Phil Vernon's story about Chinese Canadians in WWI

Phil Vernon submitted a story to CBC Radio ' s BC
Almanac last month, as they were soliciting family stories. Mark Forsythe had
it read on the air and said it will be included in the
Stories of BC being collected as a part of the BC150 celebrations.

Phil also asked Mark to tell people I ' m looking for
stories from the Chinese Canadian side, and he added this to the posting on the
site:

Phil would also like to hear from
descendants of Chinese Canadians living in
Vancouver at the time, to hear other perspectives on
the same events: philvernon@telus.net or call 250-653-9485.

Here's the story:

WWI Chinese Recruits

During the first quarter of the last century my grandparents were
medical missionaries in western China, first in Chungking and then in
Chengdu. When the First World War began my grandfather, Claude W.
Freeman, enlisted in the British Army and was assigned as medical
doctor with a Chinese labour battalion. These men were recruited by the
British to work as “coolies,” building roads as part of the war effort
in France.

Read the rest at: http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/150/your-story.html


You can scroll down the story list and find what I wrote about the Rev. Chan Legacy, the story of my great great grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan – which was turned into a CBC documentary called Generations: The Chan Legacy

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