Why would an Englishman enlist in the CEF during WW1

[lyla]

Hi

My grandfather Harry Horley was a 14 year old labourer in Bedfordshire in the 1901 census. After that I can find no trace of him until he enlisted for the CEF in Barriefield, Canada in 1915 aged 28. After the war he was discharged in the UK and remained there.

My question is why did he go all the way to Canada to enlist? Could he have been too old to enlist at the start of the war in Britain? Or were there incentives for young men to go to Canada in the early 1900s but if so, why didn't he return there after the war?

Would appreciate any ideas/comments you might have.

Regards
Lyla

[julianb]

One of my great uncles emigrated to Canada around 1913.  He too joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September 1915, and landed in France June 1916.  Sadly he lasted only a few months in France, being killed in late October.

In a letter to my grandmother in November 1915, he remarked that nearly all of the volunteers in his batallion (the 84th) were english.

I have always assumed that he saw it as his patriotic duty to enlist, but that he had emigrated in the first place to take advantage of the opportunities available in Canada.

JULIAN

[stockman fred]

As Julian says,I think young men were able to volunteer wherever they found themselves in the Empire, as it was seen then. My grandad decided to see the world, worked across Canada and ended up in New South Wales when war broke out, working on a farm. He served in the 13th NSW Bn of the Australian Forces through the first war and I believe as many as half the men in his unit were English lads who joined up overseas.
After some explanations, he was allowed to demob from the camp near Salisbury rather than go back to Australia to sign off. He had to provide a good explanation to the High Commission.
He always thought of himself as an honourary Australian especially when it came to cricket matches
Fred

[lyla]

It's interesting to realise that the young men of the early 1900s were off seeing the world as one tends to think that people didnt venture very far back then or couldnt afford it even if they wanted to. I'd love to find out more about my grandad's travels but sadly his life before the war remains a mystery.

Thanks for your replies

Lyla

[old rowley]

Hi Lyla,

My grandfather also served with the CEF enlisting in Halifax NS in 1917 after travelling to Canada on board a ship where he was a fireman/trimmer. He had previously served with the Highland Light Infanty and had been bayonetted and had also suffered wounds, being discharged in 1916 from the HLI (in my mind he must have been dropped on the head as a baby as getting wounded is bad enough, being bayonetted as well could be worse but to go back for a third time?  ......). After his time with the Canadian forces he was discharged in Scotland (where he came from) and went back onto the ships where he carried on his trade as fireman/trimmer. As for the age thing he was 27 when he joined the CEF to fight in the war.

old rowley

[Galium]

This is something I have been puzzling over.  One of my great uncles emigrated to Canada, and I searched for his name on:
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/cef/001042-100.01-e.html

What I found was attestation papers for his brother, who my father remembers living in England in the 1920s and '30s.  He had enlisted with the CEF in Canada in 1916 - presumably while visiting  the brother who emigrated, and names his wife in England as next of kin.  He was 31 at the time.

[lyla]

Thanks for your interesting replies.

Lyla

[MJP]

Hi Lyla,

Camp Barriefield is the former name of the current Canadian Forces Base Kingston.  Barriefield was the name of the adjacent village, but the whole area is now part of the City of Kingston (Ontario).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFB_Kingston

I have had a look for Harry on the 1911 Canadian census, but with no luck.  You can search it for free at http://automatedgenealogy.com  Perhaps he hadn't immigrated yet. 

Ships passenger lists for Canada for this period are online, but they have not been indexed yet, so it is a long page-by-page search if you don't know the specifics of his arrival.  Here is the link, just in case you learn something more that would help you narrow the search.  (It is best if you can find out the month of arrival, port of arrival, name of the ship, or some other bit of info that will reduce the number of passenger lists you have to look through.)  Or, you can wait until they are indexed, which I'm sure is being done by many teams of volunteers as we speak!
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/passenger/001045-130-e.html

There are many reasons he could have not returned to Canada after the war.  He hadn't married or anything, so he had no reason to return.  Maybe he just didn't find the opportunities he had been hoping for.  Or maybe the horrors of war made him realize he didn't want to be that far away from his family. 

Happy hunting!

MJP

[stockman fred]

Grandad said he was going to return home anyway to enlist and thought he could save the fare by joining up overseas.He thought (incorrectly as it turned out) that he would be sent to the UK en route to France, although in fact he ended up at Gallipoli. Also, in 1914-5, there was a feeling that the war might be over before they could "see some action"so they did not want to wait until they got back to England before signing up.
Fred