Category: Soldiers
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Private Andrew Mackie MacLean in the Great War
Private Andrew Mackie MacLean 477560, son of Mary and Mr. MacLean, of Kelvinbridge, Glasgow, Scotland. Born in Troon, Scotland on 7 January 1892. He was a machinist by trade. Andrew suffered a horrible injury in the Great War. An exploding bullet entered his mouth. Operated on by the preeminent expert of the time in facial…
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Major Talbot Mercer Papineau MC in the Great War
The Soul of Canada You know, Hughie? This is suicide. The Greatest Prime Minister of Canada – not! Talbot Mercer Papineau MC had it all. Intelligent, charming, athletic, dashingly handsome, affluent, with a biting-sense of black humour; this fluently-bilingual Anglo/French-Canadian with a deep love for Canada destined to be the Greatest Prime Minister of Canada.…
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Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in the Great War
IN FLANDERS FIELDS by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved, and were loved, and now we lieIn…
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The Hermanson Brothers in the Great War
þetta reddast It will work out okay The Hermanson brothers, Sveinn (Steven) and Magdal (Mack), sons of Gudjon (Joseph) and Magdalen (Sigurdottur) Hermanson, born in Reykjavík, Iceland. Mack was the first Icelander to give his life for Canada, serving with the 90th Winnipeg Rifles (8th Battalion, CEF). Steven arrived late in the Great War with…
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Major George Anderson Wells, CMG, DD in the Great War
The Right Reverend George Anderson Wells, CMG, DD was the second Bishop of Cariboo. Wells was a fisherman, sealer, labourer, and a trooper in the South African War before continuing his education at various American institutions. During the Great War, appointed Senior Chaplain to the Canadian Corps on 27 December 1917. Early Life Born at…
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Private William Andrew Purcell in the Great War
Private William Andrew Purcell 223092 was born 5 July 1890 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Married to Mary Lenora Purcell. They had one child, aged 8 months. William was a barber. Enlistment Private William Andrew Purcell attested 1 November 1915 at Halifax, with the 85th (Nova Scotia Highlanders) Battalion. Standing 5′ 8″ tall, with fair complexion,…
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St. Julien Canadian Memorial in the Great War
The Brooding Soldier Monument Unlike the Vimy Memorial, the St Julien Canadian Memorial designed by an architect serving in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. However, Frederick Chapman Clemesha slightly wounded serving with the 46th Battalion, South Saskatchewan Regiment in 1918. Then, Clemesha returned to his Regina architectural practice for a short time…
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Captain William Henry Davis MC in the Great War
During the Great War, 524 clergymen served in the Canadian Chaplain Service. Of this number 447 served overseas, and a number of those chaplains served with distinction, such as George Anderson Wells, an Anglican priest, who finished the war as the most decorated chaplain in the British Commonwealth. Other chaplains who paid the supreme sacrifice,…
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Private Thomas Ricketts Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the Great War
Son of Mrs. Elizabeth Pittman of Sops Island, White Bay, Newfoundland. Private Thomas Ricketts 4020 Killed-in-Action on the same day Sergeant Thomas Ricketts 3102, also of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, earned the Victoria Cross. SS MISSANABIE Private Thomas Ricketts 4020 attested 21 October 1917. Embarked St. John’s on SS MISSANABIE 11 December 1917. Embarked for…
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Major General Malcolm Smith Mercer in the Great War
The Soldier’s General Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer, the epitome of a Soldier’s General. During the period from 1 March 1915, until 10 November 1915 (when his Personal Diary ends), Mercer records 57 visits and inspections of trenches held by troops under his command. Mercer’s insistence on being close to the action would prove his undoing.…