Canada First World War

Canada First World War Research Resources

Library and Archives Canada

• Military Heritage: First World War
• War Diaries of the First World War
• Military medals, honours and awards, 1912-1969
• Personnel records – Nurses
• Royal Canadian Navy Service Ledger Sheets, 1910 to 1941
• Sources Relating to Units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
  
• Veterans Death Cards
• Canadian Expeditionary Force: Sailing Lists

Offline resources:

• Hospital admission and discharge books of Canadian Army Medical Corps overseas
  

Wayback copy of Library and Archives Canada

• Military Heritage: First World War

Militia and Defence Personnel Files

• Hidden in Plain Sight: The Militia and Defence Headquarters Personnel File Services, 1903 to 1938 (Canadian Military History, vol. 31, issue 2, article 2) by Paul Marsden and Glenn Wright
• Militia and Defence personnel files (Heritage)

Nursing Sisters 

• Canadian War Museum
• Nursing Sisters in Militia and Defence Personnel Files (LAC Collection Query)
• The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters [archived]

 Voluntary Aid Detachments

• Parks Canada Backgrounder
• Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage
• Book: “This Small Army of Women: Canadian Volunteer Nurses and the First World War” by Linda J. Quiney

Air

• Findmypast: British Royal Air Force, Officers' Service Records 1912-1920
• The National Archives Squadron Operations Record Books (AIR 27)
  

Navy

• For Posterity’s Sake
  
• ReadyAyeReady (promoting history and heritage of the RCN)

Ancestry Collections

• Canada, Canadian Airmen of WWI, 1914-1918
• Canada, CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1919
• Canada, Certificates of Military Instruction, 1867-1932
• Canada, Imperial War Service Gratuities, 1919-1921
• Canada, Ledgers of CEF Officers Transferring to Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1919
• Canada, Military Honours and Awards Citation Cards, 1900-1961
• Canada, Militia and Defence Forces Lists, 1832, 1863-1939
• Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1857-1922
• Canada, Selected Service Records of Soldiers, 1914-1918
• Canada, Soldier Homestead Grant Registers, 1918-1931
• Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948
• Canada, World War I CEF Attestation Papers, 1914-1918
• Canada, World War I CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918
• England, Queen's Canadian Military Hospital Registers, 1914-1919
• U.S., Residents Serving in Canadian Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1918
• UK, Naval and Military Courts Martial Registers, 1806-1930
• UK, Navy Lists, 1888-1970
• UK, Victoria Cross Medals, 1857-2007
  

Courts Martials

• Courts Martial of the First World War
• Manual of Military Law (1907)
  
• Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada: Courts martial records, 1914-1919
• UK, Courts Martial Registers (ADM 193, WO 86, WO 92, WO 213)

Maps

• McMaster University Maps: World War I (1914-1918)
• National Library of Scotland: British First World War Trench Maps
• Western Front Association: Trench Mapper
  

Prisoners of War

• Prisoners of the First World War, the ICRC archives
  
• Reparations Commission (McDougall Commission), Maltreatment of Prisoners of War: 
• Reparations, 1930-31: report, maltreatment of prisoners of war
• Reparations, 1930-31: interim report
• Reparations, 1932-1933: final report
• Reparations, 1932: further report
• Reparations, 1930-1931: supplementary report

Free Online/Downloadable Books

• Canadian Airmen and the First World War, by S. F. Wise
  
• Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, by G. W. L. Nicholson

Other Sites

• BIFHSGO No. 1 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station (CCCS) database and biographies
  
• Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group
• Canadian Great War Project
• Canadian Letters & Images Project
• Canadian Virtual War Memorial
• Canadiana Héritage
• Canadian Military History
  
• C.E.F. Paper Trail – Unofficial Guide to Service Records
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Canada Books of Remembrance
• Directorate of History and Heritage (DHH) Histories
• Internet Archive
• Legion Magazine Last Post
• Military History Research Centre
• Organization of Military Museums of Canada
• The Badge Registry: The Canadian Expeditionary Force
• The Canada Gazette Archive
• The Gazette (London)
• The National Archives (Kew)
• The Regimental Rogue (Highly recommended!) 
• Through Veterans Eyes
  
• Trench Newspapers/Journals
• Western Front Association
• World War Graphic History
  
• WW1 Canadian Regimental Histories
  

[Updated: 18 Mar Nov 2024]