Remembering

Charles Pocock of Montreal enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the beginning of the First World War, making him eligible to join the association of original members of the 13th Battalion.

The two Iceton brothers enlisted in the 124th Battalion in Toronto in December 1915, but only one returned home after the war. Family members put together a small collections of letters, photographs, and other keepsakes as a tribute to their service and sacrifice.

The school in Maganetawan, in northern Ontario, dedicated an impressive plaque to townspeople who served during the First World War, and also distributed handsome souvenir portfolios of the memorial.

Nelson Hodgson of the 1st Divisional Ammunition Column, was killed in the fighting around Passchendaele in November 1917. This photograph of his grave near Ypres, Belgium, was sent to his family in Guelph, Ontario.

On the back of this card were listed to most important events in the battalion's history - including the first issue of rum to the soldiers.

A Winnipeg tradition was the Armistice Day dinner hosted at the Fort Garry Hotel by the 90th Regiment, Winnipeg Rifles, to honour the battalions it had helped to recruit for service in the First World War.

In this leaflet, the Canadian Legion's Manitoba Command provided a suggested order of service for Armistice Day and reprinted John McCrae's famous poem "In Flanders Fields" - although the author's name and the date of the poem are given incorrectly.

John Bridgman of Roseland, Ontario, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943 and qualified as a bomb aimer at #9 Air Observer School in St Johns, Quebec. Amongst his wartime souvenirs are a certificate indicating that he had completed a tour of operations and aerial photographs taken on some of the bombing raids in which he participated.

Ceremonies that involved placing flowers on the graves of ex-soldiers were common across Canada, and usually followed the same pattern as this service in Morden, Manitoba.

Despite the inscription that suggests he enlisted voluntarily, Percy Norris of Sprague, Manitoba, was actually conscripted in May 1918. The fact that he later ordered this souvenir scroll suggests that he was not a reluctant conscript.