Private Oliva Germain

Baptized Jean-Baptiste-Oliva Germain. Son of Pierre Germain (deceased in 1902) and Elmire Demers, of St-Jude, St-Hyacinthe, Québec.

Enlisted in the 57th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he sailed for Great Britain on June 16, 1915, arriving in Plymouth, England, on the 28th. On July 31, he was assigned to the 23rd Reserve Battalion in Shorncliffe and on November 24 to the 22nd Battalion. On the 25th, he landed in Le Havre, Normandy, France, and joined his unit on the front lines on the 29th in the Ypres Salient, Belgium. He was wounded for the first time in combat on February 10, 1916, in Vierstraat, Belgium.

On 12 April 1916, in the trenches near Saint-Éloi, Belgium, he was hit by shrapnel to the spine and became paralyzed. Eight days later, he was evacuated to England where he died one month later at the Duchess of Connnaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital, in Taplow. His headstone is incorrectly engraved “Omer” Germain, instead of “Oliva” Germain.

The month following his death, his younger brother Alcide (service number 243576) enlisted and he was killed in action in France, in April 1918.