Lest we forget... Prospect Goes to War

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada where we stop to remember the sacrifice of members of our family who were involved in the great wars and by virtue of this honour the work of past and current members of the armed forces.

World War I (1914-1918)

Anastasia Muriel Coolen, ca. 1917 (Donated to the Prospect Genealogical Website by son Douglas Doherty)

Canada joined World War I on 4 August 1914 when the United Kingdom entered the war by declaring war on Germany. Canada, a British Dominion, was automatically brought into the war upon the declaration. With this declaration the Canadian Expeditionary Force (C.E.F.) was raised and men all across the country signed up to go and defend the Commonwealth. In total 620,000 men and women joined the war effort.

The men who were of age who lived at Prospect, and in its neighbouring villages, took up the call to join the CEF and we have a lot of detail on these individuals and what their experience was like during the war. The Prospect Genealogical Website has maintained a list of the men and women who joined the war effort since its founding but it has always been incomplete. This year I am happy to share a more comprehensive list of the people who joined the military to fight for Canada in not only World War I, but a list of individuals who were part of the British Military through the Napoleonic War, War of 1812, Crimean War, Fenian Raids of 1866, the Northwest Rebellion (1885) and the Boer War. In addition to this I have begun to maintain a list of men who served in World War 2, the Korean War and who held positions within the Canadian military in the modern era (1960-2000).

Anastasia Muriel Coolen (29 April 1891 - 1977) daughter of Joseph and Ann (Hearn) Coolen was a graduate nurse living at 214 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia when she joined the war effort on 24 August 1918. She joined at the very end of the war, however, she was posted to Camp Hill Hospital and the Cogswell Street Military Hospital. She was officially demobilized on 18 July 1919. Interestingly Anastasia contracted Spanish Influenza during her tenure in the military and was admitted to the hospital in which she worked on 21 October 1918. Her hospital records indicate that she was a consistent temperature of 101.8 degrees for a number of days before the fever broke. Stasia’s sister Mary Ellen Coolen (14 March 1888 - 16 December 1947) was also a graduate nurse and enlisted in the Army Medical Corp on 16 July 1917. Mary Ellen was also admitted to hospital two days before her sister on 19 October 1918 with Spanish Influenza. Both sisters would recover from the flu and after their military service would go on to marry and have large families. Stasia would marry on 24 September 1919 to local boy Raymond Doherty and Mary Ellen would marry on 15 June 1929 to Duff Simpson of the Royal Canadian Engineers.

Anastasia and Mary Ellen’s military files can be found HERE and HERE respectively.

In total 40 men and women from Prospect and area joined up to fight between 1914 and 1918. The complete list (which will always be a project in progress) can be found HERE

World War II (1939-1945)

The above image was taken from the Carmelita for 1942-1943. The Carmelita was a locally produced community affairs journal that was published by the children of the Prospect school for three years in 1940/41, 41/42 and 42/43 covering almost the entirety of World War Two so features prominently references to men from the village that served.

The image above shows the five Kiley boys who joined the military during this conflict:
Victor Joseph Kiley, b. 29 January 1918, s/o Sherman and Ethel (Duggan) Kiley
Carl Sherman Kiley, b. 9 June 1919, s/o Sherman and Ethel (Duggan) Kiley
Edward Murray Kiley, b. 21 September 1921, s/o Jerome and Alice (Meehan) Kiley
John Bernard Kiley, b. 6 February 1917, s/o John and Dorothy (Duggan) Kiley
Joseph Gyrth Kiley, b. 23 January 1921, s/o John and Dorothy (Duggan) Kiley

David and Marian (Beck) Doherty ca. 1941/42 (Prospect Photo Collection, #2019044)

David Owen Doherty (28 March 1907 - 31 August 1962) Enlisted in the Canadian Navy on 17 January 1940 and was given the rank of Able Seaman. He spent most of the war on escort ships which accompanied the convoys across the Atlantic. He was on the HMS Nabob when it was torpedoed by U-boat U-354 while participating in an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in August 1944. He also served on the H.M.C.S. Collingwood which is shown below.

H.M.C.S. Collingwood (Prospect Photo Collection, #2019046)

If you happen to have photos of your Prospect ancestors from any of the wars or from their military career the Prospect Genealogical Website would love to scan them for you to preserve them in our Photographic Library. Please feel free to reach out via Email. If you send your photos via mail, we will scan them and send them back to you alongside a digital copy of the photos.