Canadian Great War Project Blog Page

The Piper

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:42:00 -1300

The first house that we owned was in Beaconsfield, a suburb of Montreal. We moved in on Christmas Eve, many years ago,, and on Christmas Day the doorbell rang, and when we opened the door there was a very small bundle of white fur; an 8 week old Samoyed that my wife thought should join our household. We named her “Inja” and that began a longtime love affair with Sammy’s, the subject of another blog.

The couple that lived next to us was a retired couple that had immigrated to Canada from Scotland in the mid 60’s. Jim and Wyn Dobbie were great neighbours. Their brogue was still quite strong, and it did take a while before I could easily understand them. Jim had the only snowblower on the street, and on winter mornings he’d clear his driveway, and then help out with the others on the street; as long as you had made an effort to do it yourself, first. If he saw you out shoveling, he’d come and help you finish it. If he didn’t see you doing it, you were out of luck. Being older, and perhaps wiser, I realize what a good strategy this was.

Over the course of time, we had another Sammy, Kodey, join our family, and slowly built up the relationships with the neighbours on the street. This wasn’t all that easy. Years later we were still considered “the new people”. And it turned out that Jim didn’t really like dawgs. He never came out and said som, but he’d have a very disapproving look on his face whenever he saw them.

Jim was a piper, and he played for the Black Watch. He also gave lessons, which typically sent our dawgs scurrying for someplace to hide; listening to students learn bagpipes is not enjoyable. But often, at night, Jim would be in the basement practicing, and we’d have the two dawgs begging to go outside and listen. They’d sit on a small hill that gave them a good view of the Dobbie house, and just listen. When he’d finish, they’d ask to come in. It never mattered how hot or cold it was, if Jim was playing, they’d stay out. And on many occasions, I’d be out there with them, enjoying the music.

I mentioned this to Jim once, and he responded with “So ye think my playing is for the dogs, do ye?” and he walked off.

In our second year living there we started to host an annual New Year’s Eve party, and over time, it became an event that everyone on the street looked forward to. About our third year there, we asked Jim if he would pipe in the New Year for us. Jim was a bit reluctant, but Wyn told him to just get his pipes and do it. He brought them in, and set himself up to play, and at the first sounds coming out of the pipes, our two dawgs went tearing up towards Jim. You could see he was nervous, Kodey was a very big dawg, weighing about 120 pounds, and Jim wasn’t sure what their intentions were. But they stopped just in front of Jim, plunked themselves down and watched him. Jim started playing, marching back and forth, and the dawgs heads moving back and forth with him, with big Sammy smiles on their faces.

From that day forward, nobody could say anything bad about our two dawgs. One Saturday, a bunch of us were outside and the dawgs were out back, barking at a squirrel, and someone mentioned that they were making noise. Jim turned immediately and said “I’ll nae hear you saying anything bad about those dogs!”

Now, years later, one of the regrets I have is that I don’t have any recordings of Jim playing the pipes. I often think about the “concerts” we had, where the sound of the pipes would be perfectly clear and I’d be sitting outside with the dawgs, just listening.

When I was at the Black Watch Armory a month or so back, I picked up a copy of the 150th Anniversary CD. Cal Kufta, the archivist at the Black Watch Regimental Museum wasn’t about to say that Jim was one of the pipers on the CD, but he didn’t rule it out either. So I’ll choose to believe that he is, and in the evenings I’ll up on the couch with our current generation of Samoyeds and listen to “Jim” play.

The 73rd Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada, CEF – Regimental History

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:43:18 -1300

Sometime over the Christmas break, Chris Wight let me know that the Black Watch/Royal Highlanders of Canada had published the Regimental History of the 73rd Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada 1915-1917. We had known that the history existed, and we believed that it was in manuscript form in the Black Watch Archives. It was welcome news that it was finally published. The cost of printing small lots is now affordable, so the Royal Highlanders have decided to test the waters with a limited printing of 2,000 copies. I already have copies of Fetherstonhaugh’s History of the 13^th Battalion, and Topp’s history of the 42^nd, so this volume would round out my collection of Black Watch histories. Having grown up in the Montreal area, a lot of men that I research ended up with the Highlanders, so this was a welcome addition. The book is only available through the Black Watch web site, and this led to a set of very fortuitous circumstances.

After receiving the eMail from Chris, I immediately went to the Black Watch site to order it. Living in the States, it is difficult to get foreign money orders, so I wanted to pay for it via PayPal, which proved to be, shall we say, challenging. PayPal, apparently only works with certain browsers and versions and none of the ones I had (and running a web site, I have quite a few that I use to test with) would work. Besides, as my wife pointed out, the shipping costs to the States were a tad high, so she suggested that I get a relative to pick it up and send it to me. Somewhat petulant (“but then I’ll have to wait for them to mail it”) I conceded that it made sense. She also pointed out that we were going to be up in the area in another week, but we both knew that we seldom have time to drive into downtown Montreal on our annual whirlwind Christmas visit. I knew that my brother-in-law would readily agree to get it for me, but they were out of town and I figured I’d ask him once we got together over the weekend.

Our annual Christmas trek had been postponed until the week after new Years to accommodate the families various schedules, so Penney and I drove up from Columbus, Ohio to Ottawa the Wednesday after New Years. We spent two days with fiends there, and then headed down to Godmanchester, a small township about 50 km south-west of Montreal. It’s a bit out of the way, but we always stop in Pointe-Claire, in Montreal’s west island, to pick up some Montreal bagels to bring back with us (nothing compares to Montreal bagels). Penney also wanted to do a bit of shopping and on the drive down from Ottawa she suggested that I leave her to do the shopping, and then I could go into town and pick up the book. She called the Black Watch Armory (they say that they will open the Kit Shop by appointment) and was told that they would be happy to open it up for me. I dropped Penney off at a mall in Pointe Claire, drove downtown (it’s been years since I’ve driven in that area) and made my way down to the Armory on Bleury. Cal Kufta, the archivist at the Black Watch Regimental Museum, let me in and we proceeded to have a great chat for the next hour. Cal gave me some background on the book, explaining that it was the publishing costs that had prevented it from being published in 1944, that a very small “proofs” had been published and one was in the Regimental library, along with the original manuscript. With the declining printing costs, they had decided to publish it as it was originally written, but with an updated Nominal Roll. It turns out that Mike Cher had gone through all the Part II’s for the Battalion, and had compiled an updated nominal roll. Having gone through some of the Part II’s, and being very familiar with data extraction and transcription, I can only imagine the work that was involved.

The result is a great addition to any Great War reference library. The narrative gives an almost day-by-day account of the Battalion from its formation until it was broken up after the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The above mentioned Nominal roll makes it indispensible in its own right, and the notes on members of the Battalion after it was broken up were great reading.

All in all, one of the better Regimental histories. In a word (or 2), “Buy it”! You won’t be disappointed. It’s $24 well spent.

Cal also explained that if anyone is having trouble ordering it, either because of the PayPal issue or any other reason, use the form on the website to contact him, or call the Kit shop phone number, and he’ll be happy to help you. Absolutely 1^st class customer service!

I also picked up a Black Watch CD; one of my neighbours used to play Bagpipes with them, but that’s a story for another day.

Email and the Canadian Great War Project

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:20:00 -1300

I was thinking about eMail quite a bit over the last few weeks, mainly because it takes up a lot of my time on a daily basis (here’s where peals of laughter erupt from people that haven’t heard from me for very long time). But it is true. I get about 8,000 email’s a year to my CGWP address, which is about 20% of what I get at work, so in total I’m going through about 120 eMails on a daily basis. Granted a lot of them don’t take a lot of time … I have decided that I don’t want to get rich by helping someone who has secreted money out of <insert name of 3^rd world country here>, so click those are gone. The same for the complaints I get from the Better Business Bureau. The ones I’m referring to are those written by someone who speaks English as a 14^th language and that tell me I really need to click on a very suspicious link to find out what the complaint is. Click – those are gone. They take a bit linger, because I find it humourous to read them. Then there are the ads from various services that want me to buy their products, so they don’t take long to select and delete.

The remaining ones fall into several categories:

Problems with the web site. I try to address these pretty quickly (OK, the problem with uploading images dragged on for much too long), and thankfully they are fairly few.
People tracing family members. These are pretty common, most are looking for information on how to trace an ancestor’s war experience, but occasionally they want to know a bit more than what is on the attestation papers. One was along the lines of “You say that my great-uncle 4 times removed was married to Jane, but her name was Margaret Jane, and they divorced in 1922. Do you know why?” Sorry, but no I don’t know why. One of my favourites from this category was “I’d like to know more about my great-grandfather. Can you tell me what he did in the war?” That was it, no name provided. The follow up was “Oh, sorry, his name was John Smith, but maybe he used Smythe. I think he may have lived in Ontario.” Humm, not much there to go on.
People complaining about the accuracy of the information. Actually most aren’t complaining, they are really helping us build up the accuracy of the data and providing corrections, which are always very much appreciated, but it’s the ones that are somewhat belligerent that stand out. “My great uncle was born in Glyndyfrdwy, not Glyndyford! Everyone knows that there is no town called Glyndyford!” Well, I’m not sure that either the clerk that was trying to write it down on the attestation form knew that, and apparently the person who tried to decipher his handwriting to enter it knew that either.
And my favourite, the ones who don’t find a name they are looking for. Most politely provide the information or ask how they can enter it, but a few get quite animated: “How can you say that you have a database when my wife’s 14th cousin 6 times removed isn’t in it? I’m very, very disappointed.” Knowing how hard everyone that volunteers time is working to get names added, I find these hard to answer, or at least answer politely. Occasionally, I get one that ends with something like “… and I know this because my grandmother has a picture of him that was taken in uniform. There is a date of 1944 on it!” Ummm, wrong war.
And then the ones that make it all worthwhile. “Thank you for helping me find more information about my grandfather. My mother knew he was in World War 1, but that was all. Thanks to this wonderful resource we know a bit more. Thank you for commemorating all the men that served, not just the ones that died.”

And that’s really what this is all about: having a place to remember the men and women that served. And thanks to everyone who volunteers and helps the database grow by about 500 new entries, and 300 updated entries every week. Through your efforts this great resource keeps getting better.

When things go wrong ….

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:41:06 -1300

It was supposed to be easy! I have known for a while that I would have to make some changes to the site to upgrade the infrastructure, because it was getting harder to maintain. I needed something that mirrored what I could test against.

So I did my research … really, I did. I tested the site on my local hardware against a similar set of hardware and didn’t have any problems. So I figured I was all ready to go. The process is automated on the site where the Canadian Great War Project is hosted, and it said “This process will take approximately 30 minutes. Larger sites may take longer.”

So I figured, well if it takes 4 times as long, then it’s only a couple of hours. So I set my alarm, and got out of bed at 3:00 AM, statistically the time with the least access, and started the upgrade.

… 2 hours later – site was still down.

… 4 hours later – same

… 12 hours later – I’m starting to get concerned

… 24 hours later – On the phone with tech support. Oops, the automated process stalled and left everything in limbo. “Don’t worry, we’ll straighten it out.”

So they reset things, and the site was back to its original state. Then a bit later today, they restarted the upgrade, and it worked smoothly. Except for that teeny little sentence, buried in the documentation “Applications may need to be modified after the upgrade.”

So the site came back on-line, and all kinds of error started to appear. There was a slight configuration difference between the old hardware and the new. Thankfully the error was easy to understand, and not too hard to fix … except that I had to change over 1,000 files and re-upload them to the server. My wife came in to ask me a question while I was desperately trying to get everything uploaded again. She quickly left saying “A leeeetttttlllllle bit stressed, are we?” Even Bodey Dawg took one look at me and scooted towards the other end of the room, sitting with his paws over his head!

But it all seems to be back running now.

Finally.

Some 40 hours after I started that “1/2 hour little task.”

I have a bit more checking to do, but I think I’ve got most everything running correctly. If anyone notices anything strange, please let me know.

This upgrade only affected the web pages that render the data, not the data itself, so nothing got lost … other than 40 hours.

Everyone has my sincerest apologies.

marc

In from the cold: Private Ernest W. Laird 33104

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:28:59 -1300

In August, 2008, Marika Pirie and I contacted Veterans Affairs Canada about a soldier that we believed overlooked in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Marika Pirie has, over the years, taken photo's of a number of soldier graves from the Veterans' plot at Prospect Cemetery (Toronto) and from Hamilton Cemetery in Hamilton, Ontario. Some of these men may have died shortly after the war from non war-related causes. Private Laird stood out from the rest, though. He sailed with the First Contingent, attached to the number 2 field ambulance, Canadian Army Medical Corps. His attestation papers are stamped "INVALIDED TO CANADA FOR FURTHER MEDICAL TREATMENT." from Ontario Military Hospital, in Orpington, Kent, England. He died in 1918 at the age of 23.

There is a photo of his grave marker (not a CWGC marker) here:

We had no information concerning his cause of death, but given his age, and the fact that he was seriously enough to be repatriated from England, we thought that he should be considered for inclusion. The kind and co-operative folks at VAC tracked down what they needed, and Private Laird is now commemorated on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Thank you, Marika, for pulling all of the information needed to make the case, and to the folks at VAC for making this happen.

Why are attestation papers missing on the LAC site?

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:30:01 -1300

Have you ever wondered why most of the entries in Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Soldiers of the First World War – CEF database have attestation papers, but roughly 8% do not? I know that I have, and I’ve also wondering if LAC would ever get around to adding them. I knew that they existed; I had ordered complete copies of some records from LAC for soldiers with no on-line papers, and the attestation papers were included in the packet. So why weren’t they on-line?

The answer comes from Arnie Kay, a former LAC employee who now does freelance record searches.

According to Arnie, some years ago the Military “vetted the CEF files and removed various non historical docs from these files. They also removed all the surplus Attestation copies and put then into large binders. You guessed it. When they did the Attestation project they used the binders and of course there were many of the CEF files that only had one copy and this is the reason why so many gaps in the Attestation data base. They have no intention of trying to resolve this oversight.

At least we now know why they are missing, and that LAC will not be attempting to fix this at any point in the future.

Note: if you are want to track down more information on any Canadian who served in the Great War, check with Arnie kay. He has very reasonable rates and a sterling reputation as a researcher.

Lieutenant Robert Anderson Gault

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:04:11 -1300

Thanks to Ted Shaw, a teacher at Lower Canada College, another man gas been added to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Robert Anderson Gault had just finished studying at Harrow, in England when the war broke out. He returned to Harrow to prepare for the army, and joined the Grenadier Guards in January, 1916. He was promoted Lieutenant on September 10th, 1916, and was killed in action six days later.

Ted found the entry for Gault in the book “Harrow War Memorials” Volume IV, and sent me a note. I checked the Canadian Census and found that he was, indeed, born in Canada, and his parents were living in Canada. All the information was collected and set off to John Brehaut at Veterans Affairs Canada. John verified the information and added the entry.

Another World War 1 Canadian is now properly commemorated.

Thanks Ted. Thanks John.

Last Canadian Great War veteran dies

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:39:22 -1300

Canada’s last veteran of the Great War, John Henry Foster Babcock, died at the age of 109 at his home in Spokane, Washington, on Thursday, February 18.

Babcock enlisted in the CEF in February, 1916, at the age of 16. Because of his age, his service was restricted to Canada and England.

Babcock, who has lived in the United States for the past 60 years and had dual citizenship, will be will be cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific northwest mountains.

Happy Birthday, Gracey

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:50:00 -1300

The most commonly heard phrase around our house is “Gracey, get your brother’s head out of your mouth!”. Since we were adopted by 3 young Samoyeds one and a half years ago, our personal life has been turned upside down. We’ve always had dawgs in our house, but never three that are all, at the same time, healthy and energetic. These dawgs, have ensured that we never have a dull moment, and that there is a perpetual reason to smile. Bodey, the oldest, is the most affectionate. Dodger, in the middle, always needs attention, and finds the most creative ways to get it. Gracey is the youngest, and the only one that we know the actual birth date of. Her original parents got her from a breeder, and when she was a bit less than 6 months old, surrendered her to a rescue group because “she had too much energy”. Well, they were right, to our gain. There are two schools of thoughts on dawgs in a family. One says “Never let them outnumber you”, and there is a certain wisdom to that. But the other is that with three, they will always have someone to play with. And it woks that way with us. Gracey plays with Bodey until he gets tired, then she jumps on Dodger, then turns to us, and by then, hopefully, Bodey is ready to go again, because Gracey, like the Energizer Bunny, just keeps going and going. Gracey is also the most elegant and graceful Samoyed I’ve ever seen, more like a Greyhound, or a gazelle, than a sled dog. She can easily clear a 3 foot fence, but chooses not to, she knows she has it good here. She can tell time, and barks within 60 seconds of 7:30 PM if they haven’t been fed. She is not a girlie girl, and loves to get in trouble, especially if she can blame it on Dodger. It’s hard to imagine anyone happier than Gracey and some mud! This is one of the more iconic photo’s of Gracie:

And today she is 2 years old. So, for all the joy that you bring to Penney and I, as well as Bodey and Dodger:

Happy Birthday, Gracey.

Thank you!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:56:54 -1300

It seems that I am always late in getting things done around the Canadian Great War Project. External influences seem to crop up that I can’t avoid … I’ve used up more gas in my snow plow in the past week than in the past year (it seldom snows in Columbus, Ohio).

But I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone that has contributed to this site. The magnitude of what we set out to do in 2005 seemed daunting at the time … identify and profile over 650,000 Canadians that served in the First World War.

Over the past year we have added almost 17,000 names to the database, and over 1,300 War Diary entries. Special thanks to the following for contributing the bulk of the entries:

Individual	Entries
Tom CEF	5,459
Don Dunbar	1,344
M Pirie	1,232
M Norton	1,016
poppaholdfast	935
Dion Loach	770
160th Battalion	460
RNWMP	350
Pat & Dave	237
Gary Thomson	161

These include complete nominal rolls based on embarkation lists for some of the overseas battalions, and the database holds what is probably the most complete list of Canadian Nursing Sisters.

Thanks largely to Marika Pirie and Anne Hales we’ve added 78 new newspaper and letter transcriptions which go a long way to giving us a glimpse into the life of the men and women that served. Almost 650 images were added to the site as well.

I’m sure that, at times, we wonder if the effort that we put into this is worthwhile. In 2009 there were 43,134 unique visitors to the site, with over 1,400 on November 11th. Both of those are huge numbers! Many were looking for ancestors, but in the past year I’ve had schoolteachers expressing their gratitude for making the information available, and the database served as a primary resource for a very creative project by the Toronto Star.

The bulk of my time with this site is in answering eMail from visitors (several hundred in 2009) and in maintaining the integrity of the data on the site. Thanks to TomCEF and RNWMP for your help in doing this.

Every week I get a few eMails from people expressing their gratitude for the content that we have in the Canadian Great War Project. I want to pass these on to all of you, and to thank you for all of your efforts. Together we’ve established a pretty site that helps preserve the memory of the Men and Women that served in the conflict, and at the same time provides a pretty good little research tool.

Thanks!

marc