22nd Battalion, Canadian Infantry
Odilon Cayer was Canadian born to Samuel and Marie Bouche Cayer of St Octave de Dosquet, Co. Lotbiniere (which is in the Chaudiere-Appalaches region of Quebec). He was born on 6 September 1893 at St Flavier, Quebec.
The service records of those who served in the Canadian Army in the Great War are being digitised and made available online. This has resulted in much more detail of Private Cayer’s army service being made available.
He enlisted in Quebec on 4 December 1915 for the duration of the war, with his occupation being stated as a labourer. His initial posting was to 57 Battalion, Canadian Infantry and he left Canada on 2 June 1916, arriving back in England on 8 June. Upon arrival he became attached to 69th Battalion and on 28 August 1916 he transferred to 22nd Battalion (part of 2nd Canadian Division).
Odilon was wounded in early October 1916, most likely during the opening days of the Battle of the Ancre Heights, towards the end of the Somme Offensive.
His wounds were a gun shot wound to the left buttock and a compound fracture of the ilium (hipbone). On 23 October he was evacuated to England on board the Hospital Ship Gloucester Castle and admitted to the New Court Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital, Lansdown Place, Cheltenham. His condition steadily worsened and he was reported as dangerously ill on 27 October and still severely ill on 8 November. He had developed a pelvic abscess which, in the days before antibiotics, did not respond to treatment. He died there, of his wounds and septic pneumonia, on 12 November 1916, age 24.
Private Cayer was a French-Canadian, who spoke little English.
His funeral was reported in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 18 November 1916. . Prior to his interment, with full military honours, at Cheltenham Cemetery, a funeral service was held at a local Roman Catholic Church. His grave is now marked by a CWGC headstone.
Researched by Graham Adams 16 March 2015 (revised)