The War Diary
This photo shows a diary kept by my Great Uncle during the First World War. Born in England, he was sent to live on a Canadian farm at the age of 12 by James Fegan’s Homes for Boys, because his widowed Mother could no longer support all of her family.
Some years later Ernest joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was posted to fight in the trenches in France. He only survived two months before being killed in action at Vimy Ridge in 1917, aged 24.
Ironically his brother, my Grandfather, who was raised in a boy’s home in England, also saw action in the same region of France and somehow was given his brothers diary, in which he took over the duty of making daily notes. My Grandfather lost his hearing due to the noise of the constant heavy bombardment.
I am honoured to have inherited this precious diary and loose page notes all carefully written in pencil, still in place
I cannot imagine how these young men must have felt having gone through so much. They were built of stronger stuff than I ever was.
This is my Tribute and thanks to them both
Macro Mondays - Tribute
photo and story contributed by Alan Jackson
Some years later Ernest joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was posted to fight in the trenches in France. He only survived two months before being killed in action at Vimy Ridge in 1917, aged 24.
Ironically his brother, my Grandfather, who was raised in a boy’s home in England, also saw action in the same region of France and somehow was given his brothers diary, in which he took over the duty of making daily notes. My Grandfather lost his hearing due to the noise of the constant heavy bombardment.
I am honoured to have inherited this precious diary and loose page notes all carefully written in pencil, still in place
I cannot imagine how these young men must have felt having gone through so much. They were built of stronger stuff than I ever was.
This is my Tribute and thanks to them both
Macro Mondays - Tribute
photo and story contributed by Alan Jackson
Ernest Haden
Middlemore Child
Ernest Haden was a British 'home child' sent to Canada at age 11 in 1909 and taken in by the Alexander Urquhart family of Millville, Boularderie Island, Cape Breton. Ernest was born at Wolverhampton, England, April 10, 1897. When the war broke out, like many other home children, Ernest saw an opportunity to return to the home country and volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. For too many, it would turn out to be a one-way trip. He was killed in action May 6, 1917 after the capture of Fresnoy while the 85th Battalion, Nova Scotia Highlanders was positioned in support at Berthonval Wood. Haden is buried at La Chaudiere British Cemetery.
Photo and information
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Earnest arrived in Canada on June 6 1901 aboard the Carthaginian. He was brought over by the Middlemore Homes.
Photo and information
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Earnest arrived in Canada on June 6 1901 aboard the Carthaginian. He was brought over by the Middlemore Homes.
Harry James
Annie MacPherson Child
Harry James was sent to Nova Scotia as a nine-year-old boy in 1904. He died fighting with the 13th Battalion on August 8, 1918 and is buried in Hangard Wood British cemetery.
Photo and information
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Henry was brought to Canada by Annie Macpherson. He arrived in Halifax on April 23 1904 and was headed to her Belleville Marchmont Home.
Leonard Brush
Leonard Brush was a British 'home child', sent to Canada at age 11 in 1905. A giant of a man at 6' 6", he went over the top with 519 other officers and men of the 87th Battalion on the first day of the Vimy attack, April 9, 1917. By day's end 116 were dead, 25 -- including Brush -- missing. His body was never recovered. He is remembered on the Vimy memorial.
Photo and information
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Ralph Fred Smith
Ralph Smith was born in London and came to Canada from Birmingham at age 11, arriving in 1911. He died August 28, 1918 at age 19 while serving in the 26th Battalion and is buried at Sun Quarry British cemetery.
Photo and information
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Alexander Black
106th Battalion. Yet another of the British home children included among the WWI Boularderie soldiers, Alexander Angus Black was born in Scotland and came to Canada as a 12-year-old in 1912. He lived at Mill Pond, Boularderie, with the family of John William Urquhart. In his enlistment document he gave his occupation as farmer and listed his brother Arthur of Birmingham, England, as his next-of-kin.
Photo and information
Boularderie Soldiers of The Great War
John Carliss
A Middlemore Child
John Carliss was yet another of the British 'home children' exported to Canada around the turn of the century. He was a Middlemore child, born at Birmingham who was age 11 when he arrived at Halifax aboard the SS Carthaginian in 1907. He enlisted August 22, 1915 in the Royal Canadian Regiment. His attestation lists Hillside Boularderie as his place of residence and his sister Mary Carliss as next-of-kin.
Pte Carliss lies in Bouchoir New British Cemetery, killed in action during the great Canadian offensive August 8, 1918, the 'Black Day of the German Army'. The cemetery is situated near the village of Bouchoir on the Amiens-Roye road. A fellow Boularderie soldier, also a home child, Harry James, was killed the same day fighting in the 13th Battalion.
Carliss is one of two war dead not listed on the St James church memorial plaque but now remembered on the new Boularderie memorial monument.
The village of Bouchoir passed into German hands on 27 March 1918 but was recovered by the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade on 9 August 1918. The New British Cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought there from several small Commonwealth cemeteries and from the battlefields round Bouchoir and south of the village. Almost all date from March, April or August 1918 The cemetery now contains 763 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 231 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial commemorates an airman buried in Laboissiere German Cemetery whose grave could not be found. The graves in Plots I and II are numbered consecutively from 1 to 144. Those in Plot III are numbered from 1 to 135, and the same system applies to Plot IV. Plots V and VI are numbered by rows in the usual way. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. [CWGC]
[Commonwealth War Graves Commission photograph]
Information
Boularderie Soldiers of The Great War
Pte Carliss lies in Bouchoir New British Cemetery, killed in action during the great Canadian offensive August 8, 1918, the 'Black Day of the German Army'. The cemetery is situated near the village of Bouchoir on the Amiens-Roye road. A fellow Boularderie soldier, also a home child, Harry James, was killed the same day fighting in the 13th Battalion.
Carliss is one of two war dead not listed on the St James church memorial plaque but now remembered on the new Boularderie memorial monument.
The village of Bouchoir passed into German hands on 27 March 1918 but was recovered by the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade on 9 August 1918. The New British Cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought there from several small Commonwealth cemeteries and from the battlefields round Bouchoir and south of the village. Almost all date from March, April or August 1918 The cemetery now contains 763 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 231 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to five casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Another special memorial commemorates an airman buried in Laboissiere German Cemetery whose grave could not be found. The graves in Plots I and II are numbered consecutively from 1 to 144. Those in Plot III are numbered from 1 to 135, and the same system applies to Plot IV. Plots V and VI are numbered by rows in the usual way. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker. [CWGC]
[Commonwealth War Graves Commission photograph]
Information
Boularderie Soldiers of The Great War
William Burton
Dakayne Boy's Farm
William Burton, age 17, sailed to Canada on the SS Virginian, arriving in March 1913. He attested on 11 November 1915, joined the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion and was killed on the Western Front in September 1916. His name was inscribed on a memorial in Nottinghamshire which was erected by Oliver Hind, this memorial was destroyed in the 1990's and had contained the names of at least five men named on the memorial are known to have gone out to Canada and subsequently to have served in the Canadian infantry.
Frank Tomlinson
Dakayne Boy's Farm
Frank Tomlinson was 19 when he left England, sailing on the SS Canada to arrive in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in April 1912. The ship's passenger list suggests that he travelled out with six other Dakayne boys. Tomlinson joined the Canadian infantry (Manitoba Regiment) in December 1914 and was killed in France the following October. His name was inscribed on a memorial in Nottinghamshire which was erected by Oliver Hind, this memorial was destroyed in the 1990's and had contained the names of at least five men named on the memorial are known to have gone out to Canada and subsequently to have served in the Canadian infantry.
George Williams
Dakayne Boy's Farm
George Williams, went to Canada in 1911 at the age of 17; the 1911 census for Nottingham records a brother aged 16 and a mother who was a widow. Williams enlisted in the Canadian infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment in January 1915 and was killed in France in 1916. His name was inscribed on a memorial in Nottinghamshire which was erected by Oliver Hind, this memorial was destroyed in the 1990's and had contained the names of at least five men named on the memorial are known to have gone out to Canada and subsequently to have served in the Canadian infantry.
