Collection search - Armstrong, Harold - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Armstrong, Harold - Interview

Item number (ISN):

380556

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-07-24

Item number (ISN):

380556

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:

1974-07-24

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Sharon Mintz

Description:

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Interview of Harold Armstrong, age 78, who was born in Buffalo, New York in 1896 and moved to Canada in 1900. He talks about: his parents who were Canadians; moving to Beamsville, Hamilton and then Toronto; his schooling; taking a year off school to earn money to go to university; working at the Rexall Drug Co.; enlisting in the Canadian Corps Cyclist Company in 1916; training in Toronto; sailing from Halifax for England; military training in Canada in cycling, first aid, scouting and physical training; getting used to military discipline; training at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto; going on leave; going to a burlesque theatre in Toronto; how Toronto changed into a “soldier city”; enlisting in the First World War because of feelings of patriotism for Canada; landing in England; at Bramshott camp; being put into the infantry and then back into the cyclist corps; volunteering for the machine gun corps; more on his military training; service in France; Armistice Day; ending up in Germany; living with a German family; the stricter military training in Canada than in England; following orders; the relationship with French Canadian soldiers; how he used a code to hide information in his letters to his mother about where he was when he was overseas; army pay; sending some of his pay to his mother; volunteer work performed during the war by his mother, such as knitting socks and packing boxes to send to soldiers overseas; Eaton's giving jobs back to former employees who were war veterans; his studying at the University of Toronto when he returned from the war; dropping out of university to help his family; getting a job at the lithography company Ralph Clarke Stone Limited; moving to a sales job at Litho Print Limited; various other jobs he held in the 1930s; getting a job as personnel manager at the RCAF depot in Toronto in 1939; getting a job with General Electric in 1942; working in personnel at General Electric; unions at General Electric; his moving to other jobs giving training courses; his wife's death from cancer in 1962; managing the baseball team at Ralph, Clarke and Stone; playing sports; his affection for England and its people; his family; popular leisure activities in his youth, such as picnics; corn roasts; tennis, canoeing and listening to music in the park; his view that the First World War did not cause a decline in religious belief; his friends in the cyclists' battalion; and changes in morals after the war.

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.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

437687

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C02408

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Duration:

55:00

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

737169

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/217

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

737170

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/218

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

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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