Researching Canadian Soldiers Who Died in the Second World War

Cross of Sacrifice at Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

With the 75th anniversary commemorating the end of the Second World War in Europe approaching I've been seeing a number of posts in various Facebook genealogy groups asking about how to research family members that served in that war. This post will focus on some of the key resources I use to find information about those Canadians that served and died during the Second World War.

As an aside, for records for those that survived the war you will need to visit the Library and Archives Canada page "Requests for Military Service Files". Be forewarned, there appears to be about a 14-18 month backlog in processing the requests. If the service member is still alive, make sure that they request their file right now. Once they pass away, for a period of 20 years, only limited personal information will be released to an immediate family member (spouse, parent, sibling, child or grandchild) of the individual concerned if proof of relationship and proof of death are provided.

My starting point for any of research of a Canadian that served and died in the military during the Second World War is the Second World War: 1939-1945 at Library and Archives Canada. From that page you can learn about what databases and records are available, read the research guides, and find other sources of possible information. You can also go to the Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947 to start your search.

When you search you can just put in the surname and given name(s) of the person. However, if you click on "Show Advanced Search Options" you can fill in additional details. I normally don't use the advanced search fields but for a common name it might help limit the number of entries returned.

Partial screen capture from a search for William Smith in the Library and Archives Canada database "Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947".

What you will hopefully see is a short list of results with their name, date of birth, date of death, service number, a an item number you can click on to see additional details and possibly download the service file. Most of the results won't have a PDF of the service file attached to them. In fact, only a very small number of the files have been digitized and placed on the Library and Archives Canada site. But don't fret for there are other ways of viewing the files. Keep in mind that the digitization efforts have focused on creating a "genealogy package". This is a selection of what has been determined to be the most relevant documents from the file which highlights the service including enlistment, units served with, family details, medal entitlements, and circumstances of death.

One of the easiest ways of view the files is through Ancestry in their Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947 collection. According to the Library and Archives Canada page you only need a free account and not a paid subscription to access this collection. Alternately, if you don't want to give Ancestry your e-mail address you can get access to the institution version of Ancestry at your local library or Family History Center (and affiliates).

Partial screen capture of the abstracted record for William Scott, service number K23205, in the Ancestry "Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947" collection.

When you do find the entry on Ancestry don't click on the "View" button. That will only bring you to the attestation paper. Instead, click on the "View File Start" since that will bring you to the start of the file folder. From there you can download to your computer the individual pages in the service file. Be forewarned, some of these files can get quite large but there are all kinds of interesting details in the files.

Now that you have the service file, what next?

Stop and take the time to read the file.

Then re-read that file.

And then once more read the file!

There are all kinds of nuggets of information in those files. Often I will go through the file five or six times and record the details into my own genealogy database. To help me decipher the abbreviations in the file I sometimes consult the "Military Abbreviations used in Service Files" page on the LAC web site.

Once that is done I usually head over to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site to search for the person there. If the name is relatively common you will probably want to filter by "Served with" and the "War". On that site you may find the pages from the Graves Registration Reports, Graves Concentration Reports, and what was written on the grave marker or memorial.

Next I head off to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial to see what they might have on their site. Yu might find an image of the grave marker or memorial, a link to the Second World War Book of Remembrance, and, since people can upload their own images, sometimes copies of newspaper articles or pictures of the person.

If there was a grave marker but I haven't found an image of it yet I will check Find A Grave to see if someone has uploaded the picture. That is how I first saw the marker for my Grand Uncle Ronald MacGregor Warrener who was buried in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Italy.

In the service file you may come across a "Field Service" report that details the cause of death and where the body was initially buried.

Canada, "Military Service Record: William Scott, Regimental Number K23205, RG 24, Volume 27004," Field Report; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.

Often this is a temporary burial but it usually fairly close to where the person died. Sometimes there is enough information in the burial location to find the place on Google Maps. For maps from the war I will often head over to the Digital Archive @ McMaster University Library Maps Collection and select the World War II (1939-1945) collection. However, most of those maps are from before the Invasion of Normandy on 6 Jun 1944. But sometimes I get lucky and find a map from after the invasion that has the details I am looking for.

If you are looking for the War Diaries from the Second World War of the unit they served in you might be fortunate enough to find them digitized on the LAC partner site Héritage. Visit the War Diaries, Ship Logs and Operations Record Books page for details about how to search for any diaries held by Library and Archives Canada.

Sample page of a War Diary for the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, microfilm T-10530, Library and Archives Canada, http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t10530.

Keep in mind that these are not the diaries written by the person that served in the war but of the activities of the unit. However, there will be details about what was happening with the unit including where they may have run into the enemy.

Don't forget to do a Google search of the unit that they served in. There are books that have been written about the various units in the Second World War. For example, in the case of William Scott above, he was in the "65 Cdn A/Tk Bty 5 Cdn A/Tk Regt". This translates into "65th Canadian Anti-Tank Battery, 5th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment". A search on the "5th Canadian Anti-Tank Regiment" yields a link to WorldCat where you can find the book "The History of the 5th Canadian Anti-tank Regiment : 10 Sept., 1941-10 June, 1945" about the regiment's role in the Second World War. There is even a book written about the battery William Scott was in called "The History of the 65th Canadian Anti-tank Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery : 9 September 1941- 20 September 1945".

If the regiment has a museum or an archivist, like the the 48th Highlanders of Canada which my Grand Uncle Ronald Warrener served in, then reach out to them to see what they might have in their files. I actually visited the museum of the 48th Highlanders of Canada on one of my trips to Toronto. They didn't have much on hand about Ronald but a few weeks later I received a package in the mail with a chapter describing the battle he was in and he was even mentioned by name. I returned the favour and sent what I had about Ronald back to them for their files.

Hopefully some of the sites and tips in this post will help you to learn more about those Canadians that served and died in the Second World War.

Canadian First World War Resources - A Recap

Many of us in Canada have a connection to a relative or ancestor that fought or served in the First World War. With this year's Remembrance Day also commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice I thought it was important to look at some of the resources available to us when doing our genealogy and family history research for those that fought or served during the Great War.

Library and Archives Canada

The first place I always recommend is the First World War landing page at the Library and Archives Canada web site. Take the time to look through the various resources available either online or onsite. Some of the resources include:

• Canadian Expeditionary Force
• Aboriginal Soldiers
• Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps
• Imperial War Service Gratuity files
• Non-Permanent Active Militia
• Royal Canadian Navy and Naval Reserve
• Nursing Sisters that served with the CEF
• Military Medals, Honours and Awards, 1812-1969

Don't forget to look at the "Published Sources"since those books can shed some light on the lives of those that served. Some of the online record collections at Library and Archives Canada might only be indices. However, often the digitized documents may be found elsewhere.

Do you have a War Bride in the family? If so, review the War Brides page at Library and Archives Canada for possible collections that you might want to check out.

The War Diaries of the First World War are not the diaries of the individual service member but daily accounts of the CEF units. Searching for the diaries for a specific unit is not a straight forward task but the results can be worth while. There you will find that serving could be days of boring routine followed by hell in the trenches. If you know the unit of your soldier and when they were injured or killed, the war diaries can often help pinpoint where the unit and quite possibly the soldier was on that date.

Maps

Once you have the service file and know where your soldier was on the group through reading the War Diaries then being able to find them on the ground during the fighting is often the next step. McMaster University has an amazing Digital Archive in their Maps Collection for the First World War. You can even look at the Trench Maps for the Western Front.

Newfoundland

FamilySearch has the digitized collection "Newfoundland military service records for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and the Newfoundland Forestry Corps, 1913-1918" available online. You will need to review the digitized index first to determine the volume and file number. Then you can go to the appropriate digitized microfilm roll to review the service records. You will also find military records and other information about Newfoundlanders in the First World War at the Newfoundland's Grand Banks site.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission helps you find where a service member that died during the Great War is buried or memorialized. You will often find the Grave Registration Report included on the page. If no body was recovered the name may be found on one of several memorials. A photo of the panel when the name is written may also be included on the page.

Memorials

Those Canadians in uniform that died during the First World War (and other wars), you can find their name inscribed in the Books of Remembrance housed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Town in Ottawa. You can search the books and view the page from the specific Book of Remembrance.

Veterans Affairs Canada houses the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. The CVWM is a registry to honour and remember the sacrifices of the Canadians and Newfoundlanders who have given their lives serving in uniform.

Ancestry

If you have a paid Ancestry subscription or you are accessing Ancestry from a library or archive then you will find a number of collections including:

• Canada, WWI CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918 - This collection is the same as what is available directly from Library and Archives Canada. However, the individual services files at Library and Archives Canada come bundled as a PDF whereas on Ancestry you need to retrieve the individual images for each service member.
• Canada, Imperial War Service Gratuities, 1919-1921 - At the end of the First World War, all Canadian service personnel received a payment to help in the transition from military service to civilian life. In December 1919 the Canadian government decided to increase the gratuity for all Canadian residents that served with the British forces during the Great War. These are the records of applications for the increased gratuity payment. Most of the applications were from those personnel that served with the Royal Flying Corp, Royal Navy, and the British Expeditionary Force.
• England, Queen's Canadian Military Hospital Registers, 1914-1919 - This collection includes registers of admission and discharge, and rolls of patient transfers for the Queen's Canadian Military Hospital at Beachborough Park, Shorncliffe.
• U.S., Residents Serving in Canadian Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1918 - The CEF didn't just have Canadians in their ranks. Americans that didn't want to wait for the United States of America to join the war against the Central Powers also joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
• Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1857-1922 - Often you will find on the CEF Attestation Papers a mention that the recruit had served in the militia. You may be able to find their name in these nominal rolls and paylists.
• Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948 - This database has the death and burial information for Canadian military personnel
• Canada, CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1919 - The "Black Binder" registers were used to record the final resting place of those that died during the First World War in Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom.
• Canada, Military Honours and Awards Citation Cards, 1900-1961 - These index cards documenting awards and honours received by service personnel may include your service member or Nursing Sister.
• Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 - Don't forget that those that served overseas needed to come back home to Canada. You will often find them in the passenger lists of the ships that were seconded to act a troop ships.

Other Collections

There is also the Military History Research Centre at the Canadian War Museum. You can search their online catalogue or make an appointment to review the onsite resources.

Was your relative or ancestor a prisoner of war during the First World War? If so, search the Prisoners of the First World War collection at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A number of the Nominal Rolls for the Canadian Expeditionary Force have been digitized and made available on the Internet Archive by searching for "nominal roll canadian expeditionary force".

Do you have a picture of the service member and you can't figure out the badge on the uniform? Check out the "Badge Registry: The Canadian Expeditionary Force" pages.

The Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group is a group of enthusiasts with an interest in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. They have amassed a large collection of files and information concerning the CEF and are a great research when digging into the lives of service members and history of the units.

If your ancestor or relative did something particularly brave during the war they might have been "gazetted" with a mention in the Canada Gazette or London Gazette. Remember that some of the awards, honours, and medals were done post-war.

Don't forget to check the newspapers in the villages, towns, and cities that your relative or ancestor lived. Often there will be a mention of them heading off to war, returning, getting injured or killed, and also in memory post-war.

RCAF Graves in Guyana?

A little while ago a friend posted several pictures on Facebook of grave markers that he had seen in the British Military Cemetery in Georgetown, Guyana with the comment:

"Here is a mystery for you Ken..
Walking through the British Military Cemetery in Guyana, and saw these Canadian memorials
What happened to the crews on April 11th 1944 and May 20th 1943"

F. A. R. Milbury, R113616	H. D. G. Ward, R117558
K. F. Probert	R. F. Stubner
"Ian Mackenzie", Facebook (www.facebook.com/madmack66 : accessed 5 Sep 2018), post from 23 Aug 2018 at 20:49.

Here are the steps I took to answer his question.

I first went to the Library and Archives Canada page for the "Service Files of the Second World War - War Dwad, 1939-1947" and started my search via the "Search: Database" link  using their last names, or in the case of H. D. G. Ward, the service number. Why use the service number just for him? There are 184 names containing the word "ward"! Even after adding "H" for the Given Name(s) there were 81 service members found.

Since each of the grave markers also gave the date of death I could quickly verify that I had found the right person for those markers without a service number.

Surname	Given Names (s)	Date of Birth	Date of Death	Service Number
Milbury	Francis Arthur Robert	21 Sep 1921	20 May 1943	R113616
Ward	Hugh Dennis George	11 Feb 1923	20 May 1943	R117558
Probert	K F	16 Nov 1919	11 Apr 1944	J29636
Stubner	R F	23 Sep 1914	11 Apr 1944	J29635

In each case I clicked on the associated Item Number for the person to see if there was a PDF file available from Library and Archives Canada. Unfortunately  the pages for each of the service members stated "No PDF file available". I could physically visit the Library and Archives Canada building in Ottawa but that will take a bit of time to request the files and I wouldn't be able to get there until the next day anyway. So I will continue my online search for information about what happened to these people.

Since these service members were from the Commonwealth the next site I went to was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Using what I had learned from the LAC search I was able to quickly locate the same service members here. The CWGC site even told me the name of the cemetery, "Georgetown (Rabbit Walk) Cemetery".

Within each page for the service members there were town tables in the CWGC Archives section: "Grave Registration" and "Headstone". The Headstone document provides was what actually inscribed on the headstone. In this case, all four of the personnel we are interested in were recorded on the same sheet.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "War Dead Records", database on-line, CWGC (www.cwgc.org : accessed 5 Sep 2018), Headstone document for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury, service number R/113616.

The Grave Registration document has these four service members listed plus two others from the R.A.F. that died on the same dates. Could these all be related to aircraft crashes and what were they doing in Guyana?

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, "War Dead Records", database on-line, CWGC (www.cwgc.org : accessed 5 Sep 2018), Grave Registration document for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury, service number R/113616.

My next stop was to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial where I did yet another search for these R.C.A.F. service members. In each case there was a link to the image of the page from the Second World War Book of Remembrance that lies within the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For Flying Officer Richard Frank Stubner (another fact we didn't have until now: his forenames) there was even a newspaper clipping from the Winnipeg Evening Tribune announcing his death. Pilot Officer Francis Arthur Robert Milbury had a picture with a short biography submitted under the Digital Collection section for him.

My final stop in this brief research adventure was to Ancestry since they have a collection called "Canada, WWII Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947". This is a free collection that should be searchable and viewable as long as you have an account (not a paid subscription) with Ancestry.ca. For example, using my paid Ancestry subscription, when I did a search for Milbury and selected "View Record" for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury I saw this:

Ancestry search results page for Francis Arthur Robert Milbury

The initial inclination is to click the "View" button. Don't do that! Instead click on the "View File Start" link. This will take you to the very beginning of the digitized paper file. Use the right arrow button to work your way though the file. There is often much more than the attestation forms such as the service book (with entries written in the service member's own hand), notification of death forms, and even hand written correspondence from family members pertaining to the death.

So what did happen on 20 May 1943 to Francis Arthur Robert Milbury and Hugh Denis George Ward¹. Form 551, "Royal Air Force. Officer or Airman-Report on Accidental or Self-inflicted Injuries or Immediate Death Therefrom." for F. A. R. Milbury states that he was:

Deceased (Killed outright)
Baltimore FA/520. Ran off runway in landing. Aircraft Crashed and burnt.
Deceased was Captain of Aircraft

Later on another form in his file states "Killed when aircraft FA.250, of which he was pilot, crashed at Georgetown, British Guiana while on ferry flight." He was with No. 45 (AT) Group at the time of the accident.

In H. D. G. Ward's service file the "Clinical Record Brief" form states that the wounds from 20 May 1943 were "...accidentally incurred in an airplane crash at Atkinson Field, British Guiana at approximately 1:15PM, May 20, 1943. Type of plane A-30." Another form states that he was the navigator on that ferry flight.

The No. 45 (AT) Group was a based at Dorval, Quebec, Canada and was part of the R.A.F. Transport Command and ferried aircraft from factories to the operational units. For this flight they were ferrying a Martin Baltimore light attack bomber. The A-30 designation was for those aircraft part of the United States Lend-Lease Act.

For the incident involving Kenneth Frederick Probert and Richard Frank Stubner, their service files also provided quite a bit of information. They were ferrying a Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft, HD.149, from Nassau to Accra when it crash at Atkinson Field in British Guiana. In a letter in R. F. Stubner's file to Miss Laura Taylor of Clandeboye, Manitoba, dated 6 Feb 1946 it states:

Dear Miss Taylor,

Further to our letter of December 20th,

1945, the names of the crew members of Pilot Officer
Richard Frank Stubner are as follows:-

Pilot: Howard WEIBEN, American Civilian
2nd Pilot: P/O Stanley BLACKBURN, (65124).
Navigator: P/O Kenneth PROBART, (J.29636).

I trust this is the information you desired.

So in both cases these servicemen were ferrying aircraft from North America to operational bases overseas via the South Atlantic ferry route.

From just a bit of information on the headstones we were able to learn a bit more about the people and the part they were playing in the effort of the Allies to fight in the Second World War.

---

1. Note that he wrote his name as "Hugh Denis George Ward" and not "Hugh Dennis George Ward" in his Royal Canadian Air Force Service Book.

Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay of New Zealand, part 1

I'm continuing my research into the New Zealand branch of my line descended from Charles McKinlay and Jane(t) Finlay by looking at Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay.

Ancestors of Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay

The reason I got interested in him was that one of the public trees on Ancestry had the following location for his death, "Panama in route to New Zealand" in 1918. That got me curious. What was he doing going to New Zealand by way Panama? So I took a look at that tree and noticed that there was record pointing to the "UK, Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947" collection on Ancestry. The image of the record had the following text:

REPUBLIC OF PANAMA

COROZAL AMERICAN MILITARY CEMETERY

McKINLAY, Pte. Charles Thomas Walter, 63390. Wellington Regt., N.Z.E.F. Died at sea en route to New Zealand 22nd April, 1918. Age 30. Son of Mrs. F. B. Thomas (formerly McKinlay), of Cumberland St., Dunedin; husband of Isabella McKinlay, of 54, Murray St., Caversham, Dunedin. Sect C. Row 2. Grave 14.

Hmmm, some very interesting details in that record. I knew that Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay's father, James, had died shortly after Charles birth. I hadn't realized that Johan Riddell (or Riddle as she signed it in the marriage register) had remarried. Looks like I might need to look for an F. B. Thomas and a possible marriage in New Zealand or even Australia for him to a Riddel/Riddle/McKinlay [added to my to-do list].

I now also know that he married an Isabella. I need to keep focused so I add another to-do item and that is to search for marriages to an Isabella by Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay.

Yet this record states that he died at sea not Panama but he wasn't buried at sea. Curiouser and curiouser.

So I turned to an old friend of mine for assistance, Google. I typed in Charles' full name and asked Google to search for him in the hopes something of interest might pop up. And did it as can be seen below:

Google search results for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay

So I clicked on the Auckland Museum link for the online cenotaph for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay. A treasure trove of information was displayed including a picture of Charles in uniform from the Auckland Weekly News in 1918. I wonder if I could find any mention of his death in a New Zealand newspaper. Yet another item in my to-do list, this time to search in Papers Past courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand.

But continuing with the Online Cenotaph page (keep focused!) I see all kinds of additional information about Charles and towards the bottom I see something I was least expecting. A list of the sources used to create the page:

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Military Personnel File
• FamNet: The Family History Network record page

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site and information I knew about and the FamNet site search didn't find anything in their search engine. But that middle one, Military Personnel File, that pointed to the Archive New Zealand web site. Have they done what Library and Archives Canada is still working on? Digitizing the service files from World War I?

Screen capture of Archives New Zealand search results for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay, 63390

Clicking on the "record online" tab on the screen and then Charles' name brought up his services file and I could download each page to my computer. Can you say a happy researcher?

Screen capture of Archive New Zealand military service file for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay

Much downloading and reading was then started. Page 2 of his file had the answer to the question of "Where did he really die?"

New Zealand, "WW1 Army Service file for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay, 63390," History Sheet; digital images, Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand, Archives New Zealand (http://archives.govt.nz/ : accessed 21 Jan 2018). 

"He died on board the H.S. [Hospital Ship] Marama during the passage through the Panama Canal at Pedro Miguel of Carcinoma Rectum 22 April 1918."

and

"Died 11 am. 22.4.16 during passage through Canal. Buried at Balboa Cem by Chap. Read with full Mil Honours. The U.S. Army supplying firing party."

So that question has been answered but what else can be found about him? That's for part 2!