Gudmunder Frederickson Gudmundson was born in Iceland in August 1891. Prior to the war he immigrated to Mozart, Saskatchewan. Gudmundson enlisted in June 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The collection currently consists of one postcard from France, three photographs, and a display of his medals.
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.
Private William Roy Gullen was born February 12, 1881, in Brantford, Ontario, to parents James F. and Mariette Gullen of Echo Place, Ont., the oldest of five children, with four brothers and one sister. Prior to his enlistment, Gullen lived in Echo Place with his wife, Mary Belle, working as farmer. They had six children: Marguerite, Don, Stan, Jack, Bruce, and Ruth (his youngest son, Ivan, was born in October 1916 while Gullen was stationed overseas in France).
He enlisted in Brantford with the 125th Battalion on December 30, 1915, and sailed for England the following August aboard the SS Scandinavian. In October 1916 Gullen was deployed to join the 1st Battalion in France. He was serving with that unit at the time of his death on May 3, 1917, reported first as missing before confirmed as killed in action during an attack near Fresnoy, France. He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France, and on the Brant War Memorial in Brantford, Ont.
Content notes:
The majority of the collection’s letters were written by Gullen to his wife, children, parents, sister Irene and brother Frederick Cecil (wife Agnes).
Gullen used a secret code in some of his letters to bypass the military censors, adding dots below characters to spell out his location. An editor’s note listing all of the collection’s “code letters” has been added at the end of the letter section, see letter dated “2024.”
Originally posted early in the project’s history (~2003/2004) a significant review of all materials was done in August 2024 and the updated, reorganized collection was completely reposted at that time, including the addition of a number of previously unposted materials. Also added at this time were audio recordings of six letters by author Kristen den Hartog, which may be accessed through the Gullen letters’ main index page under “Collection Contents” below.
External links:
Pte. Gullen’s service record (Serv/Reg# 772521) can be viewed/downloaded through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Gullen can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
[Collection reviewed/updated Aug. 2024.]
George Caldwell Haddow was born in Milton, Ontario in August, 1894. Haddow enlisted in March, 1916 in Toronto, Ontario with the 4th Divisional Cyclists and served overseas with the 3rd Machine Gun Company. He was demobilized and returned to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of more than fifty letters.
The materials in this collection belonged to Emily Hager, the youngest of a family of nine. Four of her brothers served overseas during WWI. The collection consists of a photograph of her brother Wesley Hager who enlisted in Saskatoon in January, 1916, and was killed in France in November, 1916, a Christmas Day 1917 menu for Canadian troops training in England, and two letters sent to her during the war. One letter is from her brother Allen who was born in February, 1892 and enlisted in November 1914. and the other is from a family friend, Harold Panabaker, who fought at Vimy Ridge and describes in his letter his experiences of the attack.
Robert Hainsworth was born in England, in June 1885. Prior to the war he immigrated to western Canada, where he enlisted in Red Deer, Alberta, in January 1915. The collection consists on one letter written by Hainsworth in 1916, and one photograph.
Robert Hale was born in England in 1893 and immigrated in his late teens to Canada, where he settled in Montreal. He enlisted in February 1915 and served overseas until his discharge in 1919, being wounded three times during his service. The collection consists of more than forty letters written in 1915 and 1917 to his sweetheart Alice, whom he was to marry in 1920.
Private William Harold Hamilton, known as “Harold”, was born in Sundridge, Ontario, on July 20, 1897. He enlisted at Burk’s Falls on February 7, 1916, with the 162nd Overseas Battalion.
Shipping for England on board the S.S. Caronia in November of 1916, he was sent to France in April of 1917 with the 123rd Pioneer Battalion. In November of 1917 he was injured in action and convalesced back to England with gas poisoning, where he was eventually medically discharged on January 30, 1919, with a partial loss of vision from the gas exposure.
External links:
Pte. Hamilton’s service record (Reg/Ser# 657521) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
The Collection for Pte. W. Harold Hamilton was created from the donation of the Gladys Hornibrook materials. Harold was Gladys’ step-uncle, the step-brother of Gladys’ mother Martha Jane Hornibrook (née Hamilton); after the death of Martha’s mother Eliza Jane Hamilton (née Crowder), their father George Henry Hamilton married Harold’s mother Henrietta (née Raney). Living in the small village of Sundridge near North Bay, Ontario, Gladys was only thirteen years old when World War One began. The majority of her correspondence was with her enlisted uncles Joseph, Charles, and step-uncle Harold Hamilton, but she also saved other letters, photos, and keepsakes from the war years which can be viewed together on the main Gladys Hornibrook Collection page.
Allan Hamm was born in Bunbury, Prince Edward Island in July, 1897. He worked as a carpenter prior to his recruitment in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1917. The collection consists of more than seventy letters, as well as photographs, postcards, telegrams, and other items.
Charles Bovyer Hamm, MM, was born in Bunbury, Prince Edward Island in June, 1889. Hamm enlisted in April, 1915. He served overseas, where he was wounded in September, 1916. The collection consists of more than forty letters, as well as postcards and other items.
Sydney Thomas Hampson was born in England in October 1893. Prior to the war he immigrated to Canada and enlisted in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in January, 1915. The collection currently consists of thirteen letters, excerpts from his diary, photographs, and personal items.
Corporal William Hope Hardie was born in North Berwick, Scotland, on January 12, 1890, to parents James and Agnes Hope Hardie. Prior to his immigration to Canada around 1912, William Hardie married Margaret “Chrissy” Combe of North Berwick, Scotland, although the marriage may have been kept secret for several years. Settling in Manitoba, he worked as a railway clerk, as well as serving in the Winnipeg militia regiment the 79th Cameron Highlanders of Canada.
Hardie enlisted in Winnipeg with the 43rd Battalion on January 16, 1915, and sailed the following June to England aboard the S.S. Grampian. After several months of training in England, Hardie was sent in November to France to join the 16th Battalion. He returned to Canada and was demobilized in Quebec on July 4, 1919.
Content notes:
Photos are soldiers’ portraits of brothers William and Robert Hardie (a resident of Scottland, Robert served with the British Expeditionary Force). William’s portrait is notable for his Scottish kit with sheepskin coat.
External link:
Cpl. William Hardie’s service record (Serv/Reg #420946) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Owen Harper was born in Cheshire, England, in December, 1891. Prior to the war he emmigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he worked as a printer. Harper enlisted in June, 1916 in Winnepeg, Manitoba. He served overseas with the Canadian Field Artillery as a driver until his death in September, 1917. The collection currently consists of more than twenty letters.
Wilfred Edgar Hawkes was born in England in 1889. Sometime later he immigrated to Canada and enlisted at Vernon, British Columbia, in August 1915. The collection constist of two letters written to his young nephew Jack, in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1916.
Arthur James Hay was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1895 and enlisted July 22, 1915. Hay served oveseas in France with the 38th Bn. In 1917 he was wounded by a gas attack, and returned to Canada in July, 1918 as a result of his injuries. Arthur James Hay died in 1963. The collection consists of a photograph of Hay and a copy of his pension identification certificate.
Roland Hayes was born in Armstrong, British Columbia in October, 1895. He worked as a farmer until he was concripted in 1917. Hayes served with the 72nd Battalion in England and France and returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of one letter and two photographs. We are grateful to the Historic O'Keefe Ranch in Vernon, British Columbia for sharing these materials.
Eric Hearle was born in 1893 and enlisted in Hamilton, Ontario in September, 1914 with the 4th Battalion. As a result of wounds received in France he returned to Canada and studied at the University of Guelph. Following his studies Hearle became an assistant entomologist with the federal government. The collection consists of thirteen letters and twelve postcards. It also contains more than 130 photographs, beginning in 1914 with the camps in Canada and England and including a series from convalescent hospitals in Canada. Hearle died in 1934 at the age of 41.
William Henderson, MM, was born in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, in 1892 and immigrated to Canada in early 1914. Henderson enlisted in Toronto, Ontario, in August 1915 with the 48th Highlanders and eventually served with the 24th Battalion Queen Victoria Rifles in France, with whom he was awarded a MM in August, 1918.
Albert Ernest Henry was born in Sombra, Ontario in 1877 and enlisted in March, 1916. He served overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corp. The collection consists of two letters.
James Hepburn, born in Scotland in 1891, enlisted in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in 1915. He was badly wounded at the Somme, losing his right arm. The collection consists of one letter written to his father from the hospital in England, while he was recovering from his wound, as well as pages from his paybook and some miscellaneous items.
The collection consists of one letter from May Grenville, a nurse who had served overseas with the A.E.F. home to her mother in Thorold, Ontario, at the end of the war in 1918. Used with permission by Heritage Thorold.
