Canadian Nurses in the First World War: Answering the Call of Duty
Throughout the First World War, 2,500 Canadian nurses served abroad, 2,000 of them fully trained nurses, and 500 VAD nurses who signed up when the war started. 1 2 Another 3,000 Canadian nurses worked at convalescent hospitals in Canada, helping soldiers who had made it home with wounds to recover. Working long brutal hours, these […]
Travelling Exhibition 2019: After the War
Coming home and fitting in at the end of the Great War Fifth and Seventh Batteries, CFA, arriving in Montreal PQ for demobilization, 1919. Dept. Of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-022997
Soldier of Fortune: Private Daniel Joseph Fortune at Vimy Ridge
We recently added a very special object to our collection; the helmet pictured above might initially look quite plain and unremarkable, but it has a very touching story.
Travelling Exhibition 2018: Parallels
Women representing the Great War in Canada and Newfoundland Image: Mary Riter Hamilton. Sanctuary Wood, Flanders. 1920. Oil on Plywood, 59.100 x 45.700 cm. Mary Riter Hamilton Fonds, Library and Archives Canada. Acc. No. 1988-180-21.
Hill 70: Our Forgotten Battle
August 15th marked the centenary of the Battle of Hill 70, the Canadian Corps’ next large engagement after their success at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, and their second victory of the year. It is also distinct in that it was the first Canadian battle planned exclusively by Arthur Currie, now the commander of the […]
“On Roads Muddy and Gray”: The Passchendaele Centenary
The quote in the title comes from a poem written by Alexander Sinclair, a Driver with the Canadian Field Artillery. Sinclair fought at Passchendaele with the Canadian Corps in November 1917, when the battle was winding down. But Passchendaele, a gigantic battle with hundreds of thousands of casualties, began much earlier than the official Canadian […]
“You are needed”: Americans in the Canadian Expeditionary Force
The summer of 2017 marks 100 years since the arrival of the first American troops in France. The American Expeditionary Force landed on 26 June 1917, with 14 000 soldiers, a force which eventually grew to about 2 million. However, before the United States joined the war, there were still thousands of Americans fighting in […]
“The country needs dignity and refined taste”: 100 years of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has been celebrating the centenary of its founding since May 21st, with events across the Commonwealth countries, including one at the Canadian War Museum this past week. One of the most striking sites when travelling in northern France are the CWGC managed cemeteries; they are quiet places, with rows of […]
Attaché to Kolchak? The mystery of Capt. Horace Hume Van Wart
I’ve been meaning to write about Horace Hume Van Wart for about two years now, ever since his photograph came across my desk during a cataloguing rush.
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 […]
