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

Arthur Wisdom Ervine a British Home Child .......

This is the gravestone of Arthur Wisdom Ervine and he is one of the thirty-one men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force buried in Southern Cemetery in the south of Manchester.

All of the men died of wounds they sustained on the Western Front during the Great War.

Of those thirty-one men two were British Home Children and both were Barbados’s Boys.

I had uncovered the story of Thomas John Loveland who had enlisted in 1915 and was killed in 1918 by sheer chance having chosen him simply because someone had left a small Canadian flag by his gravestone.

And now I am researching all of the thirty-one.  I hadn’t intended too but this year is the centenary of the Somme and is also Canada Day.

Here in the cemetery there will be a special ceremony of Remembrance on July 1 at at which there will be the Lord Mayor and the High Commissioner for Canada.

So it seemed fitting to look for the stories of these men buried far from home.

It took an afternoon to complete the basic database which revealed that Private Arthur Wisdom Ervince of the 2nd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry had been born in Dorset in 1898.

The evidence trail for his life here in the UK is sparse and there may more be information on the BHC databases all of which means I know more about him once he enlisted than before.

His Attestation Papers show that he gave his next of kin as the Barnado’s Home on Peter Street in Toronto.

I know also that he left Halifax for Liverpool in the June of 1917 and arrived in France the following January.

He seems to have missed the vicious fighting when the Germans staged their last counter offensive but was part of the allied counter attack.

He was wounded on October 17th, evacuated to Britain five days later and died on November 15.

Now I shouldn’t be surprised that both his final resting place is a cemetery I know well or that Salford Royal where he died is a hospital I have visited on several occasions..

But  it does still  make for a powerful connection.

Location; Southern Cemetery

Picture; gravestone of Private Ervine from the collection of David Harrop

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

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

Remembering them ...... 100 years after the Battle of the Somme part 6 today across the city

Tomorrow across the city we will remember the men who fought at the Somme a full century ago.

Captain Dickinson, 2016

And of course it will not just be the men, but their wives, mothers and sweethearts along with their families who will also be remembered.

The events will be a mix of the solemn, the historic and a dollop of fun.*

The solemn will be met with the ceremonies of Remembrance in the Cathedral and Southern Cemetery the historic by various re enactment activities in Heaton Park and a special exhibition at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern.

As for the fun, it’s important to remember that those who participated in the Great War will have enjoyed a joke and will have endeavoured to see the funny side of things and so that will also be included in the events at Heaton Park on the Saturday.

But for now I want to finish with that service in Southern Cemetery, which will be attended by Major David Charron of the Royal Canadian Army because July 1 marks not just the start of the Battle back in 1916 but is also Canada Day.

The medal of Captain Dickinson, 2016

And the cemetery is the last resting place of a number of men from the Canadian Expeditionary Force. **

Over the last few weeks I have been exploring their lives before they enlisted and already we now know much about some of them.

Added to these there are those from the British army who came back to recover from wounds in one of the hospitals in Manchester and later died.  A few died at home recovering from those wounds and at least one died after catching flu while on leave.

But some survived and died long after the war.

One of these is Captain M B Dickinson of the Royal Ordinance  who was wounded on the Somme on July 20 1916 and again in May 1918 and died in November 1941.

Location; Manchester, & Southern Cemetery

Pictures; grave and medals of Captain M B Dickinson, 2016 from the collection of David Harrop

*Remembering the Battle of the Somme, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Remembering%20the%20Battle%20of%20the%20Somme
**Remembering the men of the CEF in Southern Cemetery,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Remembering%20the%20men%20of%20the%20CEF%20in%20Southern%20Cemetery

The story of Private John William Ingham of the CEF and a thank you to all those in Canada who helped in the research

Now the story of John William Ingham of the 46th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force has taken yet another unexpected twist.*

The family grave of Mr & Mrs Ingham

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

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.

The Wharncliffe War Hospital was established in April 1915 from what had formerly been the South Yorkshire Asylum. 37,000 patients were to pass through the hospital during the war, and over 200 are commemorated on its Roll of Honour.

And there is an entry for John William Ingham, which I came across on that excellent site Wharncliffe War Hospital.**

What I was not prepared for was when I followed the link I came across his gravestone which is in Southern Cemetery and sits away from those of his comrades in the CEF.

I have Dean Hill and Stuart Reeves to thank for the image and it does help take the story a little further.**

I now know from the research by Linda Wisking and Melisa Dolan that he settled in Canada in 1910 giving his previous occupation as a “carter” and his intended one as “farmer.”

That said I am puzzled by the 1916 census which has him and all those on the page as living on Front Street, Yorkton, Saskatchewan. But I am sure someone in Canada will be able to shed light on my confusion.

Southern Cemetery, 2014

And this co-operation is what has made possible the story and points to the willingness of people to follow up leads and dig deep into the records.

It would seem that Private Irving had also been regarded by the authorities as a valuable asset given that his papers are stamped “British Bonus Allowed” which was commission paid by the Canadian government's Immigration Branch to steamship booking agents in the United Kingdom for each suitable immigrant who purchased a ticket to sail to Canada.”***

Not that the immigrants saw the bonus.

Detail of the Irving family gravestone

.But at least I have cleared up why he enlisted in the CEF and did not return to volunteer for the British armed forces because by the April of 1916 he was a Canadian national.

There is still the issue of why his family did not join him but perhaps they would have had not the war intervened.

Location; Southern Cemetery, and Saskatchewan

Picture; the grave of Private Ingham © Dean Hill and Stuart Reeves and Southern Cemetery from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* Looking for more British Home Children in Southern Cemetery, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/looking-for-more-british-home-children.html

**Wharncliffe War Hospital, http://www.wharncliffewarhospital.co.uk/Wharncliffe6.html

*** Terminology and Abbreviations, Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/Pages/terminology-abbreviations.aspx

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