Mitchells in Canada

[IainW81]

Here is a link to the Form 30 that I was referring to:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ovw/

Here's a link to the Baltic's passenger list (Maria is on line 12 on a page for military dependants):
http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e244/e006087198.jpg

Jacquie

Thank you for that. So she's gone back home to visit. Perhaps to collect William. It's all making sense now.

Not to worry on George.

[Jacquie in Canada]

So perhaps she was just visiting in 1919?

She emigrated in 1919 as a military dependant and then returned to Edinburgh to visit. There is a UK incoming passenger list for Maria and her 1 year old son Harry sailing on the Metagama which arrived in Glasgow on 7 Sep 1923. Her destination was c/o Mitchell, Juniper Green, Midlothian.

With George Brown being in the military he would have returned to Canada listed with other soldiers. Most likely he would have returned the same year. Sometimes the war brides were on the same ship as their husbands but sometimes they did arrive in Canada separately.

There is a George Brown who was born 27 May 1891 in Edinburgh who attested in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Forces in Toronto. He lists his next-of-kin as Henry Brown (father) of Edinburgh. His occupation was bank clerk. This information fits with his son being named Harry and the mention of the Bank of Montreal on Maria's Form 30.

Jacquie

[polarbear]

Pte George Brown is on the same ship as Marie in 1919. He is listed with the troops. They both have Toronto listed as their destination.

PB

[IainW81]

So perhaps she was just visiting in 1919?

She emigrated in 1919 as a military dependant and then returned to Edinburgh to visit. There is a UK incoming passenger list for Maria and her 1 year old son Harry sailing on the Metagama which arrived in Glasgow on 7 Sep 1923. Her destination was c/o Mitchell, Juniper Green, Midlothian.

With George Brown being in the military he would have returned to Canada listed with other soldiers. Most likely he would have returned the same year. Sometimes the war brides were on the same ship as their husbands but sometimes they did arrive in Canada separately.

There is a George Brown who was born 27 May 1891 in Edinburgh who attested in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Forces in Toronto. He lists his next-of-kin as Henry Brown (father) of Edinburgh. His occupation was bank clerk. This information fits with his son being named Harry and the mention of the Bank of Montreal on Maria's Form 30.

Jacquie

Yes that will be George. That's his father's name. Good to know they had a son, as most of her siblings either died young or died single. Thanks for your help Jacquie.

[valeriec]

George Brown
Reg # 139024
75th Battalion
enlisted July 1915, Toronto

75th Canadian Infantry Battalion was part of the 11 Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division, later known as the Toronto Scottish Regiment.

It remained a battalion on arrival in England (many other battalions were absorbed by other reserve battalions).
The 75th Battalion was involved in the battles of Somme, Vimy Ridge, Arras, Ypres, Amiens and had some of the largest numbers of killed and wounded.
The War Diaries (logs) are available at Library and Archives Canada and would give you an indication of what the men went through.

George's Attestation Papers are also at Library and Archives Canada under Soldiers of the First World War.

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/index-e.html

[IainW81]

Thank you Valerie

[MNB]

Maria Armstrong Mitchell married my uncle, George Brown, in 1918 in Edinburgh. George Brown was born on 27 May 1891 in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Henry Brown and Jessie Clark who had nine children in total, five daughters and four sons. George was a clerk in Edinburgh and emigrated to Canada in 1913 where he found work in a bank.

He enlisted in the Canadian Army and the family story in Scotland is that he was posted to what in the British army was called the Pay Corp because he was a bank clerk but he created a fuss and was transferred to a combat unit and saw service in various actions, most famously with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge. When his regiment was passing through or based in the UK he obviously took his leave with the family in Edinburgh. It is not clear whether he already knew Maria or met her at this time. At one stage he was in the same unit as her brother and it is plausible that he met her through her brother while on leave.

The Mitchell family lived in Juniper Green, then a village outside the city, a centre of papermaking, but now a suburb of the city, while George Brown's family lived in Haymarket in the west end of the city.

In Canada he and Maria - known there as Marie - had four sons, one of whom died in infancy.