A Poppy from France (that has been blooming for 101 years)
With Remembrance Day less than a week away I thought I would feature the contents of a letter sent by Sgt. Harry Burnett in France to his mother in what […]
Reunited! Another Diplock P.O.W. Postcard Returns Home
In April 2016 I wrote an article describing how a 1915 Christmas card posted by Sgt. Thomas Diplock from Giessen P.O.W. camp was reunited with his family. That happy outcome […]
Vimy Day: Remembering Private Thomas Shearman
On April 12, 1917, a 21-year old Rhodes scholar candidate from British Columbia lay injured in a German trench on Vimy Ridge with gunshot wounds to his side, arm and leg. He […]
Doing Their Bit: Stephanie Ann Warner
Today marks the launch of a new series of articles entitled Doing Their Bit. Each article focuses on a blogger, writer or volunteer who shares their research, stories and passion for remembering and […]
Canadian Letters and Images Project helps share my grandfather’s WWI story — Stephanie Ann Warner
Stephanie Ann Warner’s latest blog article describes her recent visit to the Canadian Letters and Images Project at Vancouver Island University where Stephen Davies and his team digitized over 250 postcards, photos and personal items and made them available online. Stephanie’s article provides a great overview of this valuable Canadian Military History resource and I […]
Made-to-order: Valentine’s Post-War Christmas Dinner
While most Officers did their best to provide their men with a filling Christmas dinner there was no substitute for family and a home-cooked meal. In this article I’m featuring two letters […]
Remembering Pte John Fleming, C.A.S.C – Part 2 of 3
When 27-year old husband and father of two John Fleming attested in Winnipeg on December 13, 1915 he brought with him mechanical skills and driving experience that made him a natural […]
Royal BC Museum invites you to help Transcribe WW1 Docs
In April the Royal BC Museum launched Transcribe, a crowd-sourcing website that provides citizen historians with an opportunity to transcribe historical documents from the Provincial Archives. The museum’s first transcription project […]
Kitchener’s Wood: Pte Denholm’s Curious Keepsake
Private John Denholm‘s First World War scrapbook contains an unusual piece of ephemera, a postcard written to a German soldier named Robert Kirchner. Denholm went to the trouble of having […]
Kitchener’s Wood: the letters of Sgt. Charles Herbert Peck
“The hardest thing that I have saw is a young fellow from Annapolis valley. I took a liking to him in Valcartier and keep him with me up to the […]
Doing Our Bit 