This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Indiana.
Chester Buck provides another example of a man enlisted for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force who probably should have been turned away. Diagnosed as suffering from the effects of late-stage syphilis after arriving in England, he returned to Canada but died in Alberta soon after his arrival.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in New Hampshire.
Laurent Stuart, and his twin brother Leonel, were born on 22 March 1895[1] at L’Ange-Gardien, Rouville, in southern Quebec, the son of Théode and Odile Stuart.[2] The family emigrated to the United States in 1906 and settled in Manchester, New Hampshire. His father owned a grocery store and most of the children worked for one of Manchester’s shoe manufacturers.
Laurent Stuart travelled to Canada and enlisted on 29 September 1914. He joined the 12th Battalion (22793, Private) and sailed for England two days later, on the SS Scotian, arriving on 14 October.[3] The Battalion was broken up to provide reinforcement drafts.
Private Stuart was posted to 1st Divisional Cyclist Company at Bulford, with which he went to France in February 1915.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in New Hampshire.
Sources vary in their detail about the early life of John Francis Hughes but it is probable that he was born in 1884 or 1885 in Cornwall, Ontario.[1] His father, Barney, was from Fort Covington, New York and his mother, Ellen, was Canadian.[2] His parent had married in Cornwall, Ontario in 1882 and Hughes and three of his siblings were born there. The family travelled to the United States in 1895 and settled in Manchester, New Hampshire.
When Hughes left school, he went to work as an ostler, like his father, and in Manchester on 13 January 1906 he married Catherine Elizabeth Coates.[3] The marriage did not last and the couple had no children; his wife died on 12 January 1912. By the time war broke out Hughes was working as a fireman.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Michigan.
This is a most tragic story about a young man, unsuitable for military service, who should not have been enlisted.
Henry Louis Gerow was born on 2 February 1895, the son of John and Matilda Gerow.[1] He was the fourth of six sons and he had four sisters. His parents were from New York, where they had married and started a family before moving to Beaugrand, in Cheboygan County, Michigan. His father was a farmer and in 1917 he was killed in an accident when a pile of logs that he was taking to the mill fell and crushed him.
Continue readingThis essay is about the single First World War casualty commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Wyoming.
Fred Lewis was a British immigrant who settled with his mother and two of his sisters in Wyoming. His father was a regular soldier in the Corps of Royal Engineers and Fred was born on 3 August 1894 in Alexandria, Egypt where his father was serving.[1] He was the fifth of six children, and the eldest of two sons.[2] His father was a quartermaster sergeant when died at the Station Hospital in Gosport, Hampshire in 1896. After his death the children were sent in different directions, with the youngest four attending St David’s orphanage in Mumbles, Glamorganshire. Fred’s movements over the next decade are not known.
His elder sister, Alice, emigrated to the United States in 1907, destined for Big Horn, Wyoming, where she married. His mother followed in 1910; she remarried in 1916.[3] Fred Lewis arrived in Canada on 23 December 1911 and also travelled to Sheridan County, where he became a ranch hand. His sister, Ethel, joined them in October 1912.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in New Hampshire.
Like his nine siblings, David Buchan was born in Scotland; he emigrated to the United States before the war. Buchan served in France with 42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders) in 7th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division, where he was wounded in the war’s latter stages during the ‘advance to victory’.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Connecticut.
Michael Francis Moynihan served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force under the name Francis Henry Chapman. He was born on 24 March 1892 in Manchester, Connecticut one of the twelve children of Michael and Julia Moynahan.[1] His parents were both Irish immigrants, and his father and most of his siblings worked in the Cheney Brothers’ silk mill in the town; Moynihan worked as a clerk and stenographer.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Connecticut.
Winfield George Haviland was a United States citizen, whose service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force was limited to service in Canada as a result of illness. He was born on 4 February 1893 at Stamford, Connecticut, the only child of William and Eliza Haviland.[1] His father died in 1897 and in 1900, when he was seven years old, he was sent to Connecticut School for Boys; the establishment provided an education for juvenile offenders and orphans.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Connecticut.
George Henry Chamberlain was born on 1 August 1894 at Orono, Maine, the son of John and Mary Chamberlain and the middle of their seven children.[1] His family were French Canadians from New Brunswick, who had emigrated to the United States in 1888. His father was a machinist in the local mill of the Orono Pulp and Paper Co. Some of his brothers worked there too but George Chamberlain learned to drive and became a chauffeur.
Continue readingThis is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Connecticut.
William Christopher Byron was born in Almonte, Ontario on 27 June 1889 the son of Joseph and Nellie Byron.[1] His mother was Scottish; she emigrated to Canada in 1887 and settled in Ontario, where she married his father, a Canadian. His father died when William Byron was an infant.
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Sacrifice 