Canadian Military Ancestors

I have gathered all the resources for Canadian Military from previous posts in one file.

Download is available under the Resource tab above.

Relevant Link

Canadian Military Resources

Pier 2 - NOT Pier 21

It is a common mistake people make, thinking their early immigrant family arrived in Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax. I did so myself!! Pier 21 is more well known and talked about, so it is no wonder that is the first (and only) place that comes to mind when we think of our ancestors arriving in Canada.  In fact, Pier 21 didn't open until 1926.

Our 1880+ ancestors arrived at a facility that included a wharf, Intercolonial Railway facilities and a huge shed. After a fire in 1895 a better concrete building took place of the wooden shed, and around that time the facility was called Pier 2.  

Immigration Depot Pier 2 

My husband's maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada from Galicia, Austria, with the promise of free land in Canada's West.  On 19 May 1900 the family of 8 left Hamburg on the steamship Arcadia and arrived at Pier 2 in Halifax on June 2nd. From there, with their fellow immigrants, they boarded the waiting Intercolonial train and traveled across the country to Winnipeg, Manitoba.... to a new life. 

Pier 2 became a beehive of activity during the course of World War One. Troops from across Canada arrived by train and embarked on ships for Europe. A hospital was built upstairs to receive the sick and wounded as they returned to Canada. 

Carmania at Pier 2

My grandfather and his brother both left from Pier 2 to go overseas. At the end of the war Grampa left Liverpool aboard the Carmania and arrived 30 December 1918 at Pier 2 in Halifax. From there he boarded a train for Montreal. By then it was not a pretty site, as  while the concrete shed and facilities survived, most of that part of Halifax was damaged in the explosion of 1917. 

Pier 2 continued to receive immigrants and visitors until in 1928 Pier 21 became the official port of entry. 




Relevant Links

Journal of Remarkable Occurrences 1880

Arrival of a WWI Hospital Ship at Pier 2

Wartime Hospital Ships

Canadian Women's Hospital Ship Fund WWI

During WWI Women's groups all over the world held concerts, teas, bazaars and card parties to raise money for their Hospital Ship Fund. Their names and amounts were often printed in the local newspapers, to encourage others to donate.

Ottawa Citizen, 25 August 1914, pg 2

On 27 June 1918 the Canadian Hospital ship Llandovery Castle was sailing from Nova Scotia to Liverpool when it was torpedoed by German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland. Only 24 persons survived out of 258 medics, nurses and crew.

This was one of two hospital ship sinking cases presented at the Leipzeig war crime trials after the war and considered one of the worst atrocities of the war.

The Leipzeig Trials 1921

During WWII the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine, on 14 May 1943. Of the 332 medical staff and crew 268 lost their lives.

Australian Hospital Ship Centaur 1944

Relevant Links

Sinking of the Canadian Hospital Ship Llandovery Castle

Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur (scroll down for link to list)

The Leipzeig Trials, 1921

Military Hospital Ships and Ambulance Transports

List of hospital ships sunk in WWI

History of Hospital Ship Fund Canada

The American hospital ship"Maine" fund, 1900

Welcome to the U.S.N. Hospital Ship Tranquillity, WWII

New Zealand Hospital Ship Fund donations (NZ Herald), 1915

Photos New Zealand Hospital Ships, WWI

The Red Cross Databases and Reports

The British Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, and the International Committee of the Red Cross have online databases. I pointed this out to the Canadian Red Cross and they replied, “I have forwarded on your email to our website team so they can look into this process.” I'm not holding my breath, but I may bug them about this from time to time. I also sent them the link to funding guidelines from LAC.... you never know!

International Committee of the Red Cross

The Red Cross not only supplied nurses and medical supplies during times of war, but they visited Prisoner of War camps to give the inmates food packets and clothing and helped with letters to and from home. They tried to see that prisoners were treated with humanity. 

Prisoners of War Bulletin, Vol 2 Aug 1944

Relevant Links

Australia Red Cross Records from the First World War

Article by Pauleen Cass at Family history across the sea - Accessing the Red Cross records

Database of First World War Red Cross Volunteers, UK

American Red Cross

Prisoners of War Bulletin WWII, American Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross, WWI Prisoners of War

League of Red Cross Societies Bulletin (world)

Bulletin of the Canadian Red Cross

Canadian Red Cross and the First World War

Report Of The International Committee Of The Red Cross On Its Activities During The Second World War(September 1, 1939 - June 30, 1947) Volumes 1-3

American Red Cross Report of war relief activities 1917-1919

Neuvième Conference internationale de la Croix-Rouge tenue à Washington mai 1912. Index of names at the back

Turkish prisoners in Egypt, 1917

Reports on British prison-camps in India and Burma,1917

Related Posts at Red Cross

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

Vimy Ridge. April, 1917 

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.

Serendipity Sunday - Medical Service of British Army

This week I came across this study done by the University of Aberdeen in 1917...

"Roll of commissioned officers in the Medical service of the British army, who served on full pay within the period between the accession of George II and the formation of the Royal army medical corps, 20 June 1727 to 23 June 1898, with an introduction showing the historical evolution of the corps."

Related posts:  

Military Medical 

Is There a Doctor in the House?

New York Military list 1863

This publication from 1863 contains the names of persons, enrolled as liable to military duty (under the act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863,) in the Third congressional district, New York, Eleventh ward. It also lists their address.

"Any person enrolled may appear before the Board and claim to have his name stricken off the list, if he can show to the satisfaction of the Board that he is not, and will not be at the time fixed for the next draft, liable to military duty..."


Relevant Links


Names of persons enrolled as liable to Military Duty 1863

CEF Pay Scale

Just going through the "Call To Arms: Montreal's Honour Roll" for WWI.
This is a record of those Montrealers, military and civil, who "served their Country and their Empire during the last five months of 1914".

Near the back of this publication there is a spread with the daily rates of pay for everyone from the Private all the way up the ladder to the Commander.

Turning the page you get the Pension & Disability rates for the wounded. There is more on separation allowance and assigned pay here.

I also find my great grandmother's name on the Montreal Relief Committee.

Relevant Links

Pay of Canadian Expeditionary Forces

Call of Arms:  Montreal's Honour Roll 1914

Soldiers of the Queen

Today I came across this website - Soldiers of the Queen - a virtual museum of British Military photographs and research.

Interesting site of British soldiers wherever they served, India, Canada, Africa, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, West Indies, etc, and of course at home.

I like the site design, and it is easy to navigate.

Some of the photos are unidentified... perhaps you will find your ancestor here?  Go on over and take the tour - admission is free to this museum!   

Relevant Links

Soldiers of the Queen

Our Soldiers; Gallant Deeds of the British Army During the Reign of Queen Victoria



Internment Camps

A reader pointed out that we did not mention the Interment Camps during the war, specifically those in Canada, although other countries also locked up "enemy aliens".

"The immigrants of foreign countries that are killing our sons can not be trusted and should be locked away in camps and what rights they have taken away."  Times of war are also times of fear, and this fear, coupled with not understanding the "foreigners" or their culture, led to this attitude taken by the government and the people.

From History and Archives of JCCCM

This from a CTV news story: 

"This xenophobic government policy was, at the time [WWI], justified under the War Measures Act [of 1914]. The act would be brought into force two more times in our country: during the Second World War, when Japanese-Canadians were interned following the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and during the 1970 October Crisis in Quebec."

The War Measures Act was not used during the Korean War. This Act was repealed in 1988 and replaced by the Emergencies Act.

 If your ancestors are not mentioned in any of these links below, consider having them added to the databases at the appropriate site, so they will not be forgotten.

Did we learn a lesson?


Relevant Links:

Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund

A listing of the names of Ukrainians and other Europeans needlessly imprisoned during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920

Italian Canadians as Enemy Aliens

Guide to Internment Camps in Canada during WWI and WWII

Japanese American Internment info at National Archives

US WW2 Japanese Relocation Camp Internee Records

Wartime Internment Camps in Australia

Isle of Man - Alien Civilian Internment Camps - Info

Enemy Aliens in New Zealand

How to find records of Internees in UK

Japanese-Canadian Internment images and pages

Military - Prisoners and Deserters

Canadian prisoners of war being lead through Dieppe by German soldiers

 We have now looked at different wars and those who joined up to fight them.  The honour rolls of those who gave their lives, and the pensions of those who left parts of themselves on the battlefield.  We have discovered who the nurses and surgeons were that worked tirelessly at home and on those battlefields, and the men and women who did their part on the home front.

To wind up this month of military ancestors we discover yet another group of soldiers.  Those who were captured and held as prisoners.  And those who could not take the noise, the killing, the blood, seeing their friends die before their eyes -  whatever the reason - they are the deserters.

My ancestor Adam Tait fought in the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 for Prince Charlie and when things went bad for them at the Battle of Culloden, he managed to escape with some of his mates and make his way to France.  Not so for some of the others whose names and ranks we find on a list of rebel prisoners.   
 

Is your ancestor's name on one of these lists?


Relevant Links:

Rebel Prisoners after Culloden - 1745

A list of men absent without leave from the 8th Calvary - 1862

A list of deserters and non-reporting drafted men of the 16th Congressional district of Pennsylvania, from the several national drafts of 1863-64 - (1865)

War Department relating to Confederate Prisoners of War - 1861-1865

Red Cross Prisoners of War Bulletin WWII (several issues)

Records relating to War of 1812 prisoners of war

A list of prisoners confined in gaol - Revolutionary War

The whereabouts of various deserters, including Elizabeth Kuznetsova - 1945

List of persons, of Wisconsin, reported as deserters from the Military and Navy 1867

List of Canadian Soldiers executed for Military Offenses

Courts Martial of the First World War - LAC

Shot at Dawn Memorial (google other websites) - UK, AU, NZ, CA

Prisoners of War - lists in newspapers - Trove

Communication from the secretary of war; enclosing a list of the civilian prisoners in custody at Salisbury, NC under military authority - 1863

Prisoners of war and military prisons; personal narratives of experience in the prison at Richmond, Danville, Macon, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Charleston, and Columbia - with a list of officers who were prisoners of war from January 1, 1864

Records of the War department relating to Confederate prisoners of war, 1861-1865

Letter to Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania, seeking advice about British deserters who wish t join French army - 1780

Courts Martial of the First World War (LAC)

Map of Prison Camp Locations in Germany WWII (from my father's WWII collection)

Prisoners of the First World War

Rebellion of 1837-1838 - Prisoners at Montreal and Exiles to Australia

Military - Medical

No 2 Canadian General Hospital (Photo from LAC)

I have mentioned my grandfather's brother Alexander George Mavor a couple of times (Remembrance Day and Windows of the Soul). He enlisted with the CEF 23rd Battalion in Montreal on October 31, 1914. After training in Valcartier, he sailed with his regiment from Quebec City on the Missanabie on February 2, 1915. He was transferred in the field at Ypres to the 4th Battalion (Infantry) on April 26, 1915.

Not only did the doctors and surgeons in the field have to deal with the previously known ravages of warfare, they had to learn quickly how to deal with the damage being done to the soldiers by new technology - machine guns, new-and-improved hand grenades, high explosive shells, and not least of all... the first use of Chlorine Gas in the field April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. Alexander arrived just in time!

On the 9th of April 1916 the 4th Battalion relieved the 1st in the trenches at The Bluff, near Ypres. While on duty the next day, April 10th, a bullet glanced off a periscope and hit Alexander in the stomach.

Soldiers with abdominal wounds were moved without delay, so Alexander would have been taken quickly from the First Aid post to the closest Dressing Station, then by Field Ambulance over rough terrain (possibly by horse-drawn wagon) to the nearest Casualty Clearing Station, which was No 17 at Remy Siding. There Private Alexander George Mavor died the next day, April 11, 1916.

Remy Siding - Casualty Clearing Stations and Hospital

If your ancestor was among the tireless doctors and surgeons practicing during war time, he may be listed in one of many books written about their units.
Following are links to a few.


Relevant Links:

List of Massachusetts physicians in the Medical Corps of the US army, navy, the Red Cross or British service during the great war 1919

List of Hospital Corpsmen: US Naval Hospital unit, Bilibid Prison Manila, PI - 1947

Base Hospital 34 in the World War - US 1922

Base Hospital No 52 : war diary - 1919

Base Hospital No 9 - 1920

Pennsylvania hospital unit - Base Hospital No 10, US 1921

US Naval Receiving Hospital Dec 1944 - Dec 1945 Anniversary Booklet

A history of Base Hospital 32 (including Unit R) - 1922

Roster of all regimental surgeons and assistant surgeons in the late war, with their service, and last known address - 1882

No 5 Australian General (Base) Hospital Melbourne

A History of No 7 (Queen's) Canadian General Hospital 1915-1917

The Casualty Clearing Stations of WWI

The Australian Army Medical Corps n Egypt; 1914-1915 (names near back)

The Story of a Red Cross unit in Serbia - UK 1916 (names in back)

Awards for members of Czechoslovak field hospital in Korea - 1953

Chronological history (+ photos) of the 363th field hospital company - 1921

Facts and Fancies (+ photos) of 363rd field hospital company - 1919

Surgery at a Casualty Clearing Station - 1918

Medical Units of the BEF - WWI 1921

Regimental surgeons of the State of New York, in the War of the Rebellion 1861-63

Women as army surgeons : being the history of the Women's Hospital Corps in Paris, Wimereux and Endell Street ; September 1914 - October 1919

Canadian Army Medical Corps reinforcements Nominal Roll 1915

Historical records of No 8 Canadian Field Ambulance: Canada, England, France, Belgium

Remembrance Day - Honour Roll

Armistice Day was first observed throughout the British Commonwealth in 1919 to commemorate the ending of the great war - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918. In 1931 the name was changed to Remembrance Day. In the US it is Veteran's Day. 

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery

In some families many of their ancestors died in wars, I am lucky to have only one (that I know of), my grandfather's brother Alexander George Mavor. I not only honour him and all those that died, but also those who fought. Their former self died in their first battle and a different person came home. I know that my grandfather, my father and my husband were not the same people after the war, and they never talked about what they saw or did.

This year being the 100th anniversary of the start of the war, events were planned world-wide to commemorate the men who fought, like that at the Tower of London. In the genealogy world more records were made available online. Check your country's Roll of Honour, in Canada we have the Books of Remembrance.

After WWI many books were published with lists of names of those who died, and some have photos. Colleges, towns, churches, companies - all published to honour their own. There are too many for me to list them all, but I found a few to give you ideas. 

Try by military unit, state, county, town, college, school, church, etc. Some of you are lucky because more than a few have photos.

Search at Internet Archive using keywords: hono[u]r roll, roll of hono[u]r, veterans, roll of dead, etc and with one of the above. Search the words "honour roll" or "wounds" in newspaper sites. The papers published the names of the dead and wounded almost daily. Also check the local library.


Relevant Links:

Honor Roll; the Proctor & Gamble Company 1920

Roll of Honor of Cook County, Illinois, with military record and place of burial 1922

Roll of Honour, 1914-1919 Employees of Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society

Independent Order of the Rechabites, a temperance group, and their involvement in WWI. The text contains a register of deceased soldiers and other war records, photographic content and lists of both the senior and junior members of the Order, and a retrospective of the Order's beginnings and activities. Queensland

28th (Maori) Battalion, Roll of Honour - NZ 1924

New Zealand's Viet Nam Roll of Honour

Roll of Honour; National Bank of Scotland

Roll of Honour 1914-1919 for the town and quoad sacra parish of Macduff, with active service lists, lists of prisoners of war, & honours awarded

Roll of Honour of the Ontario teachers who served in the Great War 1914-1918

Roll of Honour of members of the Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet, and apprentices 1914-1919

Roll of Honour; a biographical record of all members of His Majesty's naval and military forces who have fallen in the war - Vol 1

Roll of Honour; a biographical record of all members of His Majesty's naval and military forces who have fallen in the war - Vol 2

Roll of Honour; list of officers and men, New South Wales section of Division, Australian Imperial Force - 1914

The "Hearts" & the Great War; Heart of Midlothian Football Club Roll of Honour

Memorial volume; American field service in France, "Friends of France" 1914-1917 

Roll of the sons and daughters of the Anglican Church clergy throughout the world and of the naval an military chaplains of the same who gave their lives in the Great War

Acta Victoriana; War supplement. Victoria College, Toronto 1919

Canadians who gave their lives in the cause of peace while serving with United Nations  and other peacekeeping missions or peace support operations sanctioned by the UN

The Call to Arms: Montreal's Roll of Honour, European War 1914

Roll of Honour, employees of the Singer Manufacturing Co. Ltd 1914-1918

Roll of Honour, 1914-1919. For King and Country. John Menzies & Company Limited

Roll of Honour; employees who have enlisted in the Great War - Winnipeg Electric Railway

Honour Roll: Canadian companies (ie Birks, Imperial Tobacco, Dominion Textile, etc)

Canadiana Rolls of Honour - titles 

McGill University - Book of Remembrance (WWI & WWII) 1950

Books of Remembrance for Tweeddale, Scotland 

For Remembrance: soldier poets who have fallen during the war: UK c1920 

Royal Navy Biography, with copious addenda  1823-1832

Pacific Gas and Electric Company - Roll of Honor (pg30)

Illinois Central Employee's Magazine - Roll of Honor

US -  VietNam Veterans Honor Roll

US - Korean War Veterans Honor Roll

Honour Them: Roll Call of Honour, to honour all that served Canada 

"The Evening Times" Roll of Honour, Glasgow and area; 1914-1918

Serendipity Sunday - Nurses, Red Cross, and more

While researching my grandfather's brother, I came across this amazing book.

"Illustrated souvenir, Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital, Christie Street, Toronto : containing photo groups and snap-shots of officers, nursing sisters, patients, hospital celebrities, distinguished visitors and others : alphabetical list of over 3000 names of all patients, past and present, together with present addresses : also names and addresses of officers, nursing sisters and others"



I introduced you to my grandfather's brother, George John Seale, who was commissioner for the Red Cross in Manitoba, in my article The Home Front. George died suddenly at home of heart failure in 1924 and the George Seale Nursing Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade was named after him. George is a Memorable Manitoban.

George's wife, Clara Annie, was a serving sister for the St John's Ambulance in Winnipeg for many years. She was also Honorary President of the George Seale Nursing Division. Their only child, Eleanor, became a doctor.

When I was a kid I took swimming lessons with the Red Cross.  My children and grandchildren took a Babysiting Course. The St John Ambulance not only give courses in first aid and CPR, but also give several Industry Safety courses. Both do a lot in the community, as well as overseas and during disasters. 



Relevant Links

Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital, Toronto Souvenir Book (1920ish)

Nursing Sisters of Canada

British Army Nurses service records - WWI

British Military Nurses (Scarletfinder)

The Order of St John in Canada (Roll of Order PDF download) - St John Ambulance

What is the use for the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada - 1900

Nursing Sisters Nominal Roll 1914 CEF

New Zealand and Australian Army Nurses - Anzac Records

In Honor of the National Association of Civil War Army Nurses - 1910

Our Army Nurses; sketches, addresses, photographs of the nearly 100 noble women who served in hospitals and on battlefields during the US Civil War - 1897

Army School of Nursing 1921-1931

Red Cross Volunteers during WWI - Britain (ongoing upload - check back)

Australian Red Cross - "Carry On" program and souvenir album - 1918

Franklin County KY, Red Cross - men and women serving their country 1918

Australian Service Nurses - National Memorial

Scottish Nurses in Roumania 1918

The Navy List - Nursing Service

Canadian Nurse Magazine (Several volumes, each volume is a year)