CEFRG – Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919
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Private Charles Welsh in the Great War
Shot at Dawn Last Soldier Executed in Mazingarbe Private Charles Welsh of the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles) three times sentenced to death, finally executed at the abattoir in Mazingarbe on 6 March 1918. One of four Canadians executed in March of that year, and the last of 11 soldiers of the British Army to…
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LCol Russell Lambert Boyle in the Great War
LCol Russell Lambert Boyle, Mentioned in Despatches and killed in action leading his men of the 10th Battalion on 22 April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres. Only Mentioned in Despatches. Boyle’s actions certainly worthy of a Military Cross medal, or the higher award of a Distinguished Service Order. Lieutenant Colonel Russel Lambert Boyle,…
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Private Russell Clarence McCollom in the Great War
Private Russell Clarence McCollom a casualty of Spanish Influenza during the Allied Occupation of Germany in January 1919. At first interred among several famous figures of Bonn in Poppelsdorf Cemetery, McCollom later exhumed and placed in Brussels Town Cemetery. Brussels Town Cemetery contains several mysterious cases of civilians buried among men and women having served…
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Captain Thain Wendell MacDowell VC, DSO in the Great War
Ultimate Badass Captain Thain Wendell MacDowell VC, DSO awarded his Victoria Cross for valour in the presence of the enemy at Vimy Ridge. It was during this battle that Captain MacDowell would prove himself to be among the ultimate badasses of the Great War. Early life of Thain Wendell MacDowell Son of John Vincent MacDowell…
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CSM Robert Hill Hanna VC in the Great War
The fourth Irish-Canadian Victoria Cross of the CEF CSM Robert Hill Hanna VC born on his father’s farm in Aughnahoory Townland, near Hanna’s Close, Kilkeel, County Down in the north of Ireland on 6 August 1887, the second of 11 children born to Robert Hill Hanna Snr and his wife Sarah Hanna. Kingdom of Mourne…
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Second Lieutenant Eric Skeffington Poole in the Great War
Shot at Dawn Second Lieutenant Eric Skeffington Poole born in Nova Scotia, Canada but served with the BEF in the Great War. Shell-shocked a week into the Battle of the Somme, Shot at Dawn by the end of 1916, becoming the first British Officer executed by his own men in the Great War. Erik born…
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Company Sergeant Major Robert Kennedy in the Great War
CSM Robert Kennedy DCM, MM & two Bars served with the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the Great War. Only Lt Edward Slattery of the CEF similarly medaled posthumously. Kirriemuir, Scotland Son of Robert and Euphemia Kennedy, of Beach Cottage, Southmuir, Kirriemuir, Scotland. Born 27 September 1888 in Kirriemuir, Scotland. Peter Pan Kirriemuir the birthplace…
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Lieutenant Edward Slattery in the Great War
Lieutenant Edward Slattery, DCM, MM & Two Bars, killed in action while gallantly leading his men at Vis-en-Artois, France, 30 August 1918. Only Company Sergeant Major Robert Kennedy of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) similarly medaled. Lt. Edward Slattery, DCM, MM and Two Bars, from Montreal and late of the 3rd Battalion, Toronto Regiment, who…
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Company Sgt Major David Parfitt in the Great War
In May 2019, a research report (submitted by the late Richard Laughton of Milton, Ontario and Chris Wright of Lakewood, Colorado) received suggesting an unknown grave at Regina Trench Cemetery, Grandcourt, in France, could be identified. The Canadian Armed Forces and DND confirmed the grave in question belongs to Company Sgt Major David George Parfitt.…
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Capitaine-Abbé Georges Crochetière in the Great War
Capitaine-Abbé Georges Étienne Rosario Crochetière the only member of the Canadian Chaplain Service killed-in-action and buried on the Western Front during the Great War. Captain (Reverend) Webster Henry Fanning Harris the first casualty of the Chaplain Service, wounded on the Somme in 1916, later died in England in May of 1917. Rosaire Crochetière, the beloved…