Reflecting on a past Canada Day.... 2016 ...... with the memory of the “Canadian 26”

Today is Canada Day.

Honouring those who participated in two world wars

It is day which has grown in significance for me as I have uncovered more of my Canadian family history and can count on a growing number of Canadian friends and colleagues.

Two of my direct family migrated to Canada, one in 1914 who was taken over by the MIddlemore charity on behalf of the Derby Workhouse and a great aunt who made the same journey nine years later on an Empire assisted scheme.

In the case of my great uncle having arrived in Canada in 1914, he volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force the following year and in summer of 1916 was back in Britain before going on to the Western Front.

He like the other six men of my family who went off to war came back, but many others didn’t and it is of the 26 Canadian soldiers buried in Southern Cemetery along with others from Australia and New Zealand which today are exercising my thoughts.

C S Asllop ....... of the "26"

All died of complications to wounds they had sustained in the fighting or from illnesses they contracted, and most died in the nearby hospital.

Back in 2016 to mark their deaths on what was the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme as well as Canada Day a special service attended by Major Charron of the Canadian army took place in the cemetery.

He was accompanied by parties of school students, civic signatories including the local MP and veterans organisations.

Many of whom then visited the permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge which features memorabilia from the Great War.

The exhibition is run by David Harrop and this year like last there will be items directly related to the Canadian armed forces.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; the service of Remembrance, July 1, 1916 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Surviving a century ........... the silver inscribed watch

Now it always fascinates me how cherished items end up on eBay.

The watch

Some will be family treasures passed down, while others are just a simple holiday snap and yet all of them will have once marked a significant moment in someone’s life.

And so it is with this watch which was awarded to Earl C Duffin.  I have no idea when he received it but the inscription on the back refers to a Masonic Lodge in Winnipeg.

It now belongs to David Harrop who told me that Earl C Duffin served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and with the help of that excellent site Library and Archives Canada, it has been possible to follow his army career.*

I know he was born in 1886, enlisted in  December 1914, and sailed for Europe the following August and by the April of 1916 he was in France.  He was demobbed in August 1919, having attained the rank of L. Col.

The watch and its inscribed sentiment

In time I shall try and find out more.

I know he married a Miss Shirley Calder on July 20 1921 and the Winnipeg Tribune carried a wedding picture.

It is more than likely that he will have returned to his earlier occupation as a merchant.

And he may even have revisited his old homes in Winnipeg at Harvard Avenue and later in Main Street.

All of which betokens a man with money and influence and begs the question of how his watch left Canada.

That said it will feature in David’s exhibition at Southern Cemetery commemorating the Battle of the Somme and is one of a number of items reflecting the stories of the twenty-six Canadians from the CEF who are buried in Southern Cemetery.

C H Hill of the "26"

They have become part of a research project to chronicle the lives of all the twenty six. **

So far I have discovered something on two of the men one of whom was a British Home Child, and before July 1 I hope to have found out something about them all.

Now that would be a fitting way to mark the day which was not only the first day of the Somme but also Canada Day, and this year the High Commissioner of Canada along with our Lord Mayor will be at a service of remembrance in Southern Cemetery.

Pictures; watch of Earl C Duffin, 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/search.aspx

**Canada's 26 of the CEF in Southern Cemetery, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Canada%27s%2026%20of%20the%20CEF%20in%20Southern%20Cemetery

Discovering the story of one British Home Child, born in London, migrated to Ontario and buried in Manchester

Now I doubt I will ever come across a photograph of young Thomas John Loveland.

Southern Cemetery, 2015

He was buried in Southern Cemetery in 1918 and was just 21 years old.

Not of course that there is anything unusual in that.  Plenty of people still died young in the early 20th century and not everyone could afford to have their picture taken in a photograph.

But in the course of the last few days I have come to know a lot about him.

He is one of the 26 men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who are buried in a neat line in the cemetery.

Each will have a story and it was only by chance I settled on his grave.  He enlisted in the August of 1915 and was in the First Battalion of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, and here the story becomes a little personal.

Like me he was born in London not that far from where I grew up and was a British Home Child like my great uncle who also enlisted in the August of 1915.

I had suspected he was a British Home Child because his Attestation Papers showed that his next of kin was an Eliza Loveland living in London and she was his sister..

Thomas John Loveland

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.

And with the help of friends it seems I was right.  Liz Sykes who is the Archivist at the Together Trust thought that he may have been a Barnado boy and Catherine West and Dawn Heuston dug into the archives of the Library and Archives Canada and confirmed it.

from his Attestation Papers, August 1915

He arrived in Canada on board the SS Dominion in 1907 and had been migrated by the Barnardo Charity.

Like my great uncle he was the only one of the direct family to have been sent to Canada.

Somewhere there will be the records of how that migration came about and the decisions which led him to Canada but his siblings to stay in the UK.  Some of these will be locked away in the Barnardo records and as I am not a family family I will never get to see them.

That said I am in contact with a relative via ancestry and so maybe they will be able to get permission to reveal what happened.

Later I will also try and find his siblings.  One of his brothers I know was killed on the Western Front in the August of 1917.  He was Edward Loveland who was 27 when he died and he is buried atLijssenthoek Military Cemetery  in Belgium.

All of which underlines the enormity of the Great War, and like Private Thomas Loveland and his brother Bombardier Edward Loveland my family made a huge contribution.

Along with my great uncle in the CEF the family roll of honour includes my grandfather, another great uncle, two uncles and my great grandfather, and some who served in the German armed forces.

In honour of the Canadian Expeditionary Force

I hadn’t expected when I first came across his grave that Private Loveland would take me on my own personal journey which will for now conclude with a visit to his resting place in Southern Cemetery which is just ten minutes away from where we live.

And I intend to go on July 1 which is timely given that it is the centenary of the first day of the Somme and of course Canada Day.

I will also call in at the special exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge devoted to the Battle of the Somme.  It is maintained by David Harrop who in honour of the men of CEF buried here has included a special item of remembrance to those Canadians.

Nor should we forget that the cemetery also holds the graves of men of the ANZAC forces as well as the British army.

And something of the story of Southern Cemetery and the history of Manchester during the Great War is revealed in Manchester Remembering 1914-18 published today.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Research; Liz Sykes, Catherine West and Dawn Heuston

Pictures; Southern Cemetery 2013 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, grave of Private Thomas John Loveland, courtesy of David Harrop and Maple leaf from Lori Oschefski

*Manchester Remembering 1914-18

Reflecting on the forthcoming Canada Day and its significance for Southern Cemetery

We are just a week away from Canada Day.

Major Charron

It is day which has grown in significance for me as I have uncovered more of my Canadian family history and can count on a growing number of Canadian friends and colleagues.

Two of my direct family migrated to Canada, one in 1914 who was taken over by the MIddlemore charity on behalf of the Derby Workhouse and a great aunt who made the same journey nine years later on an Empire assisted scheme.

In the case of my great uncle having arrived in Canada in 1914, he volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force the following year and in the summer of 1916 was back in Britain before going on to the Western Front.

He like the other six men of my family who went off to war came back, but many others didn’t and it is of the 26 Canadian soldiers buried in Southern Cemetery along with others from Australia and New Zealand which today are exercising my thoughts.

Honouring those who participated in two world wars

All died of complications to wounds they had sustained in the fighting or from illnesses they contracted, and most died in the nearby hospital.

Last year to mark their deaths on what was the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme as well as Canada Day a special service attended by Major Charron of the Canadian army took place in the cemetery.

He was accompanied by parties of school students, civic signatories including the local MP and veterans organisations.

Many of whom then visited the permanent exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge which features memorabilia from the Great War.

The exhibition is run by David Harrop and this year like last there will be items directly related to the Canadian armed forces.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; the service of Remembrance, July 1, 1916 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Remembering them ...... 100 years after the Battle of the Somme part 1 Southern Cemetery and Claude Alsop

As we approach the centenary of the Somme preparations across the city are well in hand to mark the Battle which began on July 1 1916.

Claude Simpson Alsop, 1890-1916

There will be a service in the Cathedral, events at Heaton Park and an act of remembrance in Southern Cemetery attended by Major David Charron of the Royal Canadian Army.

And it is the ceremony in Southern Cemetery which will be the first of a series of events I want to feature.

July 1 is also Canada Day and there are twenty-six men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force buried in the cemetery.

Recently I wrote about one of these men, and today I am looking at another.*

By chance I chose the grave of C S Alsop.  I was drawn to his grave because of the small Canadian flag someone had left beside it.
Claude Simpson Alsop had been born in 1890 in Bristol, enlisted in the CEF in May 1915 and left for Europe the following March.

He was wounded in June and died of those wounds at 8.15 pm on July 25 in the Royal Infirmary in Manchester.

Just before he died he made his will leaving everything to his half sister who lived in Balham in London.  The house which is still there is a fine late 19th century end terrace.  His his father’s home at Claremont Crescent, Weston super Mare has also survived although now a little run down it was once a very impressive property.

Canada in Khaki, 1917

I had wondered if Claude Simpson Alsop was a British Home Child like Thomas John Loveland, who is also one of the twenty six.*

But not so. In 1911 he was 21 years old still living at home with his parents and six siblings.  He described himself as a “Drapery assistant” and his father ran a business making furniture.

I haven’t yet found any records of when he left for Canada but it will be after the April of 1911.

I do know that before enlisted he was working as a salesmen and lived at 298 Grey street, London Ontario.

The house or its successor is still there and is a typical timber clad building.

The probate details of his will confirms that he left everything to Almira Dorothy Alsop which amounted to £1417.

At the time she was 23 years old and had moved to Balham, and there the trail stops, although if she didn’t marry there may be a record of her on the electoral register somewhere but as she doesn’t appear on the registration of deaths I can only assume she changed her name by marriage.

J William Montgomery, 1892-1918

All perhaps a long way from Southern Cemetery and even further from Ontario. In time I will try looking for their siblings and there is a descendant listed on ancestry who I will contact.

In the meantime I will be there on July 1 in the cemetery.

The service starts at 10 in front of the memorial and afterwards I will join David Harrop in the Remembrance Lodge with his exhibition commemorating the Somme which to mark Canada Day he has included memorabilia from the CEF.

It will be a special day for me.  Not that I think there is a direct family connection between me and Claude Simpson Alsop, but more because as many know my great uncle was a British Home Child who also enlisted in the CEF in 1915 and saw action on the Western Front.

His sister later migrated to Canada and that side of our family still live not that far from Grey Street, in London.

So despite a century and another continent there will be something which connects me to that young Canadian soldier.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Pictures; graves of some of the twenty-six men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Southern Cemetery, 2016 from the collection of David Harrop

*Discovering the story of one British Home Child, born in London, migrated to Ontario and buried in Manchester, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/discovering-story-of-one-british-home.html