Islanders involved in
military Before the World Wars
NEWJames Clarke Military records
War of 1812
TOMBSTONE:John Unwin, died Nov. 12 1852. Aged 98 years. Served in the British Army during the War of 1812-1814.
From Horne & Point Alexandria cemetery transcription book (no photo) (Wolfe Island)
Milita
See: Howe Island Municiple Records Scroll down to 1870 Howe Island Assesment includes info on Milita
CANADA�S GALLANT VOLUNTEERS
OF 1837-38 ROLL CALL WINTER OF 1890-91
Main List
Supplementary List
These are large files and may take a moment to load.
From: Ontario Genealogical Society publication
entitled "Men of Upper Canada: Militia Nominal Rolls, 1828-1829". It was
edited by Bruce S. Elliott and Dan Walker and Fawne Stratford-Devai and came out of Toronto in 1995.
Members of the 1st Regiment Frontenac Militia are on pages 42-46. This Regiment was raised from the Town of Kingston, Cons. 1 & 2 Pittsburg Tp., Wolfe I. and east side Cataraqui River. Officers are listed, along with 10 companies (aged 19 to 39), taken from a General Return dated 9 Dec 1828.
Also included is a list of those in the first Battalion of Frontenac
Militia aged 40 to 60, dated 24 Aug 1830. This list includes names from the Island, e.g. Alexander Irvin who was the third husband of
my 4xgt grandmother Mary Ann Staley. The lists for the 7th & 10th Cos., also include island names that I recognize, e.g. Bush, Barrett, Lambert, Horn, Staley, Mosier, Orser, Hopson, Hitchcock, Davis, McDonnell" From Tina Gemmell email 2004
Samuel Crawford -1st Regiment Frontenac Militia 1828
Martin Staley (1801-1879) -1st Regiment Frontenac Militia 1828
From Tina Gemmell
***
Anson Kiel (Keill, Kiell) of Wolfe Island (1846-1911) was active in the militia 1866-1885. Certificate of his completion of training as an
officer in the militia
Province of Canada, School of Military Instruction, Kingston, 14th May 1866. etc
Obituary-includes military information
"Mr. Keil took an active part in military affairs, doing garrison duty with D. Company, P.W.O.R., at Cornwall during the Fenian Raid of 1866. He also accompanied No. 1 company of the 35th Batt. during the North West Rebellion in 1885."
Submitted by Stuart Keill
"In CENTRAL CANADIANS, the book that is one of my sources in John Ledford family history, the authors state that both John Ledford
and his son were members of the militia." From Mary Anne
Drobnak email 2004"
Toronto British Colonist
Tue Nov 10 1846
Militia Arrangements
General Order
His Excellency the Govenor-General is pleased to direct the formations of the MIlita of the Midland and Gore Districts...into Regimental Divisions, to be divided into Battalions composed of the Townships, Parishes and Municipalites stated under each, and numbered accordingly as follows, .... Frontenac
Fifth Battalion, County of Frontenac-Grand , Howe and Garden Islands.
Lennox and Addington
Third Battalion, Addington-Amherst Island
See Chapter XI Island Militia of online book Tales of Amherst Island OFFSITE
Gives info on Island Milita duty in 1838, articles and stories from volunteers that were in the militia, as well as lists of names.
Also see:
Library and Archives Canada
Muster Rolls, Canadian Militia, 1837-1850 (MG 13 WO13): List of Microfilm Reel Numbers
http://www.genealogy.gc.ca/10/10090501_e.html
Microfilm reel Volume Description Date
B-2916 3673 Amherst Island Militia 1838-1839
Known to be Wolfe islanders in the following..
B-3161 3680 lst, 2nd & 3rd Frontenac Militia 1837-1840
If someone would be willing to transcribe these for the site that would be great!
Civil War
Database of Canadians who Served in the Amherican Civil War
Easton, William I. -born November 15,1845,Wolfe Island, Canada
died July 18, 1897, Clayton, NY,USA.
William served as a Private in the Civil War; he was in Co. G, 10th NY Heavy Artillery. William participated in the battle of Cedar Creek and before, Petersburg. He enlisted 20 July 1864, and was honorably discharged 29 June 1865, serving 11 months, 8 days. He had suffered a gunshot wound in the left leg and was a resident of Depauville. "Civil War records of Jefferson County".
From George Halliday
RED RIVER EXPEDITIONARY FORCE 1870-1877
#209, name: Croat, John, Rank: Pte., Batt.: 1st, Co.: -, From: Wolfe Island O , Age: 22 , Status: Single
#481, name: Fowler, R.A. ,Rank: C-Serg., Batt: 1st, Co.: 5, From:Amherst Island O, Age: 24 , Status: Single
BOER WAR 1899-1902
Submitted by George Halladay
The Kingston Whig - Standard, Kingston, Ont.
Friday, November 5, 2004. pg. 6
MILITARY
Honouring Amherst Island's Boer War hero
After the signing of the peace treaty in May, 1902, between Britain and the South African republics, the last contingents came home from Canada's first overseas war - the Boer War - to a small welcome. Not for them the crowds and bands that had lionized the heroes of Paardeberg, Lelifontein and the Relief of Mafeking. For those men of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) and the Royal Canadian Field Artillery (RCFA) had brought glory to the young dominion, not then 33 years old.
The Boer War had put Canada on the world map. It saw the making of a real Canadian Army - a dry run for the First World War. The war also was good for business, and rebuilding South Africa as a sister dominion according to generous British terms augured well for companies that already had a foothold in the marketplaces of the land of gold and gems.
Many Canadians stayed in South Africa - as policemen, to work in the gold and diamond mines, and to marry local women. But of the 7,370 who'd served, 270 never came home: They were dead. Eleven Canadian nurses had sweated and shivered in the hellhole typhus hospitals, and 36 Canadian women went to South Africa as schoolteachers - among them Annie Moulton of Gananoque. Some married local men and stayed. Some of the nurses ruined their own health and died young.
At home, 16 widows, 24 orphans and 72 other dependants of the dead asked the Patriotic Fund for help. Another 712 - men whose health was broken by typhus, enteric fever and dysentery - also applied for help. And many of the 252 who'd been wounded in Canada's first modern war were terribly disabled.
But charities sprang up to help them. And the war and its aftermath proved to be the making of such organizations as the Canadian Red Cross Society.
Towns and villages came to the aid of their returned sons with money, gifts, jobs and memorials and monuments. In Montreal, children giving pennies, nickels and dimes raised $16,547.17. This money they sent to the queen, along with an album with the photos of 1,000 children who'd contributed. Monuments in honour of individual soldiers appeared in such places as Woodstock and Port Hope. A brass plate on the wall of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on Amherst Island reads: "In memory of Edward Allan Filson, a native of Amherst Island, corporal in 'A' Squadron, Royal Canadian Dragoons. Killed in action at Lilliefontein, South Africa, Nov. 7th 1900 while gallantly defending the guns of 'D' Battery R.C.F.A. Aged 23 years. Erected by his fellow citizens." A statue of Concordia, the Roman goddess of harmony, stands in the churchyard, dedicated to Filson's memory. A true cenotaph, it's an empty tomb. Filson lies in South African soil at Belfast, the namesake of the Irish city from near which his family had come to Canada 50 years before.
The Canadian graves in South Africa weren't ignored. They were found by Mrs. H. G. de Lotbiniere and the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa, who also raised monuments, despite a nasty row between Lady Minto's Canadian South African Memorial Association (CSAMA) and the Independent Order of Daughters of the Empire (IODE). But when the dust settled, the task was also funded by the IODE. The unveilings in some 23 cemeteries were graced by parades and speeches. For these people took their empire to heart. And the blood of Canada was a main part of its cement.
In April, 1902, a month before the end of the war, responding to two requests from the CSAMA's honorary secretary, J. L. Maude, Ed Filson's younger brother "H.K." wrote: "I do most heartily approve of the proposal of the committee to erect memorials over the graves of our British heroes who have given their young lives so nobly for their country in South Africa - my much lamented brother whom we all deeply grieve being one of them. I shall be pleased to donate to the good cause."
In light of the many British failures during the war and the obvious superiority of Canadian troops, a movement grew to make Canada the centre of the sisterhood of British nations. It all added up to a view of Canada as a state emerging in its own right. And the tragic victory at Vimy Ridge in 1916 only confirmed what had been set in motion by force of arms in South Africa some 14 years before.
Indeed, many of the Canadian heroes of South Africa became the colonels and generals of the "war to end all wars." And Ed Filson's youngest brother, Ralph, a medical graduate of Queen's University, took the Queen's Field Ambulance overseas in 1917 as a major in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps.
This Sunday the RCD Association and the RCHA Brigade Association will honour the memory of Ed Filson. Following an 11 a.m. service in St. Paul's Presbyterian on Amherst Island, they will hold a short ceremony and lay a wreath at the feet of the Concordia statue. All dragoons and gunners - serving or retired - and any others who wish to attend, are invited to wear their medals and poppies and come to the celebration.
Ferries leave Millhaven at 9.30 and 10.30. Please take the earlier ferry if you can. For information phone 389-7063.
- Terence Cottrell is a Kingston freelance writer and a former member of The Whig-Standard's Community Editorial board.
Newspaper Accounts
Does anyone know for what war this was from?
From The Toronto Star �Pages of the Past�
Wednesday, February 12, 1896
The Death Roll
Hugh McLaren, a Wofe Island pioneer, aged 70 (?)
Jens Genealogy Page: The Islands: Military: Pre World Wars
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