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Canadian History

Western University

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

First World War

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Performing Masculinity: Calgary Men In The Great War, Andrew J. Hawkes Apr 2024

Performing Masculinity: Calgary Men In The Great War, Andrew J. Hawkes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the masculinity of soldiers from Calgary during the Great War using a theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity. The first chapter establishes a normative masculine standard in Calgary using local newspaper coverage of battalion departure parades. These events were rituals that celebrated militarized masculinity and reinforced the hegemonic ideal that existed across the British Empire in the early 20th century. The second chapter assesses how masculinity was performed in letters during the war. Although men strove to embody the masculine ideal, their letters were not uniform endorsements of martial masculinity. The third chapter analyzes how hegemonic masculinity …


Canadian Prisoners Of The First World War: The Struggle For Resilience, Grace Peeters-Rosien Aug 2022

Canadian Prisoners Of The First World War: The Struggle For Resilience, Grace Peeters-Rosien

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the First World War, 3,500 Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner. Throughout their captivity, they endured intense humiliation, dehumanization, and abuse. Despite this, the men were able to remain resilient and even found ways to fight back. By using memoirs and letters written by the prisoners, this paper will analyze how these Canadians were determined to keep fighting. This paper will be using an analogy of a bank account to explain how close the prisoners came to breakdown, and how they continuously struggled to endure. Society and war had taught these men that prisoners were weak and cowardly, but they …


Unsung Equine Heroes: An Analysis Of Equine Care And Management During The Great War, Emma E. Kuiack Aug 2022

Unsung Equine Heroes: An Analysis Of Equine Care And Management During The Great War, Emma E. Kuiack

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the use of equines by the British Expeditionary Forces throughout the First World War, particularly examining various aspects of war equine care and management. It addresses the significance behind the use of these animals in the war before delving into the reality of how equines were cared for in terms of farrier work, skin care and management, feeding and watering, as well as psychological understandings of horses, donkeys, and mules. Through the implementation of various primary and secondary source materials, this thesis considers care mistakes that were made and the corrections that were enforced to alleviate injury …


Muddying The Lens: Photographs Of The Canadian Expeditionary Force, Sarah Leilani Hart Aug 2020

Muddying The Lens: Photographs Of The Canadian Expeditionary Force, Sarah Leilani Hart

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the course of the First World War 4, 507 photographs were produced by the Canadian War Records Office. These photographs were used as propaganda to promote victory overseas and were popularized in exhibitions, magazines, books, and other wartime ephemera. Produced simultaneously to this official record was private soldiers’ photography which is comprised of albums, scrapbooks, personal snapshots, and soldiers’ portraits and communicate a narrative that is both similar and disparate from the official record. This thesis examines the ways in which private and official photographs were formed and how they were used to communicate soldiers’ wartime experience. It argues …


Shell Shock In The First World War: An Analysis Of Psychological Impairment In Canadian Soldiers., Brigette A. Farrell Aug 2020

Shell Shock In The First World War: An Analysis Of Psychological Impairment In Canadian Soldiers., Brigette A. Farrell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the question of standardization in the First World War Canadian Army Medical Corps ideologies and procedures through a case study of fifty soldiers discharged for being medically unfit. In analyzing their service records, this thesis demonstrates that there was generalized diagnosis, treatment, and common experiences for Canadian soldiers being treated for mental health afflictions in the First World War. However, because of different medical ideologies, scientific-based beliefs in how humanity was hierarchically organized, the influence of class and rank, the impact of the opposing fields of neurology and psychology, and the need for military efficiency over individual …


Charting Continuation: Understanding Post-Traditional Six Nations Militarism, 1814-1930, Evan Joseph Habkirk Oct 2018

Charting Continuation: Understanding Post-Traditional Six Nations Militarism, 1814-1930, Evan Joseph Habkirk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Until recently, military historians failed to consider First Nations military participation beyond the settlement of a particular region, including the end War of 1812 in Ontario and Quebec, and the post-Northwest Rebellion era in the Western Provinces. Current historiography of Six Nations military between the end of the War of 1812 and the First World War has also neglected the evolution of First Nations militarism and the voice of First Nations peoples, with most military histories including First Nations participation as contributions to the larger non-First Nations narrative of Canada. By charting the military participation of one First Nation community, …


Tribute To The Fallen: The Evolution Of Canadian Battlefield Burials During The First World War, Jeremy P. Garrett Jun 2018

Tribute To The Fallen: The Evolution Of Canadian Battlefield Burials During The First World War, Jeremy P. Garrett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on the burial of Canadian soldiers during the First World War. This study explores the ways in which the body was treated upon death during the early, middle, and late years of the conflict to show the drastically different practices and customs that were implemented and modernized throughout the war. While nineteenth century military burial customs were suitable for religious beliefs at the time, a religious shift among the general populace occurred at the end of the century. Subsequent conflicts showcased the inadequacies of established military practices.

While the Boer War demonstrated soldiers’ need to ensure a …


Femininity And Higher Education: Women At Ontario Universities, 1890 To 1920, Marilla Mccargar May 2016

Femininity And Higher Education: Women At Ontario Universities, 1890 To 1920, Marilla Mccargar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the experiences of women studying at six institutions of higher education from 1890 to 1920. The universities include Queen’s University in Kingston, The University of Western Ontario in London, the University of Toronto and its affiliates Victoria University, University College, and Trinity College in Toronto. While pioneering women who attended universities in the 1880s were opposed by people who believed a belief that women’s intellects were inferior to men’s, women in this study faced the belief that by engaging in the “masculine” pursuit of higher education they risked their future as wives and mothers and thus jeopardized …