“Serving Canada in His Majesties Armies:” A Staten Islander in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

By Phillip Papas

On May 31, 1920, more than 3,000 residents and dignitaries including World War I veteran and future New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, gathered to dedicate Staten Island’s Hero Park. The Richmond County Daily Advance reported that it was “one of the biggest events in the history of Staten Island.” That day, they unveiled the memorial that anchors the park, a boulder with a plaque bearing the names of the 144 Staten Islanders who died in the First World War. [1] Among the names listed is that of Edward Allen Low Shortt, who was the son of William Allaire Shortt and Lucy Elizabeth Low Shortt. William was a distinguished lawyer and member of the New York State Democratic Party who represented Richmond County (Staten Island) in the State Assembly (1908 and 1910-1911) and Lucy was related to Seth Low, the former mayor of the city of Brooklyn (1881-1885), president of Columbia University (1890-1901), and mayor of New York City (1902-1903). While most of the fallen listed on the memorial served with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), Shortt joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) for an opportunity to fight for Britain and the Allies long before the United States entered the First World War on April 6, 1917. Shortt was twenty-years-old and held the Military Cross, at the time the second highest honor for valor awarded to officers in the British military, when he was killed. He was one of 2,700 Americans who died fighting for the CEF during the First World War. [2] His body was never found.

Memorial Plaque with list of names of the fallen, Hero Park, Staten Island, New York, ca.1920. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

Shortt was born in Staten Island on April 17, 1896, the elder of two children. He attended Staten Island Academy and studied in Rome, Italy, and in Cassel, Germany, with private tutors. Shortt was fluent in French, Italian, and German as well as English. He enrolled at Harvard University where he studied law and prepared for a career in the Foreign Service, was an officer of the Italian and French clubs, ran for class president, and participated on the fencing team and the rowing squad before an appendectomy ended his involvement in collegiate sports. [3] Shortt was vacationing with his family at Otterburn House, their summer residence in Kingston, Ontario, when Britain’s declaration of war against Imperial Germany on August 4, 1914, brought Canada, a British dominion, into the First World War. Almost immediately, the Canadian government called for volunteers to serve in an overseas expeditionary force, the CEF, which eventually consisted of approximately 620,000 men and women with 425,000 of them serving overseas. [4] Shortt was eager to enlist in the CEF straight away, but his father, believing that he was too young at eighteen to serve, convinced him to return to Harvard for the fall semester. Once back in the United States, Shortt enlisted in the 8th Infantry, Massachusetts National Guard, and was assigned to a machine gun company. [5]

Three-year-old Edward Allen Low Shortt with toy rifle, photo by Isaac Almstaedt, Christmas Day, 1899. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

At the outbreak of the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson announced a policy of strict neutrality for the United States, not wanting to be pulled into the European conflict. Wilson sought to maintain stability within the nation’s borders which included citizens and aspiring citizens who had direct ties to the belligerents. Wilson’s call for strict neutrality was impossible to achieve in an ethnically diverse America where a third of its roughly 90 million people by 1914 were first- or second-generation Americans who held different sentiments and sympathies regarding the war. Many foreign-born Americans favored their former mother countries while some native-born Americans based their opinion of the proper U. S. response to the conflict on the wartime situation in their ancestral homelands. “The citizens of the United States are deeply interested in many ways in the present devastating war,” wrote the editors of the Staten Island World, “our own nation, unlike others, is composed of those who by ties of blood and otherwise are so related to the warring nations as to render it injudicious to even discuss the merits of the questions at issue.” [6] Across the United States, immigrant communities voiced their opinions about the wartime activities of the European nations and the American government’s policy towards the conflict. In the five boroughs of New York City, where three-fourths of the nearly 5 million residents were immigrants and their children, ethnic groups held rallies, parades, and demonstrations, sponsored public lectures, raised funds, and used the press to respond to the declarations of war in Europe and to promote the plight of their homelands. Many New Yorkers sought opportunities to join the fight in Europe. Some were resident aliens who were registered reservists in the militaries of their respective homelands, while others were U. S. citizens with cultural ties and ideological sympathies to the combatants. [7]

“Of course, the United States Government is neutral, but I have yet to find an American who is neutral,” declared William Renwick Riddell, a prominent Canadian jurist and historian who promoted the recruitment of Americans for the CEF. [8] “Young men of an adventurous spirit . . . are daily turning up and offering themselves for enlistment,” wrote the Toronto-based American Citizens’ Recruiting Committee to the editors of the New York Times. “They cross the border, report to the nearest recruiting sergeant as being eager to join . . . and are then sent on to recruiting headquarters in Toronto where they are welcomed with open arms.” [9] An estimated 40,000, and perhaps as many as 57,000 Americans enlisted in the CEF during the First World War. [10] They were idealists who viewed Britain and the Allies as the defenders of democracy and civilization against German barbarism and totalitarianism, adventurers motivated by a romantic glorification of war, British- and Canadian-born naturalized citizens, or first- or second-generation Americans of British and Canadian ancestry. “Several thousand applications for places on the Canadian expeditionary force have been received from the United States,” noted the New York Times in August 1914. “A considerable number are from Canadians naturalized in the United States, but most of them are from young Americans who apparently see a good chance of being sent to the front.” [11]

The Shortt family at their Staten Island home. From Left: Reverend William Shortt, Edward Allen Low Shortt in highchair, Lucy E. Low Shortt, and William A. Shortt, photo by Alice Austen, 1896. Collection of Historic Richmond Town.

In February 1915, without his father knowing, Shortt offered his services to the CEF. Like other Americans who wanted to join the CEF, the defense of democracy and civilization was important to Shortt, but the bonds of ancestry and culture also motivated him. “Every year I have spent some time in the Empire and have been considered a resident of Kingston by government officials there,” Shortt wrote to Brigadier General W. E. S. Hodgins, who was the Adjutant of the Canadian Militia. “Indeed, I have always felt myself one of His Majesties most loyal subjects.” He pleaded with Hodgins to allow him “to serve my King and Country” contending that because of his age “British law gives me the right to claim my nationality as I have done nothing to forfeit it nor ever foresworn it.” [12] Shortt’s mother had relatives throughout England and Scotland. His paternal grandfather, Reverend William Shortt, was born in Ireland and served Anglican parishes throughout Ontario. Although Shortt’s father was born in Florence, Massachusetts, he had spent most of his youth in Canada, graduating from the University of Toronto. Shortt emphasized that his father had served in the Queen’s Own Rifles, a militia unit from Toronto, and fought “under his oath of allegiance to Her Majesty” against the Riel Rebellion (or North-West Resistance) of 1885, an uprising in Saskatchewan and Alberta against the Canadian government by the Métis and their First Nations allies. [13] “I pray that you will do me the honor not to deprive me of a nationality which I hold as dear as you do yourself, for it is the most sacred thing to any man,” Shortt told Hodgins. [14]

Shortt’s initial attempt to join the CEF was rejected because he was “a citizen of a neutral state.” [15] Despite its need for manpower, the British government discouraged the CEF from recruiting Americans in the United States, not wanting to compromise U. S. neutrality and risk losing a potential future ally. Recognizing the bonds of common ancestry, culture, and political and religious beliefs between the United States, Britain, and Canada, many Americans who eventually enlisted in the CEF, including Shortt, were frustrated with the U. S. policy of strict neutrality. [16] Disappointed, Shortt wrote tersely to Adjutant Hodgins, “Of course, I know that it is against the law to enlist me while I am here in this country of the neutral, but if this be the reason for rejecting me, for heaven’s sake . . . I shall come to Canada to serve.” [17]

On March 9, 1915, William Allaire Shortt died of pneumonia at the family’s Staten Island home. [18] Without his father to dissuade him, Shortt attempted to join the CEF again, but this time through a different channel: the Canadian militia. He resigned from the Massachusetts National Guard and spent the summer with his mother and sister at Otterburn House. Shortt did not return to Harvard for the fall semester. Instead, emphasizing his strong familial ties to Canada and the British Empire, he applied to the 14th Regiment, the Princess of Wales’ Own Rifles, a local militia unit. Shortt was accepted into the regiment as a private and was assigned to Barriefield Camp in Kingston where he completed officer’s training courses at the Provisional School of Infantry. By early November, Shortt qualified as a lieutenant. [19] The 14th Regiment supplied officers and troops to the CEF. Shortt was attached as a provisional lieutenant to the 59th Battalion, 4th Division. Because Shortt was fluent in French, he was sent to Quebec as a recruiter. [20] After he returned from Quebec, Shortt married Marie Crevolin Clark of Columbus, Ohio, whom he had met the previous summer at Barriefield Camp where she had gone with Canadian relatives to watch the soldiers train. Their wedding took place on February 16, 1916, in Kingston, one week earlier than originally planned because of the Fifty-ninth’s impending deployment to England. [21]

But on March 1, Shortt was informed that because of his provisional status and the Fifty-ninth’s overstrength in officers, he would not be deployed. Shortt was offered a transfer to another battalion, which he declined. Shortt had developed a camaraderie with many of the men of the Fifty-ninth and preferred to serve with them. Also “desirous of going to the front with as little delay as possible,” Shortt believed that a transfer would hold up his deployment. He resigned his provisional lieutenancy, went to the CEF recruiting station in Brockville, Ontario, and on March 26, 1916, enlisted in the Fifty-ninth as a private. [22] Shortt filled out an attestation paper that included general questions and an oath of allegiance to the British Crown which he signed. [23] American citizens who pledged allegiance to a government or to a head of state when enlisting or accepting an officer’s commission in a foreign army while the United States was at peace violated the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1818 and the Expatriation Act of 1907. The penalty for doing so was the forfeiture of American citizenship. [24] Shortt knew the potential legal consequences of his enlistment, but given his ancestry, felt strongly that it was his duty to contribute to the Allies’ cause by “serving Canada in His Majesties armies.” [25]

On April 1, 1916, Shortt shipped out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, aboard the S.S. Olympic (sister ship to the ill-fated S.S. Titanic), arriving at Liverpool, England, on April 11. [26] He was briefly posted with the Fifty-ninth to Bramshott Camp in Hampshire in southern England. The Fifty-ninth was then assigned to Shorncliffe, the largest military base on the Kent coast and only twenty miles across the English Channel from France. Shorncliffe was an important training facility and embarkation point for the CEF.

Shortt demonstrated a “magnificent spirit” working diligently to earn a promotion to sergeant, and by May 12, he had been promoted to provisional first lieutenant. [27] In mid-July, Shortt was taken on strength into the 39th Reserve Battalion and posted to West Sandling Camp not far from Shorncliffe. However, on August 5, he was admitted to Helena Officers Hospital, Shorncliffe, with “pain and swelling” in his groin which the CEF Medical Board diagnosed as epididymitis, an infection that was deemed “not venereal.” He was granted one month’s leave to recuperate. This was Shortt’s second trip to a hospital, having previously been admitted at Bramshott suffering from mumps and measles. While there he also contracted pneumonia. [28] In early September, the Medical Board determined that Shortt had fully recovered from his bout of epididymitis and was “fit for General Service.” [29]

On September 20, Shortt was posted to France. He arrived at Le Havre three days later and was taken on strength into the machine gun section of the 58th Battalion, 3rd Division. [30] At the time, the Fifty-eighth was supporting an Allied offensive in the Somme River Valley. By September 24, the 58th Battalion was at a reserve position at Warloy-Baillon, where it was joined by sixteen new officers including Shortt. [31] On October 3, the Fifty-eighth was ordered to the frontline trenches. [32]

Lieutenant Edward Allen Low Shortt, CEF, ca. 1914-1916. HUD 3567.219.2, Photo Number 85. Harvard University Archives.

Shortt’s first full day in the frontline trenches was tense as German shelling in the morning was followed by sniper fire in the afternoon. [33] On October 8, Shortt participated in an attack on one of the longest German trenches on the Western Front, dubbed Regina Trench by the Canadians after Saskatchewan’s provincial capital. Some of the troops from the Fifty-eighth managed to get into the trench, but were forced to retreat against fierce German counterattacks. [34] Shortt was grazed in the neck by a bullet “cutting . . . the leather strap of his equipment” as he bombed a German machine gun nest. [35] Later, he raced back to the Canadian lines under heavy fire to report on the troops’ dire situation before rejoining his men. Shortt was awarded the Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry in action” and was promoted to Intelligence officer in the Fifty-eighth. [36] After the unsuccessful attack on Regina Trench, the 58th Battalion marched to Bray, in the Arras sector, before being sent to the Vimy front on October 31. [37] The Battle of the Somme ended in mid-November and the Allies immediately prepared for a springtime assault against German positions on Vimy Ridge. As part of these preparations, CEF troops engaged in nighttime trench raids designed to capture prisoners and gather intelligence. On December 10, the 58th Battalion conducted a nighttime raid against an important German communications trench, known as Balloon Trench, near Neuville-St. Vaast. [38] Shortt commanded the raiding party. Of the forty-one men who participated in the raid, nine were wounded and three were missing, including Shortt. [39]

Initial reports indicated that Shortt and the two other missing men had been captured and were being held in a German prison camp. [40] It was later reported that one of the men who went missing with Shortt had died of wounds received during the raid while the other had been sent to a German hospital with a head wound. But nothing was known of Shortt’s whereabouts. [41] In October 1917, CEF officials presumed that Shortt had died, but his family would not accept this conclusion, hoping he was still alive. [42] The fighting in the First World War ended with the armistice of November 11, 1918. Eight months later, in July 1919, without any further information about her husband, Marie Crevolin Clark Shortt learned that the British War Office had officially pronounced him dead. [43] As the widow of a soldier killed in action, she received a pension from the Canadian government.

The names of more than 11,000 fallen Canadian soldiers, including that of Edward Allen Low Shortt, having no known burial site are inscribed on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial near Arras, France. Wikimedia Commons.

Edward Allen Low Shortt paid the ultimate price fighting for the CEF during the First World War. Shortt’s service and sacrifice are commemorated on monuments extending from Hero Park in Staten Island to Harvard’s Memorial Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is remembered through the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, as well as the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France where his name appears among the 11,285 Canadian soldiers whose final resting places are unknown. “We have lost many friends in the various armies,” wrote Walter Llewellyn Bullock, a renowned scholar of Italian Studies and one of Shortt’s close friends and classmates at Harvard, “but the death of Allen Shortt leaves us with a sense of loss – not keener, it may be, yet somehow more irreparable than almost any other.” [44]

Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Katie Uva, associate editor at Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History, for providing valuable editorial guidance. Thanks also to Carol Berkin, Arthur Rose, Michele Rotunda, and Lori Weintrob for their thoughtful comments and suggestions as well as Carli DeFillo and Carlotta DeFillo at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island, Gabriella Leone at the Staten Island Museum, Astrée Éve Thériault at the Library and Archives Canada, and the reference staff at the Harvard University Archives for their assistance.

Phillip Papas received his Ph.D. in History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is Senior Professor of History at Union College of Union County, New Jersey (UCNJ), and the author of That Ever Loyal Island: Staten Island and the American Revolution (NYU Press, 2007), Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee (NYU Press, 2014), and co-author of Port Richmond (Arcadia Publishing, 2009). Papas is currently writing about the First World War.

[1] “Staten Island Pays Fitting Tribute to Men of Two Wars; About 3000 at Hero Park Ceremonies in Honor of World War Heroes,” The Richmond County Daily Advance (Staten Island, NY), 1 June 1920, 1.

[2] Chris Dickon, Americans at War in Foreign Forces: A History, 1914-1945 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014), 104.

[3] M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War against Germany 5 vols., vol. 1. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), 174; Secretary’s Triennial Report: Harvard Class of 1917 (Cambridge, MA: Printed for the Class, 1921), 209; and “Kirkpatrick Chosen; President of the Freshman Class at Harvard,” The Boston Globe, 20 February 1914, 14.

[4] Chris Sharpe, “Enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918: A Re-Evaluation” Canadian Military History vol. 24, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2015), 23, n.20, 47; and Tim Cook, “The Canadian Great War Soldier,” 1 August 2014, in The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-canadian-great-war-soldier, accessed on 15 August 2023.

[5] Memoirs of the Harvard Dead, 1:175.

[6] The Staten Island World (Staten Island, NY), 9 October 1914.

[7] Tyler Anbinder, City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York (Boston: Mariner Books, 2016), 452; Mike Wallace, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 909-910. Ross J. Wilson, “Fighting World War One on the Streets of New York” 9 February 1916, in Gotham: The Blog for Scholars of New York City History, https://gothamcenter.org/blog/fighting-world-war-one-on-the-streets-of-new-york, accessed on 28 December 2023; Robert L. Fleegler, Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 5; and Leonard Dinnerstein and David M. Reimers, Ethnic Americans: A History of Immigration (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 61.

[8] “Americans Join Legion; Twenty Enlist in the British Army at a Toronto Rally,” New York Times, 13 December 1915, p. 3.

[9] “Americans Join Legion; Twenty Enlist in the British Army at a Toronto Rally,” New York Times, 13 December 1915, p. 3.

[10] Dickon, Americans at War, 34. See also J. L. Granatstein, Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace (Toronto, Ont., Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 68; and Richard Holt, Filling the Ranks: Manpower in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918 (Montreal, Que., Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Pres, 2017), 86-87.

[11] “Americans Eager to Fight; May Get a Chance as Canada Plans to Raise Two More Army Corps,” New York Times, 9 August 1914, 2.

[12] Edward Allen Low Shortt to Brigadier General W. E. S. Hodgins, Adjutant General, Canadian Militia, 23 February 1915, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, Library and Archives Canada (hereafter cited as LAC).

[13] Edgar L. Murlin, The New York Red Book: An Illustrated Legislative Manual (Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, Publishers, 1908), 156. For the Riel Rebellion (or North-West Resistance) of 1885 see Bob Beal and Rod Macleod, “North-West Resistance,” 7 February 2006, in The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/north-west-rebellion, accessed on 7 January 2024.

[14] Edward Allen Low Shortt to Brigadier General W. E. S. Hodgins, Adjutant General, Canadian Militia, 23 February 1915, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC.

[15] Brigadier General W. E. S. Hodgins, Adjutant General, Canadian Militia to Edward Allen Low Shortt, 20 February 1915, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC.

[16] After the United States declared war on Imperial Germany on April 6, 1917, entering World War I on the side of the Allies, its neutrality laws were amended to allow Allied nations to recruit resident aliens who were born in the Allied nation concerned. In June 1917, the British Recruiting Mission, later renamed the British-Canadian Recruiting Mission (BCRM) began operations in New York City, its headquarters. The main office of the BCRM was located at 280 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. See Richard Holt, “British Blood Calls British Blood: The British-Canadian Recruiting Mission of 1917-1918” vol. 22, no. 1 Canadian Military History (Winter 2013), 28; and Brian Douglas Tennyson, Canada’s Great War, 1914-1918: How Canada Helped Save the British Empire and became a North American Nation (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 103.

[17] Edward Allen Low Shortt to Brigadier General W. E. S. Hodgins, Adjutant General, Canadian Militia, 23 February 1915, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC.

[18] The family’s home was at 218 St. Paul’s Avenue in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. “William A. Shortt, Dead; An Authority on Constitutional Law and a Prominent Politician,” New York Times, 10 March 1915, 13.

[19] “On Barriefield Heights with the Overseas Troops,” The Daily British Whig (Kingston, Ontario, Canada), 6 November 1915, 5.

[20] Memoirs of the Harvard Dead, 1:175.

[21] “Met at Kingston, To Wed Officer: Another American Girl to be a “War Bride,” Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, NY), 2 February 1916, 10; and “Overseas Order Hurries Wedding; Lieut. Shortt Marries Miss Clark; A Romance of War-Time,” Watertown Daily Times, 21, February 1916, 6.

[22] “Many Military Matters,” Daily British Whig, 4 April 1916, 12.

[23] Attestation Paper, Edward Allen Low Shortt, 26 March 1916, First World War Personnel Records, LAC.

[24] Holt, Filling the Ranks, 87; and Dickon, Americans at War, 74-75, 152. American citizens who enlisted in the CEF also violated the U. S. government’s strict neutrality policy.

[25] Edward Allen Low Shortt to Colonel Sir Samuel Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, 15 February 1915, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC. Eager to join the Allies, Shortt briefly contemplated enlisting in the French Foreign Legion. See Russell A. Kelly to James E. and Mary Kelly, 28, February 1915, in James E. Kelly, ed., Kelly of the Foreign Legion: Letters of Légionnaire Russell A. Kelly (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1917), 39-42.

[26] “Olympic Reaches England,” Daily British Whig, 17 April 1916, 1.

[27] Memoirs of the Harvard Dead, 1:176.

[28] “Proceedings of a Medical Board,” 5 August 1916, First World War Personnel Records, Edward Allen Low Shortt, LAC.

[29] “Proceedings of a Medical Board,” 5 September 1916, First World War Personnel Records, Edward Allen Low Shortt, LAC.

[30] “Lieut. Shortt is Ordered to France,” Watertown Daily Times, 28 September 1916, 6.

[31] Kevin R. Shackleton, Second to None: The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Toronto, Ont., Canada: Dundurn Press, 2002), 85, 87. See also War Diary, September 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 24 September 1916, 4, LAC.

[32] War Diary, October 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 3 October 1916, 1, LAC.

[33] Shackleton, Second to None, 87.

[34] War Diary, October 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 8 October 1916, 2-5, LAC; and Shackleton, Second to None, 89-93.

[35] “Lieut. Allen Shortt Wounded on Duty,” Daily British Whig, 13 November 1916, 2; and “Allen Shortt Captured,” Boston Globe, 4 February 1917, 24.

[36] Shorrt was awarded the Military Cross on 30 November 1916. See “Army Form B-103,” First World War Personnel Records, Edward Allen Low Shortt, LAC; and Second Supplement to the London Gazette of 19th of December 1916, No. 29872, 21 December 1916, 12436.

[37] War Diary, October 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 16-31 October 1916, 7-8, LAC; and Shackleton, Second to None, 94-95.

[38] War Diary, December 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 6 December 1916, 3, LAC. The Fifty-eighth was in reserve near Maison Blanche.

[39] War Diary, December 1916, 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 10 December 1916, 7-15, LAC; and Shackleton, Second to None, 103-108.

[40] “Allen Shortt Captured,” Boston Globe, 4 February 1917, 24; “Shortt in German Prison Camp,” The Harvard Crimson, 21 February 1917; and “Lieut. Allen Shortt Among the Missing,” Watertown Daily Times, 18 December 1916, 6.

[41] “Reported Missing, Casualties, Raid of Dec. 10th 1916, Lt. Col. Harry A. Genet, C.O. 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Item #136, 13 December 1916, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC.

[42] “Army Form B-2090C, Missing Man, Acceptance of Death for Official Purposes,” Item #107, 5 October 1917,” Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC. See also “History of Lieutenant Allen Shortt as Reflected on Data in C.E.F. Record Office,” Item #130, 6 April 1921, Department of National Defence: Subject Files,1866-1950: C-5055, RG-24, LAC.

[43] “Lieut. Shortt is Given Up for Dead,” Watertown Daily Times, 22 July 1919, 14; “Death Notice, Lieutenant Edward Allen Low Shortt,” 15 July 1919, Daily British Whig, 8. There were unsubstantiated rumors that Shortt had survived the war and had been seen in Germany and in Switzerland.

[44] Secretary’s Triennial Report . . . Class of 1917, 210.