Category: Soldiers
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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.…
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Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Sharpe DSO in the Great War
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Sharpe one of two sitting Members of Parliament to die in the Great War, and the only Member elected on the battlefield. For almost 100 years, Samuel Sharpe’s name buried with thousands who had succumbed to shell shock. The life and death of Sam Sharpe helps us to understand the impact of post-traumatic…
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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…