Private George Abraham Reekie was born in Lyleton, Manitoba, on July 18, 1893.

He enlisted with the1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force, on January 12, 1918. Shipping for England on board the SS Megantic in March 1918, he was called-up to action in France beginning in August of that year with the 27th Battalion. Following the cessation of hostilities Pte. Reekie returned to Canada and was demobilized on May 25, 1919.

The letters in the collection were written by George Reekie to his aunts in Camperdown, Ontario.

External links:
Pte. Reekie’s service record (Serv/Reg# 2129198) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

The George Reekie Collection was donated through the work of the Grey Roots Museum & Archives in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Wren Margaret (Peggy) Helen Chesney was born in Wolseley, Saskatchewan, on July 24^th, 1922. She enlisted with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS) in the summer of 1943. She was first posted to H.M.C.S. Conestoga in Galt, Ontario, and then in September to H.M.C.S. Cornwallis in Nova Scotia. Her final posting was in St. John’s, Newfoundland, beginning in November of 1944.

The letters in the Chesney Collection were written to her friend Miss J. Eira Williams of Regina, Saskatchewan, between September of 1943 and June of 1946. (Williams was also a correspondent in the CLIP Collections of P/O Lloyd Wesley Cuming, Cpl. Eunice Frances Davies, and L.A.W. Jean Isabel Turner.)

External links:
Wren Chesney’s Service Record (Serv/Reg# W-2601) is not available through Library and Archives Canada at this time.

Pte. Richard David Walton was born in London, England, on December 22, 1896, son of Richard and Louisa Walton. He enlisted with the 33rd Overseas Battalion in Clinton, Ontario, on August 18, 1915.

Shipping for England on board the SS Lapland in March 1916, Walton proceeded to France in June 1916 and was transferred to the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles on his arrival.

He was killed in action September 15, 1916, and was buried near Albert, France. Subsequent fighting saw his grave lost, and he is now commemorated on the Vimy Memorial.

External links:
Pte. Richard Walton’s service record (Serv/Reg# 401511) 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 Richard Walton can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Lieutenant Herbert Beaumont Boggs was born in Victoria, British Columbia, on July 28, 1892, the second of four children of Beaumont and Mary Louise (née Richardson) Boggs. Prior to the war, in September 1912, Herbert had joined Victoria’s newly formed Militia Regiment the 88th Fusiliers.

When the Great War broke out he enlisted with the 7th Battalion (1st British Columbia) at Valcartier, Québec, on September 18, 1914. Shipping for England on board the SS Virginian as part of the First Canadian Contingent in October 1914, Boggs proceeded to France in February 1915, serving as Lieutenant with the 7th Canadian Infantry Battalion.

Boggs was 22 years old when he was killed while in action in Ploegsteert, Belgium, on February 26, 1915. He was buried in the Ploegsteert Churchyard cemetery. Boggs was one of the first officers from British Columbia to be killed in World War One. Both he and Lieutenant Duncan Bell-Irving died on the same day (see Bell-Irving links below).

The Boggs Collection contains twelve letters written by Lieut. Boggs to his mother and his younger sisters Mary & Dorothy in Victoria, B.C., and to Miss Mansell of London, England, as well as a letter that had been written by his mother and mailed to France just prior to his death. Also included are approximately 50 letters of condolence. While the writing of condolence letters to the families of soldiers killed overseas assumed a terrible familiarity as the war progressed and casualties mounted, at the time of Boggs’ death these letters would often have been the first of this kind written by these correspondents.

External links:
Lieut. Boggs’s service record (Serv/Reg# unassigned) 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 Lieutenant Boggs can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Lieut. Bell-Irving's service record (Serv/Reg# unassigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada; burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The letter written by Sister A. Adamson was donated with the Private Arthur Shannon Collection. Very little is known about the provenance of the Adamson letter, the individuals or circumstances referenced within it, or of the writer herself, beyond the fact that she was working as a Nursing Sister at the 12th Casualty Clearing Station of the British Expeditionary Force on the date the letter was written, November 4, 1917.

Private Robert Howard Manzer was born in Doe Lake, Ontario on July 5, 1886, to parents John Oscar & Jane Eva Manzer. He was working as a school principal at the Quennell School in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, when he enlisted in Vancouver on June 3, 1916, with the British Columbia Company of the Western Universities Overseas (196th) Battalion.

Shipping for England on board the S.S. Southland in November of 1916, Manzer served his time in England working as a Clerk with the Canadian Forestry Corps. He was medically discharged and returned to Canada in late 1918.

The letter in the Manzer collection was written by Robert to his mother at the time of his enlistment, in part to try to explain why he felt compelled to leave civilian life and offer his service to the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force.

External links:
Pte. Manzer’s service record (Serv/Reg# 911980) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

Flying Officer Frank Wilfred Latham was born June 11^th, 1916, to parents Frank & Edith Latham, of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Prior to his enlistment he was living in Trail, British Columbia, with his wife Jean and their two children Barbara and Dennis.

He enlisted in Calgary, Alberta, in the fall of 1942 with the Royal Canadian Air Force; with Frank on active service his family relocated back to Moose Jaw. Their third child, Gary Frank, was born in July of 1944 but died shortly thereafter in late October.

Latham was serving as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner on anti-submarine patrol with the 162^nd Squadron out of Iceland when on December 19^th, 1944, in high winds and blinding snow their Canso aircraft (A #11061) crashed into a mountainside S.E. of Reykjavik, Iceland, killing all 8 crew members. He is buried in Reykjavik (Fossvogur) Cemetery, Iceland.

The collection includes a diary Jean Latham kept in their son Gary’s Our Baby’s Story book of his death in October of 1944, and of her husband’s less than two months later.

External links:
Flying Officer Latham's Service Record Information (Reg/Ser# J/41740) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring him can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Sapper Ivan Donald McLellan was born on Pelee Island, Ontario, on October 19, 1895. He enlisted with the Canadian Engineers Training Depot in Windsor, Ontario, on November 27, 1916.

He embarked for England on board the SS Grampian in February of 1917. Called-up to action in France beginning in June of 1917, he was transferred in October to the 4th Division Engineers where he remained until returning home for demobilization on June 23, 1919.

External links:
Spr. McLellan's service record (Reg/Ser# 506473) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.

Corporal William Alexander McArthur was born in Grey County, Ontario, on September 17, 1891. On February 2, 1916, he enlisted in Owen Sound, Ontario, with the 147th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Shipping for England on board the SS Olympic in November of 1916, he was called-up to action in France with the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles in April 1917. Following the end of the war McArthur returned to Canada and was demobilized on March 19, 1919.

The McArthur Collection was created through the donation of the Private W. Nelson Campbell Collection, which contained the letter written by William McArthur to Essie Douglas, cousin of Nelson Campbell.

External links:
Cpl. McArthur's service record (Reg/Ser# 838777) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.

Private William Harold Hamilton, known as “Harold”, was born in Sundridge, Ontario, on July 20, 1897. He enlisted at Burk’s Falls on February 7, 1916, with the 162nd Overseas Battalion.

Shipping for England on board the S.S. Caronia in November of 1916, he was sent to France in April of 1917 with the 123rd Pioneer Battalion. In November of 1917 he was injured in action and convalesced back to England with gas poisoning, where he was eventually medically discharged on January 30, 1919, with a partial loss of vision from the gas exposure.

External links:
Pte. Hamilton’s service record (Reg/Ser# 657521) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.

The Collection for Pte. W. Harold Hamilton was created from the donation of the Gladys Hornibrook materials. Harold was Gladys’ step-uncle, the step-brother of Gladys’ mother Martha Jane Hornibrook (née Hamilton); after the death of Martha’s mother Eliza Jane Hamilton (née Crowder), their father George Henry Hamilton married Harold’s mother Henrietta (née Raney). Living in the small village of Sundridge near North Bay, Ontario, Gladys was only thirteen years old when World War One began. The majority of her correspondence was with her enlisted uncles Joseph, Charles, and step-uncle Harold Hamilton, but she also saved other letters, photos, and keepsakes from the war years which can be viewed together on the main Gladys Hornibrook Collection page.

Private Joseph (Joe) Edgar Hornibrook was born in Strong Township near Sundridge, Ontario, on July 17^th, 1890. He enlisted there with the 162^nd Overseas Battalion on February 2nd, 1916.

Shipping for England on board the S.S. Caronia in November of 1916, he was called-up for France in December with the 2^nd Pioneer Battalion. Hornibrook was killed in action near Noulette Wood on August 13^th, 1917, and is buried in Aix-Noulette Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France. 

External links:
Pte. Hornibrook’s service record (Reg/Ser# 657846) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring him can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

The Collection for Pte. Joseph Hornibrook was created from the donation of the Gladys Hornibrook materials. Joseph was Gladys’ uncle, the brother of her father Thomas Henry Hornibrook. Living in the small village of Sundridge near North Bay, Ontario, Gladys was only thirteen years old when World War One began. The majority of her correspondence was with her enlisted uncles Joseph, Charles, and step-uncle Harold Hamilton, but she also saved other letters, photos, and keepsakes from the war years which can be viewed together on the main Gladys Hornibrook Collection page.

Company Quartermaster Sergeant James Minorgan was born in Ellengowan, Ontario on December 6, 1895. He was living in Sundridge, Ontario, when he enlisted in Parry Sound with the 162nd Overseas Battalion on April 11, 1916.

Shipping for England on board the SS Caronia in November of 1916, he was called-up to action in France in February of 1917. Minorgan was killed in action on April 17, 1917 in an attack south east of Souchez, France, and is buried in Canadian Cemetery No. 2 in Neuville-St. Vaast. 

External links:
CQMS Minorgan's service record (Reg/Ser# 657846) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring him can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

The collection for Company Quartermaster Sergeant James Minorgan was created from the donation of the Gladys Hornibrook materials. Living in the small village of Sundridge near North Bay, Ontario, Gladys was only thirteen years old when World War One began. While the majority of her correspondence was with her uncles in overseas service, the letters, photos, and other memorabilia that she saved from the war years included keepsakes relating to other local solders. The Minorgan memorial card and postcard were among them.