Canadian History Commons^™

'Gave His Life For The Empire': Memory, Memorials, And Identity In The British Empire After The First World War, Bryan Mcclure

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the construction of personal memorials after the First World War across the British Empire nations of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, to understand how individuals sought to make their own memorial to remember their loved one killed in the conflict. In comparison to other studies on the construction of national or other community memorials, this dissertation explores how individuals accepted or rejected dominant discourses in creating their own memorials that spoke to how they remembered the war. It is based on a large database of more than 2,000 private memorials to individuals that …

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

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 …

War And Wilderness: Intersections With Patriotism And Masculinity In Canadian Second World War Alternative Service Work, Rosemary Giles

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis shows how ASW work in Canadian wilderness during the Second World War offered conscientious objectors the opportunity to prove themselves good citizens to the nation, and good men to themselves. Conscientious objectors’ work in Alternative Service Camps is used to demonstrate how masculinity and patriotism were constructed within the camps. This thesis addresses the interactions that conscientious objectors had with wilderness, primarily through their work with forestry and fire fighting. It also addresses the construction of masculinity and national identity in the context of the Canadian wilderness. Furthermore, this work seeks to expand understanding of the conscientious objector …

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 …

The Grand Experiment: Jerome Dwight Davis And The Young Men’S Christian Association’S War Prisoner Aid Sports Programing For German Pows In Canadian Camps During World War Two, Courtney Hope Van Waas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Jerome Davis, head of the Young Men’s Christian Association War Prisoner Aid program, was a devout Congregationalist dedicated to providing for the basic sport and recreation endeavours of German Prisoners of War interned in Canadian POW camps during the Second World War. Having worked with German Prisoners of War in Russia during the First World War, Davis firmly believed that WWII Allies the world over needed to change their generally antagonistic point of view towards German POWs, indeed, a point of view that required “moral revisionism.” Davis believed that the vilification and demeaning status of German POWs was not only …

Arrival Of The Fittest: German Pows In Ontario During The Second World War, Jordyn Bailey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over 35,000,000 soldiers, sailors and aviators, statistically one in three combatants, were taken prisoner during the Second World War. Some 35,000 of these prisoners were members of the German army, navy and air force, imprisoned in twenty-five internment compounds and 300 small, isolated labour camps across Canada. Once on Canadian soil, German POWs were treated with remarkable hospitality in lieu of their status as the “Nazi” enemy. Canada’s excellent treatment of German POWs was a product of many things: a desire to adhere to the Geneva Convention; concern for the well-being of Canadian and other Allied POWs in German hands; …

"For Weariness Cannot But Fill Our Men After So Long A Period Of Hardship And Endurance:" War Weariness In The Canadian Corps In The First World War, Jordan Chase

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My project explores war weariness in the First World War, especially regarding the Canadian Corps. The first section (legal, disciplinary, and medical systems) looks at the army policies, structures, and personnel in place to deal with morale, discipline, endurance, motivation, and medical problems. These structures served to 'measure' the problems facing individual soldiers and units, and attempted to address these issues before they became more widespread and intractable. Policies were also designed to mitigate emerging problems and to ensure that sufficient troops were in the line and able to perform their duties adequately. Unfortunately, these systems were often insufficient to …

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

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 …

Killing, Combat And The Princess Patricia’S Canadian Light Infantry: Legendary Soldiers’ Stories Of The First World War – 1914-1918, Ryan B. Flavelle Cd

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study interrogates the stories and legends of six soldiers who served in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during the First World War, and the ways in which they described their primary occupation as soldiers, killing enemy combatants. It asks a fundamentally important question; how and why do men kill at war? Soldiers tended to narrate their descriptions of killing from the perspective of an innocuous reporter, and downplay their agency in the killing act. They also, often, framed their descriptions of killing in terms of revenge for the loss of comrades, or atrocities committed by the enemy. Alternatively, …

An Army Of Never-Ending Strength: The Reinforcement Of The Canadian Army 1944-1945, Arthur Willoughby Gullachsen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract: “An Army of Never Ending Strength: The Reinforcement and of the Canadian Army 1944-1945”

This dissertation is a study of the Canadian Army’s ability to reconstitute battalion sized combat arms regiments (armour, infantry and artillery) during the last year of the Second World War in North West Europe. The central thesis argues that in combination with tactical and strategic strengths, the Canadian Army Overseas was effective at rebuilding units that had suffered severe personnel and equipment losses in combat. This ability to sustain the strength of its combat units was vitally important in maintaining their offensive capability. Units that …

And The Men Returned: Canadian Veterans And The Aftermath Of The Great War, Jonathan Scotland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Great War was a formative event for men who came of age between 1914 and 1918. They believed the experience forged them into a distinct generation. This collective identification more than shaped a sense of self; it influenced understanding of the conflict’s meaning. Canadian historians, however, have overlooked the war’s generational impact, partly because they reject notions of a disillusioned Lost Generation. Unlike European or American youths, it is argued that Canadian veterans did not suffer postwar disillusionment. Rather, they embraced the war alongside a renewed Canadian nationalism. This generation was proud of their nation’s wartime achievements, notably those …

Peace Dividend: The War Assets Corporation And The Disposal Of Canada's Munitions And Supplies, 1943-1948, Alex Souchen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is the first full-length study to explore how the Canadian government and military disposed of surplus munitions and supplies after the Second World War. By investigating how the state planned and implemented its disposal program from 1943 to 1948, this thesis places objects at the centre of attention and demonstrates their profound political, social, and economic significance. By examining the extended social lives of munitions and supplies in relationship to their postwar impact on civilian life, this study offers a new and innovative perspective that links material culture with postwar reconstruction, rehabilitation, and demobilization. What follows is a …