Collection search - MacMillan, Mary - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

MacMillan, Mary - Interview

Item number (ISN):

380576

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-07-09

Item number (ISN):

380576

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:

1974-07-09

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, William Richardson

Description:

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Mary MacMillan was born in 1894 in Beaverton, Ontario. She talks about: her father’s job as a foreman on the CNR; her siblings; her responsibility for raising her siblings when her mother died; her brothers enlisting in the First World War; her father not wanting them to enlist; how people in her community felt great sympathy for England and how Canadians were afraid of being attacked; going to Lindsay to work at the arsenal; her nerve-wracking work weighing shells; a friend who was working on a machine that blew up; how the dangerous conditions in the factory gave them a small sense of what the war was like; women working during the war; opposition to war; how people gathered in the square in Lindsay after the war, on their knees and with tears in their eyes; the promise by Colonel Sharp to bring the boys back; his committing suicide in Halifax because he could not face their families; conscription; immigrants; his brother not being able to get compensation for his war wounds, having trouble to get a job and finally leaving Canada to move to the United States, renouncing the country altogether; the United Farmers; the lasting effect of the war; her never getting over losing her brothers and her recollection of the fear she felt during the war; more about her job at the factory; anti-war sentiment; a woman who refused to train an immigrant worker; women’s jobs in factories; her work experience; unions; faint recollections of the Winnipeg General Strike; her father’s negative comments about the Russian revolution; Ontario men volunteering for military service because they thought they were fighting for the country; her brother’s spending two years in Germany; her working with a German girl; childhood memories; her brothers not getting parcels sent to them when they were overseas; her going to see the train when soldiers of the 116th Battalion embarked; how people “who had people in the war can’t forget”; and her view that women going out to work was a cause of delinquency.

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:

437698

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C02497

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

737188

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/240

Vault code:

GAT

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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