author
Canadian War Records Office
Created during the First World War, this Canadian office set out to preserve the country’s wartime story in words, photographs, films, and official records. Its work also helped lay the foundation for Canada’s later military historical record and war art collections.
1 Audiobook
Thirty Canadian V.Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918
by Canadian War Records Office, Military Historian Stuart Martin, Robin Richards, Theodore Goodridge Roberts
About the author
The Canadian War Records Office was formed in early 1916 under the direction of Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian-born press baron Max Aitken. Its job was to collect and organize records of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and to publicize Canadian military activity during the war.
According to Library and Archives Canada, the office gathered unit records and war diaries, collected information on the actions of individuals and formations, and produced publications such as The Canadian Daily Record, Canada in Khaki, The Canadian War Pictorial, and Canada in Flanders. It also organized exhibitions of war photographs and films, helping shape how Canada’s war effort was documented and remembered.
Its legacy lasted beyond the war itself. Library and Archives Canada notes that the office’s personnel and records became the nucleus of the Historical Section of the General Staff in Ottawa, and related wartime documentation also fed into projects such as the Canadian War Memorials Fund.