Library and Archives Canada - Thesis Canada Portal
This the central access point for many Canadian theses and information about the Theses Canada program. From here you will be able to: Search AMICUS, Canada's national on-line catalogue for bibliographic records of all theses in Library and Archives Canada's theses collection, which was established in 1965; and access and search the full text electronic versions of numerous Canadian theses and dissertations. [Recommendation by Ken Reynolds][CEF Study Group - July 2006]
NOTE 1 - The electronic theses and dissertations on this site are for the personal use of students, scholars and the public. Any commercial use, publication or lending of them in libraries is strictly prohibited.
NOTE 2 - I have selected some of the Great War theses for your information. Some theses can be downloaded directly while others are available on microfiche or can be purchased in paper form. [CEF Study Group]
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/thesescanada/s4-230-e.html
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AMICUS No. 25363972
NAME(S): *Foyn, Sean Flynn, 1963-
TITLE(S): The underside of glory: AfriCanadian enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1917
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--University of Ottawa, 2000.
E-LOCATIONS: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ48151.pdf
STUDENT ABSTRACT: On March 28, 1917, the officers and men of the Number Two Construction Battalion (No. 2 CB) sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). The departure of the No. 2 CB marked a turning point in a three year battle over AfriCanadian volunteers in the CEF. Although there were no official policies preventing AfriCanadian enlistments, many AfriCanadian volunteers learned early in the War that racist military and civilian officials did not want a "Checker board army" and that it was a "White man's war." Nevertheless, AfriCanadians and their supporters persistently sought enlistments. In the process they exposed the racist underside of Canada's war-time glory. Eventually, the No. 2 CB, a segregated non-combat unit was authorized. Although the No. 2 CB was not the military objective AfriCanadians had fought for, it was one of the few options available for AfriCanadians who wanted to 'do their bit' for Canada during the 'Great War.' As part of a small, yet, slowly developing body of work related to the AfriCanadian wartime experience, this thesis examines the key personalities and events that fostered the creation and recruitment of Canada's only AfriCanadian overseas military unit. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
AMICUS No. 28420197
NAME(S): *Mantle, Craig Leslie, 1977-
TITLE(S): Bagpipes and limestone: the history of the 253rd Battalion, Queen's University Highlanders, C.E.F
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--Queen's University at Kingston, 2002.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: Securing an adequate number of volunteers during the latter stages of the First World War presented the 253rd Battalion, Queen's University Highlanders, CEF, with a nearly insurmountable challenge. Between October 1916 and April 1917, the 253rd employed a variety of recruiting techniques that not only emphasized the Battalion's distinct highland character, but also required individual soldiers, regardless of rank, to broach the question of enlistment with their acquaintances. Although Kingston's merchant-class and civic leadership launched a number of initiatives calculated to increase the Battalion's strength, their lack of commitment to these endeavours allowed the burden of recruiting to fall almost exclusively to the Highlanders themselves. On the whole, the Battalion's efforts proved more effective in encouraging men to enlist than the schemes put forth by local citizens or community organizations. Owing to the need for manpower, the Highlanders pursued an aggressive recruiting campaign throughout Ontario and most of the western provinces. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 30951743
NAME(S): *Wilson, John Jason Collins, 1970-
TITLE(S): Soldiers of song: the Dumbells and other Canadian concert parties of the First World War
UBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--University of Guelph, 2004.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: To optimize the fighting potential of Canadian soldiers in the First World War, organized 'concert parties' of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (CEF) satisfied an official military mandate of raising the morale of Canadian soldiers. Ironically, concert party performers were able to achieve this aim by mocking the military system and its high ranking officers. Many officers were aware of the subversive material found in the concert parties' performances, but chose to ignore it, because of its positive effect on troop morale. The comedic material of both Canadian and British concert parties transformed over the course of the war from the light fare offered in the British Music Hall, to a darker humour that was 'exclusive' to Frontline soldiers. The exclusive nature of soldier humour was not only effective in raising the morale of the troops, but also forged an enduring and vital bond between soldier-entertainers and their audiences. Following the war, civilian audiences were introduced to the Dumbells and their sardonic interpretation of the 'Great War', largely through those soldiers who had seen the concert party perform in France. Among the pioneers of sketch comedy, the Dumbells are as important to the history of Canadian theatre, as they are to the country's social and cultural history. If nationhood was won on the crest of Vimy Ridge, it was the Dumbells who provided the country with its earliest soundtrack.
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AMICUS No. 15445751
NAME(S): *Mein, Stewart A. G
TITLE(S): A grand experiment: adult education in the Canadian overseas military forces during the First World War
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University, 1994.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the origin and growth of the adult education movement in the Canadian overseas military forces in the First World War, as presented through official military documents and the letters written by two of the principal participants, Clarence MacKinnon, then Principal of Pine Hill Divinity School, Halifax and Edmund Oliver, then Principal of St. Andrew's Theological College, Saskatoon. The dissertation outlines the scope of the adult education movement in the CEF in World War One, tracing four distinct phases of development of the movement. The first of these phases began in August, 1914, at Camp Valcartier, and grew out of the YMCA's mandate to provide educational activity to the CEF. In the second phase of adult education activity, Khaki Colleges were instituted in the 5th Canadian Division in Witley Camp, in Britain, by Clarence MacKinnon and spread to other camps through the work of the Chaplain Service. The third phase took place in France, in the Canadian Corps, where the University of Vimy Ridge was formed by E. H. Oliver under the direction of General Lipsett of the 3rd Canadian Division. In the fourth phase, the Khaki University was instituted in Britain by the Canadian Education Service under H. M. Tory in early 1918. The Khaki University absorbed the Khaki Colleges in Britain and the University of Vimy Ridge in France and began work in the other units in France such as the Forestry Corps. This dissertation puts forward three conclusions about the adult education movement in the Canadian overseas forces during the First World War. First, Henry Marshall Tory, then Principal of the University of Alberta, is usually given credit for starting the adult education movement in the CEF during World War One. Although Tory was one of the founders of the educational movement, evidence, primarily their own words, indicates that Clarence MacKinnon and E. H. Oliver did the work that turned his planning into actuality. Secondly, although it can be accurately said that the adult education movement in the Canadian forces overseas provided the impetus for similar movements in other armies, it has been generally understood that it was the activity of the Khaki University in Britain under Tory that provided the basis for the adult education activity that spread throughout the British and Dominion armies and then to other armies of the world. In fact, it was the work of Oliver and the University of Vimy Ridge that became the "model" for educational work in the British and Dominion field armies. Finally this dissertation also shows that although the adult education movement overseas provided the impetus for similar activity in other armies around the world, it had little effect on the post-war, re-establishment activity in Canada, or on subsequent adult educational activity in the post-war Canadian civilian or military adult education community until World War Two.
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AMICUS No. 30722096
NAME(S): *Fitch, Benjamin T. E. (Benjamin Thomas Edward), 1975-
TITLE(S): Doing their duty: politics and recruitment in the Maritimes during World War I
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--University of Calgary, 2003.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on the Maritime response to the First World War in the context of the greater English-Canadian reaction to and support for the war. With this object in mind, it uses established gauges of support for the war: enlistment in the CEF and support Union government in 1917 federal election. The study illustrates the marginal character of English Canada's oldest region and the implications of Maritime marginalization for proportional representation in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). Recruitment in the Maritimes was proportionally similar to the rest of English Canada despite a bias towards Maritime units, an insignificant British-born population, and a significant French speaking population. For their part, the Maritime election results demonstrate the crucial importance of regional Liberal leadership to the success of the Union cause by juxtaposing the success in New Brunswick with the apparent failure of Union in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In contrast to historical and scholarly perceptions to the contrary, this thesis ultimately argues that despite regional nuances, the Maritime response the Great War was basically the same as other regions of English Canada.
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AMICUS No. 15474025
NAME(S): *Inglis, Dave, 1969-
TITLE(S): Vimy Ridge, 1917-1992: a Canadian myth over seventy five years
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--Simon Fraser University, 1995.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: 1992 was the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation and the 75th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. Some historians have argued that the latter anniversary was more important as they believe that it was during the Great War that Canada became "a nation". While this belief is often specifically anchored on Vimy Ridge, Canadians are generally unaware of Vimy and the Great War experience. Nevertheless, the Vimy myth persists in Canadian military histories and reappears in other sources on major anniversaries. To investigate this contradiction, this thesis traces the origins and development of the Vimy myth from its foundations in the period between Confederation and the Great War to its 75th anniversary. The life of the myth is accessed through an extensive historiographical survey of Canadian military histories, Canadian newspapers, British Columbian high-school textbooks and other primary and secondary sources. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 13121729
NAME(S): *Chappelle, Dean Andrew, 1968-
TITLE(S): The most brilliant of successes: the planning and implementation of the Battle of Amiens, 8-11 August, 1918
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Brunswick, 1992.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This thesis attempts to shed light on the development of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and its component parts, particularly the Canadian Corps, as a fighting unit through a study of its most successful operation of the War, the Battle of Amiens, 8-11 August 1918. Through an examination of secondary sources, government documents, and personal papers, both in Canada and in Britain, a clearer picture is drawn of the Battle of Amiens, the development of the BEF and of the Great War in general. The secondary sources are lacking in many cases in their presentation of these topics, particularly the planning stages of the battle. In short, Amiens demonstrated that the BEF improved greatly in the course of the War, particularly since the disastrous Battle of the Somme two years before. The success of the Amiens battle was indeed largely the result of increased British effectiveness, but other factors, such as the weakness of the German Army by mid-1918, were also important. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 32119386
NAME(S): *Holden, Michael James, 1977-
TITLE(S): Constantly shifting and constantly adapting [microform] : the tactical exploits of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades, 1914-1918
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : Library and Archives Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Brunswick, 2003.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: The Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade has long been seen as one of the great innovations of the First World War, 1914-1918. Mounted in lightly armoured vehicles, the CMMG Brigades (the Motors) could quickly bring to bear the firepower of their machine guns in a number of locations. However, upon arrival in Belgium and France in 1915 rather than a battlefield suited to the movement of autocars, the brigade found a static battlefield characterized by miles of trenches and barbed wire. Accordingly, it has been held that the Motors were relatively ineffective until open fighting returned to the Western Front in 1918. The common view is that the 'golden time' of the CMMGB occurred when they helped stem the tide during the German offensives of spring 1918, but that the unit then failed to achieve a similar standard of effectiveness during the Allied offensives of the final months of the war. Recently historians have begun to examine 1918 in terms of effective Allied tactical learning and operational planning, and have accepted the idea that the Hundred Days Campaign of August to November 1918 represented something different from the attrition battles of 1916 and 1917. Indeed, it has been argued that the final British (and therefore Canadian) assaults of 1918 represented, the culmination of a long and effective learning process. Yet the same analysis has not been used with respect to the CMMGB. In fact, it has been suggested that the Motors never adapted to the more fluid offensives of the final phase of the war. The aim of this work is to study the development and adaptability of the Motor Machine Gun Brigade in the context of the entire war. Moreover, the thesis supports the 'revisionist' school by demonstrating that the Motors are a classic example of effective tactical development during the war, that they made the transition to open warfare during the Hundred Days Campaign, and were illustrative of the new style of war that the Allies used in 1918 to beat the Germans.
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AMICUS No. 27758682
NAME(S): *Iarocci, Andrew, 1976-
TITLE(S): The Mad Fourth: the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion at war, 1914-1916
E-LOCATIONS: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp
05/MQ65199.pdf
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--Wilfrid Laurier University, 2001.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This thesis offers an analysis of the experience of the men who served in the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion from the outbreak of war in 1914 to the final weeks of the Somme offensive in October 1916. The research is based on the best available archival sources and is informed by the most important secondary literature dealing with operations on the Western Front. Canadian historians have generally avoided the study of the Great War at the battalion level, preferring to write about generalship or operations at the Corps level. This has left the task of writing about combat to those concerned with personal memoirs and anecdotal accounts of life at the sharp end. This case study of the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion presents evidence which challenges many of the conventional arguments employed by military historians describing the war from the top down. The thesis also addresses the age-old question of the role of leadership in war, arguing that the battalion experienced a variety of leadership styles. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 24733210
NAME(S): *Miller, Ian Hugh Maclean
TITLE(S): 'Our glory and our grief':Toronto and the Great War
E-LOCATIONS: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tap
e9/PQDD_0015/NQ44830.pdf
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wilfrid Laurier University, 1999.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This dissertation studies the impact of the Great War on Toronto, Ontario. What happened in the city? How were the enormous sacrifices of the war rationalized? Why did English-Canadians support it? What did citizens know about the war? The dissertation draws upon a wide and varied source base. 'Every ' issue of the following newspapers was examined: the six Toronto daily papers, 'The Weekly Sun', 'Macleans', 'The Industrial Banner', 'Everywoman's World', 'The Labour Gazette', and the religious periodicals of major religious denominations in the city. In addition, extensive searches were conducted in the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario, the Public Archives of Canada, Baldwin Reading Room, Directorate of History, University of Toronto Archives and Thomas Fisher Rare Book Room, and related church archives. Using these public and private sources, a complex portrait of wartime life has been drawn detailing what residents 'knew', and how they 'behaved'. The narrative is informed by social, cultural, military, labour, and women's historiographies. Throughout the war, English-Canadian Torontonians reacted in a manner which was both informed and committed. Initially, they expected the war would be short. However, when military events demonstrated that an ad hoc, voluntary approach would be insufficient to meet the increasing demands of the war, they adapted. Voluntary organizations gradually gave way to popularly sanctioned government involvement in everything from the financing to the supplying of men for the war. This was a community which was firmly dedicated to winning the war. Despite its enormous cost, citizens endured.
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AMICUS No. 18225882
NAME(S): *McCulloch, Ian M., 1954-
TITLE(S): The Fighting Seventh : the evolution & devolution of tactical command and control in a Canadian infantry brigade of the Great War
E-LOCATIONS: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq22774.pdfPUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--Royal Military College of Canada, 1997.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the complex gray area of Canadian command and control in the First World War within an infantry brigade and its evolution at the tactical level as well as its devolution of functions and responsibilities. Command as an effective process is susceptible to Clausewitz's "friction of war". External factors causing friction range from the technical (eg. the lack of voice communications beyond the battalion HQ) to the sociological (eg. the human dimension of "leadership" or, perhaps, shoddy staff work). Organizational changes, technological innovations and measures taken to enhance command and control systems were attempts to apply more control to a chaotic battlefield. Artillery fire support, intelligence-gathering, aerial and ground reconnaissance, telephones and the development of wireless, the employment of machine-guns and tanks, and the trend towards combined arms warfare are all examples of catalysts that designed the shape of the new modern warfare and are examined in this thesis on a chronological basis. Accompanying the new design was a requirement for a shift in the application of command techniques or "the process" to control the new tactical systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 18224130
NAME(S): *Newell, M. Leslie (Margaret Leslie), 1954-
TITLE(S): Led by the spirit of humanity: Canadian military nursing, 1914-1929
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
NOTES: Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Ottawa, 1996.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: This study examines Canadian military nursing from the onset of the 1914 Great War to the end of the first post-War decade in 1929. Its purpose is to focus on the experience of military nursing in an attempt to discover the specifics of the profession, particularly during the interwar years, and to analyze the factors that affected military nursing during that era. The analysis of military nursing in context with the era revealed three main conclusions. First, unlike the peacetime experience, military nursing during the Great War was a professionally and culturally liberating experience that set Military Nurses apart from their civil peers. Unfortunately, during the interwar years, the re-instatement of Nursing Sisters to pre-War military positions of administration, removed them from the clinical setting, was deleterious to the profession, and did not accord them the opportunity to apply the practice element of their profession. Second, the introduction of non-commissioned men as hospital orderlies provided the major hospital military workforce that maintained the Nursing Sister's distance from the bedside and usurped them of their clinical focus and the opportunity to provide patient care. As an unfavorable offshoot to this, Military Nurses were restricted to administration. Without a practice component to their profession, Military Nurses had little in common with their civil peers who were actively engaged in practice and in activities to advance the profession. Last, the limitation imposed upon Nursing Sisters' by their appointment of relative rank precluded them from advancing within the military organization, from participating in the re-structuring of the CAMC and from influencing any policy that affected patient services or the Nursing profession. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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AMICUS No. 13553778
NAME(S): *Shannon, Mark, 1967-
TITLE(S): The First World War and German strategy: evolution of the concept of total war, 1919-1936
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Calgary, 1993.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: During the interwar period German strategy reflected the principal lesson of the First World War--warfare was total, that is it involved the mobilization of a nation's entire physical, moral, and spiritual forces. Under no circumstances could Germany afford to approach the subject of strategy in the same deluded manner in which it had prior to 1914. The First World War had clearly shown the German military establishment that the concept of nineteenth century cabinet warfare had long since been rendered obsolete. The military believed that if they were again to plan for a limited military conflict then a disaster greater than 1918 would occur. In order to avoid this disaster Germany must prepare in peacetime for a lengthy military conflict which would involve all facets of the population. In this way, Germany would possess an integrated means to wage a war which would seek to again make Germany a great European power.
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AMICUS No. 31076099
NAME(S): *Harding, Robert James Allen, 1980-
TITLE(S): Glorious tragedy: Newfoundland's cultural memory of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel, 1916-1949
PUBLISHER: Ottawa : National Library of Canada
SERIES: Canadian theses = Thèses canadiennes.
NOTES: Thesis (M.A.)--Dalhousie University, 2004.
STUDENT ABSTRACT: On 1 July 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment was slaughtered at Beaumont Hamel, France in its bloodiest battle of the First World War. Today the battle is remembered by Newfoundlanders as the worst catastrophe in their island's history and as the single event which instigated a chain of events that led to the island's loss of responsible government in 1933 and Confederation with Canada in 1949. Beaumont Hamel was once proclaimed as Newfoundland's proudest national achievement. Between 1916 and 1949 an assortment of Newfoundland mythmakers utilized newspaper editorial columns, commemorative ceremonies, historical literature, and war memorials to generate a triumphant cultural memory of the conflict that was built almost entirely upon a mythologized interpretation of Beaumont Hamel. Similarly to Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, Newfoundland attempted to find a deeper meaning in a war which cost more than anyone imagined a war ever could.
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