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H.S. Cooper:
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Leo Lasner:
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Vick Lewis:
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Images of Perspectives on War

Photograph of three Canadians buying chewing gum and fruit from two French girls carrying gas masks over their shoulders, July 1917

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Photograph of two Canadians examining a skull, Vimy Ridge, April 1917

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Photograph of Canadians of the 11th Battalion conducting their kit inspection, Valcartier, Quebec, September 1914

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Photograph of Canadians salvaging equipment from the battlefield, July 1916

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Photograph of a Canadian wounded in the shoulder receiving first aid, September 1918

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Photograph of a Canadian sitting on and tapping an unexploded shell with a tool while his comrade stands watching, July 1917

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Perspectives on War

"Well the way in which you could scrounge…, would be to first of all to scrounge some kind of transportation…." -- H.S. Cooper, 3rd Battalion

"Why is it that returned men always talk on the funny side of life?"
-- Vick Lewis, 4th Battalion

"You can't define death all the time…."
-- Leo Lasner, 22nd Battalion

Recollections of Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) Veterans provide a deeper, broader, and more personal account of life during the years of the First World War, 1914-1918. These memories and anecdotes offer another way of understanding what war really is. The everyday events and tasks that these veterans carried-out create a back drop of reality for military life and the attitudes towards duty and warfare.

There are variety of emotions experienced during the calm and wild times of war, some of which are loss and sacrifice, and a desire to just live and return home. These first-hand accounts of CEF Veterans temper the romanticized view of soldiering and warfare and add a level of complexity and humanity that official histories seldom touch upon.