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Remembered Today:

Canadian War Diaries


Simon_Fielding

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Is everyone aware that the National Archive in Canada has put most of its War Diaries online? I found details of the 5th and 1st Canadian Infantry Battalions in which two Bewdley men served instantly.

What an amazing resource! If the PRO can do the Census, they could do the War Diaries! Cue Flying Pigs...:)

Canadian War Diaries at:

http://www.archives.ca/02/02015202_e.html

Cheers,

Simon

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Guest Hill 60

Simon - I've just had a look at that site and it is great! I found the day when my great grandfather was buried 4 times by shell-fire whilst in the 21st Bn and enteries for the other Canadian casualties I have medals for.

Yesterday I 'Google' searched for any war diaries on-line but I drew a blank :(, but this is just brilliant :D

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it'll be even better when they add the Horse Artillery and finish off the attestation papers. I've managed to get the war diary page for the day of my man Walsh's death but can't persuade Ottawa to also send the page for the day he won his MM. Frustrating from an otherwise wonderful service.

Why can't we do this in the UK ??

John :(

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Brilliant - many thanks for sharing that with us. Just shows what can be done; would be great to see this even with just Divisional HQ diaries in WO95 - but when??!! :rolleyes:

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Simon - just to add to the thanks for that alert. I've got a particular interest in the 50th Bn, 10th Brigade, 4th Div, and the diaries are there!. Excellent!

Oh, if only the PRO.........

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Am I doing something wrong here? I did a search on Machine Gun units, and found most of the references were simply catalogue entires, not the actual diaries.

Any idea what percentage have been scanned on?

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Guest Hill 60

Staffs - I also looked for 'other units', such as the Canadian Railway Troops and the Canadian Forestry Corps but their diaries aren't on-line.

I thought that maybe it was only infantry battalions that had been done but I found that the Canadian Cyclist's diaries are on-line!

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My Canadian tax dollars finally put to good use!!! A few months ago I don't believe anything was available online.

As of today, I calculate 36% of war diaries are "digital". I saw Corps, Division, Brigade, and Battalion diaries. Looks like most of the Infantry is done including RCR and PPCLI (with some tantalizing date gaps for some btns). I also saw some Cavalry, Engineer, Artillery, MG, and yes even Cyclists. And marked-up trench maps!

Looks like an amazing work in progress, something to keep checking back on to see what else is online. Remember to select the "digital" checkbox.

Ah, the fortune I will save in photocopying micro film!!!! Maybe I can afford a Trio now!!!

Hyper-ventilating Peter in Vancouver :lol:

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Typical! I found the diaries for one of the units I've been researching (1st Pioneers) only to find out that the actual month that I wanted hasn't been digitised, whereas all the rest have!!!

It's an exstremely useful link, however, and I managed to get 100% of the others that I was after, so Thanks for the tip-off, Simon!

Dave :)

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Dave, by happy "Pal" coincidence, my library received the microfilm that has 3rd Pioneers last week; the film also has ALL Pioneer and Entrenching Battalion war diaries. My OIC has given me leave to go researching again on Wednesday, so I will photocopy week up to June 23 1916 for you. Will keep you posted. Actually, while I'm there, are you interested in any other dates?

Peter

P.S. Very big cheers to Simon for pointing all the lovely digital material out to us!!

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Thanks Peter. I really appreciate that.

No, it's just that week for the pioneer units that I'm looking for.I managed to find everything else I was after.

Thanks again,

Dave. :D

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  • 5 months later...

As an update to this thread, I dare point out that this project has been progressing well. Most of the War Diaries seem now to be online. In addition, I notice that more of the Attestation Papers seem to be available. Papers not available a few months ago are now there.

I consider this to be exceptionally good work on the National Archives' part.

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  • 1 month later...

Does this resource have all, or just selected diaries. I must say I find the search page difficul to use.

I am currently trying to find 19th Bn CEF for September 1916, but they don't appear to be there?

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Many, many thanks Neil - just what I wanted. You have helped me help the family of a soldier of the 19th who was killed on 15th September 1916, and are about to visit his grave.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have almost completed the transcribing of the Borden Motor Machine Gun Battery war diary, of the 1st

Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade. The Borden Battery was a 56-man unit which later was named "C"

Battery of the Brigade.

In addition, most of the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade [CMMG Bde] war diary from 1917 to 1919

is also complete. Those familar with the Canadian Independent Force/Brutinel's Brigade would know

the Borden Battery was one of the elements of this motorized Canadian unit.

Material being filed in four MS-Word97 documents and is going through a final edit over the next 6 months.

Are they any researchers undertaking similar work on the Canadian Corps? Anyone interested in sharing

and/or exchanging data and data sources on the Canadian Machine Gunners?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow! What a find. Just shows you what you miss when you don't visit ALL of the forum's pages for a while.

I echo the sentiments above regarding War Diaries at the PRO. Although the stewards who patrol the reading rooms are rightly ruthless in their insistence on readers treating documents with care, I shudder at some of the unintentionally rough handling that takes place when the same documents are handed over for photocopying.

Good on the National Archives of Canada anyway and thanks, very belatedly, for the link.

Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest grandchild
Staffs - I also looked for 'other units', such as the Canadian Railway Troops and the Canadian Forestry Corps but their diaries aren't on-line.

I thought that maybe it was only infantry battalions that had been done but I found that the Canadian Cyclist's diaries are on-line!

Hi,

I am new here to this forum...

If you are doing a search in the Archives this site with KeyWords might helpKeywords

I have the 42nd Battalion, from January 1917 to end, the 8th Canadian Railway Troops and the 7th Canadian Railway troops on my PC.

Claudia Park

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  • 3 months later...
Is everyone aware that the National Archive in Canada has put most of its War Diaries online? I found details of the 5th and 1st Canadian Infantry Battalions in which two Bewdley men served instantly.

What an amazing resource! If the PRO can do the Census, they could do the War Diaries! Cue Flying Pigs...:)

Canadian War Diaries at:

http://www.archives.ca/02/02015202_e.html

Cheers,

Simon

Some may also want to back up a page on the National Archives site to the title for the Canadian War Diaries, as there is a link at the bottom that takes you to the "War Diaries Exhibition" which is very good.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020152_e.html

Richard of Canada

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What an amazing resource! If the PRO can do the Census, they could do the War Diaries! Cue Flying Pigs...:)

Speaking of the census, the NAC provides the 1901 Canadian census online here. The only problem is it is not searchable by surname; only by city or district. When I've used this resource in the past, it's taken a bit of effort finding the information I was looking for.

Garth

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The National Archives of Canada also has the British war diaries available to view online:

Lahore Divisional Artillery

Lahore Divisional Ammunition

West Lancs Divisional Artillery

West Lancs Brigade

Royal Artillery

Reserve Divisional Ammunition Column

Reserve Divisional Trench Mortar Group

Trench Howitzer Battery

Royal Engineers

Royal Army Service Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

1st Army

2nd Army

4th Army

Reserve and Fifth Army

Cavalry Corps

1st Corps

2nd Corps

3rd Corps

4th Corps

5th Corps

Lahore Division

3rd Division

4th Division

5th Division

11th Division

20th Division

24th Division

28th Division

27th Division

50th Division

55th Division

80th Infantry Brigade

9th Infantry Brigade

Royal Welsh Fusiliers

XVII Corps

XIV Corps

1st Cavalry Division

3rd Cavalry Division

Artillery Festubert

Infantry Givenchy

Second Army

St. Eloi

Guards Division

Royal Flying Corps

Sketches and Locations

Index to Edmonds Files

Colonel Duguid

Garth

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Speaking of the census, the NAC provides the 1901 Canadian census online here. The only problem is it is not searchable by surname; only by city or district. When I've used this resource in the past, it's taken a bit of effort finding the information I was looking for.

Garth

The unindexed scanned images of the Canadian 1901 Census are indeed frustrating in some respects, but all is not lost! Since these were made public some years ago there have been genealogy freaks working like beavers all over the place. Some of them are putting the results of their labours on the internet. An example is here:

http://automatedgenealogy.com/census/index.html

These volunteers have not yet completed the whole Census, but it is already quite useful.

For my particular part of the universe, I find the similar service of the Alberta Genealogical Society to be useful. You can find it here:

http://www.agsedm.edmonton.ab.ca/1901_census_202_online.html

Permit me to editorialize a wee bit. The policy of the National Archives in making scanned documents freely available on the net is superior to the UK policy of making indexed bits of collections available at a significant cost. The costs to the Archives of putting up scanned images is not great compared to the indexing costs. Once the images are available, hordes of volunteers can do the indexing work at their own pace. The result is more stuff available faster, and the results are available to anyone for free.

Just my opinion.

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