JOSEPH REARDON- LT. 8th Princess Louise (N.B.) Hussars

 

The email that I received that was so interesting, and concerned a former military man of St. George, NB. Thank you Mr. Reitsma for the information on Lt. Joseph Reardon that may be of interest to descendants of this brave man.

 

<Dear Mrs. Beney

The reason for these questions is a little bit of time pressure. We are looking for a primary school, willing to adopt the monument at villa Laag Buurlo in Apeldoorn. The remembrance date is April 14 and I will try to write a more or less comprehensive story about the killing of Captain Sims and Lieutenant Reardon to be able to inform the schoolchildren. As I wrote in a previous mail we know almost nothing about Joseph Wallace Reardon. Even the CWGC knows very little: I checked their register – they don’t know his age or who his parents were or where he came from.

Thank you in advance, kind regards,

Jelle Reitsma>

 

 

JOSEPH REARDON- LT. 8th Princess Louise (N.B.) Hussars

Reading the The Saint Croix Courier:  Journey Through Time edition Issue 4 of 6:  Good Times, Hard Times:  1926-1945 again, I wondered if there is a family relation between Sgt. George K. Reardon, R.C.A.F. and Lt. Joseph W. Reardon. Both men are from St. George and served in the Canadian forces during World War II.

REARDON, Sergeant George Kenneth (R73037)

Sgt. George K. Reardon, R.C.A.F. of St. George, received  the British Empire Medal for a valiant attempt to rescue a fellow member of the crew of a bomber which was forced down at sea while returning from a raid on Munich (Received from the King).

REARDON, Sergeant George Kenneth (R73037) - British Empire Medal - No.149 Squadron - Award effective 26 December 1942 as per London Gazette dated 29 December 1942 and AFRO 232/43 dated 12 February 1943.  Born in New Brunswick, 1916; home in St.George, New Brunswick (chemist).  Enlisted in Moncton.  Trained at No.1 ITS (graduated 21 February 1941), No.10 EFTS (ceased training, 29 March 1941) and No.6 BGS (graduated 7 November 1941).  Invested with award by King George VI, 6 July 1943.

Reardon,  Lieutenant Joseph Wallace

July 27, 1944

Lt. Joseph W. Reardon, St. George, recently received his commission overseas.  Went overseas as Trooper with the 8th Princess Louise (N.B.) Hussars.

September 28, 1944

Cpl. Joseph Wallace Reardon, St. George, Canadian Armoured Corps, promoted to Lt. overseas.

April 26, 1945 should be: April 14, 1945  (Corrections by Jelle Reitsma)

Lieut. Joseph Wallace Reardon, St. George, Killed in action in Germany

should be: Killed in action in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands(Corrections by Jelle Reitsma)

I do think that Trooper J.W. Reardon, Corporal J.W. Reardon, Joseph Reardon on the war monument in St. George and Lieutenant J.W. Reardon are the same person. He was killed April 14, 1945 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands and subsequently buried in the Canadian War Cemetery, Holten, the Netherlands.

 

Reply:

After our e-mail exchange I sent a request for information about J.W. Reardon to the Library and Archives of Canada. This morning I received a large envelope with copies of documentation from J.W. Reardon’s personnel file.

My assumption that Trooper J.W. Reardon, 8th Princess Louise (N.B.) Hussars, Cpl. Joseph Wallace Reardon and Lieut. Joseph Wallace Reardon, all from St. George, NB, are the same person proved to be correct. Joseph Wallace Reardon was born July 15th, 1912 and his parents were Paul Joseph Reardon (died March 19, 1932) and Annie Josephine Reardon (they married June 30, 1904). That is in accordance with your information. Apparently his name is engraved in the tombstone as a remembrance of a son killed in action overseas.

George Kenneth Reardon, sergeant RCAF, is his younger brother; there were two sisters in the family, Mrs Albert Murray and Mrs Barry Sheehan. I don’t know their Christian names.

Jelle Reitsma

Brigadier-general (retired) Royal Netherlands Army

Zwarte Kijkerweg 25a

7313 GC APELDOORN

The Netherlands

e-mail: jreitsma@nov-officieren.nl

To Lieut. Joseph Reardon-Remembering 

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copyright Charlene Beney 2008