Thomas Roy Stevenson was born in Lower Woodstock, New Brunswick, in 1888. During the war he joined the British Army as a sapper. The collection consists of four letters written to his sister and brother in Lower Woodstock in 1917 and 1918.

Lieutenant Ivan Clark Maharg was born in Teeswater, Ontario, in 1897 and enlisted in Brandon, Manitoba, in March 1916. He served in France with the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Saskatchewan Regiment). Maharg was killed in France September 29, 1918, at the age of 21. The collection consists of one extended letter, his diary from 1918, and five photographs.

John Ernest Fitzgerald, DFM, was born on January 27, 1925, the son of John and Effie Fitzgerald of New Westminster, British Columbia. Fitzgerald served as a Flight Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed August 27, 1944 when his Lancaster was shot down. Fitzgerald and all the crew members are buried in Denmark. The collection consists of more than forty letters, twelve photographs, telegrams, and other personal items.

External links:
Flight Sergeant John Ernest Fitzgerald’s service record (Serv/Reg# R215210) 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 Fitzgerald can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
More information about the crash in which Fitzgerald was killed can be found on the Danish site dedicated to Fallen Allied Airmen www.airmen.dk.

John McLean was born in Sault St. Marie, Michigan, in 1894. He later moved to Echo Bay, Ontario, where he enlisted in January 1916 and then served overseas in France. He was killed in action February 2, 1917. The collection consists of more than thirty letters.

The two letters in the collection were originally published in a Charlottetown newspaper in late 1916 and the clippings were part of a scrapbook kept by one of the residents of the city during the war. Few details are known about either the individuals in the letters or the circumstances of publication. The Cudmore letter was from John Richard Cudmore, born on Prince Edward Island in May 1898. Cudmore enlisted in March 1916 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Herbert H. King enlisted and served with the Newfoundland regiment. Both soldiers appear to have survived the war. If anyone can provide any further information about these letters, please contact The Canadian Letters and Images Project.

Alexander Hubert Matthews was born in Albeton, Prince Edward Island, in January 1892. He was one of twelve children of Anthony and Barbara Matthews. He enlisted in February 1917 and served overseas as a sapper with the No. 58 Railway Operating Co. The collection consists of a postcard, pages from his paybook, and a certificate of gallantry from the Royal Engineers Transportation Branch.

Francis (Frank) Michael Scandiffio was born on December 24, 1913 and served as a Pilot Officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the war. Frank was killed on July 15, 1944. The collection consists of twenty-nine letters written home by Tom as well as official correspondence relating to his death. See also the correspondence of his brother Thomas.

External links:
Pilot Officer Francis Michael Scandiffio’s service record (Serv/Reg# J88799) 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 Scandiffio can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Edgar William Marlow, MM, was born in London, England, in November 1886. Prior to the war Marlow emmigrated to Canada and he enlisted in August 1915 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Marlow served overseas with the 1st Bn. Canadian Machine Gun Corps until his return to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of letters, photograqphs, postcards, personal and printed matter.

Flying Officer Peter Joseph Biollo was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on September 1, 1923, to parents Peter Paul and Doris Mae (née Casewell) Biollo. Prior to enlistment he was employed as a sheet metal worker in Victoria, British Columbia.  

Biollo enlisted into Active Service with the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 1, 1942, joining the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. After completing his initial training in Edmonton, Biollo was posted in January 1943 to #2 Bombing and Gunnery School in Mossbank, Saskatchewan. In April he advanced to #7 Air Observer School in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, where he earned his Air Bomber Badge and was commissioned as an Officer on May 14, 1943.

Following his arrival in England in July 1943, Biollo completed his training in the Royal Air Force Training Pool. In May 1944 he joined the 576 Squadron, R.A.F., as an Air Bomber. On the night of July 28/29, 1944, his plane failed to return from a mission targeting Stuttgart, Germany, and Biollo was pronounced missing in action. It was later determined that his Lancaster bomber had crashed at Renauvoid, near Epinal, France, killing all aboard except for the pilot who had managed to bail out and became a Prisoner of War. Biollo was buried at the Chaumousey Communal Cemetery, Vosges, France.

Content notes:
The majority of the letters in the collection were written by Biollo to his family in Edmonton during the time he was in training in Canada with the B.C.A.T.P., or while stationed in England with the R.A.F. His letters often mention his eight younger siblings: Miriam, Frances, Elvira, Ramona, Dolores, Loretta, Raymond, and Barbara (born in 1943).
Almost all of the 1943 letters prior to June 17 are undated. In order to allow these to be read in chronological order on the website, they have been assigned sequential numbers and appear in the date listings as “1943-01, 1943-02, etc.” type-format. The chronological order was established based on letter content and service file information, and is intended as a reading aid only.  
The four poems were written by Biollo between 1941-43.

External links:
F/O Biollo’s service record (Serv/Reg#s J26543; R166672) 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 Biollo can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

[Editor’s note: Collection reviewed/updated January, 2023. Three poems, two newspaper clippings, and jpgs of letter pages added. Letter transcriptions reviewed and emended. Additional information added to collection and content descriptions.]

Vaughan Whitier Pearson was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1898 and was a student at The University of Toronto when he enlisted in April 1916. He served overseas in France until the end of the war. Vaughan Pearson was the third of three sons to serve overseas, following his brothers Marmaduke and Lester, a future Prime Minister of Canada. The collection consists of six letters from Vaughan, a post card, a Christmas card, a newspaper clipping, and one photograph.

William Henry Bell was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1897 and moved to Innisfree, Alberta, to farm with his family. Bell enlisted at Vegreville, Alberta, in February 1916 with the 151st Battalion. He was killed at Vimy Ridge on April 10, 1917. The collection consists of twenty letters and one poem.

Gladys Hope Sewell Ross was born in Hastings, Ontario, and trained as a nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. She graduated in 1914. At the outbreak of WWI she volunteered as a nurse at the Hospital for Soldiers in Orpington, England. It was at Orpington that she met her future husband, Dr. James Wells Ross, whom she married in 1915. The collection consist of several photographs and scans of her medals. See also the James Wells Ross collection for WWI (her husband) and the Colin Sewell Ross collection for WWII (her son).