Friday 9 May 2014

A Soldier's Story: Private Frank Johns 1st Battalion Canadian Infantry pt 1

The most important part of any research project is working out how to start among the shelves upon shelves of books and records.
1914-1915 Star - authorised in 1918 for all who
 served in a theatre of war between 5.9.14 and 31.12.15
Obverse, showing name

Items such as medals are especially useful as they serve as a clear point of departure for research. For example, we have been lent a particularly poignant medal bearing a name: Private Frank Johns, no. 6352, 1st Battalion Canadian Infantry.

The records of Frank Johns's life were mostly lost, and the family were happy for us to take up the story and see what we could uncover. A few things were known, such as the fact that he emigrated from St Ives, Cornwall, to Canada, and fought and was killed in France in 1915.

In the past few months I have explored Frank John's story in more depth and I will post some of the results of the research here. It is an incredible story.

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