This is a transcription of a biography written by this man’s daughter, Barbara Joan (Routly) Spruce. The original document is typewritten and was scanned and accessed at Family Search. The document scan is deprecated and difficult to read in some places. An attempt has been made to be faithful to the author’s version so... Continue Reading →
A Stop in the Chaudière-Appalaches Region of Quebec
September9, 2022 Motel MagistralSaint-Raphaël, QCChaudière-Appalaches Administrative/Tourist Region Today was a long day. I wish I had access to the train service in 1915 as I may have made better progress. The Canada of today is so different from that of my grandfather’s time when he enlisted in the 18th Battalion in October of 1914. There... Continue Reading →
The Beginning of Remembrance: A Trip to the Maritimes
September 8, 2022 East of Trenton, Ontario It was a night about 2-weeks before Remembrance Day about 15-years ago (the exact year is a bit foggy) when my daughter announced that she was going to volunteer to speak at her school’s Remembrance Day ceremony. Who would of thought this innocent statement would lead me to... Continue Reading →
The Persistent Ethos of the Crucified Soldier: An 18th Battalion Perspective
A recent post at the 18th Battalion Facebook Group pointed to a Vimeo video “The Crucified Soldier” was posted in the context that it “may be offensive and can be reported as such.” The concern, one can surmise, that the content of this video was not related to the subject matter the Facebook Group focuses... Continue Reading →
A Very Wonderful Man: Memories from 50 years after the war connect two Privates
After years of reading numerous books and hundreds of scholarly articles finding snippets and treasures in these sources about the 18th Battalion can be hit and miss. Sometimes they can only mystify. Sometimes, like this find, it can illuminate the lives of the soldiers involved and add an intimacy that can often be unexpected and,... Continue Reading →
18th Battalion Howitzer Mystery
On my first visit to the Canadian War Museum when it was located at the Dominion Archives building there was a large artillery piece at the entrance. My recollection is this gun was placarded as having been captured by the 18th Battalion. I made note of this as this was the battalion that my grandfather... Continue Reading →
Remembrance Day
Presented here are the memories of one Canadian who made the pilgrimage to the Vimy Memorial. Without further ado, and with thanks to the author, Bonny Hoyer, please read. Private George Cunningham November 10th, 2013, I found myself quietly being regarded by a petite older woman on a bus in Paris, France. I smiled at... Continue Reading →
An 18th Battalion Man’s Contribution to Popular Cinematic Culture
The photograph in the newspaper clipping is grainy, yet you can tell that the young man in it is smiling proudly, at ease, in his 7-button Canadian Expeditionary Forces uniform. The date of the photograph is unknown but is undoubtedly taken at some time prior to the September 1918 publication in the London Free Press.... Continue Reading →
Captain Ed Shuttleworth’s Recollections (1969)
Introduction One of the challenges about researching the men of the 18th Battalion is that the information on hand, though very valuable, in the form of their individual service records at the Library and Archives Canada gives a snap shot of that person’s war experience. This is more of a “photograph” of time. Each page... Continue Reading →
What’s In a Name?
History and memory can be tenuous. As time passes and the source of history - the people who experienced the events - fade with each death. With each passing year after an event, be it small or world shaping, there is a loss of the source of information about the event. There are books, archives,... Continue Reading →
18th Battalion Association Event Circa 1940
A recent contribution to the 18th Battalion Facebook Group brought a candid photograph of two members of the 18th Battalion to life. The photograph is from an event circa 1940 and it is evident that it, most likely, an event related to the 18th Battalion association. The two men prominent in the photograph are Sergeant... Continue Reading →
Like our Commonwealth cousins in the Southern Hemisphere, The Great War as a war that changed the relationship between the Imperial power that was Britain and the colonial territories known as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The nascent awareness of our differences from those who lived in the United Kingdom started during the Boer War... Continue Reading →
“As Christmas time approaches…”: Memories of Christmas 1915
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* As Christmas time approaches, do you ever think of the first Christmas Day we spend in Flanders? Two of our Companies were in the front line, the M & N trenches, while the other two companies were in reserve at Ridgewood and Veerstraat[iii] [sic] which were about... Continue Reading →
The Lonely Soldier: Remembering a Leave
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* Some time ago, we were watching the Television Program, “No Time for Sergeants”. The skit was about a lonesome soldier. It was funny. The lonesome soldier was no myth. He was real. It all stated the night we left London. Many of the officers and many of... Continue Reading →
“They were both fine fellows.”: “Dutch” Kress and “Butch” Cramond of Galt, Ontario
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* Do you remember Lorenzo Kress[iii] who soon became one of the best known men among those who were first stationed at Queens Park? He later became well known in the Battalion as Dutch Kress, a nickname acquired during his school days. Dutch was quite a man. Before... Continue Reading →
“…it is an old trick of his…”: Sifton’s Actions in a New Light?
Special thanks to Michael Ritchie, the author and caretaker of the blog, Letters From Vincent, from which this material was sources. Lieutenant Eastwood was a member of the 18th Battalion from Peterborough, Ontario and Michael is diligently transcriping the letters from his Great-Grandfather. At 5:15 a.m. on the morning of April 9, 1917 the weather... Continue Reading →
With All His Failings: The Story of “Jimmy” McLennan
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* Some time ago, we read of the passing of an 82 year old woman named Lahoud. We remembered her as the operator of a large rooming house at the corner of Windsor Avenue and Chatham Street during the first war. Among her roomers were Andy Galbraith, Jock... Continue Reading →
A Quiet Christmas 1915
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* How good in your memory? Do you remember the first Christmas Day (1915) we spent in Flanders? Two of our Companies were in M. & N. front line trenches while the other two companies were in reserve at Ridgewood and Vierstraat, which were about a half mile... Continue Reading →
“Oh, to hell with it.”: Memories of Passchendaele
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* On the night of November 5th[iii], 1917, our “A” Company was rushed into the line to relieve a company of a battalion of the 4th Division, who had been severely mauled and had suffered many casualties. Our own Company was only at half strength with four Officers... Continue Reading →
Tattoos on the Grampian
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES* In the mid-thirties, Bobby Watson and I were strolling along Ouellete Avenue when we noticed a small crowd gathered in front of the vacant lot just south of the Tunnel[ii] entrance. Bobby was in the First Battalion. When we arrived, we found they were watching some workmen... Continue Reading →
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 