CEFRG – Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919

  • No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) in the Great War

    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. The Call to Arms (4 August 1914 – 5 May 1915) Origins of No.3 Canadian General Hospital When war declared in August, 1914,…

  • Y Farm Military Cemetery in the Great War

    Y Farm Military Cemetery in the Great War

    The cemetery named after a nearby farm, called by the Army “Y” (or Wye) Farm. Y Farm Military Cemetery,​ Bois-Grenier, Nord, begun in March 1915 and used by units holding this sector until February 1918. The cemetery signposted on the D222, at the junction of Rue de la Guennerie. The cemetery located on a single…

  • LtCol Thomas F Nangle in the Great War

    LtCol Thomas F Nangle in the Great War

    This post about what Nangle accomplished with the IWGC/CWGC in the seven years following the Great War. Much of the material in the Thomas F. Nangle fonds received as part of accessions from Joseph R. Smallwood, the former Prime Minister of Newfoundland. This material sent to Smallwood by LtCol Thomas F Nangle on May 27,…

  • Lieutenant Raymond Massey in the Great War

    Lieutenant Raymond Massey in the Great War

    Second Lieutenant Raymond Hart Massey a member of the Canadian Officer Training Corps prior to the Great War. Massey attested into the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 8 November 1915 and left Canada on 20th November. 30th Battery The 30th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery organized in June 1915 under the command of Major Austin Bain Gillies.…

  • Canadian War Memorials Exhibition in the Great War

    Canadian War Memorials Exhibition in the Great War

    Original cover. In January 1919, the Canadian War Memorials Exhibition opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England. The war had ended only eight weeks earlier, and some artists, such as Richard Jack (1866–1952), were still finishing their paintings at the academy in the days before the exhibition opened. The show travelled to the United States in…

  • Private Thomas Lionel Moles in the Great War

    Private Thomas Lionel Moles in the Great War

    Shot at Dawn Private Thomas Lionel Moles the son of Louisa Mudford (formerly Moles), of West Chinnock, Crewkerne, Somerset, England, and the late John Moles. Native of Brompton Ralph (a village and civil parish in the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England, about 11 miles west of Taunton). Thomas had four years of…

  • Nursing Sister Annie Ethel Stinson in the Great War

    Nursing Sister Annie Ethel Stinson in the Great War

    Born 2 April 1890 in Nepean, Ontario, Annie Ethel Stinson graduated from the Lady Stanley Institute (later known as the Ottawa Civic Hospital Nursing School) in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1913. She trained at the Quebec Military Hospital. Note much of this post available in the Anne E. Ross fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Lt…

  • Shoeing Smith Bertram H Hornsby in the Great War

    Shoeing Smith Bertram H Hornsby in the Great War

    Shoeing Smith Bertram Harry Hornsby son of the widow Mrs Ada L Hornsby of Hamilton, Ontario. Born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England on 31 May 1894. A single farmhand. The 40th Battery known as the Sportsmen’s Battery due to the commanding officer’s preference for men active in clean sport. Enlistment of Driver Bertram Harry Hornsby Driver…

  • Private Joseph Henry Quinn in the Great War

    Private Joseph Henry Quinn in the Great War

    One of the smallest soldiers in the CEF, the true identity of Private Joseph Henry Quinn now known. “The smallest man in the Canadians (10th Battalion?), age 15, enlisted in November 1914 at Vancouver. His name was Pte J. Quinn, 57 inches in height, wounded by shrapnel in the right hand at Lens in January…

  • Sergeant William Merrifield VC MM in the Great War

    Sergeant William Merrifield VC MM in the Great War

    Sergeant William Merrifield VC MM born in Brentwood, Essex, England on 9 October 1890. Merrifield came to Canada at the age of 12 with his father. They moved to Sudbury, onto Ottawa and eventually settled in Sault Ste. Marie. In 1914, Merrifield enlisted with the 2nd Battalion to fight in the Great War. He served…

  • Pipe Major James Groat in the Great War

    Pipe Major James Groat in the Great War

    Pipe Major James Groat DCM, MM & Bar one of several pipers of the 16th Battalion, CEF, awarded medals of gallantry in the Great War. Groat’s Distinguished Conduct Medal, Military Medal and Bar, represent three awards for gallantry in the face of the enemy.  In 1915 the 16th Battalion, Canadian Scottish, had 17 pipers, but…