Emigrants join up
‘He loved Canada, his adopted home, and died for his native country’
Inscription on Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission tombstone to Private C G Stiff, the Canadian Expeditionary Force
Over one million men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa volunteered for the First World War. Many were men who had previously emigrated from Britain to other parts of the Empire. Some came home to join a British regiment. Others joined the armed forces of their adopted home.
Leonard Hill, from St Paul’s in Bristol, moved to Canada in 1912. Working on a farm belonging to relatives when war started, he joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles.
It wasn’t only men who helped the war effort. Mildred Stephens was a Bristolian who emigrated to New Zealand before the war. She joined the New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood and worked in Serbia and Salonika. The war memorial in Fishponds, Bristol, includes the names of three local men who fought and died in the Australian and Canadian forces. Many others are buried or remembered across Bristol.
Over one million men from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa volunteered for the First World War. Many were men who had previously emigrated from Britain to other parts of the Empire. Some came home to join a British regiment. Others joined the armed forces of their adopted home.
Leonard Hill, from St Paul’s in Bristol, moved to Canada in 1912. Working on a farm belonging to relatives when war started, he joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles.
It wasn’t only men who helped the war effort. Mildred Stephens was a Bristolian who emigrated to New Zealand before the war. She joined the New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood and worked in Serbia and Salonika. The war memorial in Fishponds, Bristol, includes the names of three local men who fought and died in the Australian and Canadian forces. Many others are buried or remembered across Bristol.