In November 2016, the Vimy Foundation was contacted by a Value Village in Ajax, ON. A large scrapbook of photos and travel souvenirs had been turned into them some months earlier. Staff had recognized its historic value, and held on to it for months in the hope that a family member would come to reclaim it. They reached out to us at the Vimy Foundation for help, as some of the photos were taken at the Vimy Memorial in France.
This photo album is incredible. It is a scrapbook put together from the original Vimy Pilgrimage in 1936, when veterans and their families from all over Canada travelled to France for the unveiling of the Vimy Memorial. This was the largest group of Canadians to have travelled to France since the First World War ended. Even more special, within the scrapbook was the original Vimy Pilgrimage Medal awarded to all those who made the journey overseas, back to the battlefields and cemeteries in Europe.
We believe it was originally created by Miss E. Lancaster, a staff member of Eaton’s at the time with a relative in the war. We have spent months pouring over the images, looking for additional clues that would help us identify her relative from the war, connect with her extended family, and contacting people and organizations that may have been able to help. However, to date all roads of inquiry have led to a dead end – we have not been able to make any current family connections.
If this scrapbook was donated accidentally or was not in the hands of family members, we would love to return it to the rightful owners. There are also photos contained here with many other people – others who travelled on the same ship (HMS Champlain), others within the Eaton’s contingent, and other Vimy Pilgrims. Perhaps you’ll spot a photo of a relative who also made this historic pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge!
Click here to view the full album.
Update: 30 July 2018
Thank you to our amazing Facebook follower Debbie Lee Jiang! Through some research she was able to discover some additional family details about our mystery scrapbook of Miss. E. Lancaster.
Miss E. Lancaster’s relative who served in the Great War: her father, Mr. Hubert B. Lancaster, of Toronto. She was his only child, being 14 when her 35 yr old dad went off to serve in 1915 with the 123rd Battalion. Hubert Bertie Lancaster, a carpenter by trade, was born in Yorkshire, England, son of William Lancaster.
It appears that Elsie Marion Lancaster, Vimy Pilgrim, never married and was buried with her parents at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto in 1994.
