WWI & WWII images of Canadian and British military history from a private collection. Will sometimes sidetrack into insignia and ephemera. Pause and reflect.

Joined June 2023
899 Photos and videos
A Canadian soldier of the 3rd Machine Gun Company wears his balmoral hat, indicating he is with a Canadian Scottish battalion. France, circa 1917. #Canada #WWI #Scotland
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An unnamed family in Canada gets a portrait taken during WWI; note that the little boy outranks his father! He wears the cap badge of the Canadian Engineers in this photo. #Canada #Family #WWI
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Lionel White was a farmer near Peterborough Ontario when he joined up in 1916. Serving in Belgium with the 93rd Battalion, he went missing during the battle of Passchendaele and was never found. #Canada #Belgium #WWI
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Canadian soldiers of the 15th (48th Highlanders of Canada) Battalion pose with an impressive display of produce, somewhere in France. #Canada #WWI #postcard
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A young unnamed @RoyalAirForce airman looking mysterious and pensive in his greatcoat, circa 1920s. #RAF
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Officer's cap badge to the 67th Western Scots battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, raised in #Victoria, #BritishColumbia. The design features a snarling cougar, numbers of which are still seen in the city every year! #WWI #FWW #Canada
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An Army Service Corps soldier stands proudly next to his Pagefield lorry. Based in Wigan, Lancashire, Pagefield Vehicles were in production from 1904 to 1966. #Wigan #Lancs #lorry
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A tight squeeze for Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson as she traverses the Panama Canal in 1931. She has canvas deck awnings rigged in the tropical heat. #RoyalNavy @HMWarships
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On the night of June 5/6, 450 men of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion drop into Normandy as part of the British 6th Airborne Division. #DDay #Canada #WW2
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June, 1918: the Major-General is not happy with the language used by #Canadians in the Second Division. #WWI @2divca_2candiv
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Canadian 'trench newspaper', "The Listening Post" dated May 18, 1916. Full of in-jokes, gossip and satires on newspaper ads--like the reference to Mulligan stew and its questionable ingredients! #Canada #WWI
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Claude Moore, born in Michigan, USA, was farming in Alberta when he joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police for overseas service (he is the man standing at the back with bandolier). He served with the Canadian Tank Corps in England. #Canada #tanks #RCMP
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Some Royal Marine Light Infantry enjoy a beer during shore leave in Nagasaki, Japan, circa 1890. @RoyalMarinesMus @TheGreenBeret #Japan
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A Pilot of the Royal Flying Corps assigned to the Italian Front, circa 1918. @RoyalAirForce #WWI #FWW #postcard
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I don't think I've ever had a card with such a cool, collected Jack Nicholson-type character! A soldier of one of #NovaScotia's highland battalions chills out in this undated Canadian-made #postcard. #WWI #FWW #Canada
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Privately purchased wrist identification tag from Alexander McMillan, born in Portree, Scotland. A bank accountant when he joined in September 1914, he was wounded in 1915 and 1918, awarded the Military Medal, and returned to Canada. #Scotland #Canada
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Update! He is Trumpeter Duly, 9th Lancers. A music hall acrobat who joined up and went to India and then Afghanistan; his daughter was also on the stage (which explains the somewhat performative air of this card). Thanks to a British collector for this info!
"My Daddy Was the Trumpeter": an old soldier (possibly of the 9th Lancers) wears his Afghan 1878 medal with three bars and the Kabul to Kandahar Star. A card which raises more questions than it answers! #England #Afghanistan #BritishArmy
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Flossie and Lizzy, bear cub mascots of the 131st Battalion in camp at Vernon, British Columbia in 1915. #Canada #WWI #bear
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Remembering Jackie Mullen, one of nine children raised by his mother (deserted by their father) in Vancouver during the Depression. Jackie was killed May 24, 1944 at the Melfa River in Italy. #Canada #Italy #Vancouver
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