Canadian web sites please

[Roy Evans]

I know we have covered this before but it didn't involve me until two minutes ago.

I found out yesterday that my Gt uncle emigrated to Montreal in 1913 at age 28.

I've just realised that he may well have subsequently signed up with one of the Canadian units.

What are the useful sites please?

Roy

[Joe Sweeney]

Roy,

Try:

http://www.archives.ca/02/02010602_e.html

This is the CEF database for over 600000 Candians who served.

If you know his name see what comes up.

Joe Sweeney

[Roy Evans]

Thanks Joe

Roy

[Roy Evans]

Help!

I typed in the name BENJAMIN BRADLEY and got a Regimental number 1241 and a reference RG150 Box995-16.

Can't seem to make anything else happen though. Should I be able to take it further on line?

Roy

[mordac]

Hi Roy:

It appears the attestation papers for Benjamin Bradley aren't available yet on the NAC website. However; knowing his name, regimental number and box reference number you can order his full service record from the National Archives of Canada for about $20.00 Canadian (about £8.5) using this link.

Garth

[Roy Evans]

Garth,

Thanks. Problem is that I don't know if this is my great uncle or not. I only know that he went to Montreal in April '13 and I kind of wondered whether he served or not. Nothing else to go on.

Roy

[mordac]

Hi Roy:

Forum member Peter Broznitsky is on course in Ottawa for the next month or so. He'll be visiting the NAC when he has some free time. Why don't you drop him an e-mail and see if he can check the files for this man and see if he is your great uncle? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Garth

[mordac]

Hi Roy:

I've done some further checking using the information you provided above. The regimental number 1241 falls in the range (1 - 1800) that were assigned to two battalions: The PPCLI and the 8th Bn.

There is no mention in the PPCLI's nominal roll of a Bradley, B. or of a Bradley with the number 1241.

The 8th Battalion (2nd Brigade, 1st Canadian Division) used Winnipeg (in Central Canada) as their area of recruitment. Chances are, a man wouldn't travel from Montreal to Winnipeg to enlist. Of course, your great uncle could have moved on from Montreal to Winnipeg.

Garth

[John_Hartley]

Garth

Any idea roughly how long it takes to get the service papers from the National Archives. I faxed them from the UK on 4 August and have heard nothing. Don't know whether this is the usual sort of delay

John

[Terry]

I just went through the 8th Bn nominal roll which appears in the Naval & Military Press reprint of "List of British Officers and Men Serving in the First Canadian Contingent of the British Expeditionary Force,1914". It appears that "G" Company was assigned the 1200 number block, and every number between 1215 and 1260 is listed EXCEPT 1241 and 1227. Wouldn't you know it!

There is a 613 Pte. Joseph A. Bradley in "D" Company, but that's it.

[Broznitsky]

BENJAMIN BRADLEY and got a Regimental number 1241 and a reference RG150 Box995-16.

Roy, I also find these men.

BRADLEY , BEN 439713

BRADLEY , BENJAMIN 1241

BRADLEY , BENJAMIN ALEXANDER 410690

BRADLEY , STANTON BENJAMIN 2293679

Can you advise where your g-uncle was born, and when? Ben Bradley shows Derbyshire 1889; the last two Quebec and Manitoba.

Peter

[Broznitsky]

Any idea roughly how long it takes to get the service papers from the National Archives. I faxed them from the UK on 4 August and have heard nothing. Don't know whether this is the usual sort of delay

John, I think I have had 4 week service; but it is just 6 weeks now for you. The lack of acknowledgment of ordering is annoying; you are never sure if they received your fax or not!!

Hopefully any day now.

Peter

[mordac]

Any idea roughly how long it takes to get the service papers from the National Archives. I faxed them from the UK on 4 August and have heard nothing. Don't know whether this is the usual sort of delay

Hi John:

Four to five weeks is the usual response time from the NAC (in Ottawa) to the west coast of Canada. Six to seven weeks might be normal for delivery of records to the UK. I'd be inclined to send them another fax to verify your request is being processed.

I should mention, the folks at the NAC are very good at what they do and I've never had a problem ordering records from them.

Garth

[Roy Evans]

Peter,

I too found the last two men but missed the abreviated version.

Benjamin Bradley had no middle name and arrived at Ellis Island USA on the vessel 'Baltic' out of Liverpool, England on 12th April 1913, en route for Montreal, aged 28 years. According to the ships papers he lived in Wolverhampton, England. He was in fact born 22nd June 1884 in the (then) village of Sedgley which is just outside that place. I looks unlikely that he was involved at least with the Canadians then.

Thanks to everyone for your time.

Roy

[John_Hartley]

Garth/Peter

Many thanks. I don't know if you have Sod's Law in your part of the world, but in the UK the Law dictates that if you post a question like mine, the stuff arrives in the post next day. Which it did this morning !

The papers on my man seem to confirm the confusion about which unit he was serving with when he won an MM and when he was killed. I may be back to you for advice.

[mordac]

I don't know if you have Sod's Law in your part of the world, but in the UK the Law dictates that if you post a question like mine, the stuff arrives in the post next day. Which it did this morning !

Hi John:

Excellent, I'm pleased your package arrived. Six weeks isn't bad turn around time. As I mentioned, the staff at the NAC are good at what they do.

As for Sod's Law...

Garth

[Broznitsky]

The papers on my man seem to confirm the confusion about which unit he was serving with when he won an MM and when he was killed. I may be back to you for advice.

John, bring it on!! Mordac and me, and the other Canucks love challenges!

Peter (now back in Vancouver for a break, with full access to my references. I have to figure out how to convert all these books into Acrobat .pdfs so I can take a single CD on the road with me! )

[John_Hartley]

OK - Canucks. I probably have this straight now I've read all the documentation,but will tell the story just in case you reckon different.

My man is Signaller Fred Walsh MM, 348333 who emigrated to Ontario from the Stockport area in 1911. He was KIA 0n 27 October 1916, allegedly serving with 12th Canadian Horse Artillery (as recorded by CWGC). I started the research on him before the war diaries went on line and Ottawa had sent me a copy of the diary for the day he was killed (no charge !!).

There was nothing of great significance and I wrote up his website entry suggesting he was probably killed by incoming fire. When the war diaries went on line, I went back to see if I could perhaps find some mention of the MM. I realised that the diary was one of the very detailed ones and certainly seemed to contain the names of ALL fatalities and awards. But no mention of Fred. I concluded then that perhaps he was posted to another unit (perhaps Divisional, as it was the Divisional Chaplain who wrote to his wife). This seemed most likelyas the Horse Artilery were nowhere near the action on the day he was supposed to have his MM.

What seems to have happened is that he was originally posted to RCHA in Canada and subsequently posted to what I think reads 45 Howitzer in July 1916.

Where the real error has crept in is that one line on his casualty form reads "posted to 12th RCHA". The next line reads "taken on strength on 12th Canadian FIELD artillery". And certainly the Field Artillery is in action on the appopriate days. Seeing as he was a signaller, next job (unless I slash my wrists at the thought of the boredom) is to trawl through all the orders attached to the War Diary to see if any were transcribed by Fred. Lucky me, eh?

Have a good weekend, guys

John (in a rainy Stockport)

[mordac]

Hi John:

This one's a bit of a puzzle. After a quick look here's what I can tell you:

1. Fred Walsh isn't listed as being Mentioned in Dispatches on the A or B list.

2. His number falls within the range (348001-350000) assigned to the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Depot; mobilization area Kingston, Ontario.

3. A quick look through David Love's book on the organization of the CEF indicates a massive reorganization in most artillery branches of the CEF during 1915-1916.

After I tend to planting the Spring bulbs for my wife, I'll spend some time tonight and see if I can unravel the reorganization string and try to find out what happened to the 12th RCHA.

I don't know if Broz or any of the CEF brothers have been on the forum today, but I'm sure someone else will be looking into this puzzle for you.

Garth

[John_Hartley]

Garth/Peter

Thought you'd like to know. Just finalising the web page for Fred Walsh - written up with him serving with RCFA (for which no mention of his MM in the War Diary that I find - which is a bit of a surprise as the writer seems to have nothing else to do but add hourly entries. I could, of course, have lost the will to live over this).

Anyway, just nipped back into the CWGC website to check the cemetery. And, guess what? Yep. They've changed his unit from Horse Artillery to Field Artillery. Must have been one of the re-checks they did before the website upgade. I'm pleased at the result ( not that I had anything to do with it), but not a little peeved that I've had months trying to sort out why I couldnt find him in the Horse Artillery. I've just written to CWGC giving them his full first name and age from the stuff I got from Ottawa, so we'll see if they update.

Thanks for the help with this.

have a good weekend

John

[mordac]

Good on you John. What's the URL for Signaler Walsh's web page?

Garth

[John_Hartley]

Garth

He's here

[Borden Battery]

Try these Canadian websites for information:

CEF General Research Websites

Note: CEF Study Group member websites denoted with asterisk "*"

==============================================

Library and Archives Canada - Military History

The fundamental URL for most CEF researchers. This site contains a wide range of basic links and represents a "starting point" for many people just beginning research on the CEF in the Great War.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/war-military/index-e.html

Library and Archives Canada - Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918)

Over 600,000 Canadians enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War (1914-1918). The CEF database is an index to those personnel files, which are held by the National Archives. To date, over 800,000 images of Attestation papers have been scanned and are being made available on-line.

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/02010602_e.html

Library and Archives Canada - War Diaries of the First World War

This database contains the digitized War Diaries of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) units. From the start of the First World War, CEF units were required to maintain a daily account of their “Actions in the Field.” This log was called a War Diary. The War Diaries are not personal diaries, rather they are a historical record of a unit’s administration, operations and activities during the First World War.

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

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

This is the classic reference text[the Bible] for any student of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. The original text is very difficult to obtain, however, the document is now available in .pdf format directly from the historical section of the Canadian Armed Forces website. [Note: 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

Canadian Military History Journal

Canadian Military History is a "journal-in-a-magazine-format" published by the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies since 1992. Presently in its 13th volume, CMH continues to fulfill its original mandate, this being to explore all aspects of Canada's military history, from the earliest days through to the twenty-first century. Particular emphasis is given to the First and Second World Wars.

http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwmsds/cmh.htm

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial

This site contains a registry of information about the graves memorials of more than 116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served valiantly and gave their lives for their country.

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm...ions/virtualmem

The Canadian War Museum

The Canadian War Museum (CWM) is an affiliated museum of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The Canadian War Museum, the national military history museum is also a centre for research and the dissemination of information and expertise on all aspects of the country's military past from the pre-contact era to the present.

http://www.warmuseum.ca/

Canadian Military History News

A recommended site with a wide range of topics from 1755 until the present. There are a several topical items which are updated on a regular basis and this site is constantly being updated as well.

http://northernblue.ca/mblog/index.php

*Canadian Great War Project

This site is intended to be used to research Canadians who participated in the Great War 1914-1919. The content is primarily database driven to facilitate searches for information. The site is, and will continue to be, a work in progress, and is becoming a collaborative effort among those interested in researching Canada and the Great War.

http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com

Canadian Military History - A Bibliography of Regimental and Military Histories and Relative Material in the University of Calgary Library

- a comprehensive listing of CEF material in one quick to access site.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/library/subjects/HIST/canmil.html

[Borden Battery]

The CEF Study list of Recommended Great Websites has now exceeded 200 sites with specific abstracts for each site. We are adding websites in addition to CEF websites. Recommendations are always welcome.

Borden Battery