Canadian Military History

The War of 1812 on the Niagara Frontier: A Battlefield Tour – 27 May 2012

caitlin.mcwilliams — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:37:00 +0000

The War of 1812 on the Niagara Frontier: A Battlefield Tour Presented by the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Sunday 27 May 2012

The tour will include visits to Fort George, Queenston Heights and Fort Erie. These are the most prominent sites both in the events of 1812-1814 and in commemoration of the war to the present day. Terry Copp, director of the Laurier Centre and a leader in battlefield and war and memory studies, will be the facilitator.

The cost, $45 per person, includes transportation by motor coach, sandwich lunch, and admission fees to the sites.

We will be departing from the Laurier Centre, 232 King Street North, Waterloo, at 9 am and returning at approximately 6.30 pm, Sunday 27 May 2012.

If numbers warrant, we will organize a group dinner (cost not covered by the tour package) in Waterloo to follow the tour.

Registration is required by 5 pm EST, Wednesday 23 May to allow arrangements for coach transport and lunches.

For more information contact Caitlin McWilliams: caitlin.mcwilliams@canadianmilitaryhistory.ca or by telephone at 519.884.0710 x2080.

(Cover photo from Niagara Parks – niagaraparks.com)

To Reserve Your Spot…

1.) First, register by filling the form below. Make sure to click “Submit” before moving on.

2.) Arrange for payment.

If paying by cheque, make payable to ‘Wilfrid Laurier University,’ and mail to:War of 1812 Tour
Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5

OR, pay by PayPal here! Just click “Add to Cart” below and follow the prompts to check-out.

Wednesday Video – Terry Copp’s Plenary Lecture at the 23rd Military History Colloquium

geoff.keelan — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:30:54 +0000

Terry Copp’s Plenary Lecture at the 23rd Military History Colloquium from Terry Copp on Vimeo.

Terry gave the Plenary Lecture reviewing his long career in Canadian history at the launch of the book in his honour : “Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp” (Geoffrey Hayes, Mike Bechthold, and Matt Symes, eds) which was launched at this year’s Canadian Military History Colloquium. The volume, four years in the making, is a fitting tribute to Terry’s tireless teaching, research, and writing that has challenged generations of Canadian students, scholars, and veterans.

LCMSDS students live-tweeted throughout the session using the hashtag #MHC2012. Some highlights from Terry’s plenary:

Guidebook Downloads

matt.symes — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:06:29 +0000

Click on the links below for the pdfs

D-Day and the Airborne Bridges

Dieppe

Vimy and Passchendaele History

Vimy and Passchendaele Tour

Understanding the Memorials of the First World War and the Commonwealth War Cemeteries

Canada’s Culture is at stake: Save the Archives! by Dr. Cynthia Comacchio

matt.symes — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:00:30 +0000

It’s a truism that a nation that does not know its history is lost in an amnesiac condition, unable to understand its present or discuss a meaningful national future. It’s also nothing short of shocking that our own government, duly-elected to represent our collective interests, should actively and without compunction take measures to restrict, obscure, even destroy, what we—all Canadians—rightfully own: our stories, our histories, our collective memory, our heritage. Our national library and archives have a long and honourable history of their own. They are integral to what makes us Canadian. They represent a commitment to respect our history, our national traditions, the personally and collectively important objectives that we hold true as Canadians. They confirm the continuities and reveal the changes that we have undertaken. They inform our present. In sum, threats to the treasury that contains our history in all its varied elements quite simply impoverish our culture and diminish our sense of identity: our future as Canada. We cannot let this happen.

For More information on the March click here:

http://archiviststrek2012.tumblr.com/statement

Dr. Cynthia Comacchio is a professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University

For more commentary see:

Harperizing Canada’s History and Heritage by Eric Sager

http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Harperizing+Canada+history+heritage/6605128/story.html

Making Canada’s Past a Slave to Power by Jeffrey Simpson

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/making-canadas-past-a-slave-to-power/article2422020/

http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/action2012.html

http://www.savelibraryarchives.ca/

http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/CallToAction_EN_final.pdf

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fight-the-Budget-Cuts-to-the-Library-and-Archives-of-Canada/290155287735722

Purchase “Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp” Geoffrey Hayes, Mike Bechthold, and Matt Symes, eds.

caitlin.mcwilliams — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:38:37 +0000

“Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp” (Geoffrey Hayes, Mike Bechthold, and Matt Symes, eds) was launched at this year’s Canadian Military History Colloquium. The volume, four years in the making, is a fitting tribute to Terry’s tireless teaching, research, and writing that has challenged generations of Canadian students, scholars, and veterans.

The study of Canada and the Second World War continues to challenge, confound, and surprise. In the questions it poses, the evidence it considers, and the conclusions it draws, this important collection says much about the lasting influence of the work of LMCSDS director and professor emeritus Terry Copp.

Some of Canada’s foremost Social, Cultural, and Military historians – colleagues, friends and former students of Terry’s – consider a wide range of topics under five headings: The Homefront, The war of Scientists, The Mediterranean Theatre, Normandy/Northwest Europe, and the Aftermath. The collection features articles from historians including:

Cynthia Comacchio – full time member of the WLU History faculty
Roger Sarty – full time member of the WLU History faculty
Lee Windsor (MA at Laurier) – Deputy Director of the Gregg Centre at the University of New Brunswick
Mark Humphries (BA, MA at Laurier) – assistant professor (tenure track) of History at Memorial University
Jim Wood (PhD at Laurier and Gold Medal Winner)
Andrew Iarocci (MA at Laurier) – now CAS at Laurier and other institutions
Randy Wakelam (PhD at Laurier) – professor at RMC
Michelle Fowler (MA at Laurier)
Angelo Caravaggio (PhD at Laurier) – Canadian Forces Staff College
Jonathon Vance (Post-doc at Laurier) former CRC at Western

This collection also has a forward by John Cleghorn, FCA. OC.

Review of Shawna M. Quinn’s ‘Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War’ by Kathryn Rose

Kellen Kurschinski — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:11:24 +0000

Shawna M. Quinn, Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions and the New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, 2010). 174 pages.

Reviewed by Kathryn Rose (Memorial University)

The experience of nursing sisters during the First World War is a relatively underdeveloped area of study in Canadian military history. While there are a few official histories and memoirs, there is very little recent scholarship exploring the Canadian role compared to other combatant nations, particularly the British. Like their overseas counterparts, Canadian nurses and doctors were required in great numbers on the front lines to care for the sick and wounded, joining in the thousands. Yet few personal memoirs and documents exist to help recount their experience, nor are they covered in official history. Shawna M. Quinn’s Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War, which includes a reprint of Warner’s memoir My Beloved Poilus, provides an evocative window in to her devotion to the communities of France and Belgium, and the nursing experience during the war as a whole.

Nursing sister is preparing to assist a patient with a drink at the no. 2 Canadian General Hospital in Le Treport, France.

Rather than let Warner’s letters stand alone. Quinn includes three introductory chapters that provide context for her wartime experience. In the first chapter, Quinn gives a brief historiographical overview of works that highlight nursing in the Great War, particularly memoirs. The second chapter addresses the development of nursing as a profession, the ways in which nurses were involved in the war effort, and the general experience of nursing from New Brunswick during the war. The third chapter is a short biography of Warner, providing information on her pre-war life and the context surrounding her decision to travel overseas and offer her skills to those suffering from the effects of the war. As Quinn explains, Warner had initially traveled to France as a private nurse when the war began. She returned to New York, and after a brief stay in Saint John, returned to France once more. Warner, an American citizen, was considered neutral, and was not attached to the Canadian or British armies. She moved around the country autonomously, offering help where it was needed. Following the chapter on My Beloved Poilus, Quinn provides some details of Warner’s life after the publication, including the rest of her wartime experience, her return to New Brunswick, and her final days. The unique structure of the book moves it beyond the scope of a traditional biography or edited collection – it is a historically contextualized life history interwoven with wartime vignettes.

Warner’s letters primarily describe her experiences as an unattached nurse in France during the war. Warner frequently reflected on the struggles soldiers and civilians faced during the war and the variety of ways in which individual communities contributed to the war effort. When Warner initially departed for France, the community of Saint John sent with her a collection of funds to aid the French town of Divonne-les-Bains. In her letters, she described how she used the materials and funds. On March 21, 1915, she thanked the Red Cross and the IODE of De Monts for their contributions, which had been “sent to a small hospital in Normandy near their chateau, some to the hospital here, and some to a small hospital not far from here where they are very poor; the doctor who was in charge there nearly wept when he knew the things were for him.” (p. 73) When Warner was overseas her family and friends decided to gather the letters for publication in an effort to raise additional funds. Warner did not write the letters with the understanding that they were to be published. They are candid portrayals of her experience directed solely towards her friends and family.

The content of My Beloved Poilus, a French term for ‘solider’, deserves some elaboration. Warner writes about her experience in France, training civilians in the town of Divonne-les-Bains to care for wounded soldiers and civilians. In many cases, she followed the progress of her patients so that family and friends could monitor them and learn about the processes involved in care-giving and nursing. Readers are provided with an intimate sense of how busy the nurses were and their level of involvement in the care of the wounded. Warner helped prepare hospitals for the Red Cross and establish others, promoted local initiatives to improve the health of soldiers and the community, and regularly witnessed the hardships of war on local families. Throughout her letters, Warner used these experiences to encourage her family family and friends (and Saint John residents in general) to raise more funds. In one instance Warner recalled a woman whose one son was killed in the war, and other son had been crippled for eighteen years. Their plight compelled Warner to give five francs, a De Monts dressing gown, and some warm underclothes. (p. 92)

A nursing sister is assisting a doctor in a ward at the tent hospital. She is holding out a tray for him to take medical tools from.

Warner’s letters provided readers in Saint John with a first-hand account of the human toll of the war, but also made sure to point out the positive impact they could have through their giving: “I think it was the sweetest thing of little Mary Murray to send me her birthday money for my soldiers, I have been getting them fruits and cigarettes for Sunday. That is the one thing that overwhelms me at times – the awful suffering every way one turns.” (p. 97) Pain and despair often surrounded Warner, but the charity of Canadians back home always motivated her to push on.

Saint John’s generosity never went unnoticed by Warner. Throughout the war she continued to correspond with her family and the community responded accordingly with persistent donations of money and materiel. Had she known she was speaking to a public audience, Warner might have adjusted her writing and what she included in these private and sometimes quite personal reflections. Indeed, there are several occasions when she is less than optimistic about the war. “I am afraid there is no chance of the war finishing before the winter is over” she wrote in (what month/year? (p. 84). In most letters, however, Warner appears to be a dedicated nurse writing to a respected family member, with little content that would warrant censure.

Nursing sister Ruby Gordon Peterkin standing at the entrance of a tent.

This book is not without its flaws. At various points, a few minor structural issues confuse the reader. Such is the case in the first chapter where Quinn dedicates the first paragraph to a discussion of memoirs published by other nursing sisters, and the state of the historical literature available on the nursing experience during the Great War. While valuable information, the chapter lacks a discussion of Warner until the final sentence. Warner’s contribution and place within this literature might have been better explained by a brief introduction of her work at the beginning of the chapter, adding additional context to the information offered on the experience of nursing sisters in Canada. The lack of a focused introduction makes it challenging to determine the intention of Quinn’s work from the beginning. The author also fails to provide the reader with a proper conclusion.

Nonetheless, Quinn’s work is still a valuable contribution in furthering our understanding of the experience and diverse responsibilities of nursing sisters in the Great War. Readers will also enjoy learning about the various ways in which communities like Saint John contributed to the medical effort overseas through their charitable endeavours. Warner, as a healer and symbol of a community’s generosity, ultimately serves as a enlightening example of the complexities inherent in the relationship between the home front and battle front.

Garth Webb, veteran of the Canadian 14th Field Artillery & founder of Juno Beach Center, has passed away

caitlin.mcwilliams — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:27:29 +0000

(Source: Burlington Post file photo)

Garth Webb, founder behind the Juno Beach Centre, has died. He was 93. Mr. Webb landed on Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as part of the Canadian 14th Field Artillery.

Mr. Webb helped raise $10 million through the Juno Beach Association to build the Juno Beach Centre, opened on June 6, 2003.

The Juno Beach Centre issued an official press release on 8 May. Read the full release here.

(Garth Webb, second from left, on June 7, 1944, one day after landing
on Juno Beach on D-Day. Photo source: Hamilton Spectator / Garth Webb)

From his obituary, published in the Toronto Star from May 9 to May 10, 2012

“Garth S. Webb, M.S.C. Passed away peacefully at the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, Burlington on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at the age of 93. Garth Webb, beloved companion and best friend of Lise Cooper. Predeceased by his first wife Camilla (nee Cunningham). Dear father of Susan, Andrew (Ruth Hall), Peter (Patricia Allan) and stepfather of Don Cooper and Susan Mousseau. Cherished grandfather and great- grandfather of 12 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. Garth will be sadly missed by his sister Patricia Atkinson and his special nephew Mike Sexsmith, as well as his many friends. Garth grew up in Calgary and attended Queen’s University until he enlisted with the 14th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery. He fought on “D-Day” through North West Europe into Germany. Garth returned to Queen’s following the war and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. Garth went on to become a Real Estate Appraiser and formed Garth S. Webb & Associates. A lifelong fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, Maple Leafs and Argonauts. Garth was the President and founder of the Juno Beach Centre Association, which saw the creation of the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, France, for which he was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation and made a member of the French Legion of Honour. September 2012 will see the opening of Garth Webb Secondary School in Oakville. Visitation at SMITH’S FUNERAL HOME, 1167 Guelph Line (one stoplight north of QEW), BURLINGTON, (905-632-3333), on Thursday from 7-9 p.m and Friday from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m., with Legion Service Friday at 7 p.m. A Funeral Service will be held at Wellington Square United Church, 2121 Caroline Street, Burlington, on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at 1:30 p.m. Cremation to follow. As an expression of sympathy, donations made to the Juno Beach Centre Association (www.junobeach.org) would be appreciated.”

Wednesday Video – Never Forget, Always Remember: Canadian Liberation of the Netherlands

karin.salk — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:17:23 +0000

In the Netherlands, 5 May marks the celebration of the country’s liberation from Nazi occupation during World War II. Johannes Blaskowitz, German commander-in-chief of the Netherlands, surrendered the remaining 117,000 troops to Canadian General Charles Foulkes in the Dutch town of Wageningen on 5 May 1945. The Canadians played a pivotal role in this effort, liberating the majority of Holland and ultimately suffering over 7,600 casualties.

The following clip shows Holten Canadian War Cemetery, located in the north east of the Netherlands and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It contains 1,380 identified casualties, many of whom were Canadians involved in the liberation of the country. After nearly 70 years, deep gratitude and appreciation are still felt by the Dutch towards their Canadian liberators.

May 30 Noah Richler Lecture – What We Talk About When We Talk About War

geoff.keelan — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:41:29 +0000

The Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, Goose Lane Editions and Words Worth Books present a lecture from author Noah Richler discussing his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About War.

Noah Richler made documentaries and features for BBC Radio for fourteen years before returning to Canada in 1998. He has been books editor and literary columnist for The National Post and has contributed to numerous publications, including The Guardian, Punch, The Daily Telegraph, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Saturday Night, The Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail. He is author of This Is My Country, What’s Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada. He lives in Toronto.

When: Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 7:oopm.

Where: Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies

Wilfrid Laurier University, 232 King St. North, Waterloo ON

You are also invited to read reviews of Richler’s work, such as the National Post‘s review by Randy Boyagoda, or the Ottawa Citizen‘s review by Paul Gessell, or Jonathan Vance’s review from the Globe and Mail. The Toronto Star recently posted a review by Laura Eggertson as well

Richler has also recently published an article with the Globe and Mail reflecting on similar themes to his book.

For more information, see the attached poster or contact Geoff Keelan at geoff.keelan@gmail.com.

Information Sheet for The Great War: From Memory to History

matt.symes — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:44:20 +0000