This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Ohio.

John McGraw, a married man, enlisted in the United States, probably in Chicago, for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and travelled to Toronto to join the 1^st Depot Battalion, Central Ontario Regiment. Immediately upon his arrival in Toronto on 20 February 1918, prior being attested, taken on strength and allocated a regimental number, he was admitted to the Base Hospital suffering from paratyphoid bronchitis.^[1] He died from heart failure on 13 March 1918, aged 37.

His body was returned to the United States and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Cleveland on 18 March. His grave, in Section 42, Lot 237, is in the north-west part of the cemetery near the entrance and is marked by a flat Commonwealth War Graves Commission marker. He is one of two casualties in this cemetery: See Private Sam Corrodo. Continue reading →

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Ohio.

Sam Corrodo was born on 15 April 1897 in Oriolo, Calabria, Italy, the son of George and Carmela Corrado [also spelled Corrado].^[1] His father, a tailor, arrived in the United States in 1901 and the family followed between 1907 and 1909. While his parents and three brothers remained in New York, Sam Corrodo moved to Chicago where he worked as a floor-layer.

He enlisted on 27 February 1918 in Chicago (he stated that he was a Canadian by birth) before travelling to Toronto to join the 2^nd Depot Battalion, 1^st Central Ontario Regiment for training as an infantryman; he was allocated the number 3232427. Continue reading →

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Ohio.

Charles Altman was born in Rhode Island on 15 July 1898 into a Jewish family of German extraction. His father, Philip, who had served for six months during the Spanish-American War, was from New York and had German parents, and his mother, Sadie, had been born in Germany.^[1] In 1901, Charles Altman’s younger sister was born and sometime before 1910 the family moved to Cleveland, where his father worked for a clothing manufacturer. He later started his own business in Canton. While the family business remained in Canton, the family spent some time in California and Arizona, probably related Charles Altman’s bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia.

Altman enlisted for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 5 January 1918 at Victoria in British Columbia and was taken on strength of the 2^nd Depot Battalion, British Columbia Regiment. Continue reading →

Matthew Kirby was born in Sunderland, England on 4 September 1886, the only son and fourth of the five children of Matthew and Alice Kirby.^[1] His father was a seaman (and member of the Royal Naval Reserve). Kirby became a house painter and by 1911 he was living and working in Harrogate. In the third quarter of 1911, Kirby married Mary Ann McCoy in Sunderland.^[2]

In 1912 or 1913 Kirby emigrated to the United States; he was followed on 27 October 1913 by his wife. The couple lived at 546 West 132^nd Street in Upper Manhattan, New York City and Kirby found work as a painter, although he found himself unemployed in 1917, which may have prompted his enlistment. Continue reading →