pferguson | August 18, 2020

Operation Jubilee When the 16th Battalion CEF formed at Valcartier in 1914 four drafts from Canadian Highland Regiments provided soldiers for this new battalion of this new Canadian army. They included men from the 50th Regiment (Gordon Highlanders) based in Victoria, B.C., the 72nd Regiment (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada) based in Vancouver, B.C., the 79th […]

Category: Pipers of War, Remember Them Well | No Comments »
Tags: 19 August 1942, Art, Beach in Dieppe, Cause and Effect, Charles Gilchrist Gunn, Claude Monet, Dieppe, Honours and Awards, Operation Jubilee, pipers, Pourville, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, Shannon Bettles-Reimer

pferguson | June 29, 2020

Revisiting Earlier Research This night I delve into past research to find a few words for the day. Amongst my work, from late 2014 – early 2015, I find references about two soldier graves at Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, B.C. As many of you are aware, I often turn to Ross Bay…its finely kept grounds […]

Category: Remember Them Well | No Comments »
Tags: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Craigdarroch Military Hospital, Edward VIII (Prince of Wales), Joan and Robert Dunsmuir, John James Kneale, Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria Academy of Music, Victoria College, William J. Reed

pferguson | April 25, 2020

Herbie MacLeod 3 RCMP Pipes and Drums Ottawa, 2012 The Drums Do Beat Sitting here I think of my old Nova Scotia home. Watching the news, hearing their names and of their lives…not known to me, but now known to Canada. With a deep sigh I close my eyes and breathe…voices I once knew, their […]

Category: Remember Them Well | No Comments »
Tags: Emily Tuck, Fiddle, Fiddle Music, Herbie MacLeod, Home, Natalie MacMaster, Nova Scotia, Pipes and Drums, Portapique, Vimy Ridge

pferguson | April 24, 2020

All the Following Days The tale of two soldiers…both runners (messengers) with the 72nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada). Some days prior to the famed attack, whilst in the line near Vimy Ridge, Privates Alexander Broadfoot (130245) and James Mucklow (160827) stood near. Private Mucklow was on duty this day, 1 April 1917, […]

Category: Inspired By a True Story, Remember Them Well | 2 Comments »
Tags: 1 April 1917, 420 (Snowy Owl) Squadron, 72nd Canadian Infantry Battalion, 82nd Canadian Infantry Battalion, Alexander Broadbent, American Army, Asthma, Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery (Netherlands), Bronchitis, Burnsland Cemetery (Calgary), Camp Funston (Kansas), Chat Hunting, Chats, Chatting, COVID-19, Eric Kennington, Etaples Military Cemetery, Film History, Gallipoli, Hastings Park, Hotel Lotus, Influenza, James Mucklow, James Mucklow Jr., John Mucklow, Joseph Acheson, László Mednyánszky, Lice, Married Man, Measles, Military Medal, Mucklow Family, No. 56 General Hospital, Passchendaele, Peter Weir, Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (P.U.O.), Rose Mucklow, Roy Mucklow, Royal Canadian Air Force, Runner (Messenger), Soldiers Hunting for Lice, Souchez, Trench Fever

pferguson | April 21, 2020

Camouflet a mine so charged and placed that its detonation will destroy enemy mining tunnels. 2a. an underground or subsurface explosion of a bomb or shell that leaves a sealed pocket of smoke and gas. 2b. a pocket formed in this way. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) I return this evening to a favoured online resource. As I […]

Category: Inspired By a True Story, Remember Them Well | No Comments »
Tags: 26 March 1917, 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Boezinge, Cadence, Camouflet, Charles Gordon Matthewson, Corporal Richard Rainford, COVID-19, David McCullough (Narrator), Dixmude, Dugout, Ernest David Ruffles, Gas, George Frederick Giddens, George Nicholls, George William Ewart Jemmett, Gus Sheff, Life Saving, Military Medal, Private Albert Ernest Carey, Private Harold Leslie Edwards, Sergeant Thomas Clifford Briscoe, Shelby Foote (Novelist-Historian), Souchez (France), Storytelling, Villers Station Cemetery, William Valentine, Yorkshire Trench