St. Joseph Roll of Honour Soldier Biography

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General Steps:

This project pays tribute to the staff & students who sacrificed their lives in World War II. Using documents from Veterans' Affairs and other resources, students research the life, military service, & death of a soldier on the Roll of Honour and write a biography to capture his story. The project personalizes the soldiers' experiences to make WWII more engaging. The students' biographies have been presented at PD days and other events, and will eventually be compiled into a local history book. The goal of this project is to conduct primary research on individuals who served and died in the Second World War.

Instructions to Students: You have been assigned a soldier from the St. Joseph Roll of Honour and are asked to write an essay that tells the story of this service person’s actions during the war. The information you compile will be sent to the Canada Remembers Division of Veterans Affairs Canada to become part of a national databank. In addition, the stories you tell will become part of a book to commemorate the men from St. Joseph High School who lost their lives serving our country. Soldier biographies from the St. Joseph Roll of Honour have been presented during Remembrance Day week and at Teacher Professional Development sessions. There will be other opportunities for you to share your soldier’s story.

Step One: You have been assigned the name of a service person from the St. Joseph Roll of Honour and given a service file for your individual from Veterans Affairs Canada. Read through this file carefully, making notes of the important biographical information that will help you compile a complete picture. You may highlight, make notes, etc. on the documents.

Step Two: Access the Commonwealth Graves Commission and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial websites (see the Links page on the Virtual Classroom) for more information. On the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, simply fill in the criteria for the search fields and obtain information on your service person. When completed, go to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial site of Veterans Affairs Canada and continue compiling research on your service person. Follow the criteria outlined on the templates to gather as much information as possible. The two most important pieces of information you are looking for on the latter site are the service or regimental number (e.g., 781324), which will help you obtain even more information at other Web sites, and the battalion to which your service person belonged. Once you know the specific battalion (e.g., 2nd Battalion), you can research it further on the Internet. Be very careful in copying down information.

Step Three: Once you have established the country where your service person is buried, the date of death, the number of the regiment and the battalion, you must investigate to see what battles were taking place at the time your service person died. This is going to take some time and will require organization, thorough research and deduction skills to pinpoint the battle. There are many additional websites and databases to help you understand the Second World War. Please ensure that you cite all Internet sources and the information you obtain from them correctly in your bibliography. Remember, these websites are starting points and you will need to search the Internet and databases extensively for more information on the Second World War.

Once you have established a general knowledge of the theatre of war, you will begin to work on creating a complete profile of your service person. It is important to realize that you are about to write history, bringing a face and a name as well as historical detail to an individual in your community. Until now, this individual has remained largely anonymous. You will become the expert on this service person by writing an essay and completing the templates. In the end, you will be able to describe what your service person did during the Second World War and reveal how, when, and where your service person died.

Publications that are easily accessed at school or at the local public library are important for your work. In addition, you can use:

• military history textbooks
• local newspaper obituaries (check the public library, U of A Rutherford Library or the archives)
• letters
• published histories
• unit war diaries
• relatives of the soldiers
• Ancestry.ca website

You will need to do some research on Canadian battalions and major battles of the Second World War to find out more about your soldier’s experience. Use the indexes or chapter headings in texts and databases and search for specific words such as the battle in which your service person died (e.g., Dieppe), the battalion (e.g., 2nd Battalion), or the division (e.g., 1st Division). You may not be able to locate your service person exactly, but if you know the battalion and the date of death, you can cross-reference that information to specific battles. By using these research techniques you will gain a better understanding of what happened to your service person.

Step Four: Once again, examine the documents contained in your service person's military file sent to you from Library and Archives Canada. Once you have done this, you are ready to write the history of your service person, drawing from all the information you have gleaned from the military file, textbooks and Internet sites.

Step Five: When completing your project, please use the template provided - you should include photos, if you are able to find some. 

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