CEFRG – Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919
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No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in the Great War
No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in the Great War describes the origins of the unit beginning in August 1914 with Herbert Stanley Birkett, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, until May 1916. The Call to Arms (4 August 1914 – 5 May 1915) Origins of No.3 Canadian General Hospital When war declared…
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Private James Duffy, 16th Battalion, in the Great War
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Private James Duffy 29437 of the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (The Canadian Scottish Regiment) participated in Canada’s first major defensive engagement with the German Army. For Canada, the Second Battle of Ypres defined by lesser battles, The Battle of Kitchener’s…
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Private Reuben Alvin Jukes in the Great War
Private Reuben Alvin Jucksch (Jukes) born on 5 July 1887 to Ernst August Jucksch and Maria Kalbfleisch of Hanover, Ontario. ‘Jukes’ not an official war artist, but family tradition holds that his commanding officer turned a blind eye when Jukes painted the scenes that confronted him whilst on active service. The same tradition says that…
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Gunner Harvey Edward Brouse in the Great War
15-Year-Old Child Soldier Henry Edward Harry Brouse enlisted as Gunner Harvey Edward Brouse 342955 on 12 February 1917 at Kingston, Ontario. Son of Henry and Ellen Brouse, stating he was born 6 June 1898, making him 18 years, 8 months of age at the time. Harvey actually exactly four years younger. Nine months after enlistment,…
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Corporal Percy Harper Reeves in the Great War
Married to the Pecqueur Sisters of St-Pol-sur-Ternoise Corporal Percy Harper Reeves 422314 enlisted with the 44th Battalion, at twenty-two years of age, in Winnipeg on 18 March 1915. He stood 5′ 8″ tall, with a scar over the left eye. Dark complexion, brown eyes, and black hair. Born in Parishville, NY on 27 August 1893.…
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Corporal Filip Konowal VC in the Great War
Ten years following the Great War, Corporal Filip Konowal VC, a homeless veteran, living on the streets in the nation’s capital. “…the Victoria Cross does not protect a man from poverty.” Liberal MP John James Kinley According to Brigadier General (Ret’d) Alan Mulawyshyn, deputy executive director of the charity Veteran’s House Canada, more than 100…
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Lieutenant Ivor Castle in the Great War
Lieutenant Ivor Castle, the second of the three CWRO photographers, and the first war photographer of the Daily Mirror in the Great War. “At Liege I listened to a bombardment such as I had never heard in the Balkan wars; and yet the bombardment of Liege was but a dull firework display, an exhibition for…
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Monday, 10 February 1919, in the Great War
While Spartacans on the rampage in Berlin, the Irish Guards hockey game held at Cologne, Germany on Monday, 10 February 1919. No Canadians attended – 1st Canadian Division HQ had closed at Marienburg on 12 January 1919. CEF participation in the Allied Occupation of Germany lasted only a month. Meanwhile in Paris, the Supreme War…
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Private Edmund E Hopey in the Great War
Private Edmund E Hopey the first battlefield casualty of the 14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment), CEF in the Great War. The Royal Montreal Regiment (RMR) experienced death on the battlefield for the first time in March of 1915 just prior to the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle. This the story of Private Edmund E Hopey and the RMR’s initiation in battle. The…
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Sapper Roy Abraham Shapcott in the Great War
Sapper Roy Abraham Shapcott suffered the misfortune of being the final casualty of the 123rd Battalion in the Great War, falling 14 September 1918. Roy, along with 1,000 men of his battalion, had formed the 9th Battalion, Canadian Engineers earlier in May 1918. Enlistment of Private Roy Abraham Shapcott The son of Thomas and Sarah…
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Private Edwin Pye in the Great War
Private Edwin Pye 21651 served with the 5th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the Great War. Born 7 April 1893 in Westerham, Kent, England, he trained as an accountant and working in western Canada when he enlisted in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. Pye taken on strength as a Private in the 11th Battalion, E Company, at…
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Lieutenant Leonard Aynge Edens in the Great War
Lieutenant Leonard Aynge Edens 2547 the son of Thomas J and Margaret Mary Edens, of 39 Queen’s Rd., St. John’s, Newfoundland. The couple married on 13 February 1889, and had four children. Thomas Edens the proprietor of two grocery and provisions outlets in the city. This property at 39 Queen’s Road the site of the…