CEFRG – Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919
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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…
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Monday, 10 February 1919, in the Great War
While Spartacans on the rampage in Berlin, the Irish Guards hockey game held at Cologne, Germany on Monday, 10 February 1919. No Canadians attended – 1st Canadian Division HQ had closed at Marienburg on 12 January 1919. CEF participation in the Allied Occupation of Germany lasted only a month. Meanwhile in Paris, the Supreme War…
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Private Edmund E Hopey in the Great War
Private Edmund E Hopey the first battlefield casualty of the 14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment), CEF in the Great War. The Royal Montreal Regiment (RMR) experienced death on the battlefield for the first time in March of 1915 just prior to the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle. This the story of Private Edmund E Hopey and the RMR’s initiation in battle. The…
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Sapper Roy Abraham Shapcott in the Great War
Sapper Roy Abraham Shapcott suffered the misfortune of being the final casualty of the 123rd Battalion in the Great War, falling 14 September 1918. Roy, along with 1,000 men of his battalion, had formed the 9th Battalion, Canadian Engineers earlier in May 1918. Enlistment of Private Roy Abraham Shapcott The son of Thomas and Sarah…
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Private Edwin Pye in the Great War
Private Edwin Pye 21651 served with the 5th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the Great War. Born 7 April 1893 in Westerham, Kent, England, he trained as an accountant and working in western Canada when he enlisted in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. Pye taken on strength as a Private in the 11th Battalion, E Company, at…
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Lieutenant Leonard Aynge Edens in the Great War
Lieutenant Leonard Aynge Edens 2547 the son of Thomas J and Margaret Mary Edens, of 39 Queen’s Rd., St. John’s, Newfoundland. The couple married on 13 February 1889, and had four children. Thomas Edens the proprietor of two grocery and provisions outlets in the city. This property at 39 Queen’s Road the site of the…
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LCol William George Barker VC in the Great War
British Empire’s Most Decorated Serviceman The deadliest air fighter who ever lived LCol William George Barker, VC, DSO & Bar, MC & Two Bars, Silver Medal, Croix du Guerre, 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal, the most decorated serviceman in the history of Canada, and the British Commonwealth. LCol William ‘Billy’ George Barker, the less famous of the two ‘Billies’, eclipsed…
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Colonel Redford Henry Mulock in the Great War
Colonel Redford Henry Mulock of Winnipeg, the first Canadian Ace, later the highest ranking Canadian airman of the Great War. Mulock and Sir George Perley nearly convinced the Minister of Militia that an independent Canadian air force should be formed in 1917. In the later stages of the war, Colonel Redford Henry Mulock helped develop…
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HCol John Macpherson Almond in the Great War
During the Great War, HCol John Macpherson Almond CMG CBG DSO would become Assistant Director and later Director of the Canadian Chaplain Service with the rank of Honorary Colonel. Several tours at the front, and with Canadian Military Forces in England and Canada. Almond sought to improve the reputation of Canadian Military Chaplains and would…