Description
This is a prayer book that was assigned to soldiers, sailors, and airmen during the Second World War. This book is inscribed with it's owners personal details ""B-18484 Sapper Smith, Ernie England Overseas 31 Six Avenue North Bay". The first page reads "Soldiers' Sailors' and Airmen's Prayer Book With the Compliments of the Knighs of Columbus Canadian Army Huts".
The donor had completed extensive research before donating to the museum.
Ernest Smith's fater's name was Stanislaw Denis Smith. He was conscripted to serve in the First World War in 1918. He returned in 1919. Ernest was born in 1918 while his father was serving in France. Adter his return to Canada Stanislaw and his wife Florence had five more children.
In 1938 Ernest married Silva Seguin- he was a labourer and she was a maid. The service took place at the church of St. Paul de Vincent. They divorced in 1957.
Sapper Smith's mother, Florence, is descended from the French Mathieu family. A descendadnt, Jean Mathieu had his passage paid from France to "New France" in 1637. His wide Anne du Tetre also sailed to Canada in 1668 from France.
Their descendants saw many conflicts in the new world.
In December 1775 they were caught smack dab in the middle of the American invasion of Quebec during the American Revolution. Aimed at striking into British-held Canada, the foray ended as a disaster for the Americans. One of the American generals was Benedict Arnold, who was severely wounded in the battle and is infamous among the Americans to this day for defecting to the British.
Many years before the invasion, Florence's ancestors--thus Sapper Ernest Smith's ancestors--were living in the heart of the North American portion of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the British and French fight to become the dominate nation of the world. In Canada the British and French goal was dominance of the continent.
Whether the Mathieus participated in the fighting is not given in the documents I found. However the battles were raging all around them, including Britain's famous capture of Quebec City in September 1759, which killed the commanding generals of both sides (James Wolfe and Marquis de Montcalm).
And the next year Florence's (and Ernest's) ancestors witnessed first-hand a naval engagement on the St. Lawrence River, the Battle of Neuville, which cemented Britain's hold on Canada, and eventually led to France being all but ousted from North America.