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Postcard of Edmonton sent in 1917 from Canada to Private Samuel Hardman. He enlisted in the Edmonton Fusiliers just before the start of WW1. While a member of the 3rd Infantry Battalion he was captured at the Second Battle of Ypres on April 25th 1915.
A prisoner at the Magdeburg then Alten Grabow POW camps in Saxony Germany, he remained prisoner until the end of the war in 1918.
Postcard image of streetcar, horse-drawn wagon and automobile on Jasper Street Edmonton, ‘Jasper Avenue near First Street, Edmonton Alta’.
On back:
“------ British prisoner in Germany”
Mailed to
Canadian postmark ‘--------OCT 16 1917’
Stamped ‘Nicht im Gefangemenlager Magdeburg’ (Not in the Magdeburg prison camp)
Piece of paper glued to LL:
Message to Samuel:
Private Samuel Hardman (from Service Records):
Toning & smudges on back. Corner creases. Some postmark ink on front.
When the First World War broke out, the 101st Regiment (Edmonton Fusiliers) recruited a contingent to wartime establishment of over 1200 officers and men within weeks of war’s declaration and had moved to Camp Valcartier to the west of Quebec by the end of August 1914. By that time the decision had been made to create the Canadian Expeditionary Force which was to include new numbered infantry battalions which would exist only for the duration of the war. As a result, all members of the 101st were transferred into the newly created 9th Canadian Overseas Infantry Battalion, CEF. The 9th Battalion went overseas in October of 1914 but never made it to France. Instead, it became part of the Canadian Training Depot and Reserve Battalion system which supplied reinforcements to the battalions fighting in France.
https://loyaleddies.com/our-history/summary
The 3rd Battalion...arrived in England on 16 October with a strength of 42 officers and 1123 men. The battalion became part of the 1st Canadian Division, 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade where it saw action at Ypres, Vimy Ridge and along the Western Front. It was later reinforced by the 12th Canadian Reserve Battalion. 286 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion were taken prisoner during the war - all but 21 during the 2nd Battle of Ypres during April and May 1915.
The Second Battle of Ypres was fought.. from 22 April to 25 May 1915. It was the first major battle fought by Canadian troops in the Great War. The battle took place on the Ypres salient on the Western Front, in Belgium, outside the city of Ypres...The untested Canadians distinguished themselves as a determined fighting force, resisting the horror of the first large-scale poison gas attack in modern history. Canadian troops held a strategically critical section of the frontline until reinforcements could be brought in. More than 6,500 Canadians were killed, wounded or captured in the Second Battle of Ypres.
WIKIPEDIA
