Now I have close personal connections with Canada and have
long been researching those men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who fought
in the Great War and are buried in the North West.
My great uncle was a British Home Child sent to Canada in 1914,
having spent years in care in Derby.
And after those years in institutions he failed to settle on
the farms he was placed and eventually ran away to join the C.E.F. in 1915.
He survived the war, returned to Canada and in 1925 was
joined by his sister.
But she didn’t
fancy a life in the remoteness of British Columbia and stayed in the east where
she married raised a large family.
All of which has led me over the last year to document those
men who were buried in Southern Cemetery.
It is an ongoing project made easy by the detailed records held by the
Library and Archives of Canada.
The Library is currently transposing the service records of
the men of the C.E.F., and releasing them on line.
And has already has a first
step published the Attestation Papers.
All of which is an introduction to this photograph of G Mitchell’s
grave. He died in November 1918 and I
thought it would be a simple task of calling up his records and honouring his
death by providing some details of his life.
But not so. I drew a
blank in Canada, the Commonwealth War graves have no record and a search of Philips Park Cemetery database has also proved negative.
Now anyone who has done any family history research will
know that there can be plenty of dead ends as well as false trails, so I won’t
give up, it may just take a little longer.
Location; Salford
Picture; the grave of Sergeant G Mitchell, Weaste Cemetery,
2016 from the collection of Antony Mills
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