Canadian Expeditonary Force attestations

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Explanation of dates, please.

I am looking at an image from the Canadian Expeditonary Force attestations 1914-1918, which has been used as the "seed" material for including a soldier in the Lives of the First World War project and I am puzzled (easily done these days!)

The attestation was signed in July 1919, this date appearing in four places on the two sided paper. The year has to be correct as the chap (born in 1891) claims to be 28yrs old and also he cites his wife as next of kin - they married in June Qtr 1918 in Guilford Reg Dist.
He emigrated to Canada in February 1912.
The form states he was with the 12th CMR CEF 1 yr England 3 mos 2nd CMR France 22 Mos

Would there have been as earlier attestation?
Was an old form being used ? - it says .... "during the war now existing between Great Britain and Germany should that war last longer than one year, and for six months after the termination of that war provided His Majesty should so longer require my services, or until legally discharged."
Was he in effect signing up as a reserve?

It says Duplicate on the top of the front page.

Jay

[bcbrit]

Hi Janet,

Very often those in the CEF were transferred to other units once they went overseas.

12th CMR = 12th Canadian Mounted Rifles, then I guess he was transferred to the 2nd CMR.

There was an earlier form. Before 1917 it was an one sided for. After 1917 it was a two sided form.

When I read the section the section that you quoted, I thought it meant that he would not be discharged if the war went on longer than anticipated, and that he had to stay on for six months after the end of the war if needed.

I know that my ggrandfather finally came home to the UK in late 1919. There was a lot of equipment etc that needed to be returned to the UK, plus general clean up too, record keeping etc.

Have you tried this site:

http:www.cefresearch.ca - how to research a member of the CEF

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca - there might be somethere to help you.

bcbrit

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Hi Janet,

Very often those in the CEF were transferred to other units once they went overseas.

12th CMR = 12th Canadian Mounted Rifles, then I guess he was transferred to the 2nd CMR.

There was an earlier form. Before 1917 it was an one sided for. After 1917 it was a two sided form.

When I read the section the section that you quoted, I thought it meant that he would not be discharged if the war went on longer than anticipated, and that he had to stay on for six months after the end of the war if needed.

I know that my ggrandfather finally came home to the UK in late 1919. There was a lot of equipment etc that needed to be returned to the UK, plus general clean up too, record keeping etc.

Have you tried this site:

http:www.cefresearch.ca - how to research a member of the CEF

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca - there might be somethere to help you.

bcbrit

Hi bcbrit, thank you for responding and clearing up the CMR abbreviation; also the information about the form changing in 1917. I have the forms for some other people and had wondered why the records for some were single sided whilst those of others were double - you've cleared up that mystery for me.

I'm sure you're right about the quotation, but by the time he signed that form in July 1919, the war had already been over for eight months - that was the bit that I thought was strange and the form outdated

Thanks also for the links to the Canada site. However, for copyright reasons, I can't yet use that for my current mission, which is adding information gleaned from images already loaded onto the IWM lives of the first world war site. The Canadian attestation paper image has been added to the site by the Imperial War Museum and I am trying to make sense of it and add data into relevant boxes. 1919 was almost as if he'd signed the form retrospectively, AFTER he'd served?????

I find military paperwork quite difficult to interpret and am not doing very well with my task :(

Jay

[Janet]

Even those people in the UK who were in services in the First W War often went on until 1919. My Great Uncle did not finish his tour of duty until December 1919 and he was serving in Gibraltar from 1916 having been on the home front from 1914. We tend to call it the 1914 to 1918 War but it did not actually finish for many service people until late 1919 and that would have included the Canadian Expeditionary Force in which several members of my family also served. You can download original CEF attestation papers from the Canadian site for free. I have done this and used all the papers in projects that I have completed. Many people were also requisitioned to fight in Russia prolonging the war until 1922 for some people!

Janet

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Even those people in the UK who were in services in the First W War often went on until 1919. My Great Uncle did not finish his tour of duty until December 1919 and he was serving in Gibraltar from 1916 having been on the home front from 1914. We tend to call it the 1914 to 1918 War but it did not actually finish for many service people until late 1919 and that would have included the Canadian Expeditionary Force in which several members of my family also served. You can download original CEF attestation papers from the Canadian site for free. I have done this and used all the papers in projects that I have completed. Many people were also requisitioned to fight in Russia prolonging the war until 1922 for some people!

Janet

Thankyou, Janet, I understand all that, but my query is WHY is his attestation form SIGNED and DATED 1919 - i.e. AFTER he had served, rather than when he was ABOUT to serve? (Probably signed on his RETURN to Canada in 1919 AFTER serving overseas.)

I am using the attestation form which can be downloaded for free from the Canadian site - I did this a year or so ago. The same form has already been added and is viewable (by members) on the IWM site. I am trying to verify the relevant data before inputting it onto the site.

Jay