CEFRG – Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919
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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.…
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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,…