The 1914 Toy Shortage
In August 1914, Europe and its colonies mobilised for war. While the generals of the Great Powers executed their war plans, businessmen anxiously debated amongst themselves. Despite all the meticulousness that had gone into planning the opening salvos of the Great War, a crucial element, in their mind, had gone over-looked. The War was to […]
Wholesome entertainments: The YMCA in the First World War
The First World War period in Canada, an across the British Empire, saw an unprecedented amount of activity by charitable organisations towards the war effort. Groups like the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE), and the Red Cross raised millions of dollars for medical supplies and for the care of prisoners of […]
Fighting Words: Canadian War Poets
The First World War produced many war poets, particularly those writing in English; Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Edmund Blunden all come to mind. In the Canadian context, there is a clear favourite for most well known – John McCrae, the author of “In Flanders Fields”. However, there were other less well known or less […]
Forgotten Casualties: Canada’s Spanish Influenza Epidemic
In the spring of 1918 Canada had been at war in Europe for almost four years, and the news from the front was not good. The German Army had broken through the British lines around Saint-Quentin and the British Army was in full retreat. There was little attention paid to the increased activity of a […]
But who are you? A quick course in Canadian patches from the First World War
One of the challenges of mobilising thousands of soldiers is telling them apart. Unlike the eye-catching uniforms of the 19th century, most armies during the First World War employed a uniform that matched more easily into the surrounding landscape. By the end of the war even the highland units were using a form khaki battledress […]
