The past week has been fascinating and there are many more 18th Battalion soldiers to post as time moves forward. Please visit each page as each has a story. Weaver, Jesse Edward: Service no. 158734 Dunnett, Harry Douglas: Serivce no. NA McBrine, Frank Stanley: Service no. NA Bishop, Albert Earl: Service no. 189576 Jacobs, James:... Continue Reading →
Report of a Minor raid, Night of Dec. 1/2
The 18th Battalion entry for December 1/2 1916 records: Place: Calonne II (Most probably opposite the German Lines astride the Lens - Bethune railway near Cite Calonne) Date: Dec 1/Dec 1/2 8 pm 18th Canadian Battalion in front line at Calonne II sector. On the night of December 1/2 a minor operation was directed against... Continue Reading →
World War 1 Men of St. Clair Township
St. Clair Township is just south of Sarnia, Ontario and has a resource at this link with a listing of 441 residents of the Township who served in World War 1. St. Clair Township, then Sombra and Moore Townships, answered the call to support the mother country. Over 400 men, from a population of around... Continue Reading →
New and Modified Soldiers Pages as of November 14, 2014
Aylward, George: Service no. 53883 The Carthy Brothers Carthy, Percy: Service no. 54210 Carthy, Eric: Service no. 54209 Norwood, James Hamiton: Service no. 53605 Pollard, Harry William: Service no. 53881 The Lavelle Brothers Lavelle, Russell George: Service no. 126224 Lavelle, Lewis Edward: Service no. 3132249 Lavelle, Leonard Stanslau: Service no. 3131642 Reynolds, William Henry: Service... Continue Reading →
Patriotism in Canada Small and Large
Coming from Waterloo Region I would hazard that there is hardly anyone that has lived here that is not aware of the fact that Kitchener, Ontario was once named Berlin. With its large German population at the turn of the last century and this group's influence still significant culturally with such events as the 2nd... Continue Reading →
One Family. One War. 2 Lives
On October 26th, 1918 the Toronto Star carried a brief article about a newspaper reporter from Stratford who died in action with the 18th Battalion on October 10, 1918: Lavelle Killed in Action. Pte. Leonard S. Lavelle, formerly sporting editor of the Stratford Herald, was killed in action. He went overseas in the spring... Continue Reading →
Soldiers Added Today
Please check out the individual soldiers' pages for each of these men of the 18th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Hall, George: Service no. 189862 McDonald, Albert Alexander: Service no. 3131667 Coghlin, Ralph: Service no. 675215 McMullen, John Wesley: service no. 746055 McMullin, Leanord Calvin: Service no. 844831 Dawe, Victor: Service no. 54240 Fenton, Herbert Bishop:... Continue Reading →
He Loved Honour More Than He Feared Death
In a church’s Honour Roll from a church that no long exists in Sarnia, Ontario, 16 names are listed of the dead. This church of community and love honoured the fallen. But now the church is gone and it is up to use, as a legacy to those that have passed to continue to honour... Continue Reading →
Soldiers Posted Today
One of the primary objectives of this blog is to list the soldiers found in the 18th Battalion War Diary. As research shows that the private soldier (or "other ranks") where rarely mentioned in the War Diary of the 18th Battalion the research has been expanded to list any soldier found during research for this... Continue Reading →
City of Sarnia Honours the Fallen
The City of Sarnia with work by Tom Slater are updating and revising the The Remembrance Project: A Record of Fallen Soldiers according to this article in the The Observer. The current version is available at several sites and this link will take you to the Lambton County Library version in PDF format. This resource... Continue Reading →
A Young Girl Remembers into Adulthood
Anges McVittie was a young girl when Alfred Steggles boarded with her family before he joined the CEF and the 186 Overseas Battalion on March 13, 1916. Eventually assigned to the 18th Battalion he was to be killed in action exactly one year before the Great War's end. He was one of 154 Canadian soldiers... Continue Reading →
Anniversary
Today marks the 100th anniversary of my Grandfather's enlistment into the 18th Battalion, Western Ontario, Regiment, CEF.
The Goss Family
As often happens in research one soldier's research leads to another. During the research into Private Percy Lemmon one of the news articles shared with me shows another soldier who served in the 18th Battalion, George Goss. George Goss had two other family members who served in the C.E.F.. His father served in the 18th... Continue Reading →
New Soldiers Listed
One of the major endeavors of this blog is to list every soldier I find through researching the 18th Battalion. There is a Nominal Roll (1915) available digitally but the efforts focused at this blog is to do the research of the War Diaries and list those soldiers that are named in the War Diary.... Continue Reading →
Found: A friend of my Grandfather who served with him.
One of the opportunities for researching soldiers is the fact that many soldiers that enlisted often enlisted with their "chums" at the same enlistment office. In an article about researching soldiers it pointed out that since the service numbers were often assigned sequentially then if someone checked the proceeding and preceding service numbers and they... Continue Reading →
August 21st, 1917: A Brutal Day and a Horrific Month
Thanks to a reader of this blog I was made aware of a member of the 18th Battalion, C.E.F. Private Percy William Lemmon, 880420 served with the Battalion and was severly wounded on this date. More biographical information will follow but War Diary entry on this date is a stark and relevant reminder as we... Continue Reading →
“… he was probably the youngest major in the Canadian army.”
So says the Toronto World newspaper on March 10th, 1917 just 5 days after acting Major George Vincent Nelson was killed. He joined the 18th Battalion on May 6, 1916 as a reinforcement after originally joining the 83rd Overseas Battalion on September 4, 1914. During his duty with the 18th Battalion, which spanned less than... Continue Reading →
Rank Last Name Initials KIA Service No. Family Information Private BASS J 02/03/1916 '406252' Private GAGEBY R 02/03/1916 '406719' SON OF ROBERT GAGEBY, OF 45, BROOKHILL AVENUE, BELFAST, IRELAND. Sergeant GARDNER H S 02/03/1916 '54020' SON OF JOHN AND JANE GARDNER, OF 112, ABBEY FOREGATE, SHREWSBURY. NATIVE OF SALOP, ENGLAND. Private HILLSON J 02/03/1916 '54227'... Continue Reading →
War Diary of the 18th Battalion: March 1916
PlaceDateHourSummary of Events and Information 1 Battn in SP trenches. Operation orders for cooperation in attacks on INTERNATIONAL trench on our left (attached). Bombardment commenced 5 pm until 5.30 pm. This was kept up during the night of March ½ becoming very intense about 2.30 A.M. 20th Can Bn was on our right and East Yorks (Imp)... Continue Reading →
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 