Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1866-1949 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
152 photographs
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born to Christian and Catharine Eby in Berlin (Ontario). He was a market gardener and belonged to the 108th Regiment of the Militia at the time of his enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915. He trained with the 118th Battalion, left for England in January 1917 and after further training as a signaller, joined the 21st Battalion in France in October 1917. At war's end he was quartered for a few months in Siegburg, Germany before returning home in May 1919. He married Elsie Hewitt in 1921. He returned to the market gardening and later worked at J. M. Schneider. Gordon and Elsie had eight children.
Repository
Archival history
Donated to the Archives by Anne Eby Millar, daughter of Gordon Eby, in 1979.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Photographs in the album are predominantly from Gordon Eby's time in the military, 1914-1919. Some photographs of family before and after the war are also included. Captions were probably composed and added by Anne Eby Millar, Gordon's daughter. The photographs and captions together narrate chronologically Gordon Eby's family of origin, his experience in the First World War with the 118th and 21st battalions as a signaler, the months spent in Germany at the end of the war as a translator, his marriage in 1921, and his growing family.
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Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Original album located in Gordon C. Eby fonds, Hist.Mss.1.66.4/1
Existence and location of copies
Duplicates of some photographs in this album are located in CA MAO HM1-66.3/1, as part of Anne Eby Millar's transcription of Gordon Eby's diaries.
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Notes area
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Sources
Additional source materials for photograph descriptions include Gordon Eby's war diaries. A transcribed and published version is located online:
Eby, Gordon C. (auth.), Tiessen, Paul (ed.), Millar, Anne Eby (ed.). Of course I was an onlooker for I can't dance: the 1911-1918 diary of Gordon Christian Eby, Mennonite farmer. Waterloo, Ontario : MLR Editions Canada 2007.
Archivist's note
Archival descriptions prepared by LHG. Trevor Ford provided assistance with photograph titles and military-related scope and content notes.