Raymond Nichols was born January 16, 1885 in Wantage, England, the youngest son of Henry and Mary Nichols. A scholar by nature, he completed a seven-year science program at City of Dublin Technical School, whereupon on February 2, 1901, he was hired as a lab research assistant at age 16 at the famed St. James Gate Guinness Brewery, focusing on the study of barley and cereals. Promoted to the Scientific Department, he stayed with Guinness until 1911, joining the Irish Department of Agriculture in related research in cereals. Searching for a new life, he emigrated to Canada in 1912, and after taking specialized courses in Chicago, joined The Government of Canada at Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm. Living on campus and furthering his research in flour and cereals, Raymond was clearly pursuing his passion in chemistry now on this side of the Atlantic, working directly with the head of the research program, known as the Dominion Cerealist.

Possibly due to the heavy casualties mounting on the Western Front as a result of the Second Battle of Ypres, just seven months following the outbreak of war in Europe, Raymond enlisted on April 28, 1915 with the 10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He earned the rank of Captain and was shipped overseas in May 1916, now with the 80th Battalion, which was absorbed into the 51st Battalion. In June 2016, an officer now with the famed Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry which had originally formed in Ottawa at Lansdowne Park in August 1914, he was assigned to the front in northern France, part of the Canadian Fourth Division.

By the beginning of October, 1916, the ‘Patricias’ were heavily involved in the notorious five month long Battle of the Somme, with Captain Nichols’ unit fighting as part of this at the Battle of Ancre Heights. On October 20, Captain Nichols and his Battalion successfully captured the Regina Trench, with Raymond being the most senior officer to survive this battle. The Canadians had earned a reputation as a fierce fighting force. British Prime Minister Lloyd George stated, “Canadians played a part of such distinction that thenceforward they were marked out as ‘shock troops’ “, a term still in use today. As was the custom with troops being relieved after approximately a week of heavy fighting, they were about to be relived from duty from the Battle of Ancre Heights. Captain Nichols and a fellow officer were walking down a communications trench when an anti-personnel artillery shell exploded above them, spraying deadly shrapnel in all directions. Captain Raymond Nichols, 31 years young, was killed instantly and his body was never found. And in the mysteries of war, his fellow officer alongside him was unhurt.

Along with 11,284 other Canadians, Captain Raymond William Nichols’ name is inscribed on the walls of Canada’s Vimy War Memorial (entry #7630), dedicated to the memory of those soldiers killed in this Great War, but whose bodies were never found. As his Mother had already passed away, the medals of Captain Nichols were sent to his nephew Henry Nichols, in Oxford, England. But Captain Raymond Nichols was not yet finished. The research in wheat flour that he had undertaken at the Central Experimental Farm proved valuable and continued long after the conclusion of World War 1. His colleagues, under the direction of the Dominion Cerealist, continued his investigations. In 1921, five years after his passing, the scientific paper, “Researches in Wheat Flour and Bread” was published by The Government of Canada.

One of the contributing authors of this empirical paper, published accordingly, was Raymond William Nichols of Ottawa. Raymond William Nichols is remembered on both sides of the Atlantic by memorial plaques at St. Matthias Church in Dublin as well as at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London. In Ottawa, he is remembered at Doric Lodge 58 and at St. Matthew’s.

His name is permanently engraved on the walls of Canada’s National War Memorial at Vimy Ridge.