First Marriage of a Canadian Soldier in England

The first marriage of a Canadian soldier in England during the First World War occurred in 1914, shortly after the First Contingent arrived at Plymouth in mid-October. The marriage took place nine days later.  

Lieutenant John Lee "Jack" Williamson of Toronto joined the 12th York Rangers in August and left with the First Contingent on October 3, as an unattached officer with the 4th Battalion. He travelled on the ship Arcadian, which landed on October 15. He married Charlotte Suzanne Josse on October 24, 1914, at St. Andrew's Church in Plymouth. Josse was a 21-year-old French woman living in Plymouth, whom he met briefly while on his way to the camp at Salisbury Plain. 

Soon after the marriage, Jack joined the Imperial Army with the 10th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment in January 1915. He later transferred to the 1st Garrison Battalion Kings Liverpool in September 1915. By October 1916, he was appointed to the RFC and served with the Royal Air Force until July 1919.

His Royal Air Force records indicate his wife was back living in Paris. Jack returned to Canada in 1919 and by 1921 he was a salesman at an Auto & Supply company in Toronto. He filed for divorce in 1923 and remarried in 1924.

A French death index shows that Charlotte Suzanne Josse died in 1977 at age 82. I'd love to learn what happened to Charlotte. Did she ever remarry? 

(c) Annette Fulford, December 2024

French War Brides

 

I have often wondered how many French war brides came to Canada after the First World War. Not a lot of information has been located regarding these war brides. Only one source indicated that there was soldiers' dependents living in France and Belgium at the Armistice that needed to be brought to Canada. These dependents were sent to England first to await passage to Canada. 

I am currently tracking 65 French war brides who arrived in Canada from April to June 1919 with hopes of learning more about them. Do you have a French war bride in your family or one that came to your community? I'd love to hear from you. Contact me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca 

(c) Annette Fulford, November 2024

Born at Sea

 

Cedric at Liverpool - Annette Fulford collection

In 2017, I wrote about the birth of  Franklin Cedric Orchard, who was born at sea while on the journey to Canada in 1919 with his mother Winifred, a war bride.

I was able to find his birth entry in the passenger list records but often wondered if any additional records were created at the same time for his birth. There was even a note to the left of his entry on the passenger list indicating whom his mother was and what page she could be found on in the manifests (page12, entry 12).

Cedric - Library and Archives Canada, T-14797

I found an answer to this question a new database for Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea from Ancestry. I was able to learn exactly what day he was born and also the coordinates of his birth location. 

UK, Registers and Indexes of Births.., Cedric. The National Archives.

It was exciting to learn these new details about his birth, which I was able to pass on to his family.

Sources:

Orchard, Frankin Cedric; Passenger Manifest: Cedric, 12 September 1919, Halifax, at Library and Archives Canada. Microfilm: T-14797 (accessed 3 February 2010).

 Ancestry.com. UK, Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1922, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England. (accessed 17 December 2023).

(c) Annette Fulford, January 2024

Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea

 

RMS Melita - Annette Fulford Collection

In August 2023, Ancestry added a new database that solved a decades long question I’ve had about a death of a young child who was buried at sea. While doing research in passenger lists recently, this database was among the search results. Intrigued, I went on a deep dive down the rabbit hole on a quest for answers.

Back in 1992, I inherited the letter my grandmother wrote while on her journey to Canada as a war bride in 1919. She was traveling on the RMS Melita in September that year. One event she wrote about that caught my attention was the burial at sea of an infant who was only three months old. My grandmother never mentioned the family by name but she explained that the parents were at the burial and that it was much sadder because the father, an officer on board, was blind. 

When additional passenger lists were released in 1998, I was finally able to view the passenger list for the September sailing of the Melita and learned that the couple was the HITCHON family from Brantford, Ontario. Wilton Wallace Hitchon, his wife Enda Verity, and their infant son John Dunstan Hitchon. The one question I’ve had for the past 20 years has been, what did their son die from?

The couple married in July 1916 and Wilton Wallace Hitchon enlisted as an officer in the 204^th Battalion in August 1916 at Camp Bordon and later went overseas to France with the 54^th Battalion in September 1917. During the course of the war, he was injured and left blind. He suffered gunshot wounds to the legs, hands and face including both eyes.

He was sent to St. Dunstan's Hostel for Blind Military Personnel to recover and learn new life skills. His wife Edna requested permission from the Canadian government to travel overseas and join her husband in England to aid in his recovery. Their son John D Hitchon was born in London in June 1919

I searched for the child in the database, but no results were found so I revised the information to include only the first name of the child and the ship he was travelling on in 1919. I found his name; it was listed backwards as Hitchon John Dunstan.

I learned that the cause of death was mucous colitis, a gastrointestinal disorder, with a secondary cause of marasmus, which is severe undernutrition. He lacked the necessary fuel to maintain normal body functions. I had been expecting his death to be from influenza. His death was a sad ending to his very short life.

The database has also helped to learn more about the war brides who gave birth at sea or died from influenza while on the journey and were buried at sea. So, if you have question about an event that happened on the ship your ancestor travelled on, the answer might be found in these records.

Sources:

 Ancestry.com. UK, Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1922, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England (accessed 17 December 2023).

Clark, Grace (Gibson). Letter, written 17 September and 24 September 1919, while on board C.P.R. ship R.M.S. Melita to her parents Mr. and Mrs. F.O. Gibson in Sheffield, England; held since 1992 by the author.

Clark, Grace; Passenger list: RMS Melita, 25 September 1919, Quebec, Library and Archives Canada,  Microfilm T14702 (accessed 18 June 1999).

Wilton Wallace Hitchon, Personnel Records of the First World War, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4392 - 40 (accessed 8 August 2008).

Originally published in the Maple Ridge Family History Newsletter, January 2024  

(c) Annette Fulford, January 2024

 

War Bride and President of Silver Cross Mothers in Paris Ontario in 1958

Edith Wakefield (1889-1972) and Albert Dore (1894-1954)

Aquitania - Annette Fulford collection

Edith Rebecca Wakefield was born in 1889 at Folkestone, Kent, the daughter of William Matthew Wakefield and his wife Emma Elizabeth Cullen. Edith worked as a domestic servant before the war. She met British-born Canadian Expeditionary Force soldier Albert Dore and they were married in June 1916 at Folkestone, only eight months after he arrived in England.

Albert William Dore was born in 1894 at Milton, Oxford, England to Wyckliffe Albert Dore and Fanny Puffet. Albert came to Canada in April 1913 onboard the Ascania, which travelled from Southampton, England to Portland, Maine. He was headed to Toronto but ended up in Paris, Ontario working in the knitting mills.

Albert enlisted with the 4^th Canadian Mounted Rifles (Regimental # 109312) on 23 November 1914 at Toronto, went overseas in July 1915 and trained at Dibgate and Caesar’s Camp in Kent. They left for France from Folkestone in October 1915.

He suffered from shell shock after the Battle of the Somme in September 1916 and was in the hospital for three weeks. He complained of nervousness, headaches, shortness of breath on exertion, and excessive perspiration at night. He was also easily startled and had a slight tremor.

He was awarded the Military medal in October 1916 for bravery in the field “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.” The website Great War Centenary Association, Brant County, Ontario gives a full citation for receiving the medal “in carrying despatches on frequent occasions under rifle and shell fire. He carried despatches in daylight through places which were considered too dangerous to allow other ranks to use.”

"In June 1917, a shell exploded close by and he was thrown into a shell hole." He returned to England from France and spent the rest of the war in and out of hospitals suffering from dyspnoea, palpations, vertigo, fatigue and sweating on exertion.

Albert was diagnosed with Neurasthenia and was no longer fit for service. He was invalided to Canada on the hospital ship Araguaya in February 1918, landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Halifax harbour was severely damaged in the explosion of a supply ship and a munitions ship in December 1917.

Edith Dore came to North America on the ship Aquitania in October 1918 with their daughter Minnie Edith, who was born earlier in the year. They were headed to Paris, Ontario. The ship travelled from Southampton, England to New York between October 21 - 28^th, 1918.  

Edith and Albert had 2 sons and 4 daughters while living in Paris.

In June 1940, their eldest son Thomas enlisted in the Canadian army at Galt, Ontario and he went overseas to England with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada. Thomas died of wounds in June 1944 and is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Woking, Surrey, England.

Edith Dore was the president of the Silver Cross Mothers in Paris, Ontario in 1958.

Albert died in 1954 and Edith in 1972. They are buried in the local cemetery in Paris.

 

Sources:

Bennett, S. G. The 4^th Canadian Mounted Rifles, 1914-1919, Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/mountedrifles00bennuoft/page/4/mode/1up (accessed October 4, 2020)

Albert William Dore MM, Great War Centenary Association website, Brant County, Ontario http://www.doingourbit.ca/profile/albert-dore-mm?page=4 (accessed October 4, 2020)

Albert William Dore, 4^th CMR website http://www.4cmr.com/dore.htm (accessed August 4, 2020)

Albert William Dore, Personnel Records of the First World War, Regimental No 109312, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 2604 – 2, Library and Archives Canada. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=360825 (accessed August 1, 2020)

Thomas William Dore, Service No A/37579, Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2762464?Thomas%20William%20Dore (accessed August 1, 2020)

Chilliwack Progress, August 27, 1958, 20 https://theprogress.newspapers.com/ (accessed August 4, 2020)

London Gazette, 29805, page 10488, 27 October 1916 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/awards-and-accreditation (accessed August 4, 2020)

 

(c) Annette Fulford, March 2021

 

Red Cross Nurses Are Brides Today at Double Wedding Here

 

Romance Indeed in this Happy Ceremony - Grooms Returned Soldiers - Met on Train on Way to City.

A real romance, in fact, two romances, culminated in a double wedding in the solemn quietude of Trinity church this afternoon when James Steadman of Calgary became the husband of Dorothy Tucker of Reigate, England and George Kerr of Moose Jaw wedded Ethel E. Masters of London, Eng. The grooms are returned soldiers and the brides returned nurses, all four having seen strenuous services in the late war from its earliest stages.

Tunisian -  Annette Fulford collection

I posted an article back in 2019 about the young women who travelled to Canada after the war to be married to former Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers.

The brides from the article were Ethel Emily Masters, age 22 and Dorothy Tucker,  age 31. They arrived together on the Tunisian after the war, which landed at Saint John, New Brunswick on February 10, 1919. The ceremony was held at the Trinity Church in Saint John, the following day.

Ethel Emily Masters was born in 1896 in Lewisham, London, England to Hugh Edmond Masters, a Law Clerk, and his wife Ann Elizabeth Muckle. She married British-born, George Kerr, a Commercial traveller who was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England in March 1885. He came to Canada on the ship Victorian in October 1912 and was headed to his brother living at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

George Kerr travelled to England and enlisted in the 43^rd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Birmingham in July 1915. This is usual. Most British-born men returned home to enlist in the British Expeditionary Force or joined the CEF in Canada. Was he travelling at the time or visiting his brother Walter who lived in Birmingham?

He was wounded on March 31, 1916, just three months after he arrived on the Western Front. George was struck by eight pieces of shrapnel which included his left leg and ankle causing a fracture of his tibia and fibula. He was also hit in his elbow, buttock and his chest causing fractures to two ribs. 

After repairs were done on his leg, his damaged leg was 3/4 of an inch shorter than his right leg and he was having difficulty walking. In December 1916 infection spread in his leg. He spent many months in hospital with a variety of additional issues before being invalided to Canada for further medical treatment on the Missanabie in October 1917.

The second bride Dorothy Tucker was born 1887 in Hackney, London, to George Nathanial Goldsmith Tucker, a Printer, Publisher and Editor and his wife Emily Jane Williams. Dorothy worked as a nurse before the war but I haven't located where she was during the war when she met James.

James Steedman was born in Japan in 1883 to Scottish parents. The family returned to Scotland circa 1887 and James came to Canada circa 1907 destined for Winnipeg, Manitoba where he would find work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as a Land Inspector.

James enlisted with the 56^th Battalion in Calgary in 1915 and while overseas was transferred to the 49^th Battalion. He was wounded in June 1916, a gunshot wound to the arm and returned home on the Andania in January 1917.

The ladies were roommates on the ship and they both indicated on the passenger manifest that they were going to Canada “to be married.” The manifest pages even have details of their intended husbands and where they lived. The men met on the train and discovered that they were both travelling to New Brunswick to meet their sweethearts and get married.

I’ve love to know where the women were working during the war and if these couples remained friends. If you have any further info on them, please contact me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca

(c) Annette Fulford, March 2021

George Kerr, Personnel Records of the First World War: Regimental No. 421122, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5115 - 46, Library and Archives Canada (accessed March 5, 2021)

James Steedman, Personnel Records of the First World War: Regimental No. 447218, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 9252 - 15, Library and Archives Canada (accessed March 5, 2021)

A Soldier's Family In Quarantine at Grosse Isle in 1919

While researching passenger lists at Library and Archives Canada, I've come across some very interesting information about the war brides and their families. The most recent was a whole family being sent into quarantine at Grosse Isle in August 1919 when they arrived in Canada on the Metagama.

Annette Fulford collection

The passenger list shows a military dependent with three children who were taken to the quarantine station near Quebec. This piqued my interest. Who were they and why were they taken there? 

Metagama Passenger List, August 1919, Library and Archives Canada

Initially, I searched for baby Jack and found his entry in the Grosse Ile Quarantine Station database at Library and Archives Canada but his twin is listed as a female named Florence and her entry could not be found. I searched for just the surname Glover and it gave me five entries for the surname in the results. Database info shows the whole family was taken there on August 12, 1919, a day before the ship landed at the Port of Quebec.

Library and Archives Canada

The information contained in the database indicated that the children had chickenpox and that they were released 10 days later on August 22. One of the twins listed on the passenger list as a girl was actually a boy named Lawrence.

On further investigation I learned that the parents were Alfred Cecil Glover, Reg # 117067 and his war bride Nora Augusta Prowse. They were married in Kent in 1916 and were travelling to Canada with their three sons: Stanley, age three, and twins Lawrence and Jack, age nine months. The couple lived in Lethbridge after the war.

Nora and Alfred had six sons before the death of Alfred in 1936 at age 46 in Edmonton. Nora died in Calgary in 1958 at age 63.

(c) Annette Fulford, February 2021