Personal Treasures

These are the stories and photographs that evoke memories of our military experience.

12 result(s)

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Artifact PW1-06: Manitoba First Nations Members of the 1884-85 Nile Expedition

Jan 25, 2017

On a personal trip to Manitoba some years ago, a friend took me to the town of Selkirk on the Red River downstream from Winnipeg, to see the graves of four of the Voyageurs. These men were members of the Saulteaux (Ojibway) First Nation that had migrated westward from Ontario earlier in the 19th century to create an agricultural community. Under the leadership of the well-known Chief Peguis, they had helped the early Scottish immigrants…

Artifact W1-13: Vimy Memories

Jan 21, 2017

Commemorative medal issued by the Canadian Legion to all returning veterans of the battle of Vimy Ridge at the 1936 opening of the Vimy MemorialAt 0530 on 9 April 1917, the Canadian Corps launched its attack against the previously impregnable Vimy Ridge. Three days later, as a result of meticulous preparation and planning, but at the cost of 10,602 casualties, four Divisions of the Canadian Corps had advanced along a front of 7,000 yards for…

Artifact W2-16: Memories of a Canadian Driver

Jan 19, 2017

My father, Walter Chapman, was in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) during the war, having joined as a reservist in February 1939. He was commissioned in 1940 and was sent to North Africa. Towards the end of that campaign he achieved the rank of Major (in Tripoli – January 1943) and was transferred to X Corps (attached to US Fifth Army under General Mark Clark) in preparation for the Salerno landings in September of…

Artifact W2-15: Nursing Sister Served as Model for Canadian Volunteer Service Medal

Sep 21, 2016

Ethel Mae Lowe was born in Lindsay, Ontario on 24 November 1911. She graduated from the Ross Memorial Hospital, Lindsay, Ontario, in 1933. Prior to her appointment to the Nursing Service of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps on 25 May 1942, she did private duty nursing and had four months postgraduate work in psychiatry at the Ontario Hospital, Whitby. After her appointment to the Nursing Service she received basic training at Kingston Military Hospital,…

Artifact PW1-05: A Soldier of the Queen

Aug 1, 2016

Inheriting family medals can provide a lead-in to an exercise in historical research at the personal level – something that genealogists do all the time. Medals can be particularly handy if one knows the rules for their award and (with the exception of British Commonwealth WWII campaign medals) can follow up the inscription information on the rim with official histories and personal military files. It can be even more rewarding if more than one family…

Artifact W1-12: The Sinking of the City of Vienna and My Father’s Razor

Jun 1, 2016

On June 28, 1918 the City of Vienna departed Montreal carrying 1400 Canadian troops en route to England via Halifax. She also carried over 1000 metric tons of munitions. My father, Horace Patrick Nugent, was one of the soldiers. On July 2, 1918, the ship ran aground and was stranded and sinking on the Sambro Island ledges near the entrance to Halifax harbour. All 1400 troops and the crew were rescued by a flotilla of…

Artifact W1-11: Private JOSEPH LEROUX, 660756, Canadian Infantry CEF – First World War

Apr 25, 2016

1660756 Pte Joseph Leroux, CEFMy grand-mother Anna Guttadauria (née Leroux) had never talked about the brother she had lost. I learned of my great-uncle’s First World War service while visiting her daughter, my aunt on Remembrance Day. That day on her table were arranged as a display the following items: a photo of Joseph in his uniform, his memorial cross, the letter from the King, the disk shaped bronze plaque showing Britannia standing with a…

Artifact W2-14: Reverend Thomas R. Davies – Army Padre & His Church Window

Mar 21, 2016

Armed only with their faith and devotion to humanity, World War II chaplains made sacrifices in great numbers. US sources tell us that next to the Army Air Corps, more chaplains were killed in World War II per capita than any other military group.

Artifact PW2-27: A Large Birthday Gift

Mar 18, 2016

Plaque of Gratitude from 86th Tactical Fighter Wing

Artifact W2-12: A Remarkable Discovery and an Act of Kindness

Mar 18, 2016

My father, Captain Harry Marantz, was felled by a German .88 on August 14th 1944 in the fighting to cross the bridge at Clare Tizon in Normandy, one of the many battles to close on Falaise. A doctor, he was detached from the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Winnipeg. In my desire to know more about my father, I have worked assiduously to learn everything I can. I…

Artifact W1-08: A TROOPER WRITES HOME

Mar 12, 2016

Artifact W1-10: James Stoddart, 835505 Canadian Army

Mar 10, 2016

James StoddartJuly 19th, 1898 – April 9th, 1917 On April 4th, 1908, at the age of 9, James departed Glasgow, Scotland, on the ship, SS Grampian, and arrived in the port of Halifax on April 14, 1908. He came to Canada by himself as a Quarrier’s Boy, (orphan), and therefore he would have been sent to the Fairnowe Home in Brockville. From there he went to Croydon, Ontario where he stayed on the Samuel Doupe…