What is a soldier biography?
All program participants receive a Canadian soldier's military service file and prepare a biographical sketch to read at his grave. The files are provided by Library and Archives Canada through a program called Lest We Forget, which provides learners with these primary sources as an entry point to understanding the conflicts in which these soldiers fought. Some participants' biographies are written, while some others choose to compose songs or prepare pieces of theatre.
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Teachers' Tour participant Dave Sullivan shares his soldier bio
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Lest We Forget founder Blake Seward talks about the program
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Participants are given a list of questions to help get them get started:
1. What do the documents reveal to you about your soldier? 2. Is there another possible interpretation of your documents? 3. How could you verify your interpretation? Where might you need to search for relevant resources? 4. How is your soldier’s information similar or different to information being researched by other teachers? 5. What are the short and long term consequences for communities that suffer from the loss of local men to war? 6. What events that emerge out of the documents do you consider to be historically significant? 7. Can you determine what other people may be affected by the events that emerge out of the documents? (mother, wife, father, sister, brother, community, industry, etc…) 8. How does your research connect to issues at the time? 9. What issues that you identified are still relevant today? Explain your thinking. 10. How is each issue similar or different from today and when written? 11. Based on your research what information do you consider to be the most significant? How did you determine this? |
"Our guys"Cassino War Cemetery
Private Theodore Whalen Montecchio War Cemetery Sergeant Percy Desjardins Private Douglas Fradsham Major James Bruce Lawson Gradara War Cemetery Flight Lieutenant Thomas Smith Harold Gunner Charles Little Lieutenant Charles MacDonald Company Quartermaster Sergeant Kenneth Peachey Private Aurele Vienneau Lance Bombardier Claude Marshall Gunner Clayton Shackleton Sergeant Ronald Underhill Coriano Ridge War Cemetery Lance Corporal Tom Leatherbarrow Private Vincent Tingley Ravenna War Cemetery Private Vernon Cooper Private Joseph Arsenault Moro River Canadian War Cemetery Captain George Dinwiddie Corporal Isaac Eckford Private Donald McIvor Corporal Thomas Beckerton Private Donald Lewis Lance Corporal John MacDonald Private Leslie Hilliard Gunner John Barker Lance Bombardier Robert van Buskirk Gunner Romeo Brissard Gunner Adrien Howe |