Oscar Lancelot Nicholls - Christmas Tragedy

World War One officially ended on November 11th 1918. However, the Great War continued on past that date for many Canadian soldiers. One such soldier was Oscar Lancelot Nicholls, cousin of my partner's paternal grandmother Adeline Lucinda Nicholls. 

Lance was born on February 6th 1894 in Bolsover Ontario, the son Robert Andrew Nicholls and Hannah Marie Dunn. He was the 2nd of 5 children. The family was listed in the 1911 Canadian Census:

Bolsover was a small town and Lance appeared to have ambitions beyond life on the farm. 

By 1913 he was living in Toronto working as a clerk at the Imperial Bank. 

His career in banking was cut short by the war  

Lance had transferred to Montreal and enlisted there on August 22nd 1917 at the age of 23. His C.E.F. is much slimmer than some others that I have reviewed as he he quickly transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on November 6th 1917.

Like many young men at the time he developed an interest in the new field of aviation. Canada did not have their own air force so aspiring Canadian pilots joined the British service. Lance was quickly sent to Hicks Field in Texas for training. According to Wikipedia Hicks Field operated as a training school from October 1917 through April 2018 for American and Canadian pilots. It was turned over to the Americans in 2018 for their exclusive use. 

His RAF file lists Lance's skills:

The Curtiss JN-4 was nicknamed the "Jenny". The Jenny was built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company and used to train pilots at Hicks Field. Here's what she looked like:

Lewis Machine guns were designed in the US and manufactured in the UK and used extensively by the British army in World War One. It was the first gun fired from an aeroplane. Here is a Lewis gun mounted at the front of a plane.

And a Vickers gun was a British machine gun that was also used from planes as in this picture.

Duly trained, Lance was dispatched to England where he was posted to the Central Flying School in Upavon, Wiltshire for advanced training. Upon arrival he and his fellow cadets were granted commission as a 2nd Lieutenant as noted in the June 14th 2018 London Gazette.

Lance was still posted at the Central Flying School when the war ended on November 11th 2018. Despite that, he was still considered to be on active duty. This clipping from the Toronto Star tells the sad story of what happened next:

Lance's family were no doubt excited and happy that he would be returning to them in 1919. What a sad truth for them. According to the death register cause of death was a fractured skull. His RAF file was also slim and gave no further details of the maneuver that led to his death. Many young men died at the Central Flying School before and after the Armistice - flying was a danger endeavour in those days. 

Lance was buried in Upavon. His heartbroken family erected a memorial to him in the Bolsover Cemetery.

Lance is listed in the Canadian Book of Remembrance. Today is December 22nd and that is the day that his page is displayed for public viewing. He is one of 1,388 Canadians who died while serving in the British Flying Services, 100 years ago.

The Moorecroft Boys - A Family's Sacrifice

Last Remembrance Day I wrote about my grandfather-in-law Frederick Alexander Moorecroft and his service in World War One. You can read about his story here. He wasn't the only member of the Moorecroft family to serve and this year I'd like to share the stories of three of his brothers.

Arthur Davis Moorecroft came to Canada from Ireland as a child in 1873. By 1886 he had married Agnes White, a Markham girl and began raising their family of 8 children. In the 1911 census we find them living at 60 Galt Avenue in the Gerrard and Jones area of Toronto. 

This house would be the family home for many years. According to the census eldest daughter Ethel had married and left the home. Second daughter Alma had died at less than a year old in 1889. Remaining at home were the five Moorecroft boys: Arthur Albert born in 1889, Robert Herman born in 1891, Frederick Alexander born in 1893, Percy Lorenzo born in 1895 and Albert Shedden born in 1902. Last but not least was the youngest daughter Madeleine (who would die at the age of 7 in 1915).

Life for the Moorecroft would change with the start of World War One. Within 8 months the four eldest Moorecroft sons had joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force:

Fred enlisted August 13^th1915 at the age of 22

Percy enlisted August 14^th1915 at the age of 18

Herman enlisted October 7^th1915 at the age of 23

Arthur enlisted April 8^th1916 at the age of 26.

All promptly shipped out to France.


PERCY LORENZO MOORECROFT 1895-1924

Percy enlisted in the 15^th Battalion, 1^st Canadian Division. His unit sailed on May 20^th 1916, the same day as his brother Fred – I wonder if the brothers spent any time together on the ship. Percy was in and out of hospital during his tour of duty. He is treated in France in 1918 for Disordered Action of the Heart (DAH) a condition brought on by stress or fatigue, Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (PUO) or Trench Fever and Bronchitis.

Percy sailed for home on the Empress Britain and arrived in Halifax February 25th 1919. He was discharged as Medically Unfit on March 25th 1919. His medical file stated that he would not be able to return to his pre-war job as a plumber. According to the 1920 and 1921 Toronto City Directory he is living again at 60 Galt Street and working as an electrician. But by the time the 1922 Directory he is no longer living at home. Percy has taken up residence in the Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton. The hospital was opened in 1906 to care for patients suffering from tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease. Patients came from all across Canada to be provided with bed rest, fresh air and good food. Here is a picture of the Sanatorium that I took before it was torn down in 2014.

Some patients stayed for many years but Percy's stay was brief as his Casualty Record outlines. He died on April 12th 1924

Percy's lung disease was deemed to be caused by his war service. The family declined the official military tombstone. Despite the note on the record the family never did erect a tombstone at St John's

ROBERT HERMAN MOORECROFT 1891-1975

Herman enlisted in the 18th Battalion Canadian Infantry.

This patriotic event was noted in the Toronto Star on October 9th 1915. He sailed for England on March 29th 1916 on the S.S. Olympic and headed to France on September 27th 2016.



Earlier Herman had spent 3 years in the 2nd Canadian Engineers so he was transferred to the Canadian Mounted Rifles as a Sapper. A sapper performed military engineering duties such as bridge building, laying minefields and working on road repairs, dangerous work indeed.





Herman experienced health issues as well during his tour of duty in France. He was in and out of hospital for pleurisy (inflammation of the lungs and chest which causes pain while breathing) and was tested for tuberculosis. Unlike his brother Percy, Herman did not contract TB. The chest pain appears to have been caused by a wall falling on him, likely as he performed his sapper duties. He also was treated for digestive issues (no doubt due to stress) and rheumatism (likely from the dampness in the trenches).

Herman sailed for Halifax on November 10th 2018 on the Neuralia. He was admitted to the Brant Military Hospital in Burlington to be treated for debility resulting from the pleurisy and was discharged on December 20th 1918 with a clean bill of health.

Herman returned to civilian life and his home at 60 Galt Street. The 1921 City Directory lists his employment as a fireman. I found this awesome picture of Herman in the October 10th 1921 Toronto Star.

Herman moved around a bit in the 1920s and applied for naturalization in the US in 1926 but by the mid 1930s he returned to Toronto. Another gem from the Toronto Star, February 22nd 1937.



Herman never married. It appears he looked after his parents in their old age then remained in the Galt Street home until he died in  1975. He is buried beside his brother Percy in St. John's Norway

ARTHUR ALBERT MOORECROFT 1889-1918

Arthur enlisted in the 3^rd Canadian Battalion on April 5th 1916. At the time of enlistment he was single but that changed before he left Canada on March 26^th 1917 - on January 4th 1917 he married his sweetheart Ada Fraser. Here is Arthur in his uniform:

Arthur arrived in France on April 8^th 1917. There is nothing remarkable in his service file until a skirmish on September 27th 1918 when he sustained a gunshot wound to the head. He died the next day.

Arthur was buried in France and his young widow was notified of the death. It was noted in the Toronto Star on October 11th 2018.

Ada received a Special Pension Bonus of $80 for the loss of her husband. Albert is remembered in the Book of Remembrance housed in the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

The Moorecroft family's experiences were no different than that of any other Canadian family during World War One. Two sons dead from war related injuries, one permanently disabled from his war wounds and one seemingly untouched but no doubt mentally scarred by his experiences. 

I'll close with these two clippings from the Toronto Star in 1917. The Morse Street and Leslie Street Schools remember the Moorecroft boys and so do we on Remembrance Day 100 years later.

Gertrude Maude Kingswell - A woman's life told by her books

October is Women's History Month, as well as Family History month. That makes it the perfect time to write about my grandmother Gertrude Maude Kingswell Brooks. Gertie started me on my genealogy journey by sharing stories of her family. Here I will share her story.

I inherited from Gertie a pile of amazing vintage books that she collected at various stages in her life. In this post I will use her books to tell her story.

Gertie was born in Kingston Ontario on August 22nd 1899. I've written about her family before click here to read their story. This is the earliest picture of my grandmother. 

Her mom looks not bad for a woman who just gave birth to her 9th child.



The Kingswells initially lived in an area of Kingston known as Portsmouth. The Kingston Penitentiary is located in the same part of town.


The Kingswells were staunch Anglicans and Gertie attended Sunday School at St. John's Church in Portsmouth. This is the earliest book in her collection, a hymn book.

I don't know which primary school she attended but I found this picture in her collection. It was captioned Portsmouth 1910 on the back. Gertie is standing second from the left.

The next book in Gertie's collection was a gift from her mother to Gertie and her sister Chrissie. They were the youngest of the Kingswell brood and clearly in need of some guidance to become proper young ladies! (Chrissie on the left, Gertie on the right, age about 9 and 14)

 

The family had moved to 32B Clergy Street and Gertie attended nearby Kingston Collegiate Institute.She clearly enjoyed her English classes, keeping some of the classic novels she studied.

  

The Kingswell family lived near Queens University and Gertie would have loved to have attended Queens. Her collection included this book which spoke to her love of music and desire to have a University education. 

Unfortunately the cost of university tuition was above the means of a lower income family and it still wasn't the norm for women to seek higher education. Instead Gertie attended Kingston Business College and developed skills that led her to work as a stenographer.

Before meeting and marrying my grandfather Gertie had several beaux. She would often remark to the family that she could have married a doctor, no doubt after an argument with her husband! Some of her book collections had intriguing inscriptions. 


These mystery men can probably be seen in the many photos from Gertie's collection that remain unidentified.

After marriage Gertie still took time out to read. This popular novel was in her collection.

Gertie was a doting mother to her two boys. Both my dad and my uncle served overseas during World War Two. My dad sent this Bible home in 1944 and it had a special place in her collection.

I don't remember seeing my grandmother with a book in her hand and there were no later books in her collection. However, I love this photo of Gertie and me taken on my 2nd birthday. I'm not sure what book she is reading to me, but I still have the second book in my own collection!








My grandmother passed away in 1985. I have a special memory of calling her from England when I made my first trip there in 1982. I had visited the Isle of Wight and saw the church where her parents were married in 1883. It was exciting sharing some of my early genealogical discoveries with the person who started me off. She'd be impressed with what I've found since and I wish she was here to share my finds with.