Casualties just arrived. No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station. July, 1916.
Source: Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000324

Volunteers from the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa have created a very helpful database listing 879 Great War soldiers, mostly British and Canadian, who died at No. 1 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. The No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station database entries were transcribed from a register maintained by chaplains who served with the unit during the First World War. Researchers can search by soldier’s name, serial number or by chaplain. While not every entry includes the name of a chaplain the majority of soldiers were attended to by the following individuals:

• James Patrick Fallon, CF (Chaplain to the Forces)
• Walter Francis O’Neill Fisher, CF
• Andrew Dunn Reid, CF
• John Knox Tibbits, CF
• Geoffrey Cyril d Easum, CF
• Robert Kerr Lambert, CF
• Ralph Lionel Brydges, CF

Each solider entry includes name, serial number, rank, unit, description of injury (as well as dates of admission, death and burial), religion, chaplain’s name and comments.

To mark the centenary BIFHSGO volunteers have begun compiling short biographies on each soldier. The first 30 bios are already online and it’s clearly evident that a great deal of hard work and long hours have gone in to making these available to us. If you have any information on the soldiers listed in the database please contact BIFHSGO via their website.

Below you will find links to the soldiers whose biographies are already online:

• Sergeant Timothy Ashley (“K” Spec Company Royal Engineers)
• Bombardier George Bickers (A/276 Brigade Royal Field Artillery)
• Private John Robert Bolding (“G” Spec Company Royal Engineers)
• Lance Corporal Harry Brumby (1/6 Notts Derby Regiment)
• Rifleman George Edward Byrch (3rd Rifle Brigade)
• Private John Lancaster Clark (9th West Yorkshire Regiment)
• Rifleman Thomas Harvey Cox (20th Kings Royal Rifle Corps)
• Gunner William Charles Samuel Crooke (B/306 Brigade Royal Field Artillery)
• 2nd Lieutenant George Edward Ffrench (27th Squadron Royal Air Force)
• Private George Percy Fry (11th Manchester Regiment)
• Gunner William Henry Full (#1 Sec. 14 Divisional Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery)
• Rifleman Gilbert William Frank Griffin (1/5 South Lancashire Regiment)
• Lance Corporal Charles Edward Hall (1st Somerset Infantry Regiment)
• Sergeant Charles Richard Harris (2nd Royal Scots)
• Private Charles Hiscox (1st Hampshire Regiment)
• Pioneer Percy Daniel Kingshott (“K” Spec Company Royal Engineers)
• Rifleman Arthur William Kitching (7th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry)
• Lance Corporal Robert Langley (1st Battalion Rifle Brigade)
• Driver George Edward Langridge (130/40 Brigade Royal Field Artillery)
• Private William Leach (71st Labour Company)
• Private Arthur Edward Mansell (1/4 Loyal North Lancashire)
• Private Percy Watson Searson Mawby (1st Gordons)
• Sergeant Francis Yates McLauchlan (27th Squadron, Royal Air Force)
• Private Harry Arthur Morley (3rd Rifle Brigade)
• Private George Edwin Osborne (3rd Battalion Machine Gun Corps)
• Private Jess Ransome (6th Lincolnshire Regiment)
• Captain Frank Pitchford Silvers (1/6 South Staffordshire Regiment)
• Private Oliver James Smith (3rd Machine Gun Company)
• Private Casson Stevenson (11th Trench Mortar Battery XI Division)
• Private Richard Watts (6th York & Lancaster Regiment)
• Rifleman Bruno Whittle (1/5 King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment)
• Gunner William Henry James Wood (151st Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery)

London Gazette, 2 December 1918

The British Colonist, 29 Nov 1918

To this list I will add a very brief biography of one of the chaplains who maintained the register. Geoffrey Cyril D’Easum was born in Poona, India in 1870 and enlisted in 1916 with the 131st Battalion in New Westminster, BC. In late October 1917, while attached to the 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, he was gassed and spent nine weeks in hospital and at convalescent homes in France. On Dec. 31st D’Easum was attached to the No. 1 Canadian C.C.S. where he served until mid-May 1918. In early June he joined the 78th Battalion (Manitoba Regiment) and in September he was injured a second time when he was struck by a brick that fell from a building during an air raid. D’Easum was recognized for his commitment to his men when he was awarded a Military Cross, the citation for which appeared in the Dec. 2, 1918 London Gazette. He died in Saanich BC in 1954.