Canadian memoirs

[Guest webbhead]

One of my many researches is on Canadian Great War memoirs, and I'm something of a completist (not to mention my pathological love of lists!). Below is my list of all the Canadian memoirs I've read (or at least located) so far. I'd be interested in any additions others of you can suggest. Keep in mind: I'm looking here for memoirs by ex-solders (i.e. not recent works like "The Danger Tree"), with some sort of "literary" structure (i.e. not regimental diaries, trench letters/ journals, etc), and which purport to be non-fictional (i.e. not novels like "Generals Die in Bed"). "Canadian" could mean soldiers from other countries who served in the CEF. Interested to hear other's thoughts... (and I'm not trying to pass off my own legwork onto anyone else--I'm into this stuff full-time).

Will R. Bird - And We Go On

- The Communication Trench

- Ghosts Have Warm Hands

- Thirteen Years After

William Bishop - Winged Warfare

L. Moore Cosgrave - Afterthoughts of Armageddon

Frederic C. Curry - From the St. Lawrence to the Yser

Private Fraser - The Journals of Private Fraser

Wilfred W. Kerr - Screams and Crashes

Alex McClintock - Best O'Luck (cheers to Marc L's database for this one)

Harold Peat - Private Peat

- The Inexcusable Lie

James Pedley - Only This

Stanley A. Rutledge - Pen Pictures From the Trenches

F.G. Scott - The Great War as I Saw It

Private Simmons (with Nellie McClung) - Three Times and Out

+ Collections:

Oh Canada! (edited by Lady Byng, with some short memoir pieces)

We Wasn't Pals (ed. Callaghan & Meyer, with memoir excerpts)

PS:

- I'm aware of a number of oral histories with brief, uncredited recollections, but I'm more interested in book-length monographs.

- Has anyone read Godefroy's Freedom & Honour (CEF Books)? I'm not familiar with it.

Cheers.

[Broznitsky]

George Godwin's Why Stay We Here?, published 1930, almost makes your criteria. It's an autobiographical novel, written by an officer of the 29th Vancouver Battalion; names have been changed, but not places.

Godefroy's Freedom and Honour is a short study of the various Canadians executed during the war; it is not by any means a memoir-type publication.

Peter in Vancouver

[marc leroux]

"A Rifleman went to war" by Herbert McBride. He also wrote "The Emma Gees"

marc

[Terry]

Here are a few more, basically from the Maritimes:

- Gunner Ferguson's Diary - the diary of Gnr. Frank B. Ferguson, 1st Cdn.Siege Battery. Published by Lancelot Press, Hantsport,NS, 1985

- World War One Reminiscences of a New Brunswick Veteran - interviews with L/Cpl.Stephen J. Pike,MM,26th Battalion. Edited by Gene Dow, Hartland,NB, 1990

- As It Was Then. Recollections 1896-1930 - a memoir by Arthur O. Hickson,BA,MA, Emeritus Professor, Duke University, formerly pte.,26th Battalion.Published by Acadia University, Wolfville,NS, 1988

- From A Stretcher Handle, the journal of Pte. Frank Walker,CAMC, of Charlottetown,PEI. Published by the Institure of Island Studies,2000, and edited by Mary Gaudet

These are all soft cover publications, running from about sixty to 150 pages, and show up from time to time in local second hand book stores here in Atlantic Canada

[N.S.Regt.]

There is one rather scarce published in 1918 called Over the top with the Twenty Fifth by Lieut Ralph Lewis of the Battalion. It describes his experences with them untill he was wounded in 1917. I have found it rather interesting but I am rather bias as this is the battalion I am most interested in.

Regards

N.S.Regt.

[Guest webbhead]

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. The National Library here in Ottawa has all of the suggested titles, so I'll check them all out. Broznitsky: I've read Godwin and I put him with the novelists (another of my current studies). It's a fine line between genres sometimes. There's a new edition of Why Stay We Here out from Godwin Books, a small BC press. Thanks also for clearing up my Godefroy query.

To anyone else: keep suggestions coming if you have them...

Cheers.

[gem22]

Webhead

'World war 1 memories' by Ed Lengel is an annotated bibliography that lists 77 memoirs or autobiographies by Canadian Soldiers.

Garth

[Borden Battery]

Recommended Reading List on the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Marching to Armageddon - Canada and the Great War 1914-1919

Desmond Morton and J. L. Granatstein, Lester & Orpen Dennys, (1989)

- provides a good initial overview of the conflict from a CEF perspective

When Your Numbers Up - The Canadian Soldier in the First World War

Desmond Morton, Random House of Canada (1993)

- details training and life of a typical Canadian soldier

The Journal of Private Fraser - Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1918

CEF Books, Edited by Reginald Roy, (1998)

- excellent, observant, personal journal on one man's direct experiences

Barker VC - William Barker, Canada's Most Decorated War Hero

Wayne Ralph, Doubleday Canada (1997)

- Canada tends not to honour any war hero - Barker included

Vimy

Pierre Berton, McClelland and Steward, (1986)

- a classic, easy-read of one of the pivotal battles of the Canadian Corps

No Place to Run - The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War

Tim Cook, UBC Press (1999)

- documents poison gas by and on the CEF - will become a classic reference text

Shock Army of the British Empire - The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days

Shane B. Schreiber, Vanwell Publishing Ltd. (2004/1997)

- a well written account by an active Canadian military officer of the Corps and reasons for its success

Canada's Army, Waging War and Keeping the Peace

J. L. Granatstein, Univ. of Toronto Press (2002)

- sound overview of many conflicts including the Great War

Paris 1919

Margaret MacMillan, Random House, (2003)

- very well written with a great deal of information packed into it

Passchendaele - The Sacrificial Ground

Nigel Steel and Peter Hart, Cassel Military Paperbacks (2000)

- an extended series of personal accounts of the true horror of this battle

Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D., Army Historical Section

[Note: Can be downloaded as a .pdf file and used for key-word searches. However, the pagination in the online document is different than the original document - therefore citations with page number references cannot be used.]

http://www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/O...ories/CEF_e.PDF

The Canadian "Emma Gees - A History of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps

Lt.-Col. C. S. Grafton, The Canadian Machine Gun Corps Association, London, Ontario, 1938

- of specific interest to students of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~b...c_contents.html

[Borden Battery]

Another very good find which is listed on the CEF Study Group's Recommended website list - Borden Battery

War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps Jan 2006

This is a very comprehensive "on-line" book on the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the Great War. This on-line book of some 300 pages [with text, figures and footnotes] includes the following chapters an Introduction, Rise of the CAMC, Assembly at Valcartier, Salisbury Plain, With the BEF in France, Second Battle of Ypres (Gas), Festubert, Givenchy, Plugstreet, Establishment of Hospitals in France, Stationary Hospitals and Other Medical Units.

[Recommendation by marc leroux / www.canadianGreatWarProject.com]

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/adami/camc/camc.html

[dewey]

Merry Hell by Thomas Dinesen is a good memoir by a Dane serving in the Canadian Army, he won the Victoria Cross.

All For Nothing by Richard Adamson is good but hard to find.

Not Mentioned in Despatches by Fred Bagnall was just reprinted by CEF books, I recently read it and find it a great read. Bill

[barkalotloudly]

two others..." Mainly for Mother" a series of letters by A Norris m.c. canadian machine corps

" a soldier of Quebec" 1919