Sinden, Roger J.

Pte. Roger J. Sinden, 19-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sinden, 23 Elgin St., was among the many other Canadians who gave their lives to secure the vital causeway leading out to the Beveland Peninsula, on the north bank of the Schelde, and thus open the great port of Antwerp to the ships of the United Nations. It was on October 13, 1944, that young Pte. Sinden, in the Black Watch Regiment of Canada, went forward in an attempt to capture the great dyke which connects South Beveland with the mainland. Upon this dyke are the road and the railroad running out from Bergen op Zoom to Flushing and as the land on each side was low and wet, it was hard to attack and easy to defend. The Canadians attacked it with great bravery, Pte. Sinden to the death. He was too young to have had a great deal of military training. On March 13, 1944, in Toronto, he had joined the Royal Canadian Artillery. Seven months later, to the very day, his anxious family had the bad news that he was missing. His first four and a half months of training, until he moved overseas on August 1, 1944, were with the Royal Canadian Artillery at Petawawa. Then he was transferred to "B" Company of the Winnipeg

Grenadiers, and three weeks later was on his way to Holland where he was immediately attached to the Black Watch. Now his body rests in the village cemetery at Ossendrecht, Holland. As a boy, he attended Central School and was President of the Skylark Club. He was a faithful member of the Calvary Baptist Church, singing in the choir and finding interest in the Young People's Society. He had taken a course in welding at the Collegiate

Institute and Vocational School and found employment at the Brantford Coach and Body Limited.

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