Burnham Edward Boutilier was born in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, on November 24, 1920. Burnham’s father James was a native of Liscomb, the son of John Uriah Boutilier, a native of St. Margaret’s Bay, Halifax County, and his wife Maria. His mother Susan was the daughter of William Thomas Mortimore and his wife Jemima. Thomas, a native of Blackawton, Totnes, UK, established residence in Sherbrooke, where he worked as a miner and teamster.
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| Sapper Burnham Edward Boutilier |
James Boutilier and Susan Mortimore were married in Liscomb on December 20, 1918. Their marriage license lists James’ occupation as “seaman.” The couple’s first child, James Thomas “Jim,” was born the following year. Burnham, the couple’s second child, was raised in a household that grew to include eight more children—William Duncan “Bill” (DOB July 6, 1921 - 1997); Cyril Mortimer ( August 3, 1923 - September 8, 1984); Alfred George (1925 - May 26, 1992); Ralph Huntley (1926 - September 9, 2008); Elsie Florence (c. 1928 - May 6, 2016); Helen M. (1929 - 1932); Leo Allen (September 5, 1931 - October 20, 1944); and Phyllis Marion (1933 - 2000).
Burnham attended the local public school for six years before leaving at age 15. In 1936, he went to work for Scotia Lumber Co., Sherbrooke, as a “deck hand on [a] tug boat,” a vessel later described in his service file as a “pulp boat.” The majority of the Boutilier boys “came of age” during the war years. According to a local news item, all six of the brothers who survived into adulthood enlisted with various branches of the service during the Second World War.
In the spring of 1941, Burnham was “called up” for compulsory military training under the National Resources Mobilization Act (1940) and voluntarily enlisted with the Canadian militia on April 17, 1941. Upon completing the six-week training program, he attested with the Canadian Active Service Force (CASF) on June 2 and immediately commenced basic infantry instruction.
On September 12, Burnham was attached to No. 6 District Depot, Halifax. During a post-training interview, he expressed interest in serving as a “sawyer” with the Canadian Forestry Corps. After further assessment, however, he was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE) and transferred to the RCE Training Centre, Petawawa, on October 1.
Upon completing basic “sapper” training, Burnham received the standard two-week pre-embarkation leave on November 24, 1941. After returning to duty, he was “struck off strength” by the Petawawa Training Centre and departed for overseas on December 13. He arrived in Gourock, Scotland, after a 10-day voyage and spent three months with an RCE Holding Unit before being assigned to the 1st Battalion, RCE, on March 20, 1942.
Burnham’s training continued throughout the following months. On September 29, 1942, he qualified as “Concrete Helper,” Class “C”. In early February 1943, he was “trade tested” and met the requirements for “Concretor” Class “C.” In early June 1943, he received one Good Conduct Badge, having completed two years of military service without a disciplinary infraction.
During the remainder of the year, Burnham was attached to several different units for further training and trade experience. From September 18 to 25, he was assigned to Headquarters, Canadian Engineers (Works), 1st Army, and served with a “Special Increment” attached to the 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade from October 27 to November 23, 1943.
On March 2, 1944, Burnham was posted to 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, RCE. Three years prior to his overseas arrival, the Canadian government had authorized the formation of a “special section” of 1st Canadian Corps Field Park Company, for the purpose of holding, maintaining and operating “the increased quantity of heavy mechanical equipment… being acquired and used by the RCE.” 1st Mechanical commenced operation in Banstead Wood, Surrey, on the southern outskirts of London, in mid-May 1941.
Throughout its overseas service, 1st Mechanical “had the role of holding, maintaining and operating all Canadian equipment not held by any specific unit establishment.” The unit maintained a central depot for a wide variety of “special engineering equipment” required by RCE units to complete various tasks. Upon request, 1st Mechanical provided a machine and trained operator, both returning to the unit following the task’s completion. This model provided an effective means of giving RCE units access to specialized equipment and experienced personnel while reducing cost and avoiding unnecessary duplication.
At its inception, 1st Mechanical’s machinery inventory included 28 three-ton “tipping lorries,” two 10-ton six-wheeled lorries, six 15-ton trailers, five 20-ton trailers, six equipment transport vehicles, nine tractors, two light tank recovery vehicles, three 3-ton trucks, eight D-7 tractors (bulldozers), 11 five-yard “Letourneaus” (over-sized semi-trailer, all-terrain trucks), nine five-cubic foot concrete mixers, one blade grader, 12 pneumatic tampers, and three excavators. By the time the unit was deployed in Western Europe, its inventory had expanded considerably.
From May to September 1943, 1st Mechanical assisted with the “rapid construction of temporary airfields” across the United Kingdom, required tor Royal Air Force training and operations. In mid-September 1943, the unit assumed responsibility for establishing and operating a “dump” at Oxshott, while simultaneously operating a second facility at Beaulieu Road, near Horley, and a workshop at Croydon. Experimental work conducted by the unit’s personnel in the UK led to the creation of an armoured bulldozer and “engineer tank” before the end of the war.
At the time of Burnham’s March 2, 1944, arrival, 1st Mechanical was still located in Banstead Wood. The Company had expanded to 12 officers and 366 “other ranks” (OR), divided into four sections. Throughout his service with the unit, Burnham was a member of 3 Section. During the two months following his arrival, the Company was busy delivering and operating various pieces of equipment—tractors, excavators, graders, shovels, dump trucks, a rock crusher and gravel plant—while personnel also underwent military and driver training.
During the first two weeks of May, the “sappers” received instruction on land mines and booby traps, prepared new equipment for operation, completed rifle and PIAT (projector, infantry, anti-tank) training at firing ranges, operated “shovels” at two locations, and sent a dozer to an American Air Base “to fill in [a] rubbish dump.” On May 18, all Sections received orders to cease work and return to Banstead Wood in preparation for an imminent move.
Upon returning to Headquarters camp, personnel commenced the process of “waterproofing” equipment for transport to Western Europe. The process extended into June, when 1st Mechanical’s four sections commenced operation as “semi-independent units, under the titles No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 Mechanical Equipment Sections.” 1st Mechanical “continued to administer [the four Sections] and… submit their field returns.”
1st Mechanical was not part of the initial D-Day landing force. On June 14, its Sections commenced dismantling the Banstead Wood camp and relocated to huts at 1st Mechanical’s main site. Personnel also completed route marches, dug practice slit trenches, completed rifle, Bren and Sten gun training, and conducted final equipment checks in preparation for departure. Equipment operators took a cable-splicing course, while other sappers received bomb disposal instruction from qualified Royal Engineers instructors.
Training and equipment checks continued throughout the first week of July. 1st Mechanical’s personnel and machinery then relocated to a marshalling area near Portsmouth in several separate convoys. Equipment loading commenced immediately and required five days to complete. Finally, on July 12, vessels carrying the unit’s men and equipment headed out to sea in convoy formation and arrived off Juno Beach at 2200 hours. Unloading commenced the following morning, all four Sections coming ashore and gathering in Buron while the unit’s equipment was unloaded.
On July 14, 1944, Burnham’s No. 3 Section established its first Normandy headquarters in Buron, where personnel received their first exposure to German artillery and mortar fire. The sappers spent the following day “burying dead animals in the vicinity” as the unit’s first “dumpers”—dump trucks—were brought ashore. Equipment work commenced on July 16, the Section reporting its first casualties—three men “injured by cannon shell from aircraft”—the following day. All of the Section’s equipment arrived in Buron by July 19 and personnel immediately commenced the “de-waterproofing” process.
No. 3 Section remained in Buron into the following month, its personnel preparing for a “large-scale road maintenance program” in an area north of Caen. Meanwhile, a road-widening project commenced in the Buron area on August 3. Three days later, the Section began work on five kilometers of “secondary tank track paralleling the Basly - Caen Road from Villons-les-Buissons south.”
The project took several days to complete and involved the construction of “deep ditches on either side of a 30-foot crown road” to carry tank traffic during upcoming military operations. Personnel were able to build the 30-foot wide ditches at a “rate of three miles [five kilometers] per day.” Meanwhile, an “extensive road re-construction programme” commenced on August 10, requiring the use of all of the Sections’ equipment and several pieces borrowed from other RCE units.
The project involved widening and paving the existing Basly - La Folie road, one side at a time. The work was “very hard on operators…. As the dust is terrible, goggles have been issued.” Despite the challenges, the men were “very keen and their spirit is high.” Personnel also sprayed water on local dirt roads to reduce dust as vehicles hastily moved equipment and supplies forward, in preparation for major Allied operations along the Caen - Falaise Road.
At mid-month, No. 3 Section commenced work on a “tank bypass” around the village of Authie. Two days later, one of its TD-18 tractors was disabled, “having run over a mine…. The operator was unhurt.” On August 21, personnel relocated to Croissanville, where they entered accommodations in the Château de la Chappelle, “a most comfortable house.” As work proceeded, flies and mosquitoes presented the “biggest problem…, they are really bad and we are afraid of dysentery.” In response, the unit sprayed DDT in the area to control the problem.
Road widening and work on approaches to a nearby bridge kept No. 3 Section’s men busy as combat units began to push northward toward the Seine River, in pursuit of retreating German forces. The unit’s war diary commented, “As we are so far back from the front[,] we have had no indication of battle whatsoever.” In late August, personnel relocated to an area near La Thironnière, 18 kilometers south of the mouth of the Seine River.
During a brief stay there, the sappers built a bridge across a stream beside their camp, “to allow [a] local farmer to leave his property.” The men also “caught a few trout (with hook and line)” to supplement their daily menu. After a brief rest, No. 3 Section relocated inland to Elbeuf, on the banks of the Seine, on September 4. Personnel remained there for several days before heading north to Rainfreville. After a second pause, the unit travelled eastward to a location five kilometers east of Neufchatel on September 11.
One week later, No. 3 Section headed northward, arriving in Poperinge, Belgium, on September 19. While waiting there, the unit received notice of its first major project—repair work on a “damaged tunnel” in Antwerp. Allied forces had secured the strategically valuable Belgian port without significant damage to its facilities and planned to use it as a main supply route into the area.
The following morning, personnel departed for Antwerp. During its time in the city, No. 3 Section occupied accommodations in an old Belgian engineering barracks at Beveren Waas, on the city’s outskirts. A war diary entry described the situation at its work site:
“The tunnel is about two and a half kilometers long under the river. The tunnel had been blown from the insides [sic] about three hundred yards from the entrances. At this point there was about twenty-five (25) feet of silt above the tunnel[,] which ran into the tunnel for a distance of about seven hundred (700) yards with an average depth of five (5) feet. The work to be done was to remove the remaining silt from around the blown portion and drive sheet piling to keep silt and water out and to remove the silt already in the tunnel.”
Work on the project continued throughout the remainder of the month, By October 5, “the tunnel was cleared for one-way traffic” and officially opened to two-way operation the following day. Personnel then tackled a variety of smaller tasks related to the Antwerp project for several weeks. On October 26 and 27, two Le Tourneau cranes lifted a 16-ton section of a “German invasion barge” from the harbour. The following day, the unit officially completed its tunnel assignment.
Shortly after arriving in Antwerp, No. 3 Section was notified that all No. 1 Mechanical sections now bore the official title of “platoon.” Upon completing the tunnel project, No. 3 Platoon relocated to Pulle, approximately 30 kilometers east of Antwerp. Work on small jobs—mainly roads and docks in the Antwerp area—occupied the first two weeks of November.
On November 14, No. 3 Platoon relocated to Reil, Netherlands, for several days before moving on to Tilburg, approximately 80 kilometers southeast of Rotterdam. The unit commenced work on an airfield near Schindel on November 18, adding projects in Uden, s’Hertogenbosch and Breda as the month progressed. In mid-December, sappers received leaves to Brussels and Paris in small groups. Personnel were kept busy repairing and maintaining equipment, and completing occasional small tasks as work slowed during the winter months.
On December 25, 1944, personnel enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner at Platoon Headquarters on a day that was “cold and clear with frost.” Equipment and operator loans to various RCE units continued throughout the month of January 1945. At mid-month, No. 3 Platoon commenced work on an airfield near Mill, Netherlands, and a second project near Veghel.
Burnham was attached to No. 3 Canadian Works Section, another RCE, unit, on January 18. The temporary assignment suggests there was insufficient work to occupy all of No. 3 Platoon’s sappers. At the time of his arrival, No 3 Works was stationed in Turnhout, Netherlands. Among its projects was a water system for No. 7 and No. 10 Canadian General Hospitals. As the area was experiencing prolonged power outages, sappers set up “standby plants” to allow the facilities to operate.
Much of the unit’s work focused on sanding the area’s roads, which were covered with ice due to wintry conditions. In late January, repair work on a bridge near Arendonk commenced, as a truck “had broken one of the tower guys” supporting the structure. During the first half of February, No. 3 Works focused on road repair. At mid-month, its officers inspected a railway yard in Nijmegen to assess the work required to restore its operation.
On February 23, No. 3 Works relocated to the Nijmegen area as rail yard repair commenced. Work on an “ammunition railhead” at Cujik started the following day. Burnham remained with the unit until February 28, when he was temporarily attached to No. 2 Canadian Works Section. No details are available on the unit’s activities during Burnham’s time there.
On March 20, Burnham returned to No. 1 Mechanical’s No. 3 Platoon. One month previously, the unit had relocated to Mill, Netherlands, where personnel began work on “roads through [the] Reichswald Forest. British and Canadian forces had launched “Operation Veritable”—a major offensive into German territory between the Rhine and Maas (Meuse) Rivers—on February 8, 1945.
While the advance made slow progress, roads in the area required constant repair as equipment and supplies continually moved forward in support of the advance. On February 22, all four No. 1 Mechanical platoons moved from Vught, Netherlands, to recently liberated Kleve, Germany, where personnel provided support to II Canadian Corps as the second stage of the offensive—“Operation Blockbuster”—was due to commence four days later.
RCE units focused on repairing and maintaining roads in support of the advance as hundreds of trucks and armoured vehicles pushed toward the Rhine. The operation concluded on March 11, when Allied forces reached the banks of the Rhine opposite the German city of Wesel. Two days later, No. 3 Platoon retired to Brakkenstein, south of Nijmegen, Netherlands, as the Rhineland offensive had ended.
Throughout No. 3 Platoon’s time in Western Europe from July 1944 to March 1945, its war diary made no mention of No. 1 Mechanical Company fatalities. Its first reported deaths occurred on March 19, when two No. 1 Platoon sappers were killed in a traffic accident.
On March 21, Burnham rejoined No. 3 Platoon’s ranks in Brakkenstein, where the unit remained for several weeks. The men were “appreciative of being close enough to Nijmegen to enjoy a bit of civilized life in the way of baths, shows and even the odd hamburger at the IT Joint [sic].” During the last week of the month, a Platoon softball team was organized, in response to a challenge from No. 1 Mechanical’s No. 2 Platoon.
On April 1, work commenced on a “high-level earth approach to a…bridge across the Rhine at Emmerich.” As German artillery had targeted the area during early morning hours, work “was not to be continued if shelling started again.” One week later, personnel inspected a 1,000-meter breach in a six-meter-high dyke near Arnhem. “Three barges and a tug were stranded in the gap,” requiring the sappers to “build a temporary dam” around the objects before removing them.
Inspection of a second dyke repair project near Nijmegen took place on April 9. As the area was “heavily mined and in a very difficult position to repair,” officials decided to postpone the task. Meanwhile, sappers commenced work on “tank unloading and loading bays” at the ends of two bridges across the Rhine at Emmerich.
On April 10, another dyke repair project started at Till. A triangular-shaped breach, approximately 60 meters long at the top of the dyke, eight meters deep and 24 meters wide at its base, contained approximately two meters of water, making the task of filling the gap “difficult.” Work on the project commenced the following day.
During the last two weeks of April, No. 3 Platoon personnel “started cutting [the] barges in [the] dyke break near Arnhem.” The fill area was “heavily mined, requiring constant checking by qualified personnel.” The task of removing the barges at Arnhem proved challenging, “due to lack of tackle and suitable ground for tractors to work.” Despite the various challenges, the unit successfully extracted the barges on April 20, “allowing earth moving to continue.”
The following day, personnel inspected another dyke break near Erlekum. The area was also “heavily mined,” further complicating the situation. Engineers estimated that approximately 30,000 yards of fill would be required to fill the gap, which contained approximately 100 meters of water approximately 2.5 meters deep.
While mine clearing commenced on April 24, heavy rains during the following week forced postponement of the filling operation. Meanwhile, sappers completed work on the Arnhem dyke break on April 28 as steady rain brought all work to a halt that extended into the following month. The Erlekum operation resumed on May 7 and was completed within a week.
On May 17, No. 3 Platoon relocated to Leer, Germany, where personnel assumed operation of a rock crusher and tarmac plant located there. Nine days later, the plant was “damaged beyond repair by fire.“ A replacement plant did not arrive until month’s end and commenced production on June 2.
Meanwhile, the unit’s sappers constructed approaches to a bridge across the Leda River near Leer. On June 12, the tarmac plant moved to a new location south of Papenburg, Germany, 20 kilometers south of Leer. Two days later, personnel commenced preparations for dyke repair near Weiner, 14 kilometres southwest of Leer.
As work on the various project in the Leer area continued, Burnham’s name was placed on the RCE’s X-3 list—“all ranks evacuated on medical grounds behind Regimental Aid Posts”—on June 18. HIs service file contains no details as to the preliminary nature of his illness, the location to which he was evacuated, or the treatment he received.
A subsequent entry in his service file states that Sapper Burnham Edward Boutilier died as a “result of intestinal obstruction” on June 21, 1945. He was initially buried in Almelo General Cemetery, Netherlands, presumably near the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps unit to which he had been evacuated.
On June 23, Department of National Defence officials sent a telegram to Susan Boutilier, Sherbrooke, stating: “Sincerely regret to inform you… [that] Sapper Burnham Edward Boutilier has been officially reported seriously ill [on] 18th June 1945[,] diagnosis intestinal obstruction. When further information becomes available it will be forwarded as soon as received.” The following day, a second telegram informed Susan that “Sapper Burnham Edward Boutilier previously reported seriously ill… now reported to have died 21st June 1945.”
Burnham’s death was the third loss in the Boutilier family during the previous eight months. On October 20, 1944, Burnham’s youngest brother, Leo Allen, died at home from “acute dilatation of stomach,” a condition commonly caused by an obstruction of the the stomach’s outflow into the bowel. Less than one month later—November 1, 1944—Burnham’s father James passed away after a four-month battle with cancer.
On February 4, 1946, Burnham’s remains were reinterred in Holten Canadian Cemetery, Netherlands. Four months later, Canadian authorities notified his mother of this change. Susan Boutilier passed away in Port Bickerton in 1980 and was laid to rest beside her husband James in St. James Anglican Church Cemetery, Sherbrooke.
According to a local news item published during the war years, six of James and Susan’s sons served in uniform during the Second World War. The eldest, James Thomas “Jim,” enlisted with the Pictou Highlanders early in the war and completed a tour of guard duty in Bermuda with the unit. Upon returning to Canada, he was selected for service with 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, a special forces unit with a demanding acceptance standard.
In the spring of 1944, Jim headed to Camp Shilo, Manitoba, where he qualified as a parachutist on June 3, 1944. Three days later, 1st Canadian Parachute personnel already serving overseas landed in Normandy, France, as part of the 6th British Airborne Brigade. For the next three months, its personnel maintained defensive positions on the D-Day beaches’ northeastern flank.
While it is assumed that Jim departed for the United Kingdom sometime after completing his Canadian training, the details of his overseas are unknown. While a group of five officer and 85 “other rank” reinforcements joined 1st Canadian Parachute in France on September 2, 1944, the entire unit returned to the UK dour days later, where it reorganized in the aftermath of three months of combat losses.
Before year’s end, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion returned to Europe, in response to a major German counter-offensive through the Ardennes, known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” Personnel departed for Belgium and Holland by ship at 1800 hours December 25, 1944, and entered the front lines near Rochefort, Belgium, one week later.
The unit remained in Belgium and the Netherlands for seven weeks, returning to the UK during the last week of February. Following a period of training and preparation, the paratroopers were assigned to Operation Plunder, an Allied crossing of the Rhine between Rees and Rheinberg, Germany. Part of the attack plan involved an airborne force—a combination of parachute and glider troops—deploying in a wooded area overlooking the river crossing.
The Allied operation commenced with the air drop on March 24. Over the next several days, ground forces crossed the Rhine and established a bridge-head on its northern banks. 1st Parachute Battalion spent the remainder of the month clearing enemy forces from areas north of the crossing. Its personnel then pushed northeast into German territory, crossing the Elbe River at the end of April. By May 2, the unit reached Wismar, where it encountered Russian forces that had been pushing westward. Less than one week later, German forces surrendered and fighting in Western Europe ended.
Following his discharge from military service, Jim settled in Debert, Colchester County. He was employed as a truck driver with Brookfield Construction Co. when he married Catherine Lucille Hamm, daughter of Fred Hamm and May Joudrey, Mahone Bay, in Halifax on May 3, 1947. Katherine was working at Stanfields Ltd., Truro, as a “sewing machine operator” at the time of the marriage. The couple raised a family of two sons, Burnham Edward (1949 - 2015) and Christopher Bruce (1959 - 2015). Jim Boutilier passed away in Halifax on September 11, 1985, and was interred in St. James Anglican Cemetery, Sherbrooke.
William Duncan “Bill,” the third-oldest of the Boutilier brothers, served overseas with a Canadian Artillery unit. No other details are available on his time in uniform. After returning to Canada, Bill married Anna Matilda Wilson (1917 - 2009) and established residence near Moncton, NB, where he passed away in 1997.
Cyril Mortimer, the fourth of the Boutilier boys, also enlisted with the Royal Canadian Engineers around 1942. The details of his war service are unknown. Following the end of fighting overseas, Cyril remained in uniform. In 1947. his military career brought him to Camp Chilliwack, BC, where he served as a training instructor in the “heavy trades.” With the exception of a posting in Germany from 1960 to 1963, he remained in British Columbia throughout the remainder of his time in uniform. He advanced to the rank of Sergeant before retiring in 1973, having spent more than 31 years with the Canadian military.
Cyril and his wife Eleanor raised a family of five children—two sons and three daughters—during their time in British Columbia. Cyril was actively involved in local minor hockey and baseball programs and served as a member of Chilliwack City Council for 10 years. He passed away suddenly on September 8, 1984, while on a fishing trip with one of his sons and was laid to rest in the Royal Canadian Legion Cemetery, Chilliwack, BC.
Ralph Huntley Boutilier, the sixth of the Boutilier brothers, also pursued a military career. Born in Sonora on December 25, 1926, his age during the war years makes overseas service unlikely. Ralph was stationed in Oromocto, NB, during much of his time in uniform. He married Joan Smith and raised a family of four children—one son and three daughters. Ralph passed away in Oromocto Public Hospital, Oromocto, NB, on September 9, 2008.
Information on the military service of a sixth Boutilier brother—presumably Alfred George “Alf”—is unavailable at this time. Born in Sonora in 1925, Alf passed away in Dartmouth, NS, on May 26, 1992.
Picture of Sapper Burnham Edward Boutilier obtained from the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
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