Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi and welcome,

I hope this helps,

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.n ... ion_canada

Thanks Bert, we don't seem to have that website amongst our Canada links so I've added it on here, giving credit to you of course.
https://www.lswlfhs.org.uk/phpBB3/viewt ... 96#p128196

I feel Margie might find some of the links down that page useful for her military ancestors in Canada.

An interesting question. Somewhere on the web is a list of members of the Drumgooland Presbyterian Church in County Down, (now Northern) Ireland, who served in WW1. From memory, one fought with the British Army while maybe half a dozen had recently emigrated and fought with the Canadians. The local town is Rathfriland. It was - and remains - a very small place, yet a list of businesses shows THREE emigration agents.

When I asked a couple of local folk the explanation, no one knew... but a search tonight threw up this:
http://englishemigrationtocanada.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately the piece concentrates on the impact the emigrants had on Canada rather than their reason for moving. But it mentions a 'Wheat Boom'. If you Google 'Canadian Wheat Boom' you get a lot of results that probably explain the attraction.

Google says the UK population at the start of the last century was about 33m. The link says 'During the early-twentieth century, emigration from Britain reached unprecedented levels, with approximately 3.15 million people leaving between 1903 and 1913.' That was a lot; nearly 10% of the population. Young men would have been the largest group so the percentage of young men emigrating must have been well above 10%.