World War One collections | Canadian Letters

Title

WWI

These collections contains any material relating to Canada from 1914 to 1918 from either the home front or the battlefront. External links in collection descriptions are either to online attestation papers at Library and Archives Canada or casualty and burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Urquhart, Margaret Anne

Margaret Anne Urquhart (future married name Slydell) was born in Durisdeer, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on May 8, 1891. In WWI she worked as a nurse at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, which had been requisitioned during the war to the Royal Army Medical Corps to use in treating sick and wounded soldiers. Urquhart immigrated to Canada following the war.

Content notes:
The collection contains just one document, an autograph book from 1917-18, that Urquhart kept while nursing at Stobhill. Amongst the soldiers who added their poems, quips, and drawings to Urquhart’s book, two have been identified with links to Canada: Newfoundlander Private William John Culleton of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment (page 6), and Canadian Sapper Maynard Arthur Yetts of the 5th Divisional Signal Company (page 15).

External links:
Urquhart worked with the Medical Corps in a civilian capacity, and as such there are no military service records of her time spent as a nurse during the war.
Private William John Culleton’s service record (Serv/Reg# 999) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through the Newfoundland Government’s digital archive of WWI Newfoundland Regiment military records.
Spr. Maynard Arthur Yetts’ service record (Serv/Reg# 507463) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.

[Editor’s note: Collection updated July 2023. Two new photographs added.]

Utting, Benjamin Edward

Private Benjamin Edward Utting was born in Barking, East London, England, on December 19, 1894, to parents John Patterson Newby Utting and Sarah Maria (née Wanstall) Utting. He was the fourth of five children, with siblings Christiana, Sarah, John, and Miriam. Immigrating to Canada several years prior to the outbreak of WWI, Utting took up farming in New Norway, Alberta.

Enlisting with the 223rd Battalion in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on December 23, 1916, Utting shipped for England on board the SS Justicia the following May. After several months spent training in England, he was sent to join the 78th Battalion in France in November of 1917.

Utting was killed in action on August 11, 1918. His body was never recovered. He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Content notes:
Letters were written by Benjamin Utting to his sister Chrissie Utting who was working in England at the Upney Hospital in Barking, Essex (the hospital served as a principal casualty hospital under the wartime Emergency Hospital Service scheme for London).

External links:
Pte. Benjamin Utting’s service record (Serv/Reg# 294884) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Utting can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.