Georges Vanier Soldier

Chronicles the wartime experiences of Georges Vanier, who was Governor General of Canada from 1959 to 1967 and who served four years in the First World War.

East Sandling Camp. 1 June 1915''''Captain Boyer and I are leaving for London to buy a motor car for the regiment. We will be staying at the Savoy.''''Flanders. 27 October 1915. Diary entry: 4:00 p.m.''''Returned to the trenches. After two days of rain, they are in a deplorable state. There is mud up to our knees. The parapets have collapsed in several spots. The nights are frigid, our feet are cold, and we have not yet received our supplies of wood and charcoal.''''In the field. 1 August 1918.''''You will pardon the brevity and the looseness of this letter when you know under what conditions it has been written. What you wish to know above all I can tell you at once. I am well - in fact I do not think I have ever been quite so well in body and in spirit. I have been protected in a special manner during the last three days. I have seen so many narrow escapes myself that I am beginning to think that one should not worry much about possible eventualities.''''No. 8 British Red Cross Hospital, Boulogne. 6 September 1918.''''By this time you will have received reassuring cablegrams and field postcards and possibly letters from friends of mine.''''First, to be quite frank, I will admit that I have not been in fit condition to write a coherent letter ...

Collected in this volume are selections from addresses by His Excellency, General Georges P. Vanier, one of the most eminent public figures of Canada. His broad interests and deep involvement in all aspects of Canadian life are reflected in these speeches. A life-long concern with the importance of the family is evident in his opening talk at the Canadian Conference on the Family in 1964: "...the best and surest way of developing generous and idealistic hearts, of giving the community men and women who are well-balanced and conscious of their responsibilities to their country, is to protect the family, for the family...is capable of giving to the universe the human beings who are prepared to put justice and truth before their own personal interests." From this conference emerged the Vanier Institute of the Family. Closely allied to the Governor-General's dedication to the family was his interest in the youth of the country. During his time of office he strove continually to bring Canadians to a fuller realization of the importance of their young people: "Tell me the character of a nation's young people and I will tell you the future of the nation." The book also includes the core of the Governor General's statements on education, reflections that have special meaning for every teacher and educator in Canada. His views on public life and on the democratic ideal, and his great desire for better understanding between English and French Canadians and for the essential unity of the Canadian nation, also hold a place of prominence in these excerpts. The final section of the book is devoted to his intense concern for the spiritual side of man's existence, for the ideals and values that set man apart and allow him to hope for a better world. Dr Wilder Penfield, head of the Vanier Institute of the Family, who was a close friend of the Governor General, and Claude Ryan, editor of Le Devoir, have written forewords for the volume.

Collected in this volume are selections from addresses by His Excellency, General Georges P. Vanier, one of the most eminent public figures of Canada. His broad interests and deep involvement in all aspects of Canadian life are reflected in these speeches.

Georges and Pauline Vanier follows their lives and travels across the world - from Canadian military life to the League of Nations, from the inner circles of British government to their harrowing escape from Nazi-occupied France - detailing their disappointments and triumphs during social and political turbulence. With insight and sympathy, Mary Frances Coady tells their dramatic personal story. Revealing their remarkably vibrant personalities, she details the couple's support of the French resistance as well as Georges Vanier's pleas for the Canadian government to accept refugees fleeing Hitler's horrors and his effort to broaden immigration policy. She also recounts the importance of their religious convictions, their controversial standing among Quebecers, and their early advocacy of official bilingualism. An invigorating and well-told tale of their lasting legacies, Georges and Pauline Vanier is the definitive account of the enduring contributions the Vaniers made to the world and to their country.

There have been thousands of books on the Great War, but most have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they endured the unimaginable conditions of industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. In The Secret History of Soldiers, Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian, examines how those who survived trench warfare on the Western Front found entertainment, solace, relief, and distraction from the relentless slaughter. These tales come from the soldiers themselves, mined from the letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral accounts of more than five hundred combatants. Rare examples of trench art, postcards, and even song sheets offer insight into a hidden society that was often irreverent, raunchy, and anti-authoritarian. Believing in supernatural stories was another way soldiers shielded themselves from the horror. While novels and poetry often depict the soldiers of the Great War as mere victims, this new history shows how the soldiers pushed back against the grim war, refusing to be broken in the mincing machine of the Western Front. The violence of war is always present, but Cook reveals the gallows humour the soldiers employed to get through it. Over the years, both writers and historians have overlooked this aspect of the men's lives. The fighting at the front was devastating, but behind the battle lines, another layer of life existed, one that included songs, skits, art, and soldier-produced newspapers. With his trademark narrative abilities and an unerring eye for the telling human detail, Cook has created another landmark history of Canadian military life as he reveals the secrets of how soldiers survived the carnage of the Western Front.

Although the United States did not enter the First World War until April 1917, Canada enlisted the moment Great Britain engaged in the conflict in August 1914. The Canadian contribution was great, as more than 600,000 men and women served in the war effort—400,000 of them overseas—out of a population of 8 million. More than 150,000 were wounded and nearly 67,000 gave their lives. The war was a pivotal turning point in the history of the modern world, and its mindless slaughter shattered a generation and destroyed seemingly secure values. The literature that the First World War generated, and continues to generate so many years later, is enormous and addresses a multitude of cultural and social matters in the history of Canada and the war itself. Although many scholars have brilliantly analyzed the literature of the war, little has been done to catalog the writings of ordinary participants: men and women who served in the war and wrote about it but are not included among well-known poets, novelists, and memoirists. Indeed, we don’t even know how many titles these people published, nor do we know how many more titles were added later by relatives who considered the recollections or collected letters worthy of publication. Brian Douglas Tennyson’s The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs is the first attempt to identify all of the published accounts of First World War experiences by Canadian veterans.