James A. Pidduck was born to John Pidduck and Mrs. J Pidduck, and resided in Mont Royal Park, Montreal, Canada. He enlisted on November 15th, 1915 in Montreal. After training in Toronto, he was sent to New Brunswick on February 2nd, 1916 and sent to England aboard the S.S. Metagama on February 6th. He arrived at Branchatt Camp and was quickly shipped to Shorncliffe camp where he began his work as a chauffeur for superiors, and the wounded. In September of 1916 he is moved to Rouen, France. There he worked as a chauffeur and on fatigue in a tire store, an unserviceable items store and the Quartermaster store. Little is known of the rest of his time in France. He came back to Canada sometime in the 1920s aboard “The Cunard White Star Liner: Queen Elizabeth on War Duty”.
Published
Final
CA OTUTF MS COLL00555
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
The collection includes some photographs and a postcard of Pidduck and other soldiers, two World War I pay books belonging to Pidduck, a certificate of authorization to drive and a journal, documenting his life as a soldier in Canada, England and France in 1916. The journal outlines his daily life, where he chauffeured people to, what he did with his free time, to whom he spoke and where he moved to. He stops writing in December of 1916 after nearly a year of consistent entries.
Donated by Mrs P. Stookes, 2006.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request