SOLDIER DETAILS:
Bonus, Melville
Private 4th Battalion CMGC 663543
August 10, 1918
Crouy
British Cemetery, Somme, France
Living at Milton. Enlisted at Milton.
Maple
Leaf Legacy Project |
Victoria Park Cenotaph
R. Laughton
Haltonville Cenotaph
R. Laughton
Crouy British Cemetery
Commonwealth War Graves
Maple Leaf Legacy Project
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Reported in error on his gravestone and at
the CWGC as "BONAS". Correction submitted
October 18, 2007. No correction has been made as of
October 2008 so apparently the change was not accepted,
to either the written record or the grave stone.
Melville
Bonus
is buried in Crouy British Cemetery in Crouy-sur-Somme,
France.
VI. A. 12.
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SOLDIER SUMMARY:
| Melville Bonus joined the 164th Infantry
Battalion CEF in March 1916. He was the son of James and Matilda
Bonus of Milton. He left Halifax on April 10, 1917 and arrived
in England on April 22, 1917. It appears that he was first
transferred to the 102nd Battalion (11th Infantry Brigade, 4th
Division) and from there he was transferred to the 4th Battalion
Canadian Machine Gun Corps, on or about May 7, 1918. Melville
Bonus died on August 10, 1918 of wounds received to his
right thigh and arm on August 9th while serving with the 4th
Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps (CMGC). It is
reported that he was at the 47th Casualty Clearing Station at
the time of his death.
In March
1918 the CMGC had been reorganized and so at this time he was
with the 4th Division and not at the Brigade or Battalion level,
although the War Diaries report it as the 4th
Canadian Machine Gun Battalion. The action that date is
reported at here
as well as in Appendix
"G". The details relating to the organization of
the Machine Gun Battalions in 1918 is one of the most confusing
and misunderstood aspects of the CEF in the Great War.
There are no clear details as to what lead to the death of
Private Bonus. All we can say is that August 8, 1918 was the
first day of "Canada's Hundred Days" as the war
changed from a static trench war to a mobile war, as the
Canadians mounted the 100 day offensive that would take them
from Amiens to Cambrai and then on the Mons. It was the beginning
of the end for the German Empire. 
Battle of Amiens August 1918
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The soldier pages contain information
that is available from a number of resources. The following hyperlinks
are active where the information is available:
The summary of the service is taken from
the soldier's service records, if they were available from Library and
Archives Canada. A complete copy of the service record is
available in electronic and paper format in the Alex
Cooke Memorial Archives at the Milton Historical Society.
Using that summary, combined with the key references, a summary of the
events leading up to the death of the soldier has been prepared.
The research information available is as noted on the Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group web site Matrix
Project as well as in the Library and Archives Canada On-Line
War Diaries.
A summary of all the soldiers is
contained on the Web Blog "Great
War Soldiers of Milton, Ontario CANADA". Please also
be sure to purchase your own copy of "Milton
Remembers World War I - The Men and Women We Never Knew" by
John Challinor II and Jim Dills, edited by Ken Lamb. |
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