1. OH,
WHAT A LOVELY WAR
World War One: Big Picture and Oshawa
January 25, 2017
Whitby Probus Club
Robert T. Bell & Glenn McKnight
2. Overview
Part One: Big Picture
Part Two: Canada's Role
Part Three: Oshawa's Role
Part Four: Legacy of the war
3. Glenn McKnight
Glenn is a Director with the
Foundation for Building Sustainable
Communities and he has been
active as a citizen journalist
capturing the stories and memories
of local Oshawa military history.
Stories from War of 1812,
American Civil War, Fenian Raids,
WW 2, WW 2 and Korean Wars
He is a volunteer with the 1948
Partition Project which is collecting
memories of those who suffered the
partition of British India
4. Robert T. Bell
Is a local REALTOR ® with Coldwell Banker 2M Realty
Brokerage & owner of Durham Metal Detectors.
Always interested in history & the community he is a long time
member of the Oshawa Historical Society, The Durham Region
Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, & is a former
member of Heritage Oshawa.
Volunteering with the Foundation for Building Sustainable
Communities he has been involved in the War of 1812 Project &
the Canadian Victory Garden.
He is believer in life long learning!
10. “REASONS FOR WAR”
Europe divided into many
alliances & the big 2 were:
Central Powers – Italy,
Austria-Hungary & Germany
Triple Entente (Allies) –
France, Great Britain & Russia
14. •Aug. 4th
, 1914, Great
Britain declares war on
Germany for violating
Belgium’s neutrality.
15.
16.
17. • Schlieffen Plan goes thru
Belgium to circle Paris,
•Germany stopped at 1st
Battle of Marne
(Sept. 6-10, 1914).
•French troops sent in taxis
to front line in red
uniforms.
33. War by Numbers
660,000 Canadians recruited
70 % British born
67,000 died
160,000 wounded
Cost $2 billion
34. CEF Battles
Mons
St. Eloi
Neuve Chappele
Ypres x 2
Givenchy
La Basse
Loos
Amiens
Valenciennes
Plugstreet
St. Julien
The Somme
Courelette
Vimy Ridge
Hill 70
Paschendale
Arras
Cambria
36. Homefront
Rationing
Victory Gardens
Metal and Fat Drives
Women in Factories
War Measures Act
Canadian Red Cross
Local Bond Drives
Care packages
Post hospital care
War production
Limited women's vote
Industrialization
38. PLANNED ECONOMIES
Systems run by gov't agencies that
expanded powers to meet needs
such as: conscription, regulate
import/exports, ration food, control
prices, wages & rent control
Income Tax
39. • The financial
cost of the war
amounted to
almost $38
billion for
Germany
• Austria-Hungary
$20 billion.
• Other $2 billion
The war cost
Central Powers
$60 billion
Britain $35 Billion
Canada $2 Billion
France $24 Billion
Russia $22 Billion
USA $22 billion
Other $2 billion
The war cost the
Allies $125
billion
40. Terms for Germany Defeat
Abdication of the Kaiser
Pay war reparations
Reduction to a 100,000 standing army
Get rid of air force & reduce navy
Return Alsace & Loraine
Sections of Germany given to Poland.
42. Part Three
Oshawa Local History
Ontario
Regiment
Many local residents joined the 116 Battalion and the 182
Battalion fighting with the 9th
Infantry Brigade and the 18th
Reserve Battalion
- 330 number of dead
? of wounded
? of recruits
44. Imprisonment of Ukranians
• At the declaration of war a War Measures
Act was implemented
• 300 local Ukrainians imprisoned, detained
and documented
• In 1918 a local church was invaded by the
police as apparently reported in the Oshawa
Times
45. Home (Barnardo) Children
* Approximately 118,000 children sent
* Sent from 1863 to 1939
* Sent to Canada at a young age
* Only 2% were Orphans!
* They were sending them to “A better life”
* Some were given “into care” with intentions
of reunification that never happened
* Siblings were separated “in care”
48. Nursing Sisters - Angels of Mercy
* Called Sisters because many belonged to
Religious orders
* About 2,504 served in WWI
* Given the rank of Lieutenant
* Called Bluebirds because of their Blue
dresses, they wore white aprons & veils
* Often in harms way - 46 killed in the line of
duty
49. Sarah Ellen
Garbutt
* Enlisted April 3,
1917 Kingston
* Arrived in England
June 8
* Hospitalized in
England June 27
* Died of cancer Aug
20, 1917 age 42