Collection search - Campbell, Katy - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Campbell, Katy - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379308

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-06-10

Item number (ISN):

379308

Link to related resource:

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-06-10

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Catherine MacLeod

Description:

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Interview of Mrs. Katy I. Campbell of Toronto, age 75, who was born in Meaford, Ontario in 1899. She worked in a blanket-making mill in Meaford during World War One. She talks about: her early life on a small farm near Meaford; working at the mill to make blankets for soldiers; her two brothers going overseas with the Grey Regiment from Owen Sound; women working to meet the demand for war materials; enlistment in small towns, where one man would enlist and the others followed; antagonism towards Germans in Canada; a German doctor in Meaford; people not referring to their German ancestors; her brothers’ pre-war activities; her brother coming home early from overseas because he was gassed; feelings of patriotism; conscription of boys from small towns; her brother coming home as a war hero and then dying in the influenza epidemic; people not coming near their house because they were afraid of getting the flu; a torchlight parade in Meaford to welcome her brother when he returned from the war; meeting her husband, who served in a Kiltie regiment and was left for dead, buried alive in a trench; moving to Paris, Ontario to work in a needle factory; meeting her husband there; her husband’s attractiveness, not only because he was handsome but because he was a returned soldier; the respect people felt for returned soldiers; the lack of work for returned soldiers; her husband’s job as a salesman before he went overseas; working conditions in the needle factory; doing piecework to earn extra money from home after she married; being too busy raising her family to notice any labour unrest in Canada; attitudes to women in the workforce; her preference for factory work over domestic work; her view that the First World War changed Canadian society but not as much as the Second World War did; Canadian pride in fighting for England; her husband not wanting to be a sergeant and hating to be the only soldier who returned after a mission; conscription rallies in Meaford, where there were speeches, recitals and the singing of military songs; girls who painted yellow streaks down men’s backs because they were not in uniform; women knitting socks and packing boxes to send to soldiers overseas; her mother’s opinion that girls should work in hotels or restaurants or speak to commercial travellers; social activities such as dances; sneaking out to go to dances; returned soldiers moving to Flint, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan to work in car factories because they could not find work at home; resentment by some people in Meaford over this; her wartime sweetheart and how their relationship broke up while he was overseas because his mother wrote that Katy was not being true to him, which was a lie; the hardships suffered by girls who married soldiers, got pregnant and had to raise the children while their husbands were overseas; her view that this caused marriage troubles after the war; grandmothers helping to take care of their children; borrowing money; and reading newspaper coverage about the suffragette movement.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.
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Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-06-0038

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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Date modified:: 2024-07-04