Collection search - Military service [textual record, graphic material, cartographic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Military service [textual record, graphic material, cartographic material]

Hierarchical level:

Series

Date:

1939-1948.

Reference:

R13619-3-5-E

Type of material:

Photographs, Textual material, Maps and cartographic material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

4015703

Context of this record:

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Bill Boss fonds

Military service
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Record information – Details

Series includes:

12 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1939-1948.

Place of creation:

United Kingdom

Extent:

0.13 m of textual records.
1 photograph : b&w contact sheet.
5 maps : printed.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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The series consists of records of Bill Boss's service in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. It documents his wartime service from his commissioning in the militia as a Lieutenant in the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment to his official discharge in June 1944 to serve as a War Correspondent in the European theatre for Canadian Press. Most of the records cover his service as a Public Relations Officer with the 4th Canadian Armoured Division from early 1942 and later with the 1st Canadian Division in the Italian campaign. These include routine orders, memoranda, correspondence, and other records of organization and administration pertaining to PR officers and more specifically drafts of articles written for "The Maple Leaf" and captions of army photographs. Short biographies of Brigadier J. D. S. Smith and Major General Bert Hoffmeister are of interest and, in particular, the controversy over the content and editing of his biography of Hoffmeister. There is also evidence of his collaboration with his father, Major William Boss, in the Army Historical Section, in the preparation of a proposed pamphlet called "Our Sicilian Neighbours" based on his letters to his father. Other records relating to the Historical Section include captions for photographs and page proofs of the booklet "The Canadians in Britain, 1939-1944"; and maps for "From Pachino to Ortona, 1943".

The series also holds course materials for militia training with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and his detailed manuscript notes on his officer training. There is some overlap in the files for mid to late 1944 between his Army Public Relations Officer work and his reporting for Canadian Press. The CP material includes drafts of some of Boss's first stories for them with Gillis Purcell's editorial notes on the drafts.

Container note(s):

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17 : Holds two files of oversize textual documents.
17 : The maps are in file 7-5.

Source:

Private
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Conditions of access:

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Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R13619] 9

[Consultation 90 Open]

Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R13619]

[Consultation 90 Open]

8--9;

[Consultation 90 Open]

17;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Cartographic material

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R13619]

[Consultation 90 Open]

17 File number 5

[Consultation 90 Open]

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24