Collection search - Sager, Elmer - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Sager, Elmer - Interview

Item number (ISN):

380571

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-06-19

Item number (ISN):

380571

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:

2 of 2

Production date:

1974-06-19

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, William Richardson

Description:

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Elmer Sager, age 76, was born in Wentworth Country in 1898. He talks about: his parents; his father remembering the American Civil War; his quitting school at age 14 to help his father on the family farm; the decision to sell the farm because his father’s health was poor; his mother’s weekly routine; his early education; recollections of his teachers; his high school education; the lack of educational opportunities for country children; changes in rural life over time; labor-saving devices; the rarity of automobiles in rural areas before the First World War; greater prosperity during the war; studying at Hamilton Collegiate; more about his leaving school as a teenager to help his father on the farm; predictions by many people when the war broke out that it would last only three years; his father’s prediction that the war would last four years; going to Normal School and then teaching for a year; enlisting; recollections of his overseas military service; reading from his memoirs of that time in his life, such as peaceful morning in a little village in France in October 1918, and then a messenger named Bunny Burgess who was wounded and died shortly after; his observation that great tragedies and great joys often occur side by side; his best friend Charlie losing his right arm; his disappointment in not getting to Germany; realizing that that the war was over because lorries had their lights on; deciding to enlist because his brothers were in the army; the Tiger Battalion; not wanting to tell his mother he had joined up; not wanting to join the Highlanders because kilts were too cold; joining the 205th infantry; his parents getting $20 a month because he was their sole support; training in England; doing cartoons and drawings; reading from his diary; the battle at the Canal du Nord in 1918; his view that it was a well-planned and executed battle; the diary entries he made about the battle when he returned from overseas; more readings from his memoirs; recollections of a battle on October 1, 1918; tanks breaking down; an unsuccessful attack; on the march; getting a rum ration; a German attack; getting injured; being in a hospital room with a prisoner of war; his friends in hospital dying around him; on a hospital train; a rumour that conscripts were being sent back to Canada before the volunteer soldiers would get to go home, and how this angered the volunteers; his return to England; riots in camps while the soldiers waited to be sent home; postwar life in Canada; civilian life; getting a job as a teacher; taking a refresher course for teachers; hiring returned soldiers to be teachers; how having a job helped the veterans adjust to civilian life; the army of occupation in Germany; and attitudes about the British and Germans.

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:

437694

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C02494

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

437695

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C02495

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

737184

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/234
1975-0098/235
1975-0098/236

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

3

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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