When Arsen Kaprielion Saroian enlisted in 1915 in Edmonton, Alberta to fight in the First World War, his life had already been fraught with terror and loss. Born in Armenia, at the time a region within the Ottoman Empire, Saroian lost nearly everything before he had even made his way […]
Daily Archives: September 18, 2017
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The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration that can be awarded within the British Empire. During the First World War, seventy-three members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force were awarded the Victoria Cross, one of them was Filip Konowal. Born March 25, 1887 in a small Ukrainian village near the […]
Before the men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had even reached the battlefields of France, their hospitals were already filling up with patients. Many of these men had not been wounded in training accidents however, instead they had contracted some form of Venereal Disease, or VD, as a result of […]
One of the most common and severe injuries suffered by soldiers of the First World War was the loss of limbs. Battlefield amputations were gruesome, followed by years of painful rehabilitation. The bloodshed necessitated an urgency in the development of effective prosthetics, and advancements in design and production were made […]
The pains endured from fighting a war do not end with the fighting. For many veterans of the First World War, their battle scars never healed and continued to affect them for decades after the war ended. One of these veterans was Private Thaddeus “Thaddie” Knockwood. His pension files and […]
Gunner Thomas McSmart was raised in Chicago, Illinois by his adoptive parents. He joined the thousands of Americans who flocked to the Yukon in 1898 as part of the Klondike Gold Rush. Unlike many of his fellow miners, McSmart fell in love with the region and remained there as a […]
After being discharged in October 1919, Lieutenant Gaskin began his post war struggles with mental illness. Gaskin served four years in the First World War in both France and England, beginning his service with the 106th Battalion as a Corporal and concluding as a Lieutenant in the 78th battalion. […]
Fred Atkinson was born on June 6, 1887, and at the age of 27 enlisted in Victoria, BC. His hard work and strength quickly singled him out to superior officers, and in 1916 he was transferred to the Third Tunnelling Company of the Canadian Engineers. His work with this company […]