Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the Colony of Newfoundland offered to raise an armed force on Great Britain's behalf.
Beginning in late 2013, LAC has started to place groups of files out of circulation as they start to digitize all of these records. By contrast, men who were drafted into the CEF under the provisions of the Military Service Act (1917) completed a far simpler one-sided form which included their name, date of recruitment, and compliance with requirements for registration. The service number can be found on any surviving documents you might have, such as a discharge certificate, or it can be found on the back or bottom edge of his medals if you have them.An example of results returned when searching on a surname (Silcox).If your name search still leaves you will multiple possibilities, and you don't have a service number, all is not lost. The 1st Canadian Division was formed from units of the first contingent in January 1915, and was fighting in France the following month. The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the overseas force created by the Canadian government in 1914 and sent to Europe as Canada's contribution to the defence of the Empire in the First World War. There are two different documents linked with records. Therefore, the Regime ntal Number list can be used to identify the unit in which a man initially served. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade also served in France; the Canadian Railway Troops served on the Western Front and provided a bridge-building unit for the Middle East; and the Canadian When you have a "short list" of possibilities, such as men all with the same given names, try to narrow your choices by the birthdate. experiences. The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the army raised by Canada for service overseas in the WW1 Film Archive : CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. It should be possible to match any or all of these details to previously known family history and confirm the appropriate record.If your attempts to narrow the field are still frustrated, consider the following possibilities:Hopefully with few problems, you will quickly be led to the correct LAC database record for you ancestor.An example of an individual record in the Library and Archives Canada Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918) database.The record will provide links to scans of the soldier's Attestation Paper. Most of these files contain over 100 pages. For information about accessing those records and others not included in the database, please consult our Note that many individuals served in Canada with local militia units.
Register with your email address now, we can then send you an alert as soon as we add a record close matching the one you were searching for. Other Canadian units, including some artillery batteries, engineering companies, and railway and forestry troops, served directly under British command in France and Belgium. In total, over 6,000 men enlisted in the Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War. Yet the country had almost no military forces to commit to the First World War, other than a tiny navy, a small professional army of about 3,000 soldiers, and a variety of part-time militia units. Thousands of Canadians also served during the war in the British flying services, in the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy and in other Allied units, but these were not part of the CEF.
Most of the documents relate to the payment of the gratuity. By creating an account you agree to us emailing you with newsletters and discounts, which you can switch off in your account at any time It is a file number relating to the gratuity. The Canadian Army was small prior to the Great War, but it had a large Militia – equivalent to our Territorials. LAC will ensure that Canadians have access to the files throughout the digitization process, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018.For statistics and information about this digitization project, please consult LAC's Canadian soldiers' service records for the First World War are held by the Sub-groups of the available records include the following:As you can see in the results table below, your search can be much assisted if you know the soldier's service number and given names. Note that the number indicated in the regimental number field in the database reference, is not actually the service person's regimental number.
For the Imperial War Service Gratuity files only, the files are digitized on For additional information about these resources, published sources, virtual exhibitions and other links, please visit our We wish to acknowledge the participation of the Provincial Archives Division, We also wish to thank the Friends of Library and Archives Canada who are working on indexing the Canadian Expeditionary Force personnel files to include the Advanced Search fields. In September 1915, the Canadian Corps was formed, incorporating the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions, and the Canadian Cavalry Brigade.
Sub-groups of the available records include the following: Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)