eBay has a beautiful 76th Battalion Historical Record, complete with named photos (it seems). caveat: I have no connection to the seller, just wish I was interested in the 76th to take advantage of this!

Link: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13963&item=6541425548&rd=1

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In memory of Pte. Karl Broznitsky 417854 CEF (1895-1977), 41st Btn, 3rd Pioneer Btn, 29th Vancouver Btn, Cdn Forestry Corps; http://www.russiansinthecef.ca
and Pte. John Mitson 5838 BEF (1879-1924), 1st Btn Manchester Regt, severely wounded at Givenchy 1914-12-21.

Peter, I just wish I had unlimited funds to buy items like this!

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Peter.

For anyone interested in bidding on it, I did a quick check on abebooks and the going rate for this book is between $135 and $195 Canadian.

marc

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Researching the men from South West Quebec who served in the Great War
www.canadianGreatWarProject.com

Out of curiosity is this one volume (1915-16) of two (1917-18)?
I've really got to get some disposable income.
Neil

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http://www.cefresearch.ca

One of the 85th Battalion Pictorial records just sold for $306.00 U.S. Last week. I am glad I got all mine when they were a great deal cheaper.

Regards
Stephen

Neil, this looks to be the 1916 version

marc

_________________
Researching the men from South West Quebec who served in the Great War
www.canadianGreatWarProject.com

Hi everyone

Well, I had typed out a whole long message and then lost it when I got interrupted and subsequently timed out So, here goes again

I have an original photo of the No. 14 Platoon, 76th Battalion, C.E.F. Niagara Camp, Oct. 26, 1915. Photo by P. Figary, 590 Yonge St. Toronto

Names are listed as follows:
Top Row
J. McLaughlan, B. Copeland, O. l'earson, J.C. Palmer, E. Baverstock, N. Archibald, H. Smith, R. Parker, W. S. McKay, A. Miller, C.H. Flood, N. Freeman, H. S. Mills, A. Beard.
Second Row
H. Norman, G. Dale, J. Burton, C.S. Brady, R.H.Hughs, S.P. Hannah, W. Appleyard, K. Coxe, J.W. Hamilton, H.C. Sinclair, W.I. Henry, W.H. Willard, W.H., Beckett.
Third Row
A. Mears, A. Hughs, Lce-Corp. H. Richardson, Corp. H.S. Johnson, Sergt. M. Fenton, Lieut. T. D. MacMillan, Sergt. F. W. Ambrose, Corp. J. Lecocq, Lce-Corp. F. C. White, Lce-Corp. W.D. Street, J. Smith.
Bottom Row
T. Hartshorne, J. Presswood, J. Barefoot, G. Garvin, T. Allen, W. Clendenning.

The photo is in amazing shape with one small mark, unfortunately on J. Presswood's face.

My great-great uncle was Hugh Sinclair. Service No. 142298 - enlisted with the 76th Bn but obviously transferred to the 24th Bn (2nd Division under Major General R.E.W. Turner of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, 5th Brigade) where he subsequently died on September 17, 1916 during the Battle of Somme. From reading the war diaries I have made an educated guess that Hugh died near the Sugar Refinery in the Village of Courcelette on the afternoon of September 17th.

I did find out that his name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial and apparently there is also a memorial in the village of Courcelette. Hope to go there one day and see it for myself - give tribute to a family member that died so young.

This photo came down to me through the generations - it's been in the family since my great-great uncle went to war, originally with my great-great grandmother and then to my great-grandmother whom I knew very well. (4 generations of us lived in the same home at one point , great grandparents, grandmother, my mother and my sisters and I). My great-grandmother was a Sinclair from the St. Catherine's, Bowmanville area of Ontario. As a little girl I knew this picture from my great-grandmother's bedroom wall where she had it hanging along with a duo portrait of her husband and her brother (Hugh) in their uniforms. There was always a poppy placed in the corner of the portrait.

So, basically this picture has been passed down through the generations from mother to daughter. Fitting, given that my g-g uncle died so young and without issue (unmarried).

Anyway, for anyone interested, I am most willing to scan and email a copy - once I've carefully removed the back of the picture

Cheers, Shelley

Man, would have liked to have gotten that book. Bidding closed long before I even got word of it. We have so little info on my uncle it would have been nice to see if there was anything in there about him.

Oh well

Shelley

Shelley, why don't you try contacting the winning bidder and see if he is willing to do a lookup for you? The eBay item link is still active and has the bidder's contact link.

_________________
In memory of Pte. Karl Broznitsky 417854 CEF (1895-1977), 41st Btn, 3rd Pioneer Btn, 29th Vancouver Btn, Cdn Forestry Corps; http://www.russiansinthecef.ca
and Pte. John Mitson 5838 BEF (1879-1924), 1st Btn Manchester Regt, severely wounded at Givenchy 1914-12-21.

Great minds think alike and all that

I sent off a quick message to the winning bidder asking if he/she would be willing to share info from the book. So, let's hope

In the meantime, I'm working on that picture

cheers, Shelley

Hi Everyone

I've uploaded a jpg of the battalion picture (No. 14 Platoon) as saved for web. This isn't really a printable version - anyone wishing to have that should contact me so I can send a better version in one of a number of formats including PSD, TIF, or better quality JPG.

Picture can be viewed at: http://www.internavigate.com/cefresearch/76battalioncef.html

I scanned it at a res of 720 so I do have a higher quality version available. But I still need to do work on it. Scanning required dividing it in two and the leakage of light (due to the size of picture and thickness of backing) affects the picture. I amended this slightly by desaturating the colour in Photoshop. However, you can still see where I have joined the two scanned sections. I hope to do better later - it just requires time and I'm getting a chorus of I'm hungry's right now

Once I have a better version I'll post that and as Chris Wright suggested to me awhile ago, send it to the Great War Forum

Cheers, Shelley

A photocopy of the Historical Record for the 76th Battalion can be obtained from the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions for about $30. The book contains little information about individual soldiers, however.

thanks Ken - I did come a bit to my senses after writing that - there were quite a few men in that bn and my great-uncle being a lowly OR would have little significance Just wishful thinking on my part. However your suggestion about the photocopy of the historical record is a good one and I will probably go that route. the book on ebay was sold immediately to another party as well.

S

"The book contains little information about individual soldiers, however."

While the subject is up...

I remember seeing a commercial description of the re-edition of a book, mentioning that it contained "many references to individual soldiers". When I borrowed a copy from LAC, I got the information I wanted, but as far as information on "many" individual soldiers... Well, fair enought, 20 can qualify as "many". But it is a great selling line.

Just remember that a front line battallion consumed thousands of men, so the chance of finding great-grand-father-who-didn't-win-a-V.C. mentioned in a/the book are... slim at best. Even if it contained 100 mentions of individual soldiers!

This said, it does not take away from the intrinsinct value of the books. My best advice is, try getting it on a library, or inter-library, loan and then decide if it's worth buying to you.

And don't underestimate inter-libraries loans, I got one book shipped from Regina U., and I am in Quebec... Cost: 1$. And got many original editions from LAC, complete with yellowed/browned pages and musty smell, the same way. But keep in mind that late fees on inter-library loans may be steeper!

So before surrendering to "Many references to individual soldiers", all 20 of them...

Pascal

I have a PDF copy of the 76th Battalion's Historical Record and there is a copy on the web somewhere as well. Just adding this as an addendum for anyone doing research and coming across the original posting in this discussion - fairly heft file size but available all the same for those interested. Send me a msg if you're interested