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

Born in Mid Ocean

Corsican. Annette Fulford collection.

Thousands of war brides travelled to Canada after the First World War in an immigration scheme that was paid for by the Canadian government.

While the war brides were not supposed to travel during the latter stages of their pregnancy, a number of war brides gave birth while on their journey to Canada. In April 1919, the newspaper reported that two war brides on the Grampian gave birth to sons. However, records show that Mrs. Susan Riddell had a son, while Mrs. Germaine Durand, a daughter.

In September 1919, while travelling to Canada on the ship Cedric, Mrs. Winifred Orchard, wife of Private Frank Orchard, gave birth to a son. He was christened “Cedric” [1] after the ship and the captain was chosen to be his godfather. He gave the couple $50, while the passengers chipped in and gave them $95. It’s a good thing he wasn’t travelling on the Grampian or Metagama otherwise he might have a very different name!

Edmonton Bulletin, January 16, 1919

I found this article about another ship that had quite a few births on board but I have not been able to learn just what ship it is yet. If anyone finds a ship landing at Halifax in January 1919 with a large number of births on the manifest, send me an email at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca. I'd love to track the families.


(c) Annette Fulford, September 2017

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[1] He is listed as Franklin Cedric Orchard, 3 days old, on the ship’s manifest.