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Shortly after the British declaration of war in August 1914, Canada offered an initial contingent of twenty-five thousand men for service overseas. The Canadian Expeditionary Force, as it was designated, grew in the course of the War to enroll 619,636, of whom 424,589 served overseas. The Department of Militia and Defence opened personnel files for every individual who enrolled in the CEF. The personnel files contained forms and correspondence to document the training, movement, pay, promotion, and medical status of each member of the CEF. At discharge, a number of additional documents were added to the file for medical condition at discharge, and to reconcile final pay, allowances and gratuities. After the war the various personnel files, including the overseas file, for each soldier or nursing sister were consolidated and transferred to the Public Archives of Canada. After the Second World War these files were transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs who required them to administer benefits to former service personnel. In 1947, the Department of Veterans Affairs selected individual forms from each file and destroyed the remainder of the file. They retained only the forms required to document service, length of service, conditions of service, - including injury or illness, - and the medical condition of the individual at disharge. From these selected documents they created the document envelopes now found in this accession.

NOTE: Boxes 1 to 18 of this accession have been brought to permanent status in RG150 Volumes 1 to 35.

Exhibitions note

Exhibition Title: Asian Heritage Month. Box: 6268-49 Curator: Mark Lavine, Rachelle Chiasson-Taylor. Library and Archives Canada. 2004.05.17- 2004.05.18.