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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.

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Charles William Parker was born in Scarborough, England in June, 1896. He emigrated with his family to Vancouver Island in 1910. Parker enlisted in February, 1915 and served overseas with the 14th Battalion until his death on September 7, 1916. The collection currently consists of one letter, two photographs, and two miscellaneous items.

James John Parker was born in Belfast, Ireland in January, 1894. He emigrated to Canada, and enlisted with the 92nd Battalion in August, 1915 in Toronto, Ontario. The collection currently consists of images of his paybook, two photographs, and his certification as an Air Raid Warden during the Second World War.

William John Parker was born in Birmingham, England in August, 1878. Prior to the war he emigrated to Canada where he worked as a plumber. Parker enlisted in July, 1915 in Guelph, Ontario and served overseas with the 34th Battalion. The collection currently consists of two letters written while at Bramshott.

William Pash was born in London, England in January, 1889.  Sometime prior to the war he immigrated to Brantford, Ontario where he worked as a baker.  Pash enlisted in Brantford, Ontario with the 125th Battalion and served overseas.  The collection currently consists of twenty one postcards.

Lola Passmore was born in 1899 and lived in Peel County, Ontario near the village of Huttonville. Around 1916 she and her family moved into the city of Toronto. The collection consists of twenty-two letters from her male friends from Huttonville written to her during the war. The largest portion (15 letters) is from George Henry Tripp, who was killed May 5, 1917. As well there are letters from John (Jack) Booker and his brother Alex Booker, one from George Edward Manners, and one from her uncle, Dr. James Fraser, a Major who served with the Ambulance Corps.

William Paterson was born in Leith, Scotland in April, 1893. Paterson emigrated to Canada prior to the war, and enlisted in Calgary, Alberta in November, 1914. He served overseas as a signaller with the 31st Battalion until he returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of six photographs and one postcard.

James Scott Pattullo was born in Forfarshire, Scotland in August, 1890.  Prior to the war he emmigrated to Canada and enlisted with the 72nd Battalion in Vancouver in September, 1915.  Pattullo served overseas with the 72nd Battalion until his death on Mach 1, 1917.  He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial.  The collection currently consists of one letter and one photograph.

Reginald John Paul was born on December 14, 1895 in Burin, Newfoundland. He enlisted on December 21, 1914 and served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Paul served both at Gallipoli and on the Somme and was killed on the first day of the Somme, July 1, 1916. The collection consists of two letters from the chaplain to his family, and one photograph.

Robert Rollo Paul was born in Lavant, Ontario in April 1888. Paul enlisted in October, 1914 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He served overseas with the 28th Battalion and returned home to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of a memoir recounting his escape from a Prisoner of War Camp.

Frederick George Pearson was born in Lancashire, England in September, 1894. He emigrated to Canada in 1909 and settled in the Red Deer District. Pearson enlisted in Calgary in July, 1916 and served overseas with the 10th Battalion. The collection currently consists of his diary from 1917.

Vaughan Whitier Pearson was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1898 and was a student at The University of Toronto when he enlisted in April, 1916. He served overseas in France until the end of the war. Vaughan Pearson was the third of three sons to serve overseas, following his brothers Marmaduke and Lester, a future Prime Minister of Canada. The collection consists of six letters from Vaughan, a post card, a Christmas card, a newspaper clipping, and one photograph.

William Markle Pecover was born in Lucknow, Ontario in October, 1894 and enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba with the 184th Battalion in April, 1916.  Pecover was wounded in 1917 and discharged in the spring of 1918 as medically unfit for further service due to his wound.  The collection currently consists of more than one hundred letters from his time in the service.

John Jenkins Penhale, DSO, was born in Cornwall, England in February, 1866.  He was a mining engineer who settled in Sherbrooke, Quebec prior to the war.  Penhale served overseas as the Lieutenant Colonel of the Divisional Ammunition Column of the CEF until his demobilization in 1919.  The collection currently consists of one Christmas card from 1914.

Cullen Hay Perry was born in Whitby, Ontario in 1898 and enlisted in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada on August 12, 1914. Perry went to Europe with the First Canadian Contingent where he was wounded in the Battle of St. Julien, wounded again in 1916, and wounded a third time at the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. After recovering from his wound, Perry joined the Royal Flying Corps, and his letters represent his training time in England, then on to France, and finally to Alexandria, Egypt where he was stationed. On February 3, 1918 Perry was killed in a plane crash in Alexandria, and was buried in the Chatley Cemetery in Alexandria. The biographical information for Perry has been extracted from Chronicles of a County--Whitby Past and Present (1999) by Brian Winter, Town of Whitby Archivist. This collection consists of seven letters written by Cullen Perry home to his mother in Whitby, Ontario, and one photograph.

John Phillips was born in Vernon, British Columbia in October, 1894, and later moved to Lasqueti Island, British Columbia.  Phillips was recruited in November, 1917, undertook his medical examination in Nanaimo, British Columbia in March, 1918, and arrived in England in May, 1918.  He joined the 7th Battalion in France on October 2, 1918 and was killed 10 days later on October 12, 1918.  The collection currrently consists of two photographs.

Second Lieutenant Alfred James Pickup was born in Croydon, Surrey, England on October 21, 1887, to parents James and Louisa Pickup. After emigrating to Canada in April of 1912 he worked as bank clerk in Ladysmith, British Columbia, before moving to Victoria, B.C.

With the outbreak of war he returned to England in September of 1914, where in December he was commissioned as an officer with the 13th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, British Expeditionary Force. He was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, when he was killed in the Battle of Loos on September 26, 1915. Pickup is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, at Pas de Calais, France.

The letters in the Pickup Collection were published in The Ladysmith Chronicle newspaper and were compiled, along with those of other local WWI soldiers, through the work of the Ladysmith & District Historical Society (links shown below).
The complete list of soldiers in the can be found in the Ladysmith and District Historical Society collection.

External links:

A member of the British Army, 2/Lt. Pickup (Serv/Reg# 1794) does not have a publicly available service record.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A collection of WWI soldiers' letters published in The Ladysmith Chronicle was undertaken by the Ladysmith & District Historical Society through their work with the Ladysmith Archives.

Albert Edmund Pinder was born in North Toronto, Ontario in November, 1892. Pinder enlisted in Guelph, Ontario in December, 1915. He served overseas during the war until his return to Guelph. The collection currently consists of six postcards written by Pinder.

Donald Elwood Pinder was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1924.  During WWII he served in the Merchant Marine, as well as in the Canadian Navy.  Pinder served on the Nipigon in convoys in the North Atlantic, and for a short time on the Haida.  The collection currently consists of numerous photographs and documentation from his time in the navy.

Henry Errol Beauchamp Platt, known as Errol Platt, was born in London, Ontario in May 1891.  When war broke out he took a commission with The Queen's Own Rifles in Toronto, and then proceeded overseas with the 35th Battalion.  Platt was serving with the 3rd Battalion at the time of his death on May 5, 1916. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.

The collection consists of 83 letters, 3 photographs, and other miscellaneous items. 

Within the letter collection, the main correspondents are:
Fern McIntyre, sweetheart/fiancée
Helen Platt (“Nennie”), mother
Arthur Thomas Platt, father,
Catherine Platt (“Kae”), sister
Madeline Platt (“Molly”), sister
Lieutenant George Lawrence Bisset Makenzie, close friend/fellow soldier

Additional remembrances of Lieutenant Platt can be found at both the The Canadian Virtual War Memorial and The Great War Law Student Memorial Project (pg 112).

Note: The original handwritten letters have been lost but typed transcriptions were made sometime after the war. It is the scans of these typed copies that have been included with each letter. 

Albert Playfoot was born in Kent, England in June, 1894. He emigrated to Canada prior to the war and enlisted with the 70th Battalion in October, 1915 and served overseas in France with the 58th Battalion until his demobilization in 1919. The collection currently consists of two photographs and his discharge certificate.

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Latest Readings from World War One collections

James Moore

Reads a 09/21/1916 Letter by Drader, Eugene Robert from World War One collections. View full Letter

RH Thomson

Reads a 07/06/1917 Letter by Mayse, Amos William (Will) from World War One collections. View full Letter

RH Thomson

Reads a 07/05/1917 Letter by Mayse, Amos William (Will) from World War One collections. View full Letter