Grandson Michael's Guide to the LAC War Diaries

by Grandson Michael

Library and Archives Canada has made a wealth of information available to Great War researchers, in the form of on-line War Diaries.

However, the organisation of the War Diary references, as kicked into cyberspace by the LAC, is a mess. The unit references have been uploaded in a chaotic manner and logical date sequences for some units is non-existent. When there are 159 references for a particular unit, say the Canadian Corps, then it is a time consuming job to find the one you need. For this reason I have looked at all the references, got rid of the 'ballast' and put them in a normal date sequence.

I have used the LAC Keyword list to arrange the units and hyperlinks into sections, but I'm nor really happy with their list. Some of the reasons for this should be clear when you read the following, another reason is because it is not logical and there are units missing. See this thread on the CEF Research discussion board.

The links have been classified into 33 (more or less) sections, dealing with various parts of the available CEF and BEF War Diaries. A Union Jack () beside an entry indicates that there is content pertaining to BEF units.

• Introduction: General information, links to terms and other stuff.
• Canadian Corps Diary Entries
• 1st Canadian Division Diary Entries
• 2nd Canadian Division Diary Entries
• 3rd Canadian Division Diary Entries
• 4th Canadian Division Diary Entries
• 5th Canadian Division Diary Entries
• Canadian Infantry Brigades Diary Entries
• Canadian Infantry Battalions Diary Entries
• Medical Units Diary Entries
• Dental Units Diary Entries
• Veterinary Units Diary Entries
• Machine Gun Units Diary Entries
• Artillery Units Diary Entries
• Cavalry Units Diary Entries
• Mortar Units Diary Entries
• Engineer Units Diary Entries
• Forestry Corps Diary Entries
• Supply Unit Diary Entries
• Canadian Army Service Corps Diary Entries
• Depot Battalions Diary Entries
• Ordnance Services Diary Entries
• Record Office Diary Entries
• Canadian School Diary Entries
• Canadian Concentration and Embarkation Camp Diary Entries
• Divisional Train and Ammunition Column Diary Entries
• Canadian Mounted Rifles Diary Entries
• Headquarters Diary Entries
• Progress Charts Diary Entries
• Canadian Military Districts Diary Entries
• Department of the General Auditor Diary Entries
• Miscellaneous Diary Entries
• North Russian (Siberian) Expeditionary Force Diary Entries
• British War Diaries
• References with no entries

Please address any questions, comments, accolades or offers to buy me a good beer to Grandson Michael

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