South African (Boer) War Collection
Private James Henry Patrick Anderton was born in Toronto, Ontario, on November 22, 1870, to parents William and Helen Anderton. Prior to his enlistment he as worked as a carpenter and had also served in the 5th (British Columbia) Regiment of Garrison Artillery, Canadian Army.

Anderton enlisted to serve in the South African (Boer) War in Victoria, B.C., on October 20, 1899. He arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, on April 11, 1900, where he served with the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.  He was invalided back to England on June 6, 1900, and was subsequently discharged from service on December 25, 1900.

Content notes:
The collection includes an 1899 group photograph of the 5th Regiment; the description written on the photo references “Sergeant Northcott,” believed to be Sgt. Joseph Roger Northcott (link to service file provided below). The second photo, also from 1899, is of three soldiers at the Green Point Common military encampment, Cape Town, South Africa.

External links:
Pte. James Henry Patrick Anderton’s service record (Serv/Reg# 7016) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Sgt. Joseph Roger Northcott’s service record (Serv/Reg# 7002) at Library and Archives Canada.
Information on the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry, is available on the Canadian War Museum website.

Lieutenant Thomas Arthur Metheral was born in Singhampton, Ontario, on July 7, 1896, to parents Thomas and Martha (née Taylor) Metheral. Prior to the war he was living in Lawson, Saskatchewan, where he worked as a school teacher.

Metheral enlisted on September 5, 1916, in Gilroy, Ont., with the 196th (Western Universities) Battalion. He shipped to England aboard the SS Southland that November, where he joined the 19th Reserve Battalion. Metheral was Commissioned as a Lieutenant on March 12, 1917, and the following month was attached to the Royal Flying Corps. Crossing to France, he joined the 45th Squadron, R.F.C., on May 31, 1917, and was killed in action five days later.

Initially reported missing, having failed to return from a flight over the German lines, Metheral’s death was confirmed by a German aviator’s message drop over Allied lines, but his burial site was unknown. In 1956 Metheral’s body was found, and he was reburied in Cement House Cemetery, Langemark, Belgium.

Content notes:
The collection contains a 1956 letter from the Imperial War Grave Commission, as well as an obituary notice.

External links:
Lt. Thomas Metheral’s service record (Reg/Serv# 911062) can be viewed/downloaded through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Metheral can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Engine Room Artificer 4th Class Joseph Francis MacMillan was born in Ingersoll, Ontario, on December 4, 1910, one of eight children of parents Benjamin Alexander and Mary MacMillan. In 1938 he married Beulah Maud and they had one child, son James Benjamin. At the time of his enlistment the family was living in Woodstock, Ont., where MacMillan worked as a machinist at the Morrow Screw and Nut Company in nearby Ingersoll.

He enlisted with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, at London, Ont., on July 30, 1941. Following initial training Halifax at H.M.C.S. Stadacona, he went on serve aboard the destroyer H.M.C.S. St. Croix.

MacMillan was killed on September 20, 1943, while on convoy support duty in Atlantic, when H.M.C.S. St. Croix was torpedoed and sunk south of Iceland, one of nine Allied ships lost to submarine attacks over a three days period. Stoker 1st Class William Fisher was the only member of St Croix’s crew to survive the crossing.

Buried at sea, MacMillan is commemorated on the Halifax Memorial, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Content notes:
Three of the collection letters were written during the war by MacMillan to family members, the remainder are condolence letters.

External links:
ERA 4 Joseph MacMillan’s service record (Serv/Reg# V17743) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring MacMillan can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Joseph MacMillan’s brother, Private John Theodore MacMillan (service record, Serv/Reg# A108862), was killed in Holland on April 28, 1945, while serving with the Perth Regiment, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps.

Private David Aikin was born in Belfast, Ireland, on September 21, 1892, to parents David and Jane Aikin. As British Home Children (Bernardo Homes), David, age 8, and his brother William, age 10, were sent to work in Canada in 1901, followed by their younger brother John, age 8, in 1905. Prior to his enlistment David lived in Wheatley, Ontario, with wife Elsie Myrtle Aikin and their two children.

Aikin enlisted March 17, 1916, in Chatham, Ontario, with the 186th Battalion, and sailed to England on the S.S. Lapland, arriving in April of 1917. Sent in June to join the 18th Battalion in France, Aikin was killed by shellfire on August 21, 1917. He was buried at Aix-Noulette Communal Cemetery Extension, Aix-Noulette, France.

Both of David Aikin’s brothers also served in WWI. Private John Forrest Aikin, with the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles, was killed in Belgium on June 2, 1916. Private William Aikin, who had enlisted alongside David in Chatham in March of 1916, was the only one of the three to survive the war and return home to Canada.

Content notes:
The Collection’s only letter chronicles Aikin’s 1917 deployment overseas, beginning March 22 in Chatham, Ont., and ending April 8 upon his arrival at Liphook, England, for training at Bramshott. Included is a description of the S.S. Lapland’s collision with a mine on April 8, just prior to docking at Liverpool.
Surname spelling is highly inconsistent throughout external links and documents, variously appearing as “Aiken,” “Aikens,” “Aikins,” “Aitken,” “Aitkin,” etc.

External links:
Pte. David Aikin’s service record (Serv/Reg# 880497) and Home Children record (#162105) can be viewed/downloaded through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Aikin can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force Roll of Honour for the Fallen British Home Children of Canada, and the Registry of British Home Children Who Died in the First World War, aremaintained by Home Children Canada (British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association).

Pte. John Forrest Aikin’s service record (Serv/Reg# 112169) and Home Children record (#57649) at Library and Archives Canada.
Pte. William Aikin’s service record version 1, version 2, (Serv/Reg# 880498) and Home Children record (#99979) at Library and Archives Canada.

[The materials in this collection are currently being processed and uploaded. Some items may be incomplete or inaccessible at this time.]

This collection is comprised of letters of thanks sent to the Ladies Aid of Transcona United Church in 1944 and 1945 by Canadian service personnel, to thank them for the Christmas parcels provided by the Church.  The letters represent recipients from across Canada and overseas.

The correspondents in the collection are:

Blaikie, R.N.                            no date
Brewster, Leslie                      October 22, 1944
Brewster, Murray                     no date
Chudley, Hugh                        January 28, 1945
Cormack, J.W.                         December 31, 1944
Cowan, Hugh                          January 3, 1945
Duncan, J.M.                          January 7, 1945
Esselmont, George                 December 7, 1944
Esselmont, Mrs. P.                  February 28, 1945
Finch, Elden                            December 22, 1945
Henderson, Jack                     January 3, 1945
Henderson, Ralph                   November 22, 1944
Heron, Ken                             December 27, 1944
Hinds, Sandy                          no date
Isbell, Gordon                         January 14, 1945
Johnston, Jim                          November 27, 1944
Johnston, William                    no date
Lamb, Charles                        January 11, 1945
Layman, Russell                     January 7, 1945
Lidgate, Eileen                        November 22, 1944
Matthew, Charlie                     December 15, 1944
Maxwell, Jim                           no date
McLeod, Doug                        November 22, 1944
Molter, John                            February 14, 1945
Moore, Alex                            December 30, 1944
Pollard, Norman                     November 20, 1944
Robertson, Jennie                  December 23, 1944
Sward, Arnott                         March 2, 1945
Sward, E.D.                            January 4, 1945
Taylor, George                       January 3, 1945
Thomson, David                     December 24, 1944
Thomson, Frank                     December 3, 1944
Thorburn, Martha                   no date
Warner, Fred                          January 1, 1945
 Warner, R.                             no date
Wood, Rodney                        no date

[Editor note:  At the time of the letters, the church was known as Transcona United Church – the word Memorial was added to the Church name at a later date.  Transcona was that time a separate town and not yet a part of Winnipeg.]

Pilot Officer Henry Denys Beames was born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, on September 9, 1921, to parents Rev. William Stanley and Gertrude Elizabeth Beames (née Brown). Henry had one older brother, Thomas Bernard Axford, and one younger brother, Hugh William, as well as two younger sisters, Katherine Mary Elisabeth and Caroline Helen.

At the beginning of World War II Beames served in the fall of 1940 with the 5th Coastal Brigade, Nanaimo, B.C., before enlisting for active service with the Royal Canadian Air Force on May 2, 1941, in Vancouver, B.C. He spent the remainder of 1941 training in Canada before shipping overseas in January 1942 to complete his pilot training with the British Royal Air Force.

While serving in England, Beames married Brenda Harvey on October 9, 1942. Their son Michael Denys Beames was born June 22, 1943.

On February 20, 1944, Beames was on a mission to Leipzig, Germany, with the #434 Bluenose Squadron when their Halifax aircraft #LL 257 went missing. It was later determined that Beames had been killed, along with P/O G.C. Hatch (Canadian), P/O R.G. Jennings (Canadian), Sgt. E.H. Davies, and Sgt. W. Oliver. Two other crew members, Canadians F/O W.J. Gallagher and F/Sgt. D.L. Temple survived and were taken as Prisoners of War. Beames was buried at Hanover (Limmer) British Military Cemetery, Hanover, Germany.

Content notes:
All but two of the letters were written by Beames to Jill Leir, initially in Penticton, B.C., and later at the St. Paul’s School of Nursing in Vancouver. While Beames often addresses Jill as his wife in his letters, e.g. “To my dear wife,” they were not actually married, although collection content suggests they became engaged shortly before Beames was posted overseas. There is nothing in the collection materials to indicate that Beames ever told Jill of his marriage in England, or of the birth of his son, as he continued writing romantically to her throughout this time period.

External links:
P/O Beames’s service record (Serv/Reg# J18779) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Beames can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
The service record of Beames’s brother, Sick Berth Attendant Thomas Bernard Axford Beames, Royal Canadian Navy, is not open to public access at this time. (Rank given here is as of 1944 – final service rank unknown).

Aircrew flying with Beames on February 20, 1940:
      R.C.A.F. P/O George Charles Hatch service record (Serv/Reg# J88705)
      R.C.A.F. F/O W.J. Gallagher (Serv/Reg# J14780) – service record not open to public access at this time.    
      R.C.A.F. P/O Reginald George Jennings service record (Serv/Reg# J88334)
      R.C.A.F. F/Sgt D.L. Temple (Serv/Reg# R162985) – service record not open to public access at this time.
      R.A.F. Sgt. Evan Hugh Davies (Serv/Reg# 1652436) burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
      R.A.F. Sgt. William Oliver (Serv/Reg# 1562387) burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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.

Pilot Officer Lloyd Wesley Cuming was born in Kipling, Saskatchewan on June 9, 1918, to parents Gilbert Edwin and Sarah Adeline (née Callin) Cuming.

After completing his initial thirty-days training with the Winnipeg Light Infantry in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in November/December of 1940, Cuming was working as bank clerk the time of his enlistment with the R.C.A.F. in Regina, Saskatchewan, on August 1, 1941. After training in Canada he proceeded to England in April of 1943 where he was attached to 61 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force, serving as a Bomb Aimer.

On a mission over Germany on January 27, 1944, the Lancaster #DV 400 on which Cuming was flying went missing. It was later determined that it had collided with another Lancaster. Cuming was reburied at the Hanover War Cemetery (also known as the Limmer War Cemetery), Hanover, Germany. The initial burial locations of the crew members killed was uncertain until after the war.

Content notes:
The collection’s letter was written by Lloyd’s mother, Sarah Cuming, to her friend Miss J. Eira Williams. (Williams was also a correspondent in the CLIP Collections of Wren Margaret Chesney, Cpl. Eunice Frances Davies, and L.A.W. Jean Isabel Turner.)

External links:
Pilot Officer Lloyd Wesley Cuming’s service record (Serv/Reg#s J87849; R116184) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Cumming can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Able Seaman Bill R. Curtis served with the Royal Canadian Navy during WWII. While stationed in England he served aboard a Landing Craft Infantry vessel, HMCS LCI(L)-285. In 1944 he returned to Canada where he served on a Boom Defense Vessel, HMCS BDV 19, in Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Collection notes:
The letters in the collection were all written by Curtis to his sweetheart Miss Audrey Addison of Nanaimo, B.C., between January 1943 and November 1944.
Transcriptions of the postcards have been included in the letter section. Due to funding constraints, only twenty-five letters have been transcribed at this time.
[Collection update August 2023: Thirty-five new letters added (as jpgs only).]

External Links:
A/B Bill Curtis (Serv/Reg# V69246) survived the war; his service record is not open to public access at this time.

Margaret Anne Urquhart (future married name Slydell) was born in Durisdeer, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on May 8, 1891. In WWI she worked as a nurse at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, which had been requisitioned during the war to the Royal Army Medical Corps to use in treating sick and wounded soldiers. Urquhart immigrated to Canada following the war.

Content notes:
The collection contains just one document, an autograph book from 1917-18, that Urquhart kept while nursing at Stobhill. Amongst the soldiers who added their poems, quips, and drawings to Urquhart’s book, two have been identified with links to Canada: Newfoundlander Private William John Culleton of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment (page 6), and Canadian Sapper Maynard Arthur Yetts of the 5th Divisional Signal Company (page 15).

External links:
Urquhart worked with the Medical Corps in a civilian capacity, and as such there are no military service records of her time spent as a nurse during the war.
Private William John Culleton’s service record (Serv/Reg# 999) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through the Newfoundland Government’s digital archive of WWI Newfoundland Regiment military records.
Spr. Maynard Arthur Yetts’ service record (Serv/Reg# 507463) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

[Editor’s note: Collection updated July 2023. Two new photographs added.]

Private Edward James Power, also known as “Joe Dowey,” was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, on July 10, 1931, to parents Edward and Jean (née MacDonald) Power.

Enlisting in Halifax, N.S., on January 4, 1951, he served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps, in Korea. Power was killed when hit by shrapnel while deployed at the “Hook” (located near the Samichon River, along the border region of North and South Korea), on December 24, 1952, and was buried in the United Nations Cemetery, Busan, South Korea.

Content notes:
Photos only.

External links:
Pte. Edward James Power’s service record (Serv/Reg# SF14075) is not open to public access at this time.
A memorial page honouring Power can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Able Seaman John Teaton Gray was born in Central Kingsclear, New Brunswick, on November 25, 1924, to parents Robert Michael and Florence Grace (née Pincombe) Gray.

Gray enlisted with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve on October 28, 1942. The letters in the collection were written while he was stationed at the shore establishments of H.M.C.S. Brunswicker, H.M.C.S. Cornwallis, and H.M.C.S. Stadacona; and while serving aboard H.M.S. Caldwell and H.M.C.S. Huron. Gray was demobilized on September 20, 1945.

Most of the letters in the collection were written by Gray to members of his family back home on the family farm near Fredericton, New Brunswick. But also included is a letter written to Florence Grace Gray from her brother Private Phillip H. Pincombe (Ser# G50737), serving with 25th Canadian Forestry Corps in Scotland.

External links:
Gray’s Service Record (Serv/Reg# V50367), as with most records of WWII veterans not killed in service, is not publicly available at this time.