Showing 6950 results

Beatrice Davison (1885-1969) served as a Nursing Sister during the First World War. Born in Ottawa on 18 October, 1885 to George Davison and Ada Gough, she decided in her twenties to train as a nurse. She trained at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York, in 1915, she returned to Ottawa and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canadian Army Medical Corps as a Nursing Sister. She left immediately for England for training. She was then posted to France, sometimes serving behind the lines and sometimes in a field hospital. In 1919, Beatrice returned to Canada and went to work at Christie St. Hospital where she met Reginald Collier, a recovering patient. They married in 1923 and she left the nursing profession. During the Second World War, Beatrice was active in the Red Cross. In 1963, the Colliers moved to Bobcaygeon, Ontario. She died 30 October, 1969.

Robert Clark Gillin was a Flight Lieutenant in 31 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was active in the India-Burma theatre from 1942-1945. He flew in the role of navigator and his squadron regularly flew "the hump". He was also part of the detail which dropped supplies for Kohima - the farthest point of Japanese penetration into India. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) September 30, 1945.

Donald A. Cameron (1925- ) served with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) for 25 years. He served at HMCS Nonsuch (Edmonton, AB), HMCS Chippawa (Winnipeg, MB), and the HMCS St. Hyacinthe (St. Hyacithe, QC) as an Ordinary Seaman for Wireless Telegraphy (OS for W/T) before following special training in breaking German, Italian, and Japanese Morse codes. With this training, Cameron joined the "Supplementary Radio Branch" and was posted to various stations, namely Gander NF, Coverdale NB, Frobisher Bay NWT, Gloucester ON, Churchill MB, Masset BC as well as three years with the United States Navy in Cheltenham, Maryland. At the time of his retirement, Cameron had obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer 1st class. He retired in Ottawa, ON.

Robin B. Bush was a collector of Second World War naval photographs.

Kenneth F. Pettis served with the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion during the First World War and with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the Second World War. Born 1898 in Cabbagetown, Ontario, Pettis enlisted in April 1916 with the 4th Divisional Cyclists. After completing his training as a cyclist, Pettis sailed to Liverpool in 1916 with the rest of his troop. After months of training in Britain, he was sent to the Front in France in January 1918. With some of the other men from the Cyclist Corps, he was taken into a Tunneling Company where he dug trenches for months. During the First World War, Pettis saw action in Amiens, Arras and Orange Hill. Pettis did not return to Canada until Spring 1919. Twenty-five years to the day after enlisting in the Cyclists, he became an officer of the RCAF during the Second World War. During his term of duty, Pettis spent time in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Persia, and Greece. Pettis returned to Canada May 8, 1945 - VE Day. He left the RCAF with the rank of Squadron Leader.

Lawrence Hudson Phinney was a Wing Commander for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He enlisted in Winnipeg, had Cavalry Training at Petewawa, and trained at RFC at Harling Road. Wing Commander Phinney took aerial photographs for the RCAF throughout the 1920s and 1930s as a Flying Officer for the No. 2 Photographic Detachment and as the Commanding Officer for the No. 1 Photographic Detachment from 19 March 1930.

Agnes Isabel Tennant served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the Second World War, attaining the rank of Major (Principal Matron). Born in 1911, she worked as a Staff Nurse during 1934-1936 at the Laurentian Sanatarium in St-Agathe, Quebec and received her BA at McGill University in 1938. During 1938-1941 she was a Medical Supervisor at the Montreal General Hospital. During the Second World War, she commenced her service with 14 Canadian General Hospital and overseas with the unit in 1941. She returned to Canada in August 1943 and spent until March 1944 training orderlies at CBMH. Tennant returned overseas in May 1944 with 20 Canadian General Hospital as Major (Principal Matron). She also served with the 2nd Canadian General Hospital for one month and returned to Canada in July 1945.

Maunsell Charles Buckwell (Buck) served with the Canadian Army during 1939-1968 and retired with the rank of Major. Born in 1919, he enlisted in the 93rd Field Battalion, 18th Field Brigade, Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) in 1939. Buckwell was a career Army officer, a veteran of the Second World War, and served in many international positions. He retired in 1968 and joined the Federal Department of Agriculture, retiring in 1984. Buckwell died 9 March 2004.

Karl-Heinz Lohmann was a 17-year-old German conscript in the last days of the Third Reich. On April 28th, 1945 while stationed at Leer, Germany, he was wounded by a Canadian grenade. Lohmann promptly received medical treatment from Canadian doctors, and they were able to save his leg.

"Bonnie" Joan Graham was born Joan Bartlett, and she grew up in Fort Qu'Appelle Saskatchewan. Christopher and Richard Bartlett, with whom she corresponded with during the war, are her brothers. She married Buckwell Graham in the late 1940s and they had three children together. In 1995, Ms. Graham completed a family history about the Fort Qu'Appelle Bartletts. Ms. Graham is a grandmother of eight, and she lives in Goderich, Ontario. George M. Smales served in the First World War so that he could serve with his son, Alistair. Charles and Douglas Graham served in the South African War. Christopher Bartlett was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force until his death in 1944. He was born in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan. A lake in Saskatchewan was named after him in 1949. Sub Lieutenant Richard Bartlett was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Pilot during the Second World War. He was a prisoner of war in many different prison camps, the last of which he escaped successfully. The Smales and Bartlett families are related by marriage.

Colonel Charles Warren Ball was Director of Pay Services for the Canadian Army in the 1950's.

J.F. Cummins was a Lieutenant-Colonel on the General Staff of the Historical Section of the Department of National Defence, Ottawa, Canada in 1931.

Jacques Fauteux attended the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He was trained as a diver in the Canadian Navy. In 1996, Fauteux was sent to Yugoslavia to act as a media officer and was predominantly stationed in Sarajevo/Mostar. He held the rank of Lieutenant while in Yugoslavia.

Dr. James A. Boutilier is an expert on maritime security, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Born in Halifax in 1939, he studied History at Dalhousie University, McMaster University, and the University of London. He taught for two years at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and for twenty-two years at Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, B.C. He now works as a special advisor at the Canadian Maritime Forces' Pacific Headquarters in Esquimault, B.C.

Roger Flynn Sarty (1952-) was the Chief of the Naval History Team at the D-Hist (later renamed the Directorate of History and Heritage), National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ), Ottawa from 1988 to 1998. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he received his BA in History in 1975 from the University of Toronto. He continued his graduate and postgraduate studies in History, obtaining his MA from Duke University in 1976 and his Ph. D from the University of Toronto in 1982. A specialist in military history, he is the author of 'The Maritime Defence of Canada', 'Canada and the Battle of the Atlantic' and co-author of 'Tin Pots and Private Ships: Canadian Naval Forces and German Sea Raiders, 1880-1919, 'A Country of Limitations: Canada and the World in 1939', and 'Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney, Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars'

Robert H. Caldwell (1939- ) served in the Canadian Army for thirty-five years. He completed Technical and General Staff courses at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, the British Army Staff College at Camberley, and the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum. He passed the Master of Arts programme in War Studies at the Royal Military College at Kingston in 1987, and thereafter was employed as a researcher and historian at the Operational and Research and Analysis Establishment, followed by the Directorate of History, in National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa. Mr. Caldwell has been a member of the Naval History Team for fourteen years, an is a contributing author to the two volume official operational history of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War. He has completed several studies on the “The RCN and Unification” for Volume III, the official post-war naval history to be published in 2010. He is presently the Canadian representative on the first Combined Operations naval history project working with historians from the United States, Britain and Australia. Caldwell is concentrating on the Canadian Navy in the Arabian Sea and Gulf from 1991 to 2003. In late 2006 Mr. Caldwell was tasked to begin the preparations for an official history of the Canadian Forces experience in Afghanistan. He visited with Canadian troops in Afghanistan in October and November 2006, and again in April and May 2007. He will act as the NATO historian at Regional Command (South) in Kandahar, Afghanistan from May to August 2008.

William C. Johnston was educated at the University of Waterloo where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1979 and a Masters of Arts degree in 1982. He became an historian with the Directorate of History and Heritage, Dept. of National Defence in 1982. Mr. Johnson was responsible for the Policy and Maritime Air sections of the third volume of official history of the Royal Canadian Air Force and contributed to the second volume of the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy. He is the author of A War of Patrols. The Canadian Army in Korea, 1950-1953 and is currently principle author of the first volume of the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Dr. R. N. Rabinovitch was a top scientist at the Montreal General Hospital and the University of McGill prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. With a specialty in chemistry and chemical engineering, he went on to enter the Canadian chemical weapons program shortly after war had been declared. Rabinovitch became a Major, and the Director of No. 1 Canadian Chemical Warfare Defence Laboratory. Canadian Chemical Warfare Defense Laboratory No. 1 was involved in many aspects of chemical warfare. They conducted gas training for the Cdn. Forestry Corps. They also assessed the possibilities of Axis use of chemical weapons, and the effects these could have. The group also investigated ways of improving the Allied chemical program.

C.A. Morrison (1936-1990) was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Forces from 1959 to 1980. From 1978 to 1980, he worked as an historian at the Directorate of History, and was responsible for the production of the official historical narrative of Operation Morning Light, the operation to recover debris from the crashed Soviet surveillance satellite Kosmos 954.