Site last updated: 10th October 2024
Welcome
This website is a place of remembrance dedicated to all who served with the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles in the First World War.
Being a respectful and honouring point of focus for those having relatives or research subjects who served at any time with the 4th CMR, the website has grown out of discovering that my great-grandfather's brother, Cpl Frank Forsdike, served and died with the Regiment. As such, I do invite you to click on About to read the amazing story behind the incredible events that eventually led to Frank's previously unclaimed medals being presented to his daughter, 92 years after Frank's loss.
Pivotal to this website are the In Memoriam pages. There you will find the names of all of the men currently known to have served with the Regiment - some 4,545 in all - and the opportunity to remember and represent these men today, whether you are a relative, a researcher or just feel the need to step up in an act of remembrance. Please do make Contact and together let us honour their memories by adding our names to symbolically stand alongside theirs in remembrance and thanks for their service.
It is my hope to provide some tangible link to the men, the places and the Memorials associated with the Regiment. So, please, explore and enjoy the site (no costs are involved anywhere on this site), feel free to contribute a biography, and do check the 'Latest News' panel at the bottom of this page and the News page for updates, as this website is most certainly a work-in-progress project.
Through this website, which is optimised for PC web browsers, though not yet for mobile devices, let us come together and say that whilst they are gone, they are not forgotten. I feel very strongly about that.
With our common bond I do look forward to hearing from you soon, as together "We will remember them."
Best wishes
Ian
Featured pages
Demographic breakdown: this page provides a demographic insight into the real lives of the Regiment's full numbers (4,545). Data includes age at attestation, where attested, occupation, religion, place of birth / nationality of origin, prior military experience and height statistics. Also included are overviews of the most common first name, hair colour and eye colour. Other interesting facts are included, which will tell us how many pairs of brothers, and twins, signed up, marital status, and the youngest and oldest to sign up.
The culmination of several years of detailed research, using the regimental nominal roll, coupled with the material digitised in the Library & Archives Canada databases, the demographic breakdown provides an interesting insight into the social backgrounds of the men of the Regiment.
The Demographics page was last updated on 2nd October 2024.
Medals awarded to men of the 4th CMR: between 1914 and 1919 some 223 medals (210 medals plus 13 Bars) were awarded to 195 men who had served with the 4th CMR at some point in the war.
This page shares the stories of many of these men, from a 15 year old who had lied about his age at sign up and had, by the age of 17, been awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), to the 4th CMR's only Victoria Cross in action (another was awarded to a 4th CMR man who received it for actions with the unit he was subsequently transferred to).
Research is ongoing in this section, and was last updated on 30th July 2024.
Featured books
Released in July 2024, Crawl to Freedom, by Darren Prickett, is a compilation of stories from successful Australian WW1 POW escapes.
The book illustrates the ingenuity and perseverance of the Anzac POWs, with more than 4,000 being taken and held in WW1, and demonstrates the collaboration and comradeship that was upheld and maintained by the Australian, English, Canadian and South African prisoners working together to bring about such daring escapes.
Two men of the 4th CMR make appearances: 401506 Pte William Sharman MM, and 401659 Pte Alexander Oliver. Both men were captured amidst the 4th CMR's huge losses on 2nd June 1916, in the 'Battle for Mount Sorrel'. Pte Sharman was to gain his Military Medal as a result of his subsequent escape, which was facilitated by the Australian escapees.
This fascinating read comes highly recommended. For more details, and to purchase the book globally, either in hard copy or digitally, search for Simon and Schuster Crawl to Freedom.
Written by Canadian author Darrell Duthie, the five book WW1 fiction series takes us on an intriguing and wholly captivating journey, following Canadian Intelligence Officer Captain and latterly Lieutenant Malcolm MacPhail's service through the First World War.
A smooth blending of historical fact with engaging fiction gives us a first-hand experience of the trials, tribulations, losses and victories of trench warfare in WW1, all through the eyes of Malcolm MacPhail. Strong characters, engaging action and sound story lines put us into the thick of the Canadian Expeditionary Force's action in the mid to final stages of the war. Darrell does a fantastic job of maintaining the pace and tension of action at the Front at that time, leaving us feeling we'd actually been there ourselves!
The extent of the research is breathtaking, as is evident in the locations, the command hierarchy and its politics, and the detail of the actions described, made all the more captivating by the brief appearances of the 4th CMR in each of the novels. If you enjoy WW1 fiction, these books are for you, and would also make excellent gifts for somebody you know who is interested in the First World War.
More in-depth reviews of each of these books and purchase details (including a Kindle format), can be found on the Links > Bibliography page on this website.
Latest News
25th September 2024
A warm welcome is extended to Ben Lackey, who represents his 3 times great-grandfather's brother, 157615, Pte Emerson William Lackey. Assigned to the 81st Battalion, Emerson was transferred into the 4th CMR as part of the draft to rebuild the regiment after the huge losses of 2nd June 1916's 'Battle for Mount Sorrel'. Sadly, Emerson was lost on the opening day of the '2nd Battle of Passchendaele', 26th October 1917.
9th July 2024
Researcher George Auer has done it again, providing biographies for 147th BN men transferred into the 4th CMR: 839022, Cpl Russell Kirk, 839052, Pte Malcolm Greenlees Kirkland, 838815, Pte William Henry Knisley, and 838104, Pte Robert Thompson Knox.
23rd June 2024
Thanks are extended to 147th BN researcher, George Auer for representing and providing a biography for 838103, Pte William Henry King, who, though wounded in France, would survive the war.
10th June 2024
A warm welcome to Peter Butler, representing 853280, Pte. Lancelot Ormond Butler, formerly a 177th Battalion man who was transferred to the 4th CMR in February 1918. Wounded in the push towards Mons in the last of the Final 100 days, "Lance" survived the war.
22nd May 2024
Further research in the reinforcements nominal rolls has discovered a further three men confirmed as serving with the regiment, now bringing the final figure of men serving with the regiment to 4,545. This project is currently around 50% complete, so may yet uncover further members of the regiment. Updates will be posted here should that be the case. A full update to the demographics page will follow once this particular project is completed.
7th May 2024
After carrying out detailed transcription work on the regiment's Nominal Roll log, it was found that 21 members of the regiment had been overlooked in the S. G. Bennett Regimental History nominal roll listing that had been used to create this website's In Memoriam pages - a full A to Z listing of all who were assigned to the 4th CMR between 1914 and 1919. These missing entries have now been added to the relevant In Memoriam pages, bringing the ranks up to 4,542, from 4,521. This project had been waiting in the wings to be done for a number of years, and I am pleased now to present the fullest possible listing of the regiments's members. We will remember them.
Site last updated: 10th October 2024