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| Acknowledgements |
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Brett Payne, June
2002
The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa provide an international inter-library loan service that, in my experience, is second to none, which has made it relatively easy for me to study microfilms of the CMGC War Diaries. Julia Ladouceur (Reference Archivist, Reference Services Division) and Brigitte Cuerrier (Researcher Services Division, Inter-Institutional Loans) have very patiently and competently dealt with my numerous queries regarding archive holdings and the loan procedure. Martin Lanthier (Reference Archivist, Researcher Services Division) kindly clarified copyright issues relating to the War Diaries. Reginald H. Roy, retired Professor of Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Victoria, has kindly given his permission for me to quote excerpts from his book, "The Diary of Private Fraser", published in 1998 by CEF Books. He has also helped with finding information on the history of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. Pam McConnochie, at the Tauranga District Library, has gone to some considerable effort in arranging the inter-library loan of microfilm on my behalf. Liliane Reid Lafleur and several of her volunteers at the Canadian War Museum and the Hartland Molsson Library, located in Ottawa, have provided considerable assistance in researching the CMGC and related topics at those institutions. I would particularly like to thank Clem Hobbs, Howard Stutt and Ray White for their advice and help. The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick responded to my queries promptly, and were very helpful in providing a will for a former Machine-Gunner. Johanne Neville of the Canadian Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, on behalf of Veterans' Affairs Canada, who went to some considerable effort in extracting relevant details from the CWGC-VAC data base at my request. Margaret Pugh of Fredericton, New Brunswick, has generously shared information and photographs which she inherited from her uncle, Peter Young MacLaggan, who formed a close friendship with my grandfather during their service in the CMGC during the war. I have benefited on several occasions from the information on various WW1-related matters provided by the late Iain Kerr on the Great War Email Mailing List. The indefatigable Tippie from Massachusetts never shows any sign of getting fed up with my never-ending requests for look-ups of the families of CMGC soldiers, and I am very grateful for her help and patience. I would also like to express my gratitude to the many other regular chatters at JustGen, who have provided encouragement, advice and help during the course of this project. I am greatly indebted to the following who have very kindly given both help and advice regarding many aspects of my CMGC research: Norm Christie of CEF Books, Michael Butler, Cal Craig, Phil McCarty, Kim MacDonald, Terry McIntosh, Ian MacPherson, Bill Martin, Joan Miller, Bonny Pond, Jaime Cline of Marway Militaria, & Arnold Kay. The following people have responded to my requests for information about the families of former soldiers, and have generously shared their research, or put me in touch with other family members. I'm very grateful to all of them. Teri Wandless and Bert Fusk of the Office of the Mayor, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Halfdan Helgasson, Don C. Appleby, Karen E. Black, Valerie Kirkwood, Bern Tremblay, Dawn Ellis, Gary Gallant, Sébastien Comeau, Don Chapman, Roy Vopni, Valerie A. Lipsett, Kelly Kaiser & Hedley Sutton of the British Library Oriental & India Office Collections Reference Services. Dwight G. Mercer of Regina, Saskatchewan has compiled an enormous amount of data relating to his grandfather Private Richard William Mercer's service in the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade. He has graciously allowed me to include much of his material on this web site. Major J.M.G. Gagné, Vice president of L'Association du 22ième Inc. , has gone to some considerable effort to provide extracts on soldiers who were transferred to the Canadian Machine Gun Corps from the 22nd (French Canadian) Battalion. From this information kindly provided from his own research on the 22nd for over 20 years, I have been able to make many additions and corrections to my own data. Others have been touch with me, either via Email or through the Guest Book, and have made various contributions to the project. While their names will appear elsewhere on the web site, I would also like to acknowledge their efforts here: Jan Decreton, Ray Adams & John Richardson. My cousin Graham Ellison, and his mother, my aunt Bunnie Ellison, who knew Lesley Payne far better than I, have contributed the only personal accounts relating to my grandfather's WW1 experiences. None of this would have been possible without the initiation of, and continued interest in, the project by my father Bud Payne, with whom I must share any credits due. He has been instrumental in ensuring the preservation of so many documents, photographs and other artifacts, without which the stories would have been so much more difficult to research. Most of all, however, he is responsible for having sparked off the intense interest that I have in researching and documenting the lives of our ancestors. So much has already disappeared in backyard bonfires and rubbish bins, and in the memories of those who we didn't get around to talking with or writing to before it was too late. I hope that this web site will stimulate others to preserve some of the history of their forebears. |
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Last Updated on 21 July 2003 Return to the 6th Brigade CMGC Contents Page |