Pte H.N.Causton, 28th Btn CEF, POW

[Half-pint]

Hello: Our grandfather, Henry Norman Causton, enlisted with the C.E.F. in 1914. Until tonight, most of what we knew about his military service came from two pages on foolscap, written most reluctantly by him in 1978 and only in support of an applicaton for a POW pension from the Canadian government. Like many of your/our grandparents, he refused to discuss any aspect of his experiences during the 'Great War.'

Nevertheless, and although sketchy in detail, these two pages --unearthed just recently, after the death of one of our parents-- gave us enough information to start wondering anew, what had happened to Grandad, and where. All we knew was that he had enlisted with the Canadian army and been captured by the Germans, serving out the remainder of the war as a POW.

Recently, we began a project to digitise and upload, to a common family website, all the family slides and photographs. Because I was bitten (hard!) by the family history bug a few years ago, the task of sorting through, scanning, analysing, and uploading the oldoldold family photos fell (happily enough) to me.

In the process of doing that, just this past weekend, the (approximately) dozen photographs pertaining to Grandad's WWI experiences fell under my hands ... and I squinted again at the fading and blurred printing ... and deciphered several placenames: Kemmel, Locre, St Elooi, Scottish Woods at Voormezele, Reningelst, and Dickebusch. All of which were just obscure placenames until I found -just tonight- the following web sites:

(1) Chris Baker's 'The Long, Long Trail' at http://www.1914-1918.net/menu_war.htm, where --in corroboration with Grandad's very brief notes-- I learnt that he had been a part of the Battle of Mount Sorrel;

(2) Paul Reed's 'Battlefields of the Great War 1914-1918' at http://battlefields1418.50megs.com/ provided additional confirmation about the battle at the wasted town of Hooge;

(3) Robert Lindsay's '28th (Northwest) Battalion Headquarters' website at http://www.nwbattalion.com/28thbattalion.html, featuring two book excerpts which provide information that corresponds with Grandad's and the all-too vivid details of that Battle of Mount Sorrel.

My goals are to try to make contacts with the descendants of soldiers who were POWs with H.N. Causton at Pressel and to share the precious few photographs we have with the descendants of the soldiers therein named. I'll be making posts to the proper sections on this (fabulous) web site to these effects.

Thank you to all the individuals mentioned above, for bringing to vivid memory the events of that war.

Regards,

Alison Causton, in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

In remembrance of:

- Henry Norman Causton (1892-1980), our grandfather, 28th Btn CEF, who somehow survived the Battle of Mount Sorrel and 2-1/2 years as a POW;

- Arthur Charles Dunford (1896-1916), our grandmother's brother, Service no. 15819, Private, East Surrey Regiment, 12th Bn.;

- Albert George Dunford (alias 'Wawman') (1888-1918), our grandmother's brother, Service no. 36663, Corporal, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1st Bn.;

- John Harold Williams (1896-1916), our mother's first cousin, Service no. 27663, unit: 15th Bn. CEF.

[Broznitsky]

Welcome aboard, Alison, there are a few fellow Canucks up here in Baker-land.

I think there is another 28th Btn afficianado here too. I like to fire a few shots over Derek's way every now and again. Keeps his head down.

Peter in Vancouver

[Neil Burns]

Researching a Member of the CEF

Hi Allison and welcome to the Forum!

The above link may be of some assistance to in researching your Grandfather.

Take care,

Neil

[Canadawwi]

Hi Allison!

Welcome to the forum. It looks like you've already done an excellent job on your research.

You may have already made plans to do this, but if not, if you do have any photographs, it would be great if you could donate them to the Canadian Virtual Memorial. That way they would be on permanent display.

Here's the link for one of your relatives. The process of submitting a digital photo is very simple.

Pte. John Harold Williams, 15th Battalion CEF

I'll check to see if I have anything in my own files relating to your relatives.

Best regards,

Marika

(in Toronto, Ontario)

[182 CEF]

Welcome to the Forum from an other Canuck!! Great stroy, perhaps some members can fill in the blanks. Have you checked the War diaries and other sites on the Canadian Gov site?

Dean Owen

Whitby Ontario

[182 CEF]

Here are his "sign up" papers ( if you dont have them)

http://data4.collectionscanada.ca/netacgi/..._e.html&r=4&f=G

Dean

[N.S.Regt.]

Allison

Great to see another Nova Scotian in the mix welcome to the forum. Good luck with your research.

Regards

N.S.Regt.

Cole Harbour N.S.

[Half-pint]

Hello again, and thank you for so many friendly* replies (on first typing, came out "fiendly", haha!).

Peter - Loyalty to one's btn still sticks, eh? I'll look out for Derek, then. ;-)

Neil - I hadn't seen that link before, so will be sure to give it a good look.

Marika - Thank you, I had found that record several months ago ... have been using ArchiviaNet for some time now; excellent resource, isn't it? As for donating any of the records or photographs, another excellent idea, and I've been considering this ... but am hoping to share the results of all this research with surviving family members first (which I hope to do before year's end).

Dean - I had just found the War Diaries over at ArchiviaNet, from reading someone else's post to this forum. Lots of reading to do there for the 28th Btn! And thanks, I did have Grandad's sign-up papers. He had just emigrated from England to "make his fortune", I supposed, at logging or building the railroad, and a bunch of the mates went en masse to Fort William to sign up. If they'd only known.

To the fella over at Cole Harbour, hello and mind you keep up the side for the HRM and South Shore, eh? ;-))

Thanks again for all your hello's. Think I'll move on to the POW forum now, for starters.

Regards,

Alison Causton in "the valley", N.S.

[Terry]

Hi Allison,

Welcome to the forum. You will be very happy being a part of what is a great group of people - very willing to share expertise. I am constantly amazed and informed at what appears on the site.

From across the bay and up the Saint John River valley,

Cheers,

Terry

[Half-pint]

Hi there, Terry: If your throwing arm is really good, then you could toss a message in a bottle, just over Cape Blomidon there and just about hit our house on the Minas Basin ;-).

Thanks for your note,

Alison

[Guest walter.tailly]

I am looking for photographs of Locre and Kemmel during the first worldwar.

Ithink that you may have some, contact me please walter.tailly@worldonline.be

[Derek Robertson]

I hang my head in shame.

It has taken me 6 months to discover this thread.