Marshall McLaren Hodgson was born in Country Harbour Mines, Guysborough County, on May 9, 1923, the oldest of Murray Wilbert and Helen Grace (McLaren) Hodgson’s three children. Murray was also a Country Harbour Mines native, the son of Edward James Hodgson and Mary Jane Hudson, while Helen was born in Country Harbour, the daughter of Alexander Douglas McLaren, a Halifax native, and Mary Ann Dickey.
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| Private Marshall McLaren Hodgson |
Murray and Helen were married in Holy Trinity Church, Country Harbour Mines, on September 27, 1922. Marshall, their oldest child, arrived the following spring. A daughter, Florence Louise, was born on July 13, 1924, while their youngest child, Wilmer Stanley “Bill,” joined the family in 1925. Murray worked in the local gold mines and operated a farm at Country Harbour Mines, where the Hodgson children spent their early years.
Marshall attended the local school, leaving at age 12 after completing Grade V. He worked on the family farm for several years and was employed at a gold mine for one year. In early 1943, he commenced work with George Jones, Country Harbour Mines, who operated a general trucking business. Marshall drove a half-ton truck for two months before enlisting with the Canadian Active Service Force at Halifax, NS, on March 18, 1943.
It is not clear whether Marshall had been “called up” under the National Resources Mobilization Act (1940) or decided to volunteer before having to report for compulsory training. On April 29, 1943, he commenced infantry instruction at No. 60 (Basic) Training Centre, Yarmouth, and proceeded to No. 14 (Advanced) Training Centre, Camp Aldershot, on July 1.
At month’s end, Marshall received six day’s pre-embarkation leave. Upon returning to duty, he spent several weeks at Camp Aldershot before departing for overseas on August 26, 1943. Six days later, he arrived in the United Kingdom and was posted to No. 7 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit (CIRU).
Marshall’s arrived overseas at a busy time. In June 1943, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division had departed for the Mediterranean theatre. An Allied force landed in Sicily in early July and moved on to the Italian mainland in September 1943. Meanwhile, the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions spent the autumn and winter of 1943-44 preparing for an invasion of German-occupied Western Europe.
On November 11, 1943, Marshall was transferred to the North Shore Regiment (New Brunswick). Several other Guysborough County men later served with the Maritime unit following its D-Day landing—Andrew Davidson, Goldboro; John Kingston George, Halfway Cove; Robert Leonard Lawrence, Guysborough; William Thomas “Bill” Markie, East Erinville; and Thomas Joseph Richard, Larry’s River. None of them returned home.
The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment traced its origins to the 73rd Northumberland New Brunswick Battalion of Infantry, a Bathurst-based Canadian militia unit established on February 25, 1870. The regiment went through several title changes before it was officially designated the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment (NSR) on April 1, 1922.
While the unit’s predecessor recruited an infantry battalion—the 132nd (North Shore)—for service during the First World War, it never saw combat. After arriving in the United Kingdom in November 1916, the 132nd provided reinforcements for existing Canadian Expeditionary Force units until early 1917, when it was dissolved and its remaining personnel transferred to the 13th Reserve Battalion.
On September 1, 1939, the North Shore Regiment (NSR) was placed on active service and departed for the United Kingdom in mid-July 1941. The battalion was assigned to the 3rd Canadian Division’s 8th Brigade, which also included the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (Toronto, ON) and Le Régiment de la Chaudière (Chaudière-Appalaches, QC). The 3rd Division spent almost three years performing home defence duties in the UK while training for operations in Western Europe.
During the winter and spring of 1943-44, units in the United Kingdom completed final preparations for tan invasion of German-occupied France. While the timing and location remained a closely guarded secret, training exercises focused on amphibious landings. The NSR was located in Chilworth Camp South, UK, in late May 1944, when its Companies began the move to their designated marshalling areas. The last of its personnel left Chilworth on June 3, 1944.
While weather the following morning was “clear and warm,” the arrival of rain and southeastern winds later in the day resulted in a 24-hour postponement of “Operation Overlord.” Rather than leave the men aboard ship, troops “disembarked and paraded to a reception centre prepared on the docks,” where “they were given meals, a wash, [a] free issue of 25 cigarettes, [and access to a] reading and writing room.”
Later that day, personnel re-boarded their transports. The vessels headed to sea at 0645 hours June 5, sailed around the Isle of Wight and headed toward the coast of Normandy, France. The NSR’s war diary commented, “It was a slow convoy and the swell was indusive to seasickness.” At 1930 hours, word arrived that “the op was on and set to land tomorrow.”
On the morning of June 6, 1944, the 8th Brigade’s Queen’s Own Rifles (QOR) boarded landing craft at 0630 hours and came ashore at Bernières-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, in the first wave of the D-Day landings. At 0745 hours, the North Shore Regiment’s A and B Companies clambered into their LCVPs (landing craft vehicle personnel). Private Marshall Hodgson was among the B Company soldiers who came ashore on the beach at Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer 25 minutes later.
According to the NSR’s war diary, “only a few casualties occurred” while the two Companies crossed the beach. A Company, on the right flank, suffered its first losses when a platoon entered several booby-trapped houses along the beach. The Company managed to reach “the line of the beach-head” at 0948 hours, having sustained a total of 24 casualties—killed and wounded—in the process.
B Company’s task proved more challenging, as a major fortified position lay beyond its landing area. The soldiers quickly discovered that a preliminary aerial and naval gun bombardment of German positions had inflicted “no damage to the defences of the strong point.” The Company “nevertheless… proceeded to clear the village,” allowing D Company, which had landed in support, “to get on with their [sic] task.”
By 1007 hours, D Company had advanced “without much opposition, reaching the beach-head report line.” To this point in the fighting, B Company reported an estimated 16 casualties. The unit “called on tanks to assist in the reduction of the strong point” and the combined infantry/armoured assault “gradually reduced” enemy resistance. By 1115 hours. “four hours and five minutes after landing[,] the area was cleared… [and] one of the Atlantic Wall’s bastions which had taken four years to build was completely reduced.”
“A firm base” having been established, C and D Companies passed through their comrades’ lines and advanced toward their D-Day objective, the village of Tailleville. While “the defs [defences] of the town were much stronger than the information had reported,” C Company successfully cleared enemy forces from the location with assistance from a tank troop.
As light was failing and “the troops were weary,” the NSR reorganized at Tailleville for the night. It had been a far more difficult landing than the unit’s officers had anticipated. A total of 34 soldiers were killed, while another 90 were wounded during the day’s fighting. Marshall was among the casualties, suffering a “penetration gunshot wound to the head[,]… spine and left eye.” The exact circumstances in which he was injured are unknown.
Evacuated to a field hospital, Marshall was admitted to a “Neuro unit” on June 11. He received medical care in Normandy until July 29, by which time he had recovered sufficiently to be evacuated to a Neurology facility in United Kingdom. He remained there for 10 days before departing for Canada aboard a hospital ship.
Marshall arrived in Halifax on August 18 and was immediately transported to Debert Military Hospital. At month’s end, he travelled by train to St. Anne’s Hospital, St. Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal, QC, a Canadian Forces facility. His service file provides no details on his situation or progress while a patient in the hospital’s Rehabilitation Wing.
On December 21, 1944, Marshall was discharged from military service at Montreal, as authorities determined he was “unable to meet the required military physical standards.” He received a $100 clothing allowance and 30 days’ pay as he headed home to Country Harbour Mines. Information in his service file indicates that he also received a $45 “rehabilitation grant.”
Within months of returning home, Marshall’s health began to deteriorate. On May 1, 1945, he was admitted to Camp Hill Hospital, Halifax, where his condition worsened. Private Marshall McLaren Hodgson died in hospital on June 23, 1945. The official cause of death—“meningitis (pneumococcal)”—was attributed to his combat wounds. Military authorities confirmed that his “death [was] due to service.” Marshall’s remains were transported to Country Harbour Mines, where he was interred in Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery. An official military headstone marks his final resting place.
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| Pte. Marshall Hodgson's headstone, Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Country Harbour Mines |
Marshall’s mother Helen passed away in St. Martha’s Hospital, Antigonish, on July 16, 1961, after a six-month battle with cancer and was laid to rest in Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Country Harbour Mines. Marshall’s father Murray died in Country Harbour Mines on September 23, 1964, at 71 years of age, and was interred beside his wife.
Photograph of Private Marshall McLaren Hodgson courtesy of his niece Theresa Beiswanger, Country Harbour Mines.
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