Charles Taylor was born in Sheffield, England, in 1895. He enlisted in Ottawa in February 1915 and served overseas with the 11th Field Ambulance until his return to Canada in 1919. This letter is to his sweetheart and future wife Florence "Flo" Welch in 1917.
Melville Thomas Lean was born in Camborne, Ontario in October, 1895. He enlisted in Cobourg, Ontario in December, 1915 and served with the Cobourg Heavy Battery. The collection currently consists of seven letters.
Click link here to go to the WWI collection of Laura Margaret Morton.
Click link here to go to the WWI collection of Norman Sydney Richards.
Spanish-American War & World War I Collection
Alexander Matier was born in 1880 and raised in New York City where in May, 1898, he enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War. He saw service in Cuba and returned to New York. In 1915 Matier enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and saw service overseas, where he was wounded in Belgium in the spring of 1916.
He spent more than two years in convalescent hospitals in England and Canada before he was discharged in September 1918. He died in Winnipeg in 1920. More information about this time period is available in his service file, which is unusually detailed about his medical history, including time spent at the Tuxedo Military Hospital in Winnipeg, receiving treatments such as galvanism, faradism, electric current baths and ionization (radiation).
The collection consists of two letters written home from Cuba in 1898 and an extended eighteen page letter written in 1918 detailing his wounding and convalescence.
Please note: Because of the way files are organized on the website, letters written by one author but across multiple wars may not always be visible together (the pages will look very similar, only the headings above the name and the # of letters in the "Collection Contents" list below will be different. If needed, the following links can be used to move between the two time periods of the Matier collection:
Click here to go to the Spanish-American War letters from 1898.
Earle Shaw Grant was born in Hyndman, Ontario in September, 1896 and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia around 1907. Earle enlisted in July, 1917 with the Canadian Army Medical Corp, and then later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He survived the war and returned to Vancouver where he taught school. The collection consist of four photographs and an extended letter. The letter is comprised of type written excerpts from Earle's letters to his brother Harry, who compiled them in the present form.
[collection has moved, please see: William Roy Gullen Collection]
James Eldon Lane was born in Bruce County, Ontario in February, 1887. He later moved to New Westminster, British Columbia where he worked as a barrister. Lane enlisted in November, 1915 in Kingston, Ontario with the 50th Field Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. He was wounded in July, 1918 and invalided back to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of one letter, three photographs, and a newspaper clipping.
This collection contains over 250 letters from World War One published in the Cobourg World, a local newspaper published in Cobourg, Ontario. Newspapers across Canada regularly printed letters home from overseas, either letters written directly to the newspaper by the soldiers, or first written to the family and then contributed to the paper by the family. Collections such as those from the Cobourg World provide a fascinating look at the relationship of community and war as played out in the pages of the local newspaper. All letters in the collection have been previously published in the newspaper and were also later collected by local historian Percy Climo in a book entitled Let Us Remember: Lively Letters from World War One. The dates for which the letters are listed represent the dates on which they were published, as the original dates of the letters are not always indicated. Where the original date of writing is known it will be part of the letter text. Introductions to the letters and editorial comments as they appeared in the newspaper have been left as published. All transcriptions have been taken from copies on microfilm and as such there are no scans for this collection.
Walter Kenneth Runciman was born in South Shields, Durham, England, in June 1886. After emmigrating to Canada he was a rancher in Alberta. Runciman enlisted in September 1917 in Calgary, Alberta, with the 78th Batallion. The collection currently consists of seven photographs.
Jules Julien DeCruyenaere was born in 1894 in Rollegham, Belgium. In 1912 he immigrated to Canada to join his brother Alfred, with the rest of his family arriving in 1914. He enlisted in 1916 with the Winnipeg 100th Grenadiers. He survived the war and returned to Winnipeg, where he died in 1980. The collection consists of four letters written home between 1916 and 1918, and five photographs.
Ludlow Jackson Weeks was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, in September 1899. Weeks enlisted with the No. 10 Halifax Siege Battalion in Halifax in May 1917, having previously been rejected for being underage. He served overseas in 1918. The collection currently consists of more than forty letters, as well as postcards and photographs.
Lieutenant Coningsby William Dawson, Canadian Expeditionary Force, was the author of the 1917 book Carry On: Letters in War-Time. The book's letters, along with more information on Lt. Dawson, can be found in the Special Items Collections section of the website.
Gavin Gibson Baird was born in Toronto, Ontario, to parents Robert Baird and Annie (nee Forester) Baird on June 20, 1892.
Baird joined the Royal Flying Corps while in Canada early in 1917. He began training in Toronto, Ontario, then at Belleville, Mohawk, and Borden, Ontario before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the RFC in September 1917 in Toronto. Baird then proceeded to England aboard the SS Metagama later that month and then to France, where he flew with the 148 Squadron. The collection consists of a memoir written in the form of letters to his nephew in 1929, which according to his family, was based on the content of diaries kept while with the RFC.
Raymond Ellsworth Ives enlisted in 1916 and served overseas in France, including Vimy Ridge. The collection consists of four letters, ten photographs, and a short personal memoir from enlistment to Vimy.
Walter Earnest Peter Flett, DSC, was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1887. Flett played with the Toronto Argonauts in the 1907 season and was the league leading scorer with 29 points. During the war Flett served in the RNAS with the No.3 Naval Wing. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Cross de Guerre in 1917. The collection consists of more than twenty letters from 1916 through to 1917.
Michael John Quinlan was born in July, 1915, the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Quinlan of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Quinlan served with the RCAF as a Pilot Officer until his death in March, 1944. The collection currently consists of thirteen letters and three photographs.
External links:
Pilot Officer John Michael Quinlan’s service record (Serv/Reg# J85433) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Quinlan can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
Gordon Rae MacKay was born in Findlay, Manitoba, in 1893 and later moved to Biggar, Saskatchewan. MacKay enlisted in March 1916, with the 46th Canadian Infantry. He was sent overseas in November 1916, and arrived in France in April, 1917. In June of 1917 he was wounded and spent time in hospitals in France and England before being returned to Canada in early 1918 where he spent further time in hospital before being discharged. The collection consists of more than 70 letters written by MacKay home to his family in Saskatchewan.
John Stewart was born in Ballamoney, Ireland, in 1924. He immigrated to Canada at age 5 and settled in Pickardville, Alberta. He served overseas with the Sherbrooke Fusiliers and was wounded in Holland. He returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of two photographs and three telegrams.
George Elliot Creswell was born in Saskatchewan in 1924. He enlisted in the RCAF on June 8, 1942, the day after his 18th birthday. Creswell went overseas in the fall of 1943 and served as a Flight Officer with the 432 Sqdn. He was shot down and killed on his 15th mission on February 21, 1945. The collection consists of 95 letters, photographs, and other printed items.
External links:
Flying Officer George Elliot Creswell’s service record (Serv/Reg# J35134) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Creswell can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
Alfred Fern Nelson was born in Victoria, British Columbia in July, 1922 and served overseas with the Calgary Highlanders. Nelson was wounded in France in the summer of 1944 and then taken prisoner in the fall of 1944. He remained a prisoner of war in Germany until the end of the war. The collection consist of more than thirty letters.
Elmer David Bell was born in Drew, Wellington County, Ontario, in 1909. Elmer was practising law when he enlisted in the army in 1941. He served overseas until 1945 and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Order of the Crown (Belgium) as a result of his service. He returned to Canada at the end of the war and died in 1998. The collection includes fifteen letters from Elmer. See also the correspondence from his brothers James Bond Bell and William Robert Bell.
Arthur Lewis Fernyhough was born in Fenton, Stoke on Trent, England, in September 1890. Prior to the war he immigrated to Canada, where he worked as a butcher. Fernyhough enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in December 1915 with the 144th Battalion. The collection currently consists of photographs, postcards, his paybook, the Returned Soldiers' Handbook, the 144th Winnipeg Rifles Song Book, and other miscellaneous items.
Cullen Hay Perry was born in Whitby, Ontario, in 1898 and enlisted in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada on August 12, 1914. Perry went to Europe with the First Canadian Contingent where he was wounded in the Battle of St. Julien, wounded again in 1916, and wounded a third time at the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. After recovering from his wound, Perry joined the Royal Flying Corps, and his letters represent his training time in England, then on to France, and finally to Alexandria, Egypt, where he was stationed. On February 3, 1918, Perry was killed in a plane crash in Alexandria, and was buried in the Chatley Cemetery in Alexandria. The biographical information for Perry has been extracted from Chronicles of a County--Whitby Past and Present (1999) by Brian Winter, Town of Whitby Archivist. This collection consists of seven letters written by Cullen Perry home to his mother in Whitby, Ontario, and one photograph.
