Confidential War Diary of 18th CANADIAN BATTALION - 2nd CANADIAN DIVISION From 1st March to 31st March , 1918 Volume 31 With appendices 1 – 3 Place Date Hour Summary of Events and Information Map Sheet 36c. S.E. 1 Battalion in front line. Right subsection of LENS sector. H.Q. being located at M.30.a.40.85. Enemy... Continue Reading →
March 1918 Casualties
March 1918 found the Battalion with four casualties. Of the four, two where due to action. One was due to illness. And one 18th Battalion soldier was shot for desertion. On March 2, 1918, Private Edward Fairburn, from his records a reluctant foot soldier, was executed for desertion. He is buried at the Villers Station... Continue Reading →
Lecture Series in Brantford Ontario
Last year I had the pleasure to attend several of these lectures. They were very topical and of value to anyone interested in World War 1 from the Canadian perspective. Full details in the image below.
“He would bear himself like a soldier…” : The Service for Sergeant Swainsbury of Chatham, Ontario
Christ Church, Chatham, Ontario. Source: http://christchurchchatham.ca/ An article written in a local Chatham newspaper relates the service at Christ Church in honour of two local men who were killed in action gives us insight into the attitudes of the citizens through the address of Canon Howard. The date that this event transpired was after the... Continue Reading →
Baseball at Folkestone: “The play throughout was very spirited, and many fine catches were witnessed.”
The ties between Canadians and the sea-side town of Folkestone, England go back to the First World War. A popular image was of a soldier holding a rifle with a bayonet, advancing in front of the Union Jack with the assurance: “Don’t be Alarmed, the Canadians are on guard at Folkestone”. The impression made upon... Continue Reading →
February 1918 Casualties
As with the previous month, the 18th Battalion War Diary relates the Battalion in a sector of low activity. No combat mortal casualties occurred with the 18th Battalion. One former member of the Battalion did perish. Lieutenant Douglas Christie Wright, formerly of the 18th Battalion, was a member of the Royal Flying Corp and was... Continue Reading →
“…if what I have written seems rather callous and brutal…”: A Letter from the Front
“I cannot go into details but of late it has become easy to shoot down in cold blood a Hun with his arms above his head.”[i] It is not clear, without context, where Lt. Samuel Gladstone Stokes’ anger at the enemy has come from. His latter, dated April 18, 1918 has some very strong words.... Continue Reading →
War Diary of the 18th Battalion: February 1918
Confidential War Diary of 18th CANADIAN BATTALION - 2nd CANADIAN DIVISION From 1st February to 28th of February, 1918 Volume 30 With appendices 1 – 6 Place Date Hour Summary of Events and Information HILLS CAMP (Neuville St. Vaast) 1 Battalion in Reserve at Hill Camp near Neuville St. Vaast. Company parades and training. Specialist... Continue Reading →
The Fate of Major Ashplant Former Member of the 18th Battalion
LEFT HERE WITH 33rd BATTALION “D” COMPANY IN 1915. Six former officers of “D” Company, of the 33rd Battalion, which left London under command of Lieut.-Col. A. Wilson in November 1915. From left to right they are: Lieut. Harris Mills (Note that Lieutenant Mills is actually on the far right. Per blog comment below.), Lieut.... Continue Reading →
Meet Private and Mrs. Woolley
A member of the 18th Battalion Facebook Group added photographs to the Group pertaining to Private Benjamin Woolley, reg. no. 123108. A photograph of Private Woolley with his wife, Lilly. They are recorded to have lived at 1041 Frances Street, Lodon, Ontario. He enlisted with the 70th Battalion, CEF, on September 14, 1915 at London,... Continue Reading →
Clearing Snow
The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum posted this priceless image on its Twitter feed. A group of 18th Battalion soldiers stand in a line in the barracks square at Wolsesly Barracks in London, Ontario. The men stand in a line with shovels and have to dig the snow to clear the square. There is a small... Continue Reading →
Grave Images of Private Albert Edward Miller
Pte. A. E. Miller. Source: CVWM Matt Miller, a descendant of Private A.E. Miller, who died of wounds sustained during the first day of the battle at Vimy Ridge was kind enough to furnish some photographs of Private Miller's resting place. He is buried along with 5776 other casualties of war. 459 of those dead... Continue Reading →
Commemoration of the Battle at Iwuy
A group of local residents in the Iwuy, France area are working to commemorate two events that took place during the closing stages of the First World War. At Iwuy there was the last cavalry charge for Canadian forces in the war and the German tactical use of their A7V tanks to combat elements of... Continue Reading →
War Diary of the 18th Battalion: January 1918
Confidential War Diary of 18th CANADIAN BATTALION- 2nd CANADIAN DIVISION From 1st January to 31st of January, 1918 Volume 29 With appendices 1 - 5 Place Date Hour Summary of Events and Information Febvin-Palfart 1 9 am to 10:30 Company parades and inspections. Physical Training until 10:30 when battalion was dismissed for the day. Being... Continue Reading →
Christmas 1917 for the C.E.F.
The month of December was kind to the 18th. Very few wounded and no deaths due to action or wounds. As is tradition for Canadian Army units, the Officers of the Battalion served the N.C.O.s and other ranks Christmas dinner. Regrettably the War Diary does not expand on the event as it descrives Christmas Day... Continue Reading →
His Character is “Very Good”
There were more than 7,052 men of the C.E.F. and Royal Newfoundland Regiment with the surname SMITH. This is the story of one of them. Percy Smith was a farmer who worked at the Havelock Farm in the Woodstock, Ontario area. He joined 168th Battalion in May 1917 and by September 1917 he was assigned... Continue Reading →
Letters from Vincent
Michael Ritchie is the Great Grand Son of Lieutenant Vincent McCarter Eastwood, MC. He has devoted a significant time and effort transcribing the letters of his family relation at a web site called "Letters from Vincent". This is an important resource as it offers the reader the opportunity to see what aspects of military service... Continue Reading →
“Knapsack his pillow…”: The Grief of Mrs. McMullin
Private Leonard Calvin McMullin was killed May 25, 1918 by a “fishtail” bomb. Yet, the 18th Battalion War Diary makes no mention of this event and it is lost into obscurity. The War Diary Entry for that day: “Working parties again furnished by Bn. for works during the night on trenches. Our party of 1... Continue Reading →
A Thousand Dollars
On June 6, 1955 in Syracuse, New York, Mrs. Rose B. Scott became a widow. Almost a year passed and on May 8, 1956 she sent an inquiry through the mail to the “Department of Records, National Defence” in Ottawa, Canada regarding her husband’s military service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Her husband, Dennis Scott,... Continue Reading →
Battle Patrol Report December 1917
December 1917 found the 18th Battalion in the Acheville Sector. The general level of activity for the Battalion was a marked change from the hell of Passchendaele and the war diary gives the impression that both the Canadian and German units in this sector had hunkered down for December and were not overly interested in... Continue Reading →
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 