The Man Behind the Autograph

Now I like the way that stories grow and take on a new direction, so here is a post from Susan who took a brief piece on an autograph book and revealed the man behind the comment written  in that Red Cross hospital autograph book in 1917. 

Introduction:  For me, the story of Sergeant John Henry DeGraves begins in 1917 in a hospital in Cheltenham, England, during the Great War.  The story includes a nurse, who had the foresight to think beyond those moments, and an autograph book in which were written the names, or thoughts, or little poems by convalescing soldiers. It was a book that was cherished and preserved, until it reached the hands of others in those beyond moments, who would also preserve and cherish it.

Without Nurse Rachel Wattis, of St. John's Hospital, it is likely that J.H. DeGraves and other wounded soldiers might have been forgotten entirely, as time passed.

Could John possibly have imagined that a short poem he placed in this little booklet was going to be seen and enjoyed by others over one hundred years later; or, that it would prompt a curious seeker, such as me, to want to learn something of his life?

 Here is what I found out about this Canadian soldier who was wounded in the field of battle and received care, far from home. Coincidentally, this all took place in the very hospital in which my great great grand uncle, fifty years earlier, had advocated for better medical treatment, especially for soldiers.

Early Life:  John Henry Harrington DeGraves was born January 28, 1886 in Albury, New South Wales, Australia, the son of Joseph Michael and Eliza Jane Brooks [Eisenholdt] DeGraves.

At the age of 17 in 1903, he arrived in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. According to the 1911 Canadian Census, John, who was working as a Brakeman on the railway, his younger brother, Norman, and their mother, Eliza, were all living together at 1150 12th Avenue, in Vancouver. It is not clear if John's father also came to Canada.

John is recorded as being single at this time; however, a B.C. marriage certificate indicates he married Elizabeth White on November 3, 1908.

The next two records found for John were in Ship's Passenger Lists when he and Elizabeth sailed from Vancouver on the Niagara, arriving on September 27, 1913 in Sydney, Australia.

After a visit of five months, they returned to Vancouver on February 3, 1914 on the ship Wangara.  John's occupation, in both instances, was recorded as Captain of the Vancouver Fire Department. This was not to last long, as his life was interrupted by the onset of the Great War in August of 1914.

Great War Years:  John enlisted in Vernon, B.C. on July 8th, 1915.  At the time, he and Elizabeth had been living at 909 Richard St. in Vancouver. On his Attestation Papers, John stated he had prior military service of one year with Victoria Mounted Rifles in Australia.  After coming to Canada, he had been with 6th Regiment, Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles (4 1/2 years) and, also with the 11th Regiment, Irish Fusiliers of Canada. He is described as standing 6 feet, 1 1/4 inches and having a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair.

John's unit, the 47th British Columbia Battalion (BCRD), sailed on the Missawabie from Montreal, November 13, 1915, arriving in Plymouth, England, November 23rd.  Shortly after, he was promoted to Sergeant and maintained this rank throughout his time of service.

On August 10, 1916, John went to France and was engaged in the field at the beginning of some of the most horrific battles faced by Canadian troops.

It was in "No Man's land" that John was awarded the Military Medal of Bravery for actions he took capturing a German dugout and obtaining vital information that helped the Canadian cause.  Only a few short weeks later, on December 30th at Vimy Ridge, a "whizz-bang" hit the trench in which John was located.

He received gunshot wounds to his head, left leg and right arm that resulted in his treatment in the field hospital in France for three weeks. John was then transferred to St. John's Hospital in Cheltenham at the end of January.

The wounds to his leg and head caused no serious concerns and healed quickly, leaving permanent scars; however, John's right arm had several wounds from the shoulder to below the elbow that never fully healed.

Eventually, he experienced ongoing weakness and pain, losing over 40% of the use of his arm, yet, it is fortunate for this writer, that it did not prevent him from penning a few lines in Nurse Wattis' autograph book.

On July 11, 1917, Sergeant John Henry DeGraves was discharged as being medically unfit to return to active service.  In April, 1918, John sailed on the Aquitania, leaving from Liverpool and arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia  on April 29th. His destination was  Victoria, B.C. where he was officially discharged from the Canadian Expeditionary Forces on June 5, 1918.

After the War: John and  Elizabeth (who was called Lil) are known to have had at least one child, Bessie Brooks DeGraves, born in Vancouver after John enlisted.

Following the war, few records have been located for John; however, he is in the Voter's Lists from 1940 until the year of his death:
1940 Assistant Fire Chief -Living in Vancouver
1945 Now working as an exporter - Living in Vancouver
1949, 1953 and 1957 Retired and living in the Fraser Valley district of B.C.

Occasional Canadian newspaper articles mention John's name when he was assisting in the investigation of serious fires that occurred in his city. Unfortunately, no obituary has been located that might have filled in more of his life.

Death:  John and Elizabeth were living in Mission City, B.C. at the time of his death.  He died July 14, 1957 in Shaughnessy Hospital, Vancouver.  Elizabeth passed away in 1968 and their daughter, Bessie (Hargreaves) died in 1988.  John and Elizabeth are buried side by side in the Haztic Cemetery in the Fraser Valley.

And so, this concludes my brief story of a young soldier who left behind a few unspoken words in a country far removed from both his birth land and adopted homeland; yet, here we are in the year 2015 reading those words and thinking good thoughts of him.  It has been nice getting to know you, John Henry DeGraves.

© Researched and written by Susan [Hillman] Brazeau, BA, MA-IS,

August 2015, Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada

Picture, page from the St John's Red Cross Hospital autograph book, courtesy of David  Harrop and medal supplied by Susan [Hillman] Brazeau

Sources:
1.  Ancestry.ca:  Family research record
                           :  Australian 1891 Census
                           :  Australian Birth Marriage and Death records
                           :  1911 Census of Canada
                           :  Canadian Voter's Lists
                           :  Canadian Ships Passenger Lists 1913, 1914
                           :  Find-A-Grave
2.  British Columbia Vital Statistics (Birth, Death and Marriage records)
3.  Canada Great War Project
3.  Library and Archives Canada (Service Records)
4.  Andrew Simpson's Online Blog: Blighty… [July 9, 2015]

A poem by Ralph Connor, stories from a collection of famous writers and the Princess Mary’s Gift Book

Now I wonder how many of our BHC recruits to the Canadian Expeditionary Force ever came across the poem Canada’s Word by Ralph Connor?

It is one of those stirring appeals for young Canadians to enlist and begins “O Canada!  A voice calls through the mist and spume, Across the wide salty leagues of foam For Aid.  Whose voice thus penetrates thy peace?  Whose?  Thy Mother’s, Canada, thy Mother’s voice."

It runs to five stanza’s and concludes “Mother, to thee!  God, to Thy help!  Quick my sword!”

There will be plenty of people who are familiar with the work of Ralph Connor who sold more than five million copies of his works in his life time.*

His real name was Charles William Gordon and as well as a writer he was a leading Church leader in the Presbyterian and United churches in Canada

During the Great War he became Chaplain of the 43rd Cameron Highlanders.

In 1916 he was made senior chaplain of Canadian Forces in England with the rank of Major.

He then proceeded to France as senior chaplain, 9th Brigade, British Expeditionary Force and he was mentioned in Imperial dispatches.*

Now I have to confess I knew nothing of either Mr Connor or the Rev Dr. Charles William Gordon and only came across the poem in a book which was produced during the war and sold to raise money for The Queen’s Work for Women’s Fund which was part of the National Relief Fund.

The National Relief Fund had been launched in early August 1914 and acted as an umbrella for a large collection of charities.

The book which was simply called the Princess Mary’s Gift Book was quickly put together and published on November 27 1914 which is all the more remarkable given the wide range of contributors who included J M Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle , H Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Baroness Orczy along with a large collection of line drawings and colour plates.

I suspect many of the stories were already in existence but in age of copyright issues the publication of the book so soon after the outbreak of war is remarkable.

The stories range from the light to the patriotic with a fair few falling back on Imperial themes, the odd more sinister tale of spies and one intriguing account of Spartan Women.

I doubt that my own great uncle Roger would have been over bothered with the book.  He was sent by the Derby Guardians in the care of Middlemore  in 1914 and after a an unhappy time on a series of farms ran away and enlisted in the CEF in 1915, changing his name and lying about his age.

By all accounts he was by the time he sailed for Canada more than a little feral and like his younger brother who was my grandfather had had little time for school
.
But in that odd way that these things work that poem, along with the book draws me a little closer to him.

In time I will go looking for the story of the book and in particular how many copies it sold and the amount it raised for The Queen’s ‘Work for Women Fund’, but that all seems a long way from my great uncle Roger who may or may not have been prompted to enlist on the strength of the poem Canada’s Word.

Pictures; from the book Princess Mary’s Gift Book, 1914 from the collection of David Harrop

* Ralph Connor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Connor

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 5 .......... the Attestation papers of James Rogers, serving his adopted country

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects which are in no particular order, have been selected purely at random and will reflect one of many different stories.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is part of the attestation papers of James Rogers who enlisted in C.E.F, in 1915.  His given name was Roger Games Hall and he arrived in Canada in 1914.

His was an unhappy first year and he failed to settle in his first two farms and ran away from his third to Join the C.E.F.  He lied about his age and changed his name.

He served his adopted country until the duration in 1918.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A soldier of the Great War ............ George Henry Longstaff, 1879-1917

This is the grave of George Henry Longstaff who died April 29 1917 in Bradford Hospital and was buried in Prestwich Cemetery and given he belonged to the Canadian Expeditionary Force I wondered at the story which led from Canada to Prestwich.

And there was indeed a story which started not in Canada but in Lancashire in 1897 where Private Longstaff was born.

In time I will search out his early life, but I know that by 1901 he was working in the Preswich District Lunatic Asylum as an “attendant upon the in the insane.”  His father has also worked in the same hospital.

He married Margaret Mary Hindley in 1903 and left for Canada three years later where he became a “rancher.”

And in 1915 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and sailed the following year for Britain.

He arrived in France in January 1917, and a month later was “in the Field,” sustained gunshot wounds, and was transferred back to Britain where he died of those wounds in the April of 1917.

We are fortunate in that we have his entire military records which include his will, and a description.

He was 5 feet 9½ tall, with a “fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.”

I would like to think his family which included eight siblings visited his grave, although sadly as Antony’s picture bears witness looks a little forgotten today.

So I am pleased Antony came across the grave and we were able to find out something of Private Longstaff.

Location; Prestwich, & Canada

Picture; the grave of Private George Henry Longstaff, Prestwich Cemetery, 2017 courtesy of Antony Mills

*Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/image.aspx?Image=471147a&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fcentral.bac-lac.gc.ca%2f.item%2f%3fop%3dimg%26app%3dCEF%26id%3d471147a&

Thomas Williams of the Canadian Expeditionary Force ............. born in Ontario and buried in south Manchester

Now sometimes stories just have a habit of evolving and so it is with this one.

Over the space of the last few days I have been moving effortlessly from my great uncle Roger who was both a BHC and fought in the Great War to those members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried in our local cemetery.

Like all stories its beginning was a promising one starting with an exhibition which opened on July 1last year  in the Remembrance Lodge of Southern Cemetery.

It had been organised by David Harrop who had drawn from his vast collection of memorabilia from two world wars and was special in that some at least of the exhibits were linked to men who are buried or commemorated in the cemetery.

And just yards away is the line of gravestones of the men of the CEF of which this one belongs to Thomas Williams of the 4th Canadian Mouthed Rifles...

When I  started the research  I only knew him as a name but a little research on the database of the Library and Archives of Canada showed him to have been born in August 1894 in Ontario.*

He was a butcher by trade, stood 5’ 6’’ tall with fair hair and a fair complexion and had blue eyes.

He enlisted in the August of 1915 just days before his 22nd birthday.

So far there is only his Attestation Papers to go on but it is a start and has begun to bring this young man out of the shadows.

He was buried on March 15 1917 and I assume died of his wounds.  It is more than likely that he had been cared for in the big military hospital nearby which before the war had been the hospital of the Withington Workhouse.

It was a hospital I knew well as two of our children were born there in the 1980s and its A&E department saw plenty of us as the lads progressed through a series of sporting injuries.

It closed years ago and has long since been demolished but like Southern Cemetery it is just a few minutes way from where we live.

So with that in mind I resolved that even if I didn’t find out anything more of Thomas Williams I would  be standing in front of his grave on July 1st, which I did.

Location; Southern Cemetery, Manchester

Pictures; the gravestone of Thomas Williams and a Canadian silk postcard from the collection of David Harrop

*Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=317382

The story of a British Home Child ...... born in London, enlisted in the C.E.F., and died in Manchester in 1918

There is a story yet to be told about the twenty-six men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried here in Southern Cemetery.

Grave of Thomas John Loveland, 1918, Southern Cemetery

They will all have been patients in the nearby military hospital which until the Great War began had been the hospital for the local Workhouse.

And each will have died while recovering from their wounds or illnesses.

In time I want to follow up each of their lives in as much detail as I can.

For now I know that this is the grave of Thomas John Loveland of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps who died on November 6 1918, just days before the Armistice and end of the war.

He was just 21 years old and had been born here in the United Kingdom in London and he may even have been a British Home Child because his Attestation papers show his trade as a farmer and his next of kin as Eliza who was still living in the UK.

Cover of Canada in Khaki, 1917

Eliza was his sister who was just six years older than Thomas.  

Their father who had been a gas labourer had died in 1903 at the age of 35 leaving his wife Eleanor to bring up five children on her own. 

The eldest who was Eleanor was eleven years old and the youngest was just two. 

By 1911 they were living in a four roomed house at number 4 George Street at Walsoken in Cambridgeshire.  

But only Eliza and her mother are in the property which they share with a William Fearis and his daughter who was 18 months old. 

Both Mr Fearis and Mrs Loveland give their status as widowed and she describes herself as “Domestic housekeeper.”

In time I am minded to explore the story of Mr Fearis but for now I am content just to record that on the night of census Mrs Loveland’s youngest son was visiting. 

He was eleven years old, is described as a “scholar” and this offers up the possibility that he too was in care.  I doubt that he could have been living with either of his elder siblings because they were only sixteen and fourteen.

A page from Canadian Khaki

So I think we can be confident that on the death of Edward Loveland in 1903 all the children bar Eliza went into care.

In 1915 Eliza is still at the address when Thomas enlists in Canada.

And there the trial pretty much comes to an end.  I don’t yet know when their mother died or what happened to Eliza although her elder brother was killed on the Western Front in 1917.

All of which sort of brings the strands together.  Our own British Home Child like Thomas enlisted in the August of 1915 but he survived, we live just minutes way from Southern Cemetery where Private Loveland lies.

In little over three weeks there will be a special ceremony in Southern Cemetery to mark not just the centenary of the Battle of the Somme but also for Canada Day.

And the picture of all twenty-six graves of the men of the CEF were taken by David Harrop who has commemorated the centenary of the Somme with a special exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern and which will feature memorabilia connected to the Canadian Expeditionary Force, including the book Canada in Khaki.

And just as I posted the story Liz who is the archivist of the Together Trust  suggested that "he was a Barnardo’s boy by the looks of it."*

Southern Cemetery

The Together Trust was the old Manchester and Salford Boys'and Girls' Refuges and from 1870 were active in offering care to disadvantaged young people in the twin cities of Manchester and Salford.

Their archive is a wonderful collection of material covering the work carried out by the charity.

 And as Canada awoke and got into its stride Catherine West kindly did the research and confirms that
Thomas was a Barnardo's Home Child. He is listed on the Library and Archives Canada site at either www.bac-lac.gc.ca or www.collectionscanada.gc.ca 

Once there go to online research and search the British Home Child database."

So a pretty good result all round and another bit of international research.

The story of Manchester's involvement in the Great War is featured in the new book Manchester Remembering 1914-18, published today by the History Press.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop and of Southern Cemetery from Andrew Simpson

*Getting down and dusty/

**Manchester Remembering 1914-18 by Andrew Simpson

Order now from the History Press, 

The Kenora Great War Project ........ Susan Hillman Brazeau

The Kenora Great War Project ............. Susan Hillman Brazeau

It started out in the late days of 2012 with three local organizations and, in particular, three women - Judy, Becky and Gloria - who were interested in both research and Great War history.

Lake of the Woods Milling Company

Over a cup of coffee, they discussed ideas about how best to commemorate those fateful years between August 4, 1914 and November 11, 1918.

One suggestion was to research the names of those local servicemen and women who died serving Canada.  This thought gradually led to the inclusion of all who had some connection to the Kenora area and who had served in World War 1. Thus began a project, the enormity of which none of them could have imagined.

Kenora sits on the western edge of the vast province of Ontario in Canada. Only a 40- minute drive from the Manitoba border. Its nearest neighbours are the villages of Keewatin, just across the bridge; Redditt, located on the Canadian National Railway line about 40 miles to the north; and the summer village of Minaki only a few miles west of Redditt.

The overall population of this area when war broke out was no more than 10,000.  Yet, these communities, in this remote area of north-western Ontario, saw an enlistment of almost 1800 individuals, mostly young men.  Despite this sizeable number and resulting sizeable undertaking, the group, which now called themselves, The Kenora Great War Project, decided to learn all their names, research each person, and write individual tributes. These tributes would then be placed on the group’s own site and that of a larger, national website called The Canadian Great War Project.  

It was not an easy task, but it was one full of enthusiasm and required dedication and commitment.  It was demanding, time consuming, frustrating and challenging. It required careful research to ensure factual detail.
Others who had an interest in researching and writing tributes were invited to participate, but, as time passed, the original three have completed the bulk of the work.

The Keewatin Honour Roll

The project required scrutiny of the Personnel Data Base, War Diaries and other relevant databases on the Library and Archives Canada. Contacts were made with Royal Canadian Legion branches; local cemeteries; families, when they could be located; the Lake of the Woods Museum; and, local historians or people who might be able to share stories or information.

Each cross and headstone in the military section of the Lake of the Woods Cemetery was photographed and cemetery records gone through. The names on memorial plaques and the cenotaphs were recorded and also photographed.  Local newspaper archives were read page by page to find every war related article from this period.  Almost immediately, the research extended beyond the Kenora area, right across Canada and to other countries.

It is now the end of year five, since the project first began to take shape. Over 1400 individuals have their tributes placed on the two websites.  The goal is to have most of the tributes, onsite by November 11, 2018, even if only partially completed.

For my part, I will have contributed about 60 tributes, upon completion of the project. Each person’s story is of value and deserved to be written and remembered.  Yet, there were those who were a bit more interesting or exciting than others, such as my great uncles and friends of my family.
 A particular challenge was the American who enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and changed his name three times.

The Ice Candles, Lake of the Woods Cemetery

An emotional search was for the veteran who died alone, in a cabin in the woods many years after the war and who was buried under a military cross with the wrong name. I eventually uncovered his history, his name and found his family, who had always wondered what happened to him.
Then, there was the young soldier, who later became a prominent figure in Kenora, and whose very first medical entry in his file, before he even left for England, was his treatment for gonorrhea.

Telling details of the individual, yet collective experiences of the war are found in almost every personnel record: death; hospitalization; shell shock; lifelong respiratory conditions from mustard gas. Shrapnel and gun shot wounds; being covered with mud for days in collapsed trenches; the loss of limbs; or, the loss of the use of one or more limbs, are all found, somewhere, amongst the tributes to the men and women whose names are being etched in the Kenora Great War Project.

I came to the project in August of 2014 and began to learn so much more about the Great War and Canada’s role than I thought I would. Overall, my participation has been one of the most satisfying and meaningful experiences in 30 years of research.

In honour of those who served…

Susan Hillman Brazeau BA, MA-IS
August 27, 2017

kenoragreatwarproject.ca
canadiangreatwarproject.com

Photos courtesy of the Kenora Miner & News; and, the author’s own collection.

James Guy from Leigh who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and died on the Western Front

There is a real sense of satisfaction at finding out something about a young man who would otherwise just be a name in a cemetery.

And so it is with James Guy who was born in 1891 and died in May 1917.

His name appears on the family gravestone in Leigh Cemetery and it is another of those recorded by Antony Mills.

James was just 13 when his father died and as his mother was also dead it appears he went to stay with his aunt.

He was a baker by trade and some between 1911 when he was living with his aunt and four years later he settled in Canada where he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 13 December 1915.

He died on May 3rd 1917 and is buried in La Chaudiere Military Cemetery, Vimy.

Now given the date and the place I suspect he was part of the Battle of Vimy Ridge which lasted from April 9 through to April 12.

In the course of the battle, 3, 598 Canadian soldiers were killed and it seems likely that he died of wounds sustained in the fighting,

On his Attestation papers he gave his sister Mrs Forbes who lived in Bolton as his next of kin and he was living in Brantford which is a town in south western Ontario.*

It isn’t much but at least when I go to Leigh Cemetery I will have a little knowledge of this young man.

Location; Leigh, Brantford and Vimy

Picture; the gravestone of the Guy Family, Leigh Cemetery from the collection of Antony Mills

*Library and Archives Canada, Personnel Records of the First World War, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=293490

Private Thomas Leon Goldie of the Canadian Expeditionary Force ......... buried in Southern Cemetery

This is the ongoing story of the men from Canada who enlisted to fight in the Great War and are buried in south Manchester.

Private Thomas Goldie was 6’ 2” tall gave his occupation as a mining engineer and came from Guelph in Ontario.

He had joined up in the February of 1915, arrived in the UK in the May of the same year and in September embarked for France.

The following August he was returned to Britain and entered Manchester Royal Infirmary where he was treated for infected jaundice.

The hand written medical notes refer to him being in a bad way and he died three days after his admission.

Location; Southern Cemetery


Picture; gravestone of Private Thomas Leon Goldie, Southern Cemetery, 2016 from the collection of David Harrop

Remembering them ...... 100 years after the Battle of the Somme part 8 ...... a moving ceremony in Southern Cemetery

Major Charron salutes the fallen

Today’s ceremony of Remembrance was a moving tribute to the men who took part in the Battle of the Somme and by extension all those who did their bit during the Great War.

It was attended by members of the British Legion, two MPs, three councillors, and young people from local schools as well as  the staff of Southern Cemetery.

And because today is also Canada Day it was fitting that Major David Charron of the Royal Canadian Army had been invited to lay a wreath for those men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried amongst their comrades from other Commonwealth armies.

Many of those present will have a personal reason for attending the ceremony.

In my case I can count six close family members who served in the Great War, including one who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915, as well as others who served in the German armed forces.

Members of the Northenden British Legion

All of mine survived and none are buried in Southern but that does not diminish the power of the service which was conducted by the Reverend Tim Nicholls, and included a reading and prayers, the poem In Flanders Fields and the Kohima Epitaph** and finished with O Canada! And “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.”

It was an elegant and poignant act of Remembrance made the more powerful by the mix of people who had chosen to attend.

The youngest will have been no more than ten, the eldest well into retirement, along with serving soldiers and ex servicemen and servicewomen as well as politicians and those who maintained the graves.

A moment of reflection

Some may well have gone on to the Cenotaph and in the Cathedral later in the day and will be attending the events in Heaton Park this evening as well as other services across Greater Manchester.

Each will have a part to play in that bigger act of Remembrance.

But for now my thoughts are back in Southern Cemetery with men like of John William Ingham of the 46th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.  

He enlisted in 1916 was wounded at Vimy Ridge the following year and was buried in Southern Cemetery.

But he had died of his wounds in Sheffield at the Wharncliffe War Hospital and was brought back to Manchester because his wife lived in Longsight.

Jeff Smith MP and Councillor Mat Strong

And not far away is the memorial to Alleyne G Webber who was killed in action at Bauchops Hill in Gallipoli on August 6th 1915 and was “buried where he fell.”

His brother, Gerard died the following February here in Manchester “of wounds received in action before France on November 14th 1916."

Both men were 27 years old and they were from New Zealand.

Alleyne Webber was a Lance Corporal in the Otago Mounted Rifles which had been formed at the outbreak of the war and left New Zealand in the October for Egypt.

He died on the second day of an operation to capture Chunuk Bair a high point in the Sari Bair mountain range.

Major Charron

His brother who served in the 10th Royal Fusiliers had been wounded on the second day of what was to be the final large British attack during the Battle of the Somme.

Our own family loss came in the Second World War, and involved my uncle who died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

He had survived the Fall of Greece, was bombed at Basra and was captured in 1942 in the Far East.

And the twist is that he had been born in Cologne in 1922 two years after my German grandmother had married my grandfather who was a soldier in the British army of occupation after the Great War.

The wreaths

So a mixed day of emotions today in Southern Cemetery.

Location; Southern Cemetery







Pictures; today in Southern Cemetery, July 1 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*Remembering the Battle of the Somme, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Remembering%20the%20Battle%20of%20the%20Somme
**When you Go Home, Tell them Of Us and Say, For their Tomorrow, We Gave our Today

Looking for more British Home Children in Southern Cemetery

Now here is a mystery to which at present I don’t have answer.  I had gone looking foe more British Home Children amongst the men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force buried in Southern Cemetery.

It is on going project in advance of Canada Day.

And I thought I might have found a third when I found a reference to Manchester as the place of birth of John Wiliam Ingham of the 46th Battalion.

He was wounded at Vimy Ridge in the May of 1917 and was buried in Southern Cemetery in south Manchester.

Private Ingham had enlisted on April 27 1916 in Yorkton Saskatchewan giving his occupation as a dairyman and he was 43 years of age.

What is slightly odd is that he died in Sheffield on the other side of the Pennines and was buried here in Manchester which is 71 kilometres way.

The explanation is simple enough, his wife, Mrs Ann Ingham was living at 5 Glebe Street off Stockport Road in the Longsight area of Manchester.

But that just begs another question which is why would he be in Canada and she over here?  I could understand how a much younger man might leave to start a new life and then send for his family when he was settled, but Mr Ingham was no spring chicken.

I know that in 1901 he was in Manchester with his wife and daughter and was a “milk dealer and chop keeper” running his own business and that they were married in or around 1899.

This would fit because their eldest daughter Annie was eleven in 1911.

So instead I shall leave it at that.

Someone from Canada will be able to access the shipping records and census returns which might shed light on the story.

In the meantime he is the third of those of the CEF buried in Southern Cemetery I have researched two of whom were British Home Children.

The aim will be to uncover something about each of the 31 in advance of July 1 and the special Remembrance service to which the High Commissioner for Canada will be in attendance.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Picture; pictures of Southern Cemetery from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Remembering some of Canada’s war dead in south Manchester

Now I don’t know where my great uncle is buried in Canada.  

The grave of T Williams

He was sent by the Derby Guardians in the care of Middlemore in the May of 1914, served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, survived the Great War and sometime after 1925 disappeared in the west.  

The family folk lore has him in British Columbia but it could equally be Alberta, and despite all attempts by my cousins in Ontario and me over here he has pretty much just fallen off the edge.

Of course he never quite goes away and so when Melissa, Chris, Jac and I discuss the family history he always surfaces at some point.

And today as we move towards the centenary of the Somme in July I have begun thinking of him all over again.

More so because there will be a special ceremony in our local cemetery to mark not only the beginning of that battle but also to remember those members of the CEF who are buried here.

July 1 is of course also Canada Day and it is fitting that the ceremony in Southern Cemetery here in south Manchester should embrace both the memories of those who died far from home along with a celebration of their country’s nationhood.

As I write I am looking at a picture of the grave of T Williams, number 171555 of the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles, who died in March 1917.

The silk postcard

He will have been in the large military hospital close by.

This was the Nell Lane Military Hospital which until the war began had been the hospital of the Withington Workhouse.

In time I am minded to discover more about T Williams along with the others who are buried here.

Unlike our own British army service records most of which were destroyed during the Blitz those of the Canadian army are intact and so it should be possible to uncover his life.

Part of the new Somme exhibition

And here I have to thank David Harrop who altered me to the section of Canadian war dead and provided the picture, along with this embroidered silk postcard.

David has a vast collection of memorabilia from both world wars and maintains an exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery and to mark the start of the Battle of the Somme he has created a special exhibition called For the Fallen.*

Elected members of the City Council as well as the MP have been invited to view the exhibition which will be open from July 1.

I will also be there and as I stand in front of those Canadian graves I will give a thought to our own BHC war veteran.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; the grave of T Williams, and a silk postcard, courtesy of David Harrop

** Coming Soon ......... an exhibition in Southern Cemetery ........... remembering the Battle of the Somme, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/coming-soon-exhibition-in-southern.html

He was always part of my life........The Kenora Cenotaph

He was always part of my life. 

He is not laying in repose, nor displayed on bended knee, nor with his head bowed. Instead, he stands atop a roughly sculpted piece of granite, on a base of solid blocks of stone, looking towards the northeastern skies, forever silent, forever vigil.  Wearing a soldier’s uniform and great coat, he stands firm - boldly - a constant reminder of what was and still is.

A list of names, etched on a bronze plaque, is attached to the locally hewn granite.

It is the Roll of Honour: the names of the ninety soldiers from my small home town of five thousand, whose lives were taken in the Great War, in partial payment for the freedoms my country continues to cherish and value.

No other names have since been added, but there could be many, for the fallen from World War II was a much longer list.

This place of remembrance was created by Creber Brothers, of Toronto, Ontario, to the specifications of the Memorial Committee.

The entire cost of $8,000 was raised in less than one year by the townspeople: door to door canvasing, a carnival, teas, bazaars, and musical  performances in the little local opera house. All contributed to this community project.


Ever since that warm autumn day, September 7, 1924, this soldier has stood on the lawn in front of the courthouse in Kenora, Ontario - just one of the many memorials across this nation, dedicated to those who served, but never returned.

His nameless face is gazed upon, and most often remembered, when people gather around him on Remembrance Day, every November 11th.  We have placed wreaths and crosses at his base, said prayers, played The Last Post, and sung the traditional remembrance song, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”


I think of those who have died and all who have served in battles, conflicts, wars, and during peacetime.

I think of my relatives who served in World War II: both my parents – my mother in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, my father with the 8th Canadian Infantry in Italy and, later, Belgium; my aunt, a nurse in France; and, my five uncles, one of whom was severely burned when his plane was downed near the English Channel.

I think of my husband, now deceased, whose sense of duty, commitment, pride and loyalty to his country, were formed in his fourteen years with the Canadian Armed Forces – without a single shot being fired. Like his grandfather before him, Wayne was mustard gassed, but not in the fields of Ypres.  Instead, it was on the training fields in Suffield, Alberta in 1968. The horrors never seem to end.


One monument, this one cenotaph, has been a focus for me but once a year; yet its story, and the memories it evokes, will continue to be a place where I can think upon and express gratitude to those it represents.
“It is not a new bereavement, but one which time has softened. Nature has already decorated their graves with memorials of her love; for over the humblest, she has bidden grasses to grow, poppies to bloom, and the butterfly and the hummingbird to wave their little wings– ancient emblems of immortality.”  Kenora Miner and News, September 16, 1924, p.1.

© Susan (Hillman) Brazeau, Lloydminster, Alberta

Pictures; Cenotaph Photo: By C. Linde, 1924, Lake of the Woods Museum Collection, all other photos from the author’s Family Collection

The last ever pictures of the Wagon & Horses in Sale

Well there is pretty much a finality in Andy Robertson’s latest picture of the Wagon and Horses in Sale taken earlier today on a grey and cold afternoon.

After centuries of serving up happy pints on sad Mondays, and sparkling G&Ts on hopeful Fridays it is now just a pile of rubble.

And for any one of the nearly 3,000 people who have followed Andy’ pictures from April last year when he first recorded the place as an empty and forlorn looking ghost pub, to earlier in the week when the scaffolding went up and Barry the bulldozer arrived here is all that is left

But I am sure Andy will be back recording the breaking of the soil followed by all the stages which will lead to that mixed retail and residential development.

Pictures; the Wagon and Horses, 2014-2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Uncovering the stories of the young men who went from Manchester & Canada to fight in the Great War

Now as we enter the first wave of media coverage of the Great War it is easy to forget those who volunteered from what are now the Commonwealth countries and in particular those who had been sent there by a whole range of children’s charities only to enlist at the first opportunity and return to Europe and fight.

Refugee Volunteers, 1917

Some were orphans while others like my great uncle were the product of broken homes who were offered Canada as a last chance.

In the case of my great uncle who went out in 1914, his unhappy time on three farms ended with his running away from the last, inventing a new identity and enlisting the following year.

The irony is that the base camp here in England was but a few miles from where his father had married and was bringing up a new family.

In Canada as I write this members of the British Home Child movement have been working hard not only to uncover the stories of those who were sent from these shores to start that new life, but also to raise awareness of the contribution these young men made to Canada’s war effort.

And with this in mind the archivist at the Together Trust has posted a story of the 400 men from the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges who volunteered.

“The charity has managed to identify around 250 men from this list who were called to arms. Many fought in the Canadian forces, their adopted home, to which they had been emigrated to by the charity. 

The pull of the ‘Old Country’ persuaded many of them to sign up. 

We will be telling the stories of some of these boys both through our regular blog and the Together Trust website over the next few months as a small way of commemorating all those men from the Refuges who fought for King and country.”**

Now never one to steal the work of others I will leave you to follow the link and read the blog story.

Picture, courtesy of the Together Trust, 

*https://www.facebook.com/groups/Britishhomechildren/666932293396747/?notif_t=group_activity

**Our ‘boys’ remembered, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/our-boys-remembered.html#more

A soldier of the Great War, James Callaghan of the 8th Manchester's

The full century that has passed since the outbreak of the Great War has not been kind on the individual stories of the men and women who lived through the event.

Mr Callaghan "at a very young age" circa 1918

Many of the service records of the men who enlisted were destroyed during the Second World War and the experiences they handed down to family members have slowly been forgotten or just mangled with time.

Likewise their medals have disappeared into museums or into private collections and have not always included their names.

All that is left are the letters, postcards and photographs which have survived in most cases more by sheer luck than design.

Often they have ended up at the bottom of a draw or at the back of the wardrobe and been discarded after an interval of perhaps fifty years, the identity of the young men and the names of the people they wrote to lost in time.

So I was quite excited when my old friend Joe showed me some pictures of his dad in uniform.

There were seven in all, some of Mr Callaghan on his own, others with friends and two of him on horseback.

That in itself is quite a find.  I doubt that many families can after the space of a century offer up as many.  I have only two of the six members of my immediate family who joined up and most people will have none.

So that makes them special over and above the fact of course of their importance to Joe and his family.

Mr Callaghan front row, far left circa 1918

He had enlisted at Ardwick and was posted to the 8th Manchester’s and at present that is all I know.

But it is possible to get some idea of what he experienced, not only from official records and the testimony of other soldiers but also from the war diaries which each unit kept and which are now beginning to be published on line.

Those for the Canadian Expeditionary Force are already available and are a rich source of information, covering where units were, what they did on a daily basis and detailed descriptions of the fighting.

These more than anything in the absence of an individual set of records provide a link to a relative and allow you to track them across the years they served.

Postcard of the 20th Manchester's, 1917

So in the case of one of my great uncles who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force I know that on September 3rd 1917 his unit was at Bois-De Alleux and that the “weather was fine. Battalion allotted Brigade Rifle Range as follows, D Company from 8.00am to 12.00 hours and C Coy from 1.00pm to 5.00pm.  

The remainder of the Battalion carried on with ‘Practice of attack’ ‘Bayonet fighting.’  

Orders received at 5.00pm that the battalion will move to Newville St Vasst on the 4th.”*

And of course the accounts include not only the mundane and routine but those periods under fire listing casualties, ground gained or lost and the details of the fighting itself.

All of which are important as my generation wrestles with trying to know more about what our parents and grandparents endured.

So in the fullness of time I shall return to Mr Callaghan and the 8th Manchester’s and try and piece together something more of what their war was like.

Pictures; of James Callaghan circa 1918, courtesy of Joe Callaghan, and postcard of the 20th Manchester Regiment from the collection of David Harrop

*War Diaries of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/020152_e.html

Sidney James Luther, born in Surrey, served with the Canadian Army and died back in England aged just 34

I wonder just how much I will find out about Sidney James Luther who was born in Surrey in 1884, fought in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and died at Romford just two and a bit miles away from his birthplace aged just 34.

It started with a picture postcard of Southend-on-Sea, sent on August 8th 1916 to Pte S J Luther, 79251, A Company, 31st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadians, and C.E.F.

The message on the back was simple enough and told Sidney that “We have just heard H, is in Blighty.  But do not know which hospital.  Hope you are quite well, shall be glad to hear from you soon. Flo & E.”

And much of what I know starts from that postcard.  Flo and Ethel were sisters and H was his brother Harold aged just 22 when he “got a blighty”.

But there is much more which has yet to be revealed.

Sidney left for Canada sometime after 1911 and enlisted in the C.E.F, in the November of 1914 at Calgary, all of which will make it fairly easy to track his life after he left Britain.

He was 5 feet 7 inches tall with a dark complexion, brown hair and grey eyes and gave his occupation as a clerk. He had done three years as a territorial with the 4th Battalion of the East Surrey’s

But and here is the odd thing he lied about his age claiming that he had been born in 1886.
Now the 31st Infantry Brigade had been raised in Alberta in November 1914, shipped to England in May 1915 and arrived in France in September.

They fought at the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele the following year and at Cambrai in 1918.

The details of the campaign along with the daily routines are available from the War Diaries and so it possible to discover that on the day Sidney may have got his card the weather was “exceptionally fine”, the unit was engaged in training with a staff conference on their redeployment and A company spent the morning being inspected and the afternoon working on the “front line and bathing.”

Now in the fullness of time I think I will go looking for his military records and the exact date of his arrival in Canada.

Unlike the British military records of which over 50% were destroyed in the Second World War his will be available, and the details of his departure from Britain will be listed on the Ancestry Canada.

So there is lots to go for.

In the meantime it is just another example of what can turn up unannounced and unexpected.

I came across the card in the collection of David Harrop which I am using for the book on Manchester and the Great War and by sheer chance this one was amongst the postcards, letters, medals and other memorabilia.**

It would have been easy just to discard it given that it was not about the city, but each of the collection deserves more than a cursory glance.

And so that was how Sidney James came out of the shadows.

I thought at first he might have been a British Home Child, but he was not, and yet his story remains a fascinating one.***

All of which in turn  highlights David’s collection some of which will be appear in two exhibitions David is mounting.****

Picture; from the collection of David Harrop

*War Diary 31st Canadian Battalion 2nd Canadian Division from August 1st to 31st August 1916, http://www.canadaatwar.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=2753

**David Harrop, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/David%20Harrop

***British Home Children, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/British%20Home%20Children

****The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport from July 28 and Oldham Archives, Union Street, Oldham, from August 4