pferguson | January 10, 2020

16th Battalion C.E.F. Prisoners of War (Part 3) Every two years (in January) I have returned to my 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion Prisoner of War research project. To my surprise the battalion does not appear to have had any service personnel captured during 1917. Of particular interest in this the third and final installment are […]

Category: Remember Them Well | No Comments »
Tags: 16th Battalion CEF (Canadian Scottish), Arras, Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Charles Margetts, Cuvillers, David Clelland MC, Escape, Haynecourt, James Rodolphus Jenkins (Escaper), John Clarence Scott, Kingsley Gower Poole, Military Cross, Military Service Act 1917, Mons Communal Cemetery, Niederzwehren War Cemetery, Norman Hough, Parvillers, Parvillers-Schwetz Wood, Prisoners of War, Quiévrain Communal Cemetery, Royden Percival Patton, Royden Percival Patton (Escaper), Sidney James Smith, Tells of Stirring Incidents at Front, Valenciennes (St. Roch) Communal Cemetery

pferguson | January 20, 2018

16th Battalion C.E.F. Prisoners of War (Part 2) …the enemy opened a heavy bombing attack against the left flank. Sergeant Slessor was wounded and captured – he died three days afterwards. His post was overwhelmed. Only after hard fighting was this onslaught stopped and the block retaken. (Urquhart, The Sixteenth, page 183) See also Behind […]

Category: Snapshots of the Great War | 3 Comments »
Tags: 16th Battalion CEF (Canadian Scottish), 1916, Amputation, Arthur Beaufin Irving (image), Barbed Wire, Brussels Town Cemetery, Died of Wounds as Prisoner of War, George H. Slessor, Hamburg Cemetery, John Albert Smith (image), Porte de Paris Cemetery, Prisoners of War, Prisoners of War Veteran's Organizations, Robert Balfour, St. Souplet British Cemetery, Thomas Edward Boyle (image), Vimy Memorial

pferguson | October 7, 2016

I Heard the Clang of a Bullet Some months prior to the attack on Regina Trench, 8 October 1916, Canadian troops were first issued with the steel helmet in the spring of 1916. Patented in London in 1915 by John Leopold Brodie of Buffalo, New York, the helmet came into general use when large quantities […]

Category: Snapshots of the Great War | No Comments »
Tags: 16th Battalion CEF (Canadian Scottish), 1916, Augustus John, Batman, Canadian Expeditionary Force, David Hunter Bell, Helmet (Steel) Mk. I, John Leopold Brodie, M.C. (Military Cross), Prisoners of War, Regina Trench, RIfle, St. Eloi, Steel Helmet, Tin Hat

pferguson | January 18, 2016

16th Battalion C.E.F. Prisoners of War (Part 1) At long last the first installment of Canadian Scottish soldiers captured during the Great War. This work would not have been possible without the tremendous effort of the late Ted Wigney whose work, in recording and publishing (for all) a record of CEF prisoners of war, was a […]

Category: Snapshots of the Great War | 3 Comments »
Tags: 16th Battalion CEF (Canadian Scottish), 1915, Amputation, Army Order 193 (1919), Attempting to Escape, Captain B.L. Johnston, Determination, Died of Wounds as Prisoner of War, Escaped, Escaping, Gallant Conduct, Interned in Holland, Larchwood (Railway Cutting) Cemetery (Belgium), Lieutenant F.W. MacDonald, Lieutenant Victor Alexander MacLean MC, Major R.Y. Cory, Mentioned in Despatches, Military Cross, Military Medal, Niederzwehren War Cemetery (Germany), Prisoner of War, Prisoners of War, Released, Released [from captivity], Russian Order of St. Anne 4th Class, Schevenigen, Second Battle of Ypres, Services Rendered in Captivity, Tyne Cot Cemetery (Belgium), Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Belgium)

pferguson | January 5, 2016

Bridge of Spies and my Zweibrücken (Two Bridges) I step into the cold December night and wander towards the theatre. Tonight was to have been a blog about prisoners of war of the 16th Battalion CEF, but as I watch the blog become scrambled across the page I realize tonight is not the time to sort […]

Category: Our Thoughts | 1 Comment »
Tags: 3rd Fighter WIng, Atomic Bomb Drills, Based on True Events, Berlin Wall, Beware of Mr. Baker, Bridge of Spies, Cold War, Film, Four-Power Authorities, France, Francis Gary Powers, Frederic Pryor, Germany, Iron Curtain, James B. Donovan, Mark Rylance, Mission: Impossible Rogue - Nation, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Turner, Nuremberg Trials, Prisoners of War, RCAF, Rudolf Able, Searching for Sugar Man, Shadows, Spandau Prison, SPECTRE, Spies, Spy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey, Tom Hanks, United Kingdom, USA, USSR, Zweibrucken