Bombardier John Hodgins Neil died of his wounds on 24 August 1917. He enlisted with the Vancouver Volunteer Reserve, Boorman's Battery on 8 October 1915 and served overseas with 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery . He was laid to rest at Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery Extension - Pas de Calais, France. He shall be remembered as a former Vancouver Gunner. Nominal Roll Naa - Nzz

 Look what arrived in today's mail! Have you ordered your Ubique 150 Whisky! ​http://rca-arc.org/heritage/ubique-150/ubique-150-commemorative-items/

Check out The War Amps YouTube page featuring the entire collection of Canadian Army Newsreels.​ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL04CC43B7CD63C686 
​I've found some relevant artillery clips here:
No. 6 - Six pounder firing on the range.
No. 16 - 25 pounder crash action demo.
No. 17 - Heavy Anti-Aircraft (Check out the fuze setter!).
No. 18 - Six pounder entering Campobasso pulled by a CMP.
Let me know if you find any additional segments that may be of interest.

Survey says - I received a couple of suggestions on the best way forward for placing the war diaries online. Some suggestions were for utilizing OCR apps but, unfortunately, none of the OCR suggestions were practical with the jpeg quality on aged paper. Transcribing all the docs tends to lose much of the heritage effect of the documents. It appears that the original method of formatting the document into a lighter copy, pasting in a word  document and then converting to pdf seems to be the best method. Any volunteers out there wanting to spend some rainy days working on a month of war diaries?
I'm working on March 1940 and have placed the work to date on this page.  Please email me if you find additional gems that should be included in the short document description on that page. 

I need your assistance!
I have a file full of jpegs that MGen Stu McDonald spent hours photographing in the Library and Archives facility Ottawa. The file consists of the War Diaries of the 85th Battery and highlights the daily routine on Yorke Island. It's a great read but I have not found the best way of presenting the material.
On this page I have outlined 4 options. Please check them out and let me know what you think is the best way forward!
[email protected]

SUBJECT: RETIREMENT – CAPT PAUL STEWART, MOSID 00179, ARTY(FD)
1. FOLLOWING 42-PLUS YEARS OF LOYAL AND DEDICATED SERVICE TO QUEENS (…HE’S SO OLD THAT HE HAS SERVED UNDER THE REIGNS OF BOTH ELIZABETH I AND II), COUNTRY AND THE GUNS, CAPTAIN PAUL STEWART WILL STAND EASY’ISH, EFFECTIVE 1 MARCH 2021.
2. A SELF-CONFESSED AUTO DIDACT AND POSSESSING OF A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY, HE STATED THAT HE WAS SPEAKING BY THE AGE OF 8 AND WRITING (MOSTLY) FULL SENTENCES 4 YEARS LATER…OR WAS IT 5?
3. PAUL UNWITTINGLY JOINED 15TH FD RCA, VANCOUVER, AS A RESERVIST, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE STUDENT SUMMER EMPLOYMENT AND ACTIVITIES PROGRAM (SSEAP) ON 3 JULY 1978. HE DID NOT SUSPECT, AT THE TIME, THAT THIS WOULD LEAD TO A SOMEWHAT EXTENDED SUMMER JOB VIS A VIS THE REGULAR FORCE.
4. HAVING EXPERIENCED THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY (….AND THAT WAS JUST THE RECRUITING CENTRE) AND RATHER THAN REPLICATE (LOTS OF) MPRR DATA, PAUL CITES THE FOLLOWING AS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
A. 1 RCHA, LAHR, GERMANY 1985 TO 1990 – PARTICIPATING IN SEVERAL ‘NIJMEGAN’S’, HOSTING A CFN LATE NIGHT RADIO SHOW (…ANYONE REMEMBER NOCTURNAL EARTHWORM STEW (…GEDDIT?)?), ADVENTURE TRAINING ON THE MOSEL, ATTENDING THE WORLD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS IN STOCKHOLM AND BEING TOLD BY BSM RAY MELANSON THAT HIS PER DEPENDED UPON THE SUCCESS OF THE B BTY MONSTER BINGO. HE MANAGED TO PERFORM SOME GUNNERY CHORES TOO, EARNING HIS GERMAN PARA WINGS IN THE PROCESS (…DURING OKTOBERFEST ’86, AUS MUNCHEN!). PAUL RECALLS SOME EXCELLENT PARTNERS IN CRIME SUCH AS LONNIES GOODFELLOW, DALES BATTEN, ERICS DWYER, AS WELL AS SOON-TO-BE GENERALS STUART BEARE AND MIKE ROULEAU.
B. ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR-IN-GUNNERY COURSE (AIG) 1990 TO 1991 – OUTSTANDING YEAR (CIRCA OKA CRISIS) SPENT ON ATL AT CTC GAGETOWN, HONING HIS TECHNICAL GUNNERY AND COURSE DESIGN SKILLS WITH THE LIKES OF CHRIS RUSK, WAYNE LEBLANC, DANNY GIROUX, A FELLOW CAST OF COMEDIANS AND FLOOR HOCKEY PLAYERS. C. 2 RCHA, PETAWAWA 2008 TO 2009 – PAUL WAS QUITE SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT THEN CO, COL (RETD) CRAIG DALTON, HAD THE FAITH AND COURAGE TO APPOINT HIM AS ADJUTANT, 2 RCHA.
PAUL RECALLS THIS AS HIS MOST FULFILLING AND CHALLENGING JOB …APART FROM THE B BTY MONSTER BINGO.
D. KANDAHAR AFGHANISTAN 2010 – ALTHOUGH PAUL FONDLY LOOKS BACK UPON HIS TENURE AS AN LO WITH 3 RCR DURING 2003 OPERATIONS IN KABUL (…NELSON LIZOTTE, RIP), KANDAHAR TURNED OUT TO BE A MORE SATISFYING EXPERIENCE, AS HE WAS CHOSEN TO FULFILL DUTIES AS ADJUTANT OF THE PRT AND SUBSEQUENTLY TFK BDE TPS. HE WAS AWARDED A CEFCOM COMMENDATION FOR HIS EFFORTS AND IT WAS PRESENTED TO HIM, NO LESS, BY LGEN (RET’D) STUART BEARE IN HIS FIRST SUCH ACT AS COMD CEFCOM

Today!  At 1300 Hrs. Check out this webpage for dial in information.
Have you sent in your comments to the four questions? We've gotten some great feedback but do we have yours? email them to [email protected]

Loughborough Inlet Drowning
Telegraphist Bernard Cecil Barlow of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve assigned to the Fisherman's Reserve Vessel Leola Vivian drowned during a fishing trip on 3 July 1940 at Loughborough Inlet. The Board of Inquiry was held at Esquimalt on 9 July with the process recorded on the  linked pages. The Lance Bombardier Gayton mentioned is well known to many of our members as Lieutenant-Colonel Gayton, father of Captain Doug Gayton. ​