Canada huts - any simple descriptions, please?

[Ken Wayman]

In reading an artilleryman's personal diaries (hopefully there will be a book in it!)I've come across reference to Canada huts. While the general meaning is obvious, has anyone come across the name previously? If so, how were they different from most other Army huts, please?

Many thanks

Ken

[sotonmate]

If you go to eBay and search on Canadian Hut there is a photo postcard with WW1 inhabitants,very well built and generously spaced,a la Canada,and not pokey like some of our own construction of the time !

[Ken Wayman]

Many thanks for the heads-up. Just had a look on e-Bay at the postcard. It does appear more roomy that most huts but it doesn't appear to be massively different from the interior of the sole remaining hut on Cannock Chase's Brocton Camp. Alternatively, it's late and I'm tired and getting past it!

Thanks again.

Ken

[sotonmate]

If they look similar maybe it's due to an Army pattern hut being built by the Canadian Army Foresters Battalions here,and called Canadian Huts because of that ?

[EDWARD1]

There is a camp named Canada (Huts) SE of Proven ref 27NE2 F15c,d

Eddie

[Ken Wayman]

Hi Eddie

Now that's a possibility I hadn't thought of - I'll go back to the diary to see if it fits.

Many thanks

Ken

[Ken Wayman]

Hi Eddie

Your post prompted me to look in the 9th Scottish Divisional History (Ewing) where I found, as you suggested,

"...the rest huts at Dickebusch and Canada Huts were dismal and repellent shelters;"

Many thanks to you and Sotonmate for your help. The GWF network is brilliant!

Ken

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Ken,

Perhaps the ' Canada ' huts were an alternative name for the Army's ' Armstrong ' huts, or it was a hut camp location ?

Attached are some photographs of the Army's wooden ' Armstrong ' huts under construction at camps in Britain during WW1.

Regards,

LF

[MBrockway]

There is a camp named Canada (Huts) SE of Proven ref 27NE2 F15c,d

Eddie

I'm also sure I've come across a reference to 'Canada Huts' in the KRRC Chronicles as a camp name rather than a type of hut, but I'm away from my library at the moment.

[stevem49]

I am 'fairly' certain that 33rd brigade used Canada Huts whilst out of the Ypres front line. I think it is the place you want and not a type of hut. Could it be that the name came from the Canadians being there in 1915?

Steve

[Khaki]

Were they built without foundations or were they constructed and transported?

khaki

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Were they built without foundations or were they constructed and transported?

khaki

khaki,

The wooden ' Armstrong ' huts used on the Home Front at various Camps around Britain, were built to a uniform WD ' Armstrong ' design specification, and were probably built on site as they were of a very basic design and wooden construction.

Looking at the photographs, they appear to have been laid on prepared ground with no foundation as such, just a wooden floor, again for ease of construction and as a wartime economy.

Regards,

LF

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Ken,

As opposed to the ' Armstrong ' huts used in Britain on the Home Front, there was another type of hut used closer to the ' Front ', photo attached.

Regards,

LF

[Khaki]

Hello LF,

I guess that they must have provided for drainage channels away from the huts, as during winter rains the water running under the huts must have made them 'dismal and repellant'

as previously posted

regards

khaki

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Ken,

As opposed to the ' Armstrong ' huts used in Britain on the Home Front, there was another type of hut used closer to the ' Front ', photo attached.

Regards,

LF

A similar hut, being used by Australian troops on the Western Front.

LF

[Chris Henschke]

Post No. 15 appears to be a modified ''Amiens Hut'.

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Post No. 15 appears to be a modified ''Amiens Hut'.

Chris,

Clearly the same type of ' Hut ', and great to have the diagram to go with the photograph.

Regards,

LF

[KernelPanic]

I've been looking into the movements of the 50th Division in December 1915 and came across this map showing the locations of the Canada and Dickebusch Huts southwest of Ypres. Canada Huts was obviously not a type of hut, but a location. It's shown on a map in the 50th Division HQ diary, Appendix 7, December 1915.

 

I've attached part of the map here in this old thread in case others find it useful. As was mentioned in another Forum thread (which I can't find now) the map reference is Sheet 28 H32a. The coloured lines show the proposed routes for moving the 149th Infantry Brigade "in the event of a hostile attack".

 

National Archives, WO95/2807/5.

Crown Copyright.

Edited 4 February , 2020 by KernelPanic

[LichfieldPITCHs]

If it's of interest, according to the War Diary, on 6th Sep 1915, from Trenches 33-36, the 1/6th N.Staffs marched to "CANADA HUTS in Divisional Reserve"