Andrew Ernest Tait was born in Durham, England, in February 1879. Prior to the war he immigrated to Canada and enlisted in May 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tait served overseas with the 72nd Battalion until his death in March 1918. The collection currently consists of eight letters, one photograph, and one miscellaneous item.
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.
Charles Taylor was born in Sheffield, England, in 1895. He enlisted in Ottawa in February 1915 and served overseas with the 11th Field Ambulance until his return to Canada in 1919. This letter is to his sweetheart and future wife Florence "Flo" Welch in 1917.
Malcolm Theodore Taylor was born in Herefordshire, England, in May 1897 (a note on his attestation papers says that his birth certificate shows his date of birth as 1899). Prior to the war Taylor immigrated to Canada and enlisted in May 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with the 107th overseas Battalion. The collection currently consists of three photographs and one postcard.
The collection consists of letters of Ernest Mosley Taylor and Wilfrid Entwisle "Bill" Bury from Vermilion, Alberta. They were related by marriage, as Ernest's brother Raymond had married Wilfrid's sister Elisabeth in 1914.
Ernest Mosley Taylor was born in England in May 1885, the youngest of a family of eleven. He immigrated with his brother Raymond to the Vermilion, Alberta, area in 1905, where they took up farming. Ernest enlisted at Vermilion in January 1915, and served with the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Saskatchewan Regiment). He was killed May 7, 1916, and is buried in the Menin Road South Military Cemetery in Belgium.
Wilfrid Entwisle Bury was born in England in 1881, the fifth child of seven of Edward and Augusta Bury. Wilfrid moved to the Vermilion area in 1909 where he took up farming. He enlisted in Vermilion in January, 1915, and served in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Saskatchewan Regiment). He was killed November 5, 1917, and is buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.
The collection consists of 20 letters from the two soldiers.
Arthur George Teer was born in Toronto, Ontario, in September 1893. He enlisted in Toronto in June 1915 and served overseas in Belgium and France until the end of the war. The collection currently consists of 20 letters.
John Alexander Selter Thompson was born in Denver, Colarado, U.S.A., in October 1897. Thompson enlisted with the 196th Battalion in September 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was killed at Passchendaele on October 26, 1917, while serving with the 46th Battalion. Thompson is commemorated on the Menin Gate. The collection currently consists of twenty-eight letters and some miscellaneous items.
Walter Cunningham Thomson was born in Hastings, Ontario, in December 1895. Thomson enlisted in February 1916 in Peterborough, Ontario, with the 93rd Battlion. He served overseas with the 21st Battalion until he was demobilized and returned to Canada at the end of the war.
The collection consists of seven letters, one newspaper clipping, two cards, and one misc. document. The letters were written to Reverend Arthur Mansell Irwin, pastor of Norwood Methodist Church, Ontario.
Howard Beverly Thorburn was born in 1898. He attended Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, during 1915 and 1916 before he left to take a commission with the Royal Field Artillery, with whom he served in France until the end of the war. The collection consists of seventy-eight letters from 1914 to 1918.
Gordon Stanley Thornton was born in Peterborough, Ontario, in June 1887. At the time of his enlistment in August 1915 he was practising as a barrister in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Thornton served with the 78th Batt., rising to the rank of Major by the end of the war. He was wounded in 1918 and returned to Canada after the war. The collection currently consists of fifty eight letters, some personal items and telegrams, and a photograph.
James Stokesbury Thorpe was born in Iowa, U.S.A., in January 1889 and immigrated to Canada in the pre-war years. Thorpe enlisted in July 1915 at Vernon, British Columbia, and served as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. Thorpe was killed on June 13, 1916, and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium. The collection consists of one letter written from Flanders home to his mother and older sister.
Private Adrian Cracroft Thrupp was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on August 3, 1897. His family immigrated to Canada prior to World War I and settled in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Thrupp enlisted with the 11th Canadian Mounted Rifles in Vernon, B.C., on August 20, 1915. Shipping for England on board the SS Lapland in July 1916, he proceeded that October to France where he served with the 29th Battalion.
On April 11, 1917, at Vimy Ridge, Thrupp suffered a serious head wound. After many months of hospitalization in England, he returned to Canada and was medically discharge on March 13, 1918.
The materials in the Thrupp Collection were donated as part of the Sydney Winterbottom Collection. Thrupp and Winterbottom had been friends in Kamloops before the war. Both having enlisted in 1915, they served together in the 11th C.M.R. and 29th Bn. until finally separated when Adrian was wounded in action at Vimy in 1917. Winterbottom was killed later that fall at the Battle of Passchendaele.
In the letter section below is correspondence Thrupp wrote to his father describing his voyage to England on the SS Lapland, as well as a reference list of links to the numerous letters in the Winterbottom Collection in which Winterbottom writes about Thrupp.
External links:
Pte. Thrupp’s service record (Serv/Reg# 116579) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Dr. Charles Alexander McLaughlin Thrush was born in Byng, Ontario, in 1880, and then later moved to Dunnville, Ontario, where he practiced medicine. He enlisted in March 1916 with the 114th Battalion "Brock's Rangers," and then served overseas as part of the Canadian Medical Corps. The collection consists of one letter written to his hometown newspaper in 1917, as well as three photographs.
Private Ralph Tilburt was born in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., on November 23, 1895, the sixth of eleven children of Guillaume and Emilie Charlotte Fredericke (née Bruder) Tilburt.
Tilburt enlisted with the No. 2 New Brunswick Forestry Corps Draft in July, 1917, in Sussex, New Brunswick. He shipped for England on September 5, 1917, on board the SS Megantic, landing at Liverpool, England, on September 15. He was deployed to France the following month, October 10, where he served with the No. 31 Company, Canadian Forestry Corps. Tilburt returned to Canada and was demobilized in March of 1919.
Content notes:
The letters in the collection were sent by Tilburt to his brothers while he was serving in France between August 1918 and January 1919.
External links:
Pte. Tilburt’s service record (Serv/Reg# 2304224) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
[Editor’s note: Collection reviewed/updated December, 2022. Six new letters have been added. All letter transcriptions have been reviewed and corrected as needed. Image files are now available for all letters. The photo of Pte. Tilburt has been updated, replacing a cropped version with the full uncropped picture. The Collection Description has been revised and expanded.]
Frank Tilbury was born in London, Ontario, in 1877 and enlisted in the 135th Battalion on December 13, 1915; he listed his occupation as musician, and noted that he had previous service in the 26th Regiment and the 1st Hussars. The diaries, which run from August 1916 to August 1917, cover his training in England and his service at the front with the 60th and 116th Battalions.
Roderick Anderson Todd was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1890 and immigrated to Canada prior to the war. He enlisted in Victoria, British Columbia, in February 1914. He served overseas in France and was wounded in 1917. The collection currently consists of fifteen letters written by Todd, most of them while in hospital.
The Women's Alliance of the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto sent packages of food and other items to members of the congregation serving overseas. The collection consists of twelve letters of thank you from recipients to the Women's Alliance for the items they received.
Thomas Franklin Townsend was born in Harrowsmith, Ontario, in February 1889. Townsend enlisted with the No. 9 Field Ambulance in Montreal, Québec, in January 1916. He served overseas with the Canadian Army Medical Corps until his return to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of letters, his diary, and numerous photographs.
George Henry Tripp was born in London, England, in July 1897. He immigrated to Huttonville, Ontario, and enlisted in July 1915 at Toronto, Ontario, with the 74th Battalion. Tripp served overseas with the 19th Battalion and was killed May 9, 1917. The collection consists of fifteen letters he wrote to his friend Lola Passmore. For more letters to Lola Passmore, see the collection of that name in the WWI collections.
Bernard Freeman Trotter was born in Toronto in 1890 and graduated from McMaster University in Toronto in 1915. He began graduate work at the University of Toronto before leaving for England in March 1916. Although ill health prevented him from being accepted into the Canadian army, he was determined to serve and was able to secure a commission in the British Army. Trotter went to France in December 1916 with his Leicestershire Regiment, and was killed by a shell on May 7, 1917. The collection consists of 87 letters home to his family from March 1916 to his death in May 1917. Trotter was also a noted poet. His poems were collected by his father in 1917 and published later that year by McClelland and Stewart as A Canadian Twilight. The complete Trotter fond is located at McMaster University. All materials ©McMaster University and used with their permission.
Private Arthur Lawrence Turner was born in Liverpool, England, on September 10, 1890. Prior to WWI, Turner had served in the British Territorial Army with the Royal Engineers and in the Canadian Militia with the 58th Westmount Rifles.
He enlisted with the 148th Battalion in Montreal, Québec, on March 8, 1916. Turner proceeded overseas on September 27, 1916, aboard the SS Laconia from Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving on October 6 in Liverpool, England. He was sent to France in December of that same year, where he served with the 24th Battalion. Turner returned to Canada and was demobilized in November of 1918.
External Link:
Pte. Arthur Turner’s service file (#841715) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format from Library and Archives Canada.
