As Remembrance Day nears, we pause to remember the heroic deeds, tragic stories, and unfathomable events that caused members of our Armed Forces to be killed in the line of duty.

Here at Dalhousie, we are fortunate to have an enduring record of these events.  The University Archives and Special Collections contains extensive materials on Nova Scotia’s military history.

Over the next few days, we’ll be posting selected photographs to our Facebook page (starting with this image from the Catherine Creighton and Family fonds (MS-2-656)), but in the meantime, here are a few highlights from our collections:

• The Archives of the Dalhousie University No. 7 “Overseas” Stationary Hospital (MS-13-2) – These records document the extraordinary work of a stationary hospital established in England and France during World War One.  The majority of the 162 staff members were students and faculty from the Dalhousie Medical College.
• The C.F. Longley fonds (MS-2-83) – During World War One, C.F. Longley compiled a set of 14 scrapbooks he titled “The Press Story of the Great War.”  The scrapbooks, which contain newspaper and magazine clippings from 1914-1919, are a daily log of international events.  Longley even prepared an index to the set.
• The Richard Edward Graham Roome fonds (MS-2-252) – Richard Edward Graham Roome was a Brigadier in the Canadian Army.  Roome was instrumental in establishing the CANLOAN program that saw Canadian officers to the British Army.  His collection of papers contains an amazing set of photographs and negatives taken throughout eastern Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.

Check our complete list of our archival military records for more information about our military holdings.  If you’ve never been in an archive, this is a great occasion to make your first trip.  Drop by our Reading Room on the 5th Floor of the Killam Library to read a war diary, see photographs of fallen Dalhousie alumni, or listen to the Stadacona Band.

These materials, like all archival records, allow us to remember our past – successes and failures – and make better decisions about our future.  On Remembrance Day, they allow us to say with confidence, “we will remember them.”