James Stuart Holmes was born in Spencerville, Ontario in November, 1897. Holmes enlisted in March of 1916, and went overseas with the 156th Battalion. The collection currently consists of three letters written by Holmes.

Lieutenant John Ernest McLurg was born in Prospect Hill, Ontario on April 12, 1875. Prior to his enlistment in WWI, John and his wife (Annie Allan née Corry) lived in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where he worked as a sales manager and served in the Militia with the 51st Sault Rifles.

He enlisted in Valcartier, Quebec, on September 22, 1914, and was commissioned with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Canadian Infantry Division. Once overseas McLurg served in both France and Belgium before being wounded and taken prisoner at the Second Battle of Ypres on April 24, 1915. As a P.O.W. in Germany he was initially sent to Siegburd until fully recovered from the gunshot wound to the head he had suffered at Ypres, and then was transferred to the Camp at Heidelberg in July of 1915, and later to Soltau in June of 1916.

On August 12, 1916, he was transferred to the P.O.W. camp in Mürren, Switzerland (an agreement between the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government allowed many sick or injured POWs to be interned in Switzerland until eligible for repatriation), where he was joined by his wife Annie in November of 1916. Their daughter, Margaret Gillespie McLurg, was born in nearby Vevey, Switzerland, on October 26, 1917. Shortly thereafter John was repatriated, travelling with his family to England in late December of 1917, and then on to Canada where he was medically discharged from service on April 20, 1918.

The McLurg Collection has two main components. The first is a book of drawings and messages created by McLurg’s fellow prisoners at Heidelberg as a gift to him at the time of his departure from the camp in August of 1916. The second is a set of 27 photographs documenting his time at Mürren, Switzerland. Also included are a small number of other items such as John’s bullet-pierced Maple Leaf Badge, and Annie McLurg’s Visa for transit with their daughter through the United States while returning to Canada in 1918.

External links:
Lt. John Ernest McLurg’s service record (Serv/Reg# unassigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

[Editor’s note: Collection reviewed/updated May 2022. Some additional materials have been added and some changes to categorization of Collection Contents have been made; content descriptions have been reviewed and in many cases expanded to provide more information. No materials have been removed but duplicate postings, if present, will have been corrected.]

Andrew Wilson was born in Brussels, Ontario, in 1880, moved west in 1906, and enlisted in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, in 1916. He served in France from October 1917 to September 1918 until being wounded, returning to Canada in December 1919. The collection currently consists of his diary from October 19, 1917, to December 31, 1917, and one letter home to his wife.

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.

Private Harry Davies was born December 22, 1897, in Hamilton, Ontario, to parents Fannie and William Henry Davies.

He enlisted with the 205th (Tiger) Battalion in Hamilton, Ontario, on March 16, 1916, and proceeded overseas to England on the SS Saxonia in April 1917. Davies was sent to France in August 1917 where he served with the 1st Machine Gun Battalion until wounded in August 1918. After hospitalization in France and England, he was invalided back to Canada on the SS Megantic in June 1919, and then discharged in July 1919.

External links:
Private Harry Davies’ service record (Serv/Reg# 240080) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

Albert Henry Fereday served with the 1st Battalion Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles. He was killed August 22, 1918, at the age of 18. He has no known grave and is commemorated by name on Panel 10 on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Haucourt, France. The memorial stands in the grounds of Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery and bears the names of over 9,000 men who have no known grave. This collection consists of more than one hundred letters sent by Pte. Albert Henry Fereday. The letters have been transcribed by, and are used with the kind permission of, Anthony Fereday, the nephew of Albert Fereday. These materials are part of the non-Canadian section of this project

George Henry Tripp was born in London, England, in July 1897. He immigrated to Huttonville, Ontario, and enlisted in July 1915 at Toronto, Ontario, with the 74th Battalion. Tripp served overseas with the 19th Battalion and was killed May 9, 1917. The collection consists of fifteen letters he wrote to his friend Lola Passmore. For more letters to Lola Passmore, see the collection of that name in the WWI collections.

Joseph Thomas Wright was born in Toronto in 1907. He served overseas in Africa and Europe during the war and then returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection consists of one letter written to his sister Bea from Italy in September, 1944.

Daniel James Sweeney was born in London, England, in September 1896. Sometime prior to the war he immigrated to Canada and worked as a labourer in Ontario. Sweeney enlisted in Cobourg, Ontario, in June 1915. He survived the war but unfortunately nothing else is known about him. The collection consists of one photograph of Sweeney and others (seated, left) taken in 1915.

Claude Senton was born in Simpson, Saskatchewan in July, 1919. He enlisted with the RCAF in the summer of 1941 and served with the 422 Squadron as a Pilot officer. Senton was killed on May 24, 1944 when his plane was shot down, and is buried in Norway. The collection currently consists of personal correspondence, official correspondence regarding his death, as well as photographs and other miscellaneous items.

External links:
Pilot Officer Claude Senton’s service record (Serv/Reg# J89686) 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 Senton can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Hubert Willliam ("Bert") Lovell was born in born in England in November, 1891. Lovell enlisted in Edmonton, Alberta, in January 1916, and served overseas with the 8th Canadian Field Ambulance. The collection consists of two photographs and a transcription of his notes for a speech given at the 8th Canadian Field Ambulance Reunion Dinner in Calgary, 1931.

This collection consists of one letter and five photographs. The letter is from Norman Robertson to his parents in 1918 commenting on the death of one his brothers in France in light of the death of his own infant daughter.