World War II Military Personnel Newspaper Clippings

The World War Two Military Service files began in 1944 as a project at the Lindsay Library. The intent was to gather together as much information as possible on the military record and the service of people from the Town of Lindsay and the County of Victoria who served in the War.

To that end, during the years 1944, 1945, and 1946, members of the public donated photographs and updated information about their loved ones. Both library staff and the public saved and donated newspaper clippings. By the time the project was finished, over 1600 cards files had been created. Some of the files contain great amounts of detail, while others have just a name.

Anyone with interest in the military, local history, veterans, or genealogy will find this digital archive very interesting and most helpful. For more than 60 years the records and files have been preserved in the Lindsay Library archives. Now they are available online.

The originators of these records did not include any information about themselves. Most likely they were created under the direction of Miss Edith Blackwood, the chief librarian of the day. They were later updated by librarian Martha Holliday. Georgia Robinson, reference specialist, used the files for research on World War II veterans but realized they were not fully accessible to the public.

In 2007 Jacob Currie, a co-op student working under the direction of Georgia Robinson, gathered the individual files from the library archives and organized them into a series of indexed binders. In 2012, a Cultural Strategic Investment Fund grant from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture provided funding to hire MLIS graduate Stephanie McPherson to convert the material from textual to digital format.

The Lindsay Library Reference Department of the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library contains the original copies of these and other documents that provide insight into the contributions and sacrifices made by the local community during the Second World War. Library staff would be pleased to add additional items of local interest to the collection.