John Nuttall Bland was born in Lancashire, England, in April 1880. Sometime before World War I, he immigrated to St. Catharines, Ontario, where he enlisted in May 1916. The collection consists of one photograph of Bland taken in 1916.
Title
WWI
These collections contains any material relating to Canada from 1914 to 1918 from either the home front or the battlefront. External links in collection descriptions are either to online attestation papers at Library and Archives Canada or casualty and burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Lieutenant Herbert Beaumont Boggs was born in Victoria, British Columbia, on July 28, 1892, the second of four children of Beaumont and Mary Louise (née Richardson) Boggs. Prior to the war, in September 1912, Herbert had joined Victoria’s newly formed Militia Regiment the 88th Fusiliers.
When the Great War broke out he enlisted with the 7th Battalion (1st British Columbia) at Valcartier, Québec, on September 18, 1914. Shipping for England on board the SS Virginian as part of the First Canadian Contingent in October 1914, Boggs proceeded to France in February 1915, serving as Lieutenant with the 7th Canadian Infantry Battalion.
Boggs was 22 years old when he was killed while in action in Ploegsteert, Belgium, on February 26, 1915. He was buried in the Ploegsteert Churchyard cemetery. Boggs was one of the first officers from British Columbia to be killed in World War One. Both he and Lieutenant Duncan Bell-Irving died on the same day (see Bell-Irving links below).
The Boggs Collection contains twelve letters written by Lieut. Boggs to his mother and his younger sisters Mary & Dorothy in Victoria, B.C., and to Miss Mansell of London, England, as well as a letter that had been written by his mother and mailed to France just prior to his death. Also included are approximately 50 letters of condolence. While the writing of condolence letters to the families of soldiers killed overseas assumed a terrible familiarity as the war progressed and casualties mounted, at the time of Boggs’ death these letters would often have been the first of this kind written by these correspondents.
External links:
Lieut. Boggs’s service record (Serv/Reg# unassigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Lieutenant Boggs can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
Lieut. Bell-Irving's service record (Serv/Reg# unassigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada; burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Herbert D'Alton Bolster was born in Lancaster, Ontario, and later moved to Saskatchewan where he worked as a teacher and later as a railway mail clerk. He enlisted in September 1914, served overseas until he was discharged in 1918, and then returned to Moose Jaw in 1919. The collection consists of one letter and one photograph.
Earl Bolton was born in Ingersoll, Ontario, in 1889 and then later moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he was employed as a grinder. He returned to Canada and enlisted in London, Ontario, in February 1918. Bolton saw service in France beginning in August 1918. He was wounded and died October 9, 1918. The collection currently consists of three letters.
Iden Bonds was born in Yorkshire, England, in December 1882 and moved to Norwood, Ontario, prior to the war. Bonds enlisted in January 1916 in Peterborough, Ontario, and served overseas with the 93rd Battalion C.E.F. until his return to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of twelve letters.
Percy Lytton Bonsall, MC, was born in Poltimon, Québec, in May 1891. Bonsall enlisted in Montreal, Québec, in April 1916 with the Canadian Railway Construction Corps. He rose to the rank of Major before being demobilized and returning to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of three letters.
Thomas Lytton Bonsall was born in Brantford, Ontario, in 1871. He attested with the 238th Battalion in July 1916 and served overseas with that Battalion until he was demobilized and returned to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of three letters.
Joseph Richard Boucher was born in Kent County, New Brunswick, in December 1885. Boucher enlisted in March 1915 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He served overseas and was wounded twice before returning to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of a family record and a diary of his service.
Harold Sidney Bowler was born in Hazlemere, England, in July 1885. Prior to the war he was living in Vancouver, British Columbia, but attested in Le Treport, France, in May 1915. Bowler served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in France until he was invalided back to Canada in late 1917 due to illness. The collection currently consists of his paybook, postcards, and a large collection of photographs.
Frederick Boyt was born in Poole, England, in December 1893. He enlisted in Toronto, Ontario, on July 26, 1915. His brother William was born in Poole, England, in February 1896. William enlisted on the same day as his brother. The collection currently consists of four photographs and one postcard.
Maurice Wilfred Bracewell was born in Yorkshire, England, in March 1895. Bracewell moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, prior to the war, where he enlisted in December 1915. Bracewell fought at Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, where he was wounded. He died in Vancouver in 1973. The collection consists of an undated memoir of his participation at Vimy Ridge.
Edward Bracey was born in London, England, in July 1883 and sometime before the war immigrated to Montreal, Québec. Bracey enlisted in Montreal in July 1915 and served overseas as a Lance Corporal with the 73rd Highlanders. Bracey was killed November 2, 1916. The collection consists of two postcards.
Melville Alexander Bradshaw was born in Toronto, Ontario, in August 1898. While still a student, Bradshaw enlisted in November 1916 in Toronto, Ontario, with the 67th O.S. Depot Battery, C.F.A. The collection currently consists of two photographs and his diary from 1918.
Thomas Edward Brady was born in Lindsay, Ontario, in November 1896. He enlisted in Kingston, Ontario, in November 1914 and served overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corps. Brady died in October 1918. The collection consists of several photographs of Brady and some postcards.
Raymond Harlan Brewster was born in Boston in 1893 and later moved to Victoria, British Columbia. At the time of his enlistment in May 1917 his father, Harlan Brewster, was the Premier of the province. Brewster served overseas and was killed November 1, 1918. The collection consist of three letters and four photographs.
Jeannette "Nettie" Drysdale Bridges was born in August 1889 in Saint John, New Brunswick. Drysdale served as a V.A.D. in England during 1918 and into 1919. The collection currently consists of more than thirty letters and an extensive photograph album.
Captain Tillman Alfred Briggs, MC, was born in Victoria, British Columbia ,on June 12, 1887. Prior to enlistment he was worked as a doctor at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria.
Capt. Briggs was commissioned in Victoria on November 23, 1915, with B Section of the No. 1 Field Ambulance, Canadian Army Medical Corps (C.A.M.C.). Shipping for England aboard the SS Lapland on March 11, 1916, Briggs initially trained and worked with the C.A.M.C. at Sandgate. In December he proceeded to France where he served with several units including No. 3 Canadian General Hospital and No. 9 Canadian Field Ambulance.
Briggs received the Military Cross (awarded for acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations) in January 1919, for attending to the wounded while under fire with the 116th Battalion Canadian Infantry, 2nd Central Ontario Regiment. He was demobilized February 16, 1920.
External links:
Capt. Briggs’s service record (Serv/Reg# not assigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
The announcement awarding Briggs the Military Cross was published in the London Gazette on January 11, 1919 (supplement #31119, pg. 653).
[Editor’s Note: All diary transcriptions (including annotations within these transcriptions) in the Briggs Collection have been provided by the collection donor.]
Private Thomas William Brightwell, known as “William,” was born in Norwich, England, into a large family of 13 children. Few details about his life prior to the war are known, but he was by then a father – his son Herbert was born on November 11, 1913.
He enlisted on August 26, 1914, with the Norfolk Regiment, British Expeditionary Force, and by the fall of that year he was overseas on active service in the trenches in France. Information on his Medal Card held by the British National Archives shows he was discharged on December 24, 1917, under Army Order 265 (soldiers discharged for reasons of illness or injury).
There are two letters in the Brightwell collection, both written to his sister Ethel Victoria Brightwell. Ethel had immigrated to Calgary, Alberta, in 1914, and it is through her family that the letters have been passed down over the years. There is also a photo of William’s brother Herbert Brightwell who served in the Navy during the war (William writes of Herbert’s experiences aboard the HMS Glasgow in his first letter).
The remarkable letter of February 6, 1915, is a rare Christmas Truce letter, containing Pte. Brightwell’s firsthand account of a Christmas Day spent together with the German soldiers from the trenches across from their own.
External links:
Information on Private Brightwell’s Service Record (Serv/Reg# 3/8149) with the British Expeditionary Force is not available.
Brightwell’s Medal Card can be accessed through the British National Archives’ Medal Card Index, but requires the creation of a free user account.
George Albert Charles Broome was born in London, England, in 1897 and immigrated to Melfort, Saskatchewan, sometime prior to the war. Broome enlisted in March 1915. He went to England in the fall of 1915 and then to France early in 1916, where he was wounded. He returned to active duty and was wounded at Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917. Broome was paralyzed and invalided back to England, where he died in a military hospital November 7, 1917, at the age of 20. The collection consists of 27 letters both from and to George Broome, three photographs, and miscellaneous related materials such as telegrams, his personal effect certificate, and his C.E.F. death certificate. The materials cover the period from 1915 to 1921.
William Lester Broome was born in Renfrew County, Ontario, in June 1897. He was farmer in Saskatchewan before he enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in April 1917. The collection consists of ten letters, some postcards, and one photograph of Broome.
