Sunday 9 April 2017

Canada 150 - Vimy Ridge






During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...


 Vimy Ridge


All four divisions of the CEF took part in the attack on Vimy Ridge, so if you have an ancestor that was in the forces in April 1917, chances are he was at Vimy Ridge.

My grampa, Herbert James Mavor of Verdun QC was in the 42nd Battalion, but on the morning of the 9th of April he was appointed acting sergeant and attached to the 20th reserve. They opened fire at 5:30 am from around Zivy Cave.

Grampa's uncle James Mavor of Victoria BC was also at Vimy ridge. He was a Lieutenant with "A" company of the 2nd Mounted Rifles. James was wounded and out of commission for 4 days. He was wounded again at Passchendaele and that wound was so bad they had to amputate his forearm.

During the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, in 2007 the CEF Study Group undertook the "Vimy Project" by gathering all the war diaries for those days for each unit that participated in the attack on Vimy Ridge.. most are represented.




Beside each unit are the dates of the diaries and you have only to click on the date to see the diary for that day. If the name of the unit has 4 stars **** like that of the 42nd Battalion, that means there is a lot of information in that diary.




Relevant Links

CEF Study Group - Vimy Diaries - PDF

Personnel records of First World War - LAC

Abbreviations used in war records

Virtual reality takes viewers into Vimy battle

The Battle of Vimy Ridge - info at LAC 

Vimy Memorials and cemeteries
   ** You can browse War Dead by not putting a name and just use filters.. country Canada, WWI, then next screen where it says "relevance" use menu arrow to change to alphabetic order.





3 comments:

  1. Fabulous find, thank you ever so much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The project makes it easier to find war diaries for that day, especially if you have ancestors in different units. Glad it helps you in your research.

      Delete
  2. Going to look at this for sure when I get some time - busy summer day here:D I've been asked by the Hill 70 Facebook page if You have any photos, letter and whatever for my grand uncle, so as all I have is a photo of him, his records and the battalion he was with when he died maybe some more searching will find more....

    ReplyDelete

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