Remembrance Day: An Essential Resource Guide for Media

This web page illustrates, through our collections, the many roles that Canadian men and women played during the First World War, and the defining mark that the war left on our society. Consult Canada and the First World War.

This web page tells how to access military service files and features virtual exhibitions, Flickr albums and official histories of the Second World War. Consult Canada and the Second World War.

From the start of the First World War, Canadian Expeditionary Force units were required to maintain a daily account of their “Actions in the Field”—commonly referred to as a War Diary. This database contains the digitized war diaries of Canadian Expeditionary Force infantry, artillery and cavalry units, brigade, division and corps commands, as well as support units such as railway and forestry troops.

This online memorial features the stories of 100 people who personally experienced the First World War. All of the stories are biographical in nature and compiled largely from original military records, photographs, census records and other historical materials held here at Library and Archives Canada.

In 2013, we committed to digitizing all of the Canadian Expeditionary Force service files by the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. We started by removing pins, clips and staples, as well as adhesive, to prepare all 622,290 files for digitization. The project is 100% complete; you can consult the Personnel Records of the First World War on our website.

Invite your audience to take the challenge to transcribe, translate, tag and/or describe these military records. The more work we collaborate on using the Co-Lab crowdsourcing tool, the more accessible and usable our digital collection will become for everyone.

Correspondence regarding First Nations Veterans returning after the First World War

The records in this challenge (still to come) were created by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (then known as the Department of Indian Affairs) after the war and document the federal government’s tracking of First Nation soldiers’ lives after they returned to their homes and communities. Consult Correspondence regarding First Nations Veterans returning after the First World War.

The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters

It was not only men who served in the First World War or “Great War.” Over 2,000 women also enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and went overseas. Check out the letters, diaries and photographs of Canadian nursing sisters who served during the Great War. Follow these nurses as they witness the destruction of war, participate in social events, and help patients. Consult The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters.