Researching Returning Canadian Soldiers: Military Manifests After The First World War (1918-1920)

Toronto World, January 28, 1919

MILITARY MANIFESTS 

Military manifests are typed manifests of the military men on board. If you locate a ship with dependents on board the majority of these men listed in these manifests will have dependents on the ship. They are usually found at the end of a manifest for a passenger ship.

Here is a portion of a page from the military manifests. In most cases, these men arrived at Liverpool to board a ship from the Canadian Discharge Depot at Buxton, Derbyshire. Buxton was a discharge depot for married men with wives in the UK in late 1918, once the war was over.

Scandinavian Passenger List, July 1919, Library and Archives Canada

You can track these men in the service records by their regimental numbers at Library and Archives Canada in Personnel Records of the First World War. Please note: they may not return to Canada with the same unit they enlisted with especially if they were injured and sent to a hospital in England or if they chose to return to Canada with a bride after the war.

Each one of these men on the manifest indicates how many dependents they have on board. There are usually four sections to a page with the military men on board. These pages can be hard to read as some have not been filmed properly. Images can be blurry, or the sections overlap cutting off vital information such as regimental numbers or the surname of the soldier on the right-hand side. Sometimes the only way to learn what ship they were on when they returned to Canada is in their service record.

Military Manifest, Corsican, 1919, Library and Archives Canada

Finding them in the manifests takes a bit of trial and error; some men are listed by initials and a last name or as you can see they are listed using their full name. If you are looking for family members then you already know the name of their spouse. However, researchers may not have information about the spouse so they won’t know what name they are looking for unless they have read the service file of the soldier. In most cases, the service records might also include what ship they returned to Canada on.

(c) Annette Fulford, June 2019

Researching First World War Brides in Canadian Passenger Lists, 1918-1921

Toronto World, January 20, 1919

Thousands of war brides came to Canada during and after the First World War in an immigration scheme arranged by the Canadian government. By late January 1919, the Canadian government provided the soldiers’ dependents with free third-class passage to Canada along with free rail passes from their home in the UK to their final destination in Canada or the US. 

However, finding these young women in passenger lists can be complicated unless you know what to look for. I have tracked thousands of these young women leaving Britain between 1917 and 1921. Here are a few tips to look for if you are having trouble locating them.

PASSENGER MANIFESTS

Start by using the database Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865 to 1935 at Ancestry.com. This is the most comprehensive database of passenger lists available to Canada. If they travelled to Canada prior to the Armistice in November 1918, then there is not always identifying info that shows that they are a war bride. The only info that might indicate they are a war bride is the fact that they have never been to Canada before and they are headed to be with their husband.

However, some war brides like Florence Gould and Lily Palmer travelled to the Dominion while their soldier-husband was still overseas. I only had newspaper articles and oral history to go by. Florence Gould left England on the Justicia the day after the Halifax Explosion occurred in December 1917. She had to change plans overnight. The ship was rerouted to New York instead of landing at Halifax and she had to take a train from New York to Saskatchewan.

Maud Carson, Aquitania, April 1918, Library and Archives Canada

 When Maud Carson travelled to Canada in April 1918 the manifest shows that she was travelling “with husband Retd soldier”. Other women on the same page show they were “going to husband Retd Soldier.”

After November 1918, most war brides will be located in the manifests marked with Dependents somewhere on the page. Some pages may be marked Military Dependents, 3rd Class Dependents, Canadian Military Dependents or Steerage Dependents at the top of the page. The majority travelled by steerage but a number of officers’ families were able to travel in a better class. Those pages might be marked as Cabin Dependents in Saloon or Intermediate class.

Canadian Military Dependents, Library and Archives Canada

A war bride may be listed by her full name, by her initials and surname or the manifest might only have Mrs. with a surname. The key to verifying that the husband and wife are on the same ship is the destination they are travelling to.

Steerage Dependents, Library and Archives Canada

A large number of military dependent passengers may have the initials SD WH or a variation of those initials on their line. It stands for "soldier dependent with husband". This indicates that they are travelling on the same ship as their husband but you will have to locate him in the military lists which are usually at the end of the manifest pages. You will have to check the manifests of soldiers to learn if their husband was on board. The key will be to know their regimental number.

Remember, if you use different databases like the ones at Library and Archives Canada for the passenger manifests at Passenger Lists for the Port of Quebec City and Other Ports, 1865-1922 or Canadian Passenger Lists, 1881-1922 at FamilySearch, these databases might give you different results than those at Ancestry.

However, not all include full records up to 1922 like the title suggests. Only Halifax has original records indexed up to 1922 and Quebec goes to up to 1921. The rest only include records to 1912. A large majority of the war brides arrived at St. John, New Brunswick during the winter of 1918-1919. These records are not included in these databases.

Also, if you do know the date they travelled and the name of the ship they travelled on you can view the original manifests at Passenger Lists, 1865-1922 at Library and Archives Canada. You can look at the manifests page by page to find passengers who are not indexed correctly. The only downside to using this database is advancing to the next page once you have clicked on an image. You may find it easier to advance the images at Family Search because their viewer is better.

(c) Annette Fulford, June 2019

Canadian Pacific Railway ship RMS Melita

RMS Melita - Annette Fulford collection

The Canadian Pacific Railway ship RMS Melita was just one of the many ships that brought war brides to Canada after the First World War. It was purchased by Canadian Pacific Ocean Services in 1917 and she started her first run to a Canadian port in January 1918 at St. John, New Brunswick. The ship could carry 1750 passengers on board.

Manifest details for the Melita. Library and Archives Canada

My grandmother travelled on the Melita in September 1919 and she left the family a wonderful collection of memorabilia of her trip including a voluminous letter, a postcard print of the ship and a souvenir spoon. The latter two were purchased with the proceeds of a boxing match my grandfather won on board.

Melita, July 1919 Menu. LAC, RG 76, Immigration Branch files

This is a menu from the July 1919 sailing. My grandmother wrote about meals she had on board while on her journey:

The sea is awfully rough and has been for some hours. — Quite a large number of people have been sick already, but I am pleased to say I feel o.k. I eat a hearty breakfast consisting of bacon & liver. Of course that does not say I shall not be sick but I am hoping not.

It's a good thing that there were other choices on the menu beside liver and bacon. I imagine that would be hard to stomach if you are experiencing sea sickness.

Well Mother, I must say I am always ready for my meals. We have breakfast, at 7 am, dinner 11:45, tea 4:30, so we are early birds. There are three sittings, usually aft half an hour after the one before.

They could also purchase items from the canteen if they got hungry between meals.

 Hello! Here I am again, it is just eleven o’clock and Hugh has just gone down to the canteen (or stores) to get me some apples. — There is beeftea, & boveril and tea etc., to be got there, which are nice warming tonics. It is not dinner time for another three quarters of an hour yet, and you bet I shall be ready for it.

I am so thankful my grandmother left such a wonderful keepsake of her journey to Canada. It has inspired me to learn more about her journey and the war brides from her era.

(c) Annette Fulford, June 2019

Sources:

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).

Library and Archives Canada, Immigration Branch, RG 76, Volume 615, file 908571, pt. 20.

The Ships List http://www.theshipslist.com (accessed 20 May 2002)