Category: Soldiers
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Sergeant Richard Baxter in the Great War
Golf Professional Sergeant Richard Baxter 65054 served with the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) out of Montreal. Born in Melrose, Scotland on 23 January 1895. At his enlistment, Richard noted his trade as a golf professional. Victoria Rifles The 24th Battalion organized in October 1914 under the Command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Gunn. Mobilized at Montreal…
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Captain Samuel Wilkinson in the Great War
Chaplains Honourary Captain Samuel Wilkinson, a Methodist minister, served with the 79th Battalion, 67th Pioneer Battalion, 4th Canadian Divisional Train, 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital, and finally No 15 Canadian General Hospital during the Great War. Born in Tobley, Chesire, England, his family immigrated to Canada in 1870 and settled at Ingersoll, Ontario. He arrived in…
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Private Ichimatsu Shintani in the Great War
Born in Hiroshima Private Ichimatsu Shintani of Hiroshima City at 35 years of age a late arrival to the war in 1918. He survived the first wave of Influenza soon after his arrival at the front. Ichimatsu seriously injured later during the Battle of the Scarpe. Hiroshima City Ichimatsu Shintani born 5 October 1883 in…
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Brig-Gen James MacBrien in the Great War
Officer and Policeman Brig-Gen James MacBrien graduated from Port Perry High School in 1896 and got his first job as a Bank Clerk at the Western Bank in Port Perry. R.N.W.M.P. MacBrien started his military career as a Private with the 34th Ontario Regiment in 1878, and with the RNWMP in 1900 then the South…
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Canadian War Records Office in the Great War
The Canadian War Records Office (CWRO) photographic collection includes many images of the CWRO team. Finding these photos has been a challenge, as has identifying the members of the group assembled by Sir Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook). Aitken assisted by several gifted individuals in his goals: Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) Reginald Frank Manley…
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Major William Orpen in the Great War
Major William Orpen (later Sir William Orpen 1878-1931) born in County Dublin and trained as an artist at the Slade School. Orpen elected ARA in 1910. When War commenced in 1914, Orpen raised funds for the War Effort by auctioning blank canvases on which the purchaser’s portrait would be painted. In 1915, commissioned into the…
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Private Nathanael Earl Kern in the Great War
No.1 Canadian War Graves Detachment Private Nathanael Earl Kern likely the last casualty and member of the CEF buried in France during the Great War. Son of Cyrus and Emily Walker Kern, of Brant Co., Ontario. Burying the Fallen The British Empire chose to bury its battlefield dead from the Great War near the sites…
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Private Laurence Joseph Fewer in the Great War
Private Laurence Joseph Fewer 1268, son of William and Ellen Fewer, of Placentia, Newfoundland. Enlistment of Private Laurence Joseph Fewer Pte Fewer enlisted 15 March 1915, standing 5′ 7″ tall, 141 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. Occupation – Paper Maker, earning $3.50 a day. Laurence embarked for the UK on 22 April 1915.…
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Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill in the Great War
Hon Lt Frederick Oscar Bovill born in London, England. His father a pickle merchant – one of his colleagues later recalling him as a ‘member of a pickle family.’ Film Industry Bovill entered the film industry in about 1906 with Gaumont, and joined Will Barker’s [qv] Barker Motion Photography around 1909. Cameraman on Barker’s ‘Sixty…
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Baseball in the Great War
Baseball in the Great war one of the most popular games played by Canadian soldiers as an off-battlefield pastime. In May 1915 the American League sent a “big assortment of baseball paraphernalia” to Sir Sam Hughes for distribution amongst Canadian units. Later that summer, Lord Atholstan’s Montreal Star sent a similar shipment directly to England.…