Reverend William Beattie, CMG, was born in Fergus, Ontario, in April 1873. After his graduation from college in 1900 he moved to Cobourg, Ontario, where he was the minister in the Presbyterian Church. Beattie enlisted in September 1914, and sailed with the first contingent to France as the Chaplain to the First Canadian Brigade, and then later served as the Senior Chaplain of the Second Division. Beattie was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in recognition of "...his most conspicuous gallantry and distinguished conduct at the gas attack at St. Julien and through all the subsequent severe fighting of the period. Working unremittingly, with complete disregard to danger, he assisted in collecting wounded on many fields of action." He later returned to Ottawa in 1918 to organize the Chaplain Service of Canada and was at that time promoted to the rank of Colonel. The collection currently consists of thirty-four letters and two photographs. There are however other Beattie letters in the Cobourg World collection in the Special Items section, as he also sent letters back to the local newspaper for publication.

Bernard Freeman Trotter was born in Toronto in 1890 and graduated from McMaster University in Toronto in 1915. He began graduate work at the University of Toronto before leaving for England in March 1916. Although ill health prevented him from being accepted into the Canadian army, he was determined to serve and was able to secure a commission in the British Army. Trotter went to France in December 1916 with his Leicestershire Regiment, and was killed by a shell on May 7, 1917. The collection consists of 87 letters home to his family from March 1916 to his death in May 1917. Trotter was also a noted poet. His poems were collected by his father in 1917 and published later that year by McClelland and Stewart as A Canadian Twilight. The complete Trotter fond is located at McMaster University. All materials ©McMaster University and used with their permission.

Alexander McCheyne, MM, was born in Scotland in April 1893, and sometime before the war he immigrated to Manitoba where he worked as a farm labourer. McCheyne enlisted in January 1915 at Virden, Manitoba. He served overseas and was awarded the Military Medal for his actions on October 30, 1917, at Passchendaele Ridge. The collection currently consist of thirty six letters he wrote to his sister Mary.

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.]

Owen Harper was born in Cheshire, England, in December, 1891. Prior to the war he emmigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he worked as a printer. Harper enlisted in June, 1916 in Winnepeg, Manitoba. He served overseas with the Canadian Field Artillery as a driver until his death in September, 1917. The collection currently consists of more than twenty letters.

Charles Thomas Armstrong, the brother of Alex Armstrong of Cumberland, British Columbia, served with the 6th Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. Armstrong died November 24, 1915, of wounds received at Gallipoli age 34. The collection currently consists of more than sixty images from his photograph album.

External links:
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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.

Louis Dureault was from Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Dureault enlisted in 1943 and served overseas with the South Saskatchewan Regiment, including the D-Day invasion. He was wounded in August, 1944 and remained in various hospitals until he returned home in October, 1945. He died in 2005 at the age of eighty. The collection currently consists of more than seventy letters from 1944 and 1945.

William Lowrie Hill was born in Harrington West, Ontario in December, 1888. Hill enlisted with the 49th Battalion in Edmonton in January, 1915. He served overseas with the 49th until his death at Mount Sorrel in June, 1916. He was the brother of Edward Robert Hill who was killed at Passchandaele in October, 1917. The collection currently consists of two photographs and one 49th Battalion card.

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.