Did any of y'all have relatives/grandfathers who fought in WWI?

[Freebooter]

Hello all,
My mother's father served aboard the USS Pueblo in the U.S. Navy during WWI and I had four great uncles who served in the Army, one or two died over there and one came back about half cracked. Just wondered if any of y'all had people who served in the Great War?
Thanks,
Freebooter
Alabama

[TomVrille]

Originally Posted by Freebooter

... Just wondered if any of y'all had people who served in the Great War?

Hi Free

Yes. My father and his younger brother, my uncle, both served with the Canadian ground forces. My father was a machinegunner, and shipped out overseas. I'm not sure whether or not my uncle got to go overseas.

My interest in WW1 is my way of remembering them.

[Richard A.]

My great-granfather joined up in 1915 here in Ottawa with the 38th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was born in London England and was 34 years old when he joined up. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme and shipped back home in 1917. His wounds troubled him until he died in the 1940's - pieces of shrapnel would now and again come up to the surface. My grandfather also joined, but he was too late to go overseas, he pre-deceased his father in a consruction accident in 1930 leaving my granmother and two kids alone in the teeth of the Great Depression.

My Great-uncle was in the army too, but again joined up too late. He was later the oldest member of the Governor General's Foot Guards (1970's) and was a tea-totaller.

I accessed the Archives web-site in Ottawa and found Attestation papers for a number of relatives of my wife from Manitoba (her father's family were originally from Alabama, having come up to take advantage of a land grant from the Dominion government in the late 19th Century)

I believe the numbers are something like this : A total of 619,636 men and women served in the Canadian forces in the First World War, and of these 66,655 gave their lives and another 172,950 were wounded. Nearly one of every ten Canadians who fought in the war did not return.


Many became flyers due to proximity to the U.S. and it's number of flying schools. I believe that there was a Curtiss flying school in Toronto before the war - hence the dis-proportionate number of successful pilots from Canada.


Every city, town, village and hamlet had wounded and killed, and so there are WW1 memorials just about everywhere.

...Lest We Forget.

[Dackel]

My Grandfather was a U.S. Army Engineer in the early 1900's (he helped lay out Corregidor in the Phillipines). He re-upped when the U.S. declared war and ended up in France as a motorcycle courier in 1918.

Cheers,

Dackel

[rexee]

My Grandfather, William F Purvis was born in 1898 in Toronto, Canada
At 18, as the "Great War" raged in Europe, he enrolled in the Royal Flying Corps. His friends included the legendary Major D. R Maclaren D.S.O, M.C and D.F.C, Captain W.A Curtiss D.S.C ,Major Arthur Roy Brown D.S.C. and Lt.Alan Arnett McLeod VC
Bill Purvis served in France with 218 squadron stationed near Dunkirk flying the DH9, one of the first aerial bombers. On June 29, 1918,on his fourteenth mission Purvis and his observer L.H Locke were hit by anti aircraft fire over Zeebrugge Belgium On this final ill-fated mission, the last entry in his logbook, Lt.Purvis managed to glide the crippled aircraft to Holland before ditching in a field. The two men were interred by the Dutch Government and" missing in action" telegrams were dispatched to their families in Canada and England. They were eventually repatriated. The war ended in November.
Remembering him today

[Cliff]

My Grandfather as much as I know was in the Canadian 38th Bn. as a courier.
He was gassed and took shrapnel at Passchendale in 1917.
He wasn't expected to survive more than five years, but lived a quiet life, married and had two children, and passed away in 1977.

Cliff

[Richard A.]

There is a 38th battallion website:

38th Battalion Home Page

check it out!

Also copies of Attestation papers are available at:

Introduction - Soldiers of the First World War - CEF - ArchiviaNet - Library and Archives Canada

[Epee]

My Grandfather was in the National Guard and participated in the Mexican Border Campaign of 1915 as light infantry. After the U.S. entered the war his unit was Federalized (drafted into the regular U.S. Army). My Grandfather was lucky; he was transfered to artillery (was of his infantry buddies became cannon fodder) and trained on French 120mm guns. He was abord the troopship America when it flooded/sunk in New York Harbor and finally arrived in France just a couple of weeks before the war ended. He saw enough that he didn't want to ever see anymore.

[Yeoman]

A large number of my relatives fought in WW1 including my Great Grandfather who was at Mons, and another who was in the Cavalry!

[Richard A.]

I posted an earlier message about my family, but I forget my other Great-Uncle Wilhelm Yach.

I don't know if he was born in Germany but his father was an immigrant from there (his mother was Swedish) Anyway, when Wilhelm went to join up in Ottawa, he was told his name just wouldn't do and was changed on the spot to
'William York' a good British name.

Great-uncle Bill survived the war and went on to become a film projectionist.