Private Richard Coppard

1. Private, 4th Battalion, Infantry (Army).
2. Private, 52nd Battalion, Infantry (Army).

The Germans launched the first ever large-scale poison gas attack in April 1915 in Belgium. Over the next few years they developed and used different kinds of poisonous gases and one of the casualties was Private Richard Coppard of Kenora, Ontario. Private Coppard's health deteriorated after he was gassed in March 1918 and he died in a hospital in England two months later.

Richard was born in February 1890 in Rat Portage (later called Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, the oldest child of Henry and Maria Coppard. Henry, also known as Harry, was from Rye, Sussex, England and his wife Maria (née McPherson) was born in Ontario to Scottish-métis parents. Henry and Maria had eight children, four sons and four daughters. Two of the girls died in 1907, Rosie Jane at age 15 and an infant at age 4 days. Richard's surviving siblings were Samuel (1893), George (1895), William (1897), Maude (1900) and Nellie (1903). As a teenager Richard worked for the Rat Portage Box Factory. When the 1911 census was taken he was 21 years old, living with his family on Sixth Avenue South and working as a planer for the Rat Portage Lumber Company. A short time later he was hired as a car repairer for the Canadian Pacific Railway and he was with them for about four years.

Richard and his brothers George and William all served during the First World War. Richard was the first to sign up, enlisting in Kenora in February 1915 when volunteers were being recruited for a third overseas contingent. The Kenora men were briefly attached to the 44th Battalion but in mid-March the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion was organized and they were transferred to the new unit. The 52nd was based in Port Arthur and in June 1915 the Kenora volunteers were sent there to join the rest of the battalion. While they were training the 1st Canadian Division was fighting in France and Belgium. Men were needed to replace casualties in the front line units and battalions in Canada were asked to send reinforcements. Richard was sent to England with the 2nd Reinforcing Draft in September 1915, one of 250 men from the 52nd Battalion. They embarked on 4 September, leaving from Montreal on the SS Missanabie. After a few months of further training the men were assigned to new units. Richard was transferred to the 4th Battalion which was in the 1st Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. He was sent to France in February 1916 and he joined his new unit in March.

That spring the Canadians were in the Ypres Salient in Belgium, holding the front line between St. Eloi and Hooge, and in June the 4th Battalion took part in the Battle of Mount Sorrel (2-13 June 1916). The Battle of the Somme began in July and the Canadians were moved to the Somme area starting in late August. Richard was wounded in the arm on 19 September at Courcelette and he spent three weeks out of action. The Somme Offensive ended in November and in less than three months there the Canadian Corps suffered 24,000 casualties. In the spring and summer of 1917 Richard's unit took part in more operations, including the Battle of Vimy Ridge (9-14 April), and by August Richard had been a front line soldier for almost a year and a half. He was given a well deserved ten-day leave in Paris then posted to the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp. In March 1918 he returned to the 4th Battalion and later that month he was helping to build gun emplacements when he was gassed by a German shell. He remained with his unit but two weeks later he was sick enough to be admitted to hospital. From there he was evacuated to England and by 17 April he was listed as seriously ill. Richard died at King's Red Cross Hospital in London on 7 May 1918.

From the War Diary of King's Red Cross Hospital: "May 7, 1918: Pte. Coppard R., No. 439105, 4th Battalion, C.E.F. died of V.D.H. at 12:05 a.m." (V.D.H. is valvular disease of the heart). A nursing sister at the hospital wrote a very kind letter to Richard's mother, describing his illness and his funeral. He is buried in St. James Cemetery, Hampton Hill, Middlesex, in a small plot containing 12 Canadian First World War soldiers. On the bottom of his marker is inscribed: "How we miss him, oh so sadly aching hearts alone can tell."

His youngest brother William Coppard enlisted in February 1916 when he was 18 years old. He served with a machine gun unit and he was wounded twice, in August 1917 and October 1918, but he survived the war. Conscription started in Canada in 1917 and a month after Richard died his brother George Coppard was called up for service. He also survived the war. Their uncle Charles Miller of Kenora enlisted in November 1915 and he was killed at the Battle of Amiens on 10 August 1918, three months before the Armistice.

While Richard was serving overseas his father died in a railway accident, in August 1916. He was working as a guard at a tunnel near Sioux Lookout when he was struck by a train. Richard's mother passed away in Kenora in 1936 and she's buried in Lake of the Woods Cemetery. Also buried there are his brothers William (1897-1954) and Samuel (1893-1958), and his sisters Rosie (1892-1907), Maude (1900-1972) and Nellie (1903-1995). Maude's husband Walter Bradley and Nellie's husband Marcus Blight were both veterans of the First World War.

Richard is commemorated on the Kenora Cenotaph, the Kenora Legion War Memorial and the St. Alban's Pro-Cathedral War Memorial plaque.

By Kenora Great War Project

Richard's Attestation Paper has his birth date as 22 February 1890 but his birth was registered as 2 February 1890.