Soldiers in the CEF

[marc leroux]

As I was researching the war memorials in South West Quebec, I noticed a trend of soldiers from the area that had enlisted out west. That threw me off on a tangent, and I think there is a good social impact story in there (not necessarily of the war). In any event I started to enter the data from the attestation papers into a spreadsheet and set up a basic analysis of the data. This represents the results from the first 55 people I researched, I have over 200 left to do. It gives a reasonable picture of the men who participated from the region and may be of interest to others.

You can find the initial analysis here.

This is my first pass, so the formatting, etc. is not 100%. I'd appreciate any feedback on other items to include (as long as they exist in the Attestation Papers).

I'll update this periodically, probably after I add every 50 or so entries.

marc

[Broznitsky]

Wow, Marc, I love this! With your permission, I will likely steal some of the format whenever I finally build my web-site.

Perhaps I'm an anorak, but I thought the graphs particularly useful. Of course, a larger sampling will fill in some of the blanks.

You might want to add more of a disclaimer that the stats are based on the Attestation Papers, which as we all know may be slightly or grossly inaccurate. Still, as the sampling size increases, a truer overall picture will emerge.

Well done

Peter in Vancouver

[marc leroux]

Thanks Peter

There is a disclaimer in the first line saying that the data is drawn from the Attestation Papers, but you are right I should expand it to make sure that the inherent inaccuracy is noted.

When you are ready to do your site let me know and I'll be happy to share the spreadsheet (excel) that I used to build the stats. There are still some problems with it, but it basically works with limited manual intervention (occupations is the biggest headache).

For a variety of reasons I'll probably put it into an access database sometime in the near future, but writing a front end requires more time than I have right now.

In any event, by the time you are ready it will have been enhanced one way or the other.

marc

[chris.wight]

Nicely done Marc!

I particularily like your graphical breakdowns. If you could, I would show on the enlistment graph what number of men were MSA - looking at that graph could suggest the number of voluntary recruits had increased in 1918. Since the figure is 20% conscripted, that must be the ten recruits of 1918?

On the religious pie chart, is Prepertarian meant to be Presbyterian?

The southwestern corner of Quebec is one which tends to be forgotten in the Province so it's a good to see it being brought to light.

I look forward to your further to future additions!

[Neil Burns]

Great job Marc. I'm looking forward to the updates.

Take care,

Neil

[Bill Alexander]

Interesting analysis Marc. Your data challenges some "conventional wisdom" about the composition of the CEF, especially the notion that the army was made up of ex-patriot British citizens. Obviously there may be "local" abberations in the data, (like the religous breakdown), but this is a very interesting project. Please inform us of updates.

[marc leroux]

I've updated my statistics page (Here). I am up to 100 soldiers and starting to slow down (they are getting harder to trace).

Any suggestions for improvements appreciated.

For the comparative numbers between the CEF as a whole and my sample population I used the statistics in Morton's "When your number's up" and Nicholsons History of the CEF. If there are any better sources that people can point me to it would be appreciated.

Note: While I enjoyed the Morton book and highly recommend it, there were a number of times when I wish he had just gone a little further.

marc

[182 CEF]

Years ago I helped write a book on the 10th Louisiana Regt ( US Civil War) the book was mainly on demographics.

Our Analysis included

Disposition as of April 1865

Analysis of Martial Status by Ethnicity

Analysis Of age by Ethnicity

Analysis of place of Residance By Ethnicity

Analysis of Occupations

Analysis of the graves

I think you have done a great job on this.

If you have more time perhaps you could expand on your study

Great JOB!!!!!

Dean Owen

Whitby Ontario

[chris.wight]

Hi Marc, thanks for letting us know about the update. You've done a great job, and I wouldn't change a thing.

[marc leroux]

Thanks for the input, Dean. I like some of the ideas;the ethnicity angle has been fermenting, at least the french/english aspect, although the area is predominatly english and there would be a lot of subectivity , and the irish canadian/scottish canadian basically breaks down along religious lines. I have the raw data for burials which could be easily added.

marc

[Fred W]

My book "They Are Not Forgotten--First World War Memorials In Nelson Lancashire," gives the service record and background of some 300 men whose names are on the memorials and rolls of honour that still exist in Nelson. the two diagrams below show their age distribution and the months in which they died. Thought some of you might be interested.

[John_Hartley]

Marc

Fascinating stuff this - and the war memorial info.

Regards from across the pond

John

[marc leroux]

Thanks Fred. I'll add the month of death and possibly the battle (for those I can figure out). That is an aspect that occurred to me. There were a number of casualities at Vimy (as expected). I contrasted that to the WW2 deaths, expecting to see a similar pattern for Juno Beach, but didn't.

I'll also look at the KIA, DFW and POW distribution

marc

[Fred W]

Marc,

If you look at the distribution of deaths you will find that the first major peak coincides wth the Somme, the second with Arras, the third and fourth with Passchendale and the fifth with repulsing the German spring offensive code name Micheal.

Fred