Stanley Winfield was a member of the Allied Control Commission (Disarmament) assigned to Germany in the late spring of 1945. The collection consists of the notes for the training course for personnel assigned to the Commission, as well as a short memoir written in the summer of 1945 while in Germany detailing his experiences as part of the Commission.
Norwood Macleod was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1886. He enlisted in September 1914, with the Canadian Field Artillery, and then later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He was shot down and killed October 14, 1917. The collection consists of more than fifty letters transcribed by Norwood's father at the end of the war, although the originals have since been lost.
Hart Leech enlisted in Winnipeg in 1914 and served as a lieutenant with the 61st Battalion in France. He was killed in September of 1916 and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial.. This collection currently consists of four letters. Three of the letters were written by Leech in 1916 and one by his commanding officer in 1928. The last letter written by Leech to his mother in September, 1916 was not found until 1928. There are also two clippings and a photograph.
Edward ("Ted") Brock served overseas with the 48th Highlanders and fought in the Italian campaign and later in Holland. As a Lieut. Platoon Commander is was Brock's duty to write letters to the families of men killed or missing from his platoon. The collection consists of a letter of condolence, reponses from families to whom he wrote, and a short memoir.
Percy Roy Shannon was born in Walkerton, Bruce County, Ontario, in December 1887. Shannon first enlisted in March 1915 as a stretcher-bearer in the 34th Battalion. At that time he was a medical student at the University of Toronto. He went overseas but was sent back to complete his medical training and graduated in 1917. Shannon received his commission and served with the No.12 Field Ambulance of the R.A.M.C. He was killed serving with the Field Ambulance on November 3, 1918. The collection consists of two letters and one photograph.
William John Howe left Valcartier with the 1st Contingent in September 1914, arriving in England in October. He was killed in action on 24 April 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, while serving with the 3rd Battalion. Private Howe’s body was never found; he is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium. The collection consists of four letters he wrote to his wife in Toronto, including one written just two days before his death.
James "Jim" Lloyd Evans was born in 1879 in Wales. He served with the British forces in the South African War and following the war he immigrated to Manitoba in 1903. Evans enlisted in Winnipeg in December 1914, and went overseas in 1915. He was killed in action September 1, 1918. The collection consists of 79 letters and numerous photographs.
Frank Clifford Cousins was born on October 24, 1893, in Belmont, Ontario. He began his university studies at the University of Toronto in 1911, and then moved west to the Regina area where he taught school and attended university. Cousins enlisted in Regina, Saskatchewan, in July 1917 and arrived in England in December of that year. In April 1918 he was sent to France where he took part in the Battle of Amiens in August. Later that month he was wounded and sent to England for surgery and to recuperate, and remained in England until the end of the war. Upon returning to Canada he resumed his teaching and his university studies, received his L.L.B. in 1924, and was called to the bar in 1926. He was a partner with the future Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in the firm of Diefenbaker, Cousins & Godfrey. Frank Cousins died in his sleep in June 1927. This collection consist of ninety letters and other miscellaneous materials.
Harry Austin McCleave was born in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, in February 1892. McCleave won the Rhodes Scholarship for Nova Scotia in 1915 and was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford University. Unfortunately due to the war he was unable to enroll. He enlisted in September, 1915 in Halifax, Nova Scotia with the 64th Overseas Battalion. McCleave served overseas with the 13th Battalion until his death in October 1916. The collection currently consists of his diary from 1916 and a newspaper clipping announcing his death.
Harold James Ross was born in Toronto, Ontario, in June 1898. Ross was a student when he enlisted in Toronto in July 1915. He served overseas with the 75th Battalion until his death on August 9, 1918. The collection consists of one letter to his brother and numerous photographs.
Theodore Kenneth Melligan was born in Durham, Ontario, in 1897 and enlisted with the 71st Battalion in Wiarton, Ontario, in October 1915. Melligan served in France with the 44th Battalion and was discharged in February 1918 due to the result of his injuries. The collection consists of one letter and several photographs.
John Leslie McNaughton was born in 1886 in Glengary County, Ontario. McNaughton was a graduate of McGill University when he enlisted in June 1915, and served overseas in France and Belgium. He was wounded and taken prisoner in May 1917, and remained a prisoner until the end of the war. The collection consists of fifteen letters from 1915 to 1919.
Winifred Chapman was born in 1900 and worked at the Tankerton Hospital, Kent, England during the First World War. She kept an autograph book from her time there, which includes inscriptions from four Canadians. There is an incription from Pte. Bruce Nelson Sandford, 27th Battalion from September 29, 1918; an inscription from G. West, 78th Battalion, from September 29, 1918; an undated incription from Pte. Ryan, 26th Battalion; and an undated inscription from Cpl. Thomas Wells.
Ferruccio Joseph ("Fritz") Giacomelli was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in November 1920. He trained in Canada as an Air Observer before going to England in April 1942, flying with the 149 Squadron and later the 419 Squadron. Giacomelli returned to Canada at the end of the war, and died in 1981. The collection currently consists of four letters and several photographs.
Private Edwin Charles Askew was born in London, England, on October 12, 1885, to parents George Frederick Askew and Harriet Askew.
Askew enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with the 144th Battalion on December 28, 1915. He shipped to England aboard the SS Olympic, leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, on September 18, 1916, arriving in Liverpool, England, on September 25. Due to illness Askew remained in England until 1918, and was then demobillized and returned to Canada in the spring of 1919.
External Links:
Pte. Edwin Charles Askew's service record (#830032) can be viewed/downloaded in pfd format through Library and Archives Canada.
George Dorman was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in July 1893. Dorman enlisted in June 1916 and served overseas with the 11th Canadian Mounted Rifles. The collection currently consist of one letter, reunion materials, miscellaneous documents, and more than twenty photographs.
William Cameron Hay was born in Toronto, Ontario in March, 1925 and joined the RCAF in 1943. He served overseas with the RCAF until the end of the war. The collection consists of more than forty letters from 1943 to 1945 between Bill Hay and his girlfriend and later wife, Hilda Cook.
Howard Beverly Thorburn was born in 1898. He attended Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, during 1915 and 1916 before he left to take a commission with the Royal Field Artillery, with whom he served in France until the end of the war. The collection consists of seventy-eight letters from 1914 to 1918.
This collection includes letters from area soldiers published in The Speaker, as well as other articles from that paper pertaining to local soldiers and activities in the town. Overall the collection provides an excellent sense of the connection that a small town in Ontario had to World War One through the pages of its local paper. Whenever possible we have linked the names of individuals appearing in the paper with their attestation papers and/or their commemoration through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The Canadian Letters and Images Project is indebted to Dion Loach for graciously sharing his research.
James Douglas McAdam was born in Beeton, Simcoe, Ontario, in June 1892. McAdam was a teacher at the time of his enlistment in Toronto, Ontario, in January 1917. He served overseas in both the Canadian and Siberian Expeditionary Forces. The collection currently consists of four letters and one photograph.
Joseph Mack Freeman was born in March, 1909 in Innisfail, Alberta. Freeman joined the army in 1941 and returned to Canada in August, 1945. He died in Didsbury, Alberta in October, 1953. The collection consists of his scrapbook of photographs, postcards, and clippings from his time in the army.
Gudmunder Frederickson Gudmundson was born in Iceland in August 1891. Prior to the war he immigrated to Mozart, Saskatchewan. Gudmundson enlisted in June 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The collection currently consists of one postcard from France, three photographs, and a display of his medals.
South African (Boer) War Collection
Alfred Chapman Tresham was born on March 25, 1866, in Leamington, Warwickshire. He was trained in military music at Kneller Hall, Twickenham, and served in two English regiments, the 91st Warwickshire and the 62nd Wiltshire. In 1885 he immigrated to Canada where he served as a bandsman in the Royal Grenadiers Active Militia, the Infantry School Corp at New Fort Barracks, Toronto, and the 2nd Battalion of the Queen's Own Rifles until 1889. In 1895 Tresham resumed his military career as band leader of the 7th Fusiliers in London, Ontario. Two years later he joined the Dufferin Rifles Active Militia (38th Regiment) in Brantford as band leader.Tresham was invited to join the 2nd Canadian Contingent, Special Services, R.C.R. in the South African War. He was deployed as the Sergeant Bugler in October 1899, and invalided due to rheumatism exactly a year later.
The eight letters in this collection originally appeared in the Brantford Courier. Five were written to commissioned officers of the Dufferin Rifles, and three to the Editor of the Brantford Courier. They span, rather unevenly, the period from November 1899 to June 1900. Upon his return to Canada, Tresham remained with the Dufferin Rifles Band & Orchestra until his resignation from military life in 1911. He died in Hamilton of natural causes on August 19, 1943, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Brantford.
This collection currently consists of one letter written in 1943 to Tom Paterson from his father while Tom was serving in Italy.
Like other Women's Institutes across Canada, the Stony Plain Women's Institute of Alberta was an important link between the soldiers overseas and the homefront. Through their members they contributed financial aid to organizations such as the Red Cross as well as sending parcels to overseas soldiers. The collection consists of thank-you letters from soldiers, acknowledgement cards for parcels, receipts for the Institute's donations to the Red Cross, and miscellaneous correspondence.
