William Orlando Clay was born in Newmarket, Ontario, in February 1885. He enlisted in February 1916 in Toronto with the 180th Battalion. The collection currently consists of his discharge certificate, several photos, and his diary from 1916.

Lieutenant Robert Grierson Combe, VC, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1880. He immigrated to Moosomin, Saskatchewan, where he worked as a chemist. He enlisted at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in April 1915 [note: there is a discrepancy between his attestation papers which date his enlistment as 1915 and other records which date his enlistment as 1916]. He was killed on May 3, 1917, and has no known grave. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery. The collection consists of one letter to his grammar school magazine and his citation for bravery.

Robert John Conners was born in Montreal, Québec, in October 1890. Conners enlisted in Montreal in January 1917 and served in France with the Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company. He was demobilized and returned to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of one letter and two photographs. See also the collection of his brother, Horace Kelvin Conners.

Alfred Frank Cook was born in Midland, Ontario, in August 1894. Cook was a law student who enlisted in August 1915 in Niagara, Ontario, with the 58th Battalion. He served overseas with the 58th Battalion until 1918 when he transferred to the R.A.F. as a flight cadet. He was found to be medically unfit and was discharged and returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of thirty eight letters.

Private Harold William Cooper was born in Merton, Surrey, England, on June 4, 1896, to parents John and Annie Cooper. Prior to enlistment the Cooper family was living in Moosomin, Saskatchewan.

Cooper enlisted with the 10th Canadian Mounted Rifles at Moosomin, Sask., on December 18, 1914. In May 1916 he proceeded to England with the 10th C.M.R. aboard the SS Olympic, and then in September to France where he joined the Canadian Corps Cavalry Regiment (redesignated the Canadian Light Horse in February 1917).

After several months spent in England recovering from gas poisoning, Cooper returned to France in the spring of 1918 where he joined the Fort Garry Horse. He was killed on October 9, 1918, when he was hit by machine gun fire in action near Le Cateau, France. In the final weeks of the war, following Cooper’s burial, the front lines shifted, and his grave site and remains were lost. Cooper is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, France.

Harold Cooper’s younger brother Private Sidney Frank Cooper also served in WWI with the 10th Canadian Mounted Rifles.

Content notes:
The collection’s only photo is of Pte. Harold Cooper in Service Dress uniform.

External links:
Private Harold Cooper’s service record (Serv/Reg# 115056) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
WWI Circumstances of Death Registers record card (page #597), Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Cooper can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Lieutenant Arthur Harold Madill Copeland was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on August 27, 1889. Prior to his enlistment in WWI he was a Lieutenant with the Militia’s No. 6 Canadian Army Service Corps (C.A.S.C.), Winnipeg. He enlisted for Overseas Service with the C.A.S.C. on March 8, 1915.

Beginning in March 1916, Copeland served in France with the C.A.S.C. in the 1st and 3rd Canadian Cavalry Brigade Ammunition Supply Parks. In August of 1916 he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.) (technically remaining a Canadian officer, but working as a member of the British R.F.C.).

While serving as a gunner, Copeland’s plane was shot down after returning from a bombing raid; he was wounded and captured as a Prisoner of War on October 10, 1916. After a period of hospitalization to recover from gunshot wounds to his arm and leg he was transferred to the German P.O.W. Camp at Douai. Over the following two years he was moved frequently, first to Wahn bei Coln, then to Stettin, Stralsund Danholme Pommern, Augustabad bei Neubrandenburg, Schweidnitz Selesia, Holzminden, Mainz, and finally to Holzminden again.

While in captivity he was appointed to the temporary rank of Captain (a rank he kept until the end of his service). He was later “Mentioned in Reports for valuable services while in captivity, and noted accordingly in the Official Records of the Air Ministry" in the London Gazette on December 12, 1919 (see external links below). Copeland had escaped and been recaptured twice while a P.O.W. and the “valuable services” mentioned in reports may have been related to either his own escape attempts or for providing assistance to similar attempts by others.

Following his release and repatriation to England on December 14, 1918, Copeland returned to Canada and was demobilized on March 23, 1919.

The letters in the Copeland Collection were all written to Hilda R. Lailey of Toronto while Copeland was held as a German P.O.W. (following the war she became his wife; they were married for sixty-four years). With the exception of the last letter, which was written after the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, the letters and envelopes bear a variety of P.O.W.-related stamps indicating the content of the letters was monitored by the Germans (e.g. the first page of the letter of Nov. 14, 1916, bearing the red stamp “Geprüft. Kommandantur Wahn-Lager 63,” which roughly translates as “Checked. Headquarters Wahn-Camp 63.” The “London F.S. PAID” postmarks on the envelopes are those of the London Foreign Service.

Included in the collections “Other” contents listed below are two German documents; titled “Gefangenenlifte des Lagers,” these are pages from Prisoner Lists of the Camps, one for Wahn (western base) in January 1917, and one for Holzminden in April 1918.

The newspaper article is from the Y.M.C.A.’s wartime publication Canadian Manhood, of Jan/Feb 1917.

External links:
Lt. Copeland’s service record (Serv/Reg# not assigned) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Copeland’s commission as a Lieutenant was published in The London Gazette on February 2, 1916 (#29480, p. 1897), and he was “Mentioned in Reports” on December 12, 1919 (#31691, p. 15613).

John Andrew Corcoran was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in August 1886. Corcoran enlisted in Vancouver in January 1916 with the 102nd Battalion. He served overseas, was wounded in August 1918 and was demobilized back to Canada in 1919. The collection currently consists of twenty-seven letters as well as photographs and miscellaneous items related to his servce.

William Hubert Corrigan was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in July 1881. Corrigan enlisted in Regina, Saskatchewan, in May 1916 and served overseas with the 217th Battalion and the 209th Battalion, after having served the previous seven years with the 90th Winnipeg Rifles. He was demobilized and returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists several photographs and postcards from his time overseas.

John ("Jack") Arthur Cowles was born in Oxford, England, in March 1893. He was a member of the Balliol Boys Club, a club run by the students, graduates, and tutors of Balliol College in Oxford. It was under the Club's auspices that Jack came to Canada in 1913. Jack enlisted with the Canadian forces in Saskatchewan in 1914. Cowles served overseas with B Coy. 28th Battalion and he was killed June 6, 1916. The collection consists of several letters to his sister and to the Balliol Boys Club, three postcards, four photographs, and a letter of condolence from Sam Hughes.