to have his son’s body returned to Canada for permanent burial. This was not a unique request, but since the end of the First World War, the policy was that fallen soldiers would be buried in Imperial (later Commonwealth) war cemeteries. In July 1946, Mr Bidwell was informed Frederick had been re-buried in Schoonselhof Cemetery in Antwerp.
Frederick’s twin brother, Percy, also served overseas in the Canadian Army during the war.
Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt