Coal Miners

[marc leroux]

I've been researching my grandfather who served with the 31st Battalion, 2nd Canadian Infantry. He has a notation from Jan. 1919 that he served as a coal miner in Britain, possibly in Ripon or in Rhye (not sure where this is).

Does anyone know of any literature/information on CEF soldiers serving in this capacity. It was likely in response to the strikes of 1919, and possibly some deal to provide coal for troopships to return soldiers to Canada, but I can't find a lot of reference.

TIA

[Broznitsky]

Marc, I ran a google search on: "31st battalion" cef

and found a fair bit, which you might already know.

If you haven't done so already, you'll have to get one of Mordac's favourite books:

Fraser, Donald (Edited by Reginald Roy). The Journal of Private Fraser, 1914-1918, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Nepean, ON: CEF Books, 1998 (334 pp) ISBN 1896979289

Much harder to find would be: Singer, H.C. History of the 31st Canadian Infantry Battalion, CEF 1938

And hopefully you know about the CEF Online War Diaries, here.

Have fun, Peter in Vancouver

P.S. Where are you located?

[marc leroux]

Thank's Peter.

I've gone through the references you mention (I had to get my sister in Edmonton to photocopy parts of the Singer book). They've been a great source of information, but they don't mention anything about using troops for Coal Mining; I think it was done as part of the reserve Battalions, not the Front Line ones.

marc

(in Columbus, Ohio)