Any idea what his uniform might be?

[simb]

I think this is a relative, if not a close family friend. Any clues in the uniform? The only thing I can see are the thingies on the collar & I have no idea.

Sim.

[auchonvillerssomme]

Canadian but can't make out any other detail

[simb]

Really?? That gets very interesting. Picture was taken in Ealing, along with all the others I have from that time.

Sim.

[Rob B]

That is a Maple leaf, so yup he is Canadian.

Rob

[Owen D]

I've tried enlarging it to see if there's a Bn number on it but it goes too blurred ,sorry.

[simb]

Assuming one had the required heritage, could one have joined a Canadian regiment while living in Middlesex?

Sim..

[simb]

Bn number would be on the collar badge? I can do a 2400dpi scan & see what I get.

[simb]

Off topic a bit, do you think this could be the same gentleman, about 10 years later..?

Sim..

[SiegeGunner]

Off topic a bit, do you think this could be the same gentleman, about 10 years later..?

Sim..

All the major features seem to match, so yes.

Mick

[Owen D]

Could be. Have you a name?

[simb]

I had thought it was the same person, this will be a real needle in a haystack. All I have for a name is Joe. I'll have to dig deeper.

Sim..

[leigh]

Just for mindless information....

I have 2 members of my family (distant) who were from Woolwich. Both left to live in Canada before the war. They both joined the CEF then went to france. Both were injured and met future wives in hospitals in the UK and at least one went back to Canada with his wife.

Of no help but to show that a Canadian man and wife and possibly baby could be photo'd in the UK.

L.

[ajsmith]

This is probably not much help but I seem to recall reading somewhere that some men living in Britain joined the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force), possibly because the pay was better than in the British Army. I'll have a trawl round when I get chance and see what I can come up with.

all the best

[J T Gray]

And I know of at least one case where a man left Essex for Canada, intending to pay for a passage for his wife and family, but in fact came back as a soldier having enlisted in Canada. So despite being from Essex he was in the Canadian army. Lots of reasons why he might have been photographed in the UK, I'd say.

Adrian

[ajsmith]

I've just remembered a story I researched last year on a member of the CEF. The family I was doing the work for were able to provide me with a similar photograph to yours. In this case man in Canadian uniform ,wife and two children(one aged about 8 the other about 3) taken in Newcastle-under-Lyme during the Great War.

The story was: man emigrated to Canada alone in 1910 just after the birth of first child and wife and child remained in Britain.

The wife met another man in 1913/14 and had child by him.

While in Canada man enlisted in CEF claiming to be single and proceeds to France where he discovers that wives are entitled to a separation allowance so reveals that he is married after all!

He receives leave in November 1917 and returns to Newcastle-under-Lyme (how his wife explained extra child I never discovered) where the photograph was taken, they had many more children and lived happily ever after.

So there's plenty of possible explanations.

I think you're going to have to search your family tree for men born between about 1885-1895 called Joseph, it's your only hope.

Good Luck

[barrieduncan]

Sim, do you have a name for the mother and baby? You could try using the lady's surname with Joe or Joseph as the first name, and search the Canadain attestation papers, might come up with something.

[simb]

I don't have any other names, yet. There is no identification on the picture other than on the back, the standard "Portrait by Wakefield's, Ealing" that is on a number of pictures that I got , in a roundabout way, from my great-uncles estate. Great-uncle, grandfather & 2 more brothers were all from Ealing & I've been digging into their wartime service on other threads. If this is the same "Joe" from the other picture, then he was still in the UK in 1952. Great-uncle in question, however, emigrated to Canada in 1926, which in part, inspired my (married) father to run off to Canada with his assistant in the 1950's, which is how I ended up born on the colonial side of the pond

[simb]

So 11 years later and I have solved the puzzle. Henry James Chown emigrated to Canada in 1913. In 1916 he joined the CEF, using the name James Chown. While in England, in 1917 he married Mabel Mundy, in Ealing, whom he had earlier lived next door to. He brought his new family back to Sask. in 1919. In 1926 they were joined in Sask. by my great uncle and wife (Mabel's sister).