| Rank | Private |
| Service # | 6690 |
| Unit # | 1st Canadian Contingent, 1st Battalion |
| Resident | Chatham |
Regimental number: 6690. Reference: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box: 4731, Item: 489 197, PDF: B4731-SO03. Born: 31/03/1888 at Carlisle, England. Next of Kin: Mrs. J. Ivison (wife). Mary A. was living at 20 Westmoreland St., Denton Holme, Carlisle, England when she married Joseph 7/07/1904.
Living at Colborne St., Chatham, ON. A teamster by trade. Previous Military, 7 years RGA (England). Attestation: 15/09/14 at Valcartier, PQ. A carriage Painter
Height: 6’ 3”, Girth: 34 “, Complexion: Fresh, Eyes: Hazel, Hair Light Brown. Weight: 145#. He had three Vaccination marks – left upper arm. Scar 2 1/2:” long between thumb and forefinger left hand, small scar between buttocks. Age: 32 years. Medical done 31/08/14. 36th Reserve Batt.
He departed Quebec aboard the S.S. Laurentie for England. 4/10/1914
Private Joseph Ivison enlisted at Chatham August 14th, and mobilized at Valcartier, Quebec. He left on the “S.S. Laurentic” for overseas September 29th, 1914, arriving at Salisbury Plains, England, October 19th, for training. He proceeded to France February 8th, 1915, attached to the 1st Battalion, and went through all the engagements until August 1st, 1916, when he returned to the Base for further infantry training. He returned to England and was sent back to Canada for discharge on the “S.S. Olympic”.
Private Joseph Ivison served two and a half years with the Cumberland Volunteer Artillery Howitzer Battery.
Joseph was given 2 days Field Punishment (FP) for missing a train on disembarkation. 26/02/15 He was given one week leave in England 21/10/15 Joseph had been on leave and returned to the 1st Batt. 7/11/15. Falling ‘off the wagon’ he was given a 14 days FP for being drunk and impersonating a Police officer after the hotel was closed.
Joe served with the 18th Batt. 13/08/14. He was discharged to Canada. Joseph Ivison received his discharge September 19th, 1916.
Discharged 21/09/16. Complained of pain in arms and shoulders along with back trouble. He was given a negative for rheumatism. He was treated by the Medical Officer of the 1st Battalion in France in June of 1916 for Myalgia but was not hospitalized.
His teeth were in bad condition. He had seven extracted while acting as cook in France.
Joseph was all ready discharged but no action had been taken. Discharged to the 36th Reserve Catt. CEF with a Discharge date of 19/09/16 at Quebec.
Once back in Canada and after being discharged he wrote the government , “I claim Working Pay from 1/01/1916 to the discharge at 50 cents per diem.” The government refused since he had already been discharged.
‘Joe’ returned to Chatham and became the Great War Veteran’s Association. One of there projects to affix to the windshield of automobiles and on which is printed “Ride as far as we go.” This had been copied to help returned soldiers .” At all convenient times are ready give a lift returned men, It was common to see motorist on the way up town to have a party or just a ride home. CDP 19/02/19.
Secretary Joe for the purpose of gathering together to get the men of who served in France to extend a lift to there needs. “In part of the letter “We are desirous of forming an organization of members of the First Infantry Battalion and in order to do this at will be necessary to have a representative of the group.
The parents of the soldier reside at Wheatley. Mrs. Lamarsh is reported to be seriously ill.
14/08/18 to 5/09/18 still had a coughing. He was paid $97.80 and no charge for his kit.
CDP 20/03/19.
from Chatham Daily News, February 16, 1951
Maybe I’m Wrong
By Victor Lauriston
In the fall of 1915 the 186th Battalion C. E. F. started training at the Kent Armoury under Major M. E. Wideman. The ensuing spring the Tecumseh Park greensward was churned into mire by marching feet. On the distant edges of the formation a fringe of admiring small boys kept step. My own boy, John, was one of them. Italy, through which he served in the Second World War was still far into the future.
That winter Major Wideman was a guest of honour at the Macaulay Club banquet. And, conscripted to the toast of “Our Fighting Forces,” I discovered a curious fact.
“In the one fight at Langemarek, we lost more than the United States lost in the entire Spanish American War. They wrestled a colonial empire from a dying nation: we held a single trench against the greatest soldiers in the world – except our own.”
Joe Ivison was, doubtless, one of the men who held that trench. For Joe was one of the Fighting First, and the Fighting First were most everywhere on the west front in that first hectic year, when the fate of the west was still precarious.
A lot of English folk came to Chatham in the first decade of the century. Some were from the English Kent. But Joe was from Cumberland, near Carlisle. I surmise, like his confreres, he did a bit of grumbling about Canada.
He was just getting nicely settled, when two things happened, the one the logical consequence of the other. On August 4, 1914, war was declared against Germany. And right away, Joe signed up. His ancestors had been fighting men since they fought the Danes or came over with the Danes, whichever it was. Fighting was as natural to Joe as breathing. With old Kaiser Bill asking for it, signing up was the one thing to do.
I’m not certain just when Joe left for I’m depending on memory, grown hazy with the years. But it was early that fall, for in October recruits were being sent to London every few days for the “second contingent”- the newspapers were still thinking in terms of the Boer War. The Fighting First mobilized at Valcartier sailed from Gaspe Bay and slogged through the first ghastly winter on Salisbury Plain.
Joe Ivison went through the fighting in France and Flanders. He was a good soldier, meaning that he did his bit, voiced his frank opinion of the mud, groused about the cooties and the top brass and took it all out on such Heines as were unlucky enough to blunder into his path.
Joe survived it all. Back in Canada, he settled into civilian life. Toward 1920, he was appointed to the Customs staff at Chatham. There as in the mud of Flanders, he did his bit. I’ve yet to find the individual who didn’t like him.
Joe was one of the leaders in the organization, here in Chatham, of the Great War Veterans Association, the organizational voice of the veterans. He served for a while as secretary of the Chatham branch, in those formative years when the G. W. V. A. was deciding what it was actually to be and to do. He helped decide these things. When it took on the fancy new name of “Canadian Legion” Joe continued an active member of Branch 28. He kept up an interest in the Kent Regiment and busied himself with the Boy Scouts.
As became their fighting heritage, three of Joe’s sons enlisted for active service in the Second World War. Two, in rapid succession, were killed in action. If, in this year of grace, 1951, Canada and the democracies still have some slight precarious toe hold on a free existence, the Ivisons paid their full share of the price.
It’s a long time since those strange August and September days that Joe trained with the Fighting First, and even since those cruel years of slogging through Flanders mud and dodging Jack Johnsons. Of the Chatham men in the Fighting First, there probably remain a mere handful. But a greater Chatham and a greater Canada must never forget the debt due to the unassuming courage and devotion of the Joe Ivisons who rallied so unhesitatingly in 1914.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
| Sources | IODE (7-CDP) |
| Height | 6'3" |
| Weight | 145 lbs. lbs |
| Eye Colour | Hazel |
| Age | 32 yrs. |
| Complexion | Fresh |
| Hair | Light Brown |
| Race | White |
| Birthplace | Carlisle, England |
| Religion | Anglican |
| Last Place of Employment | William Gray, Sons-Campbell,Ltd, Chatham |
| Average Earnings | $3.00 per day |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Marriage Info | July 7th, 1904, Carlisle, England |
| When Enlisted | August 14th, 1914 |
| Where Enlisted | Chatham, Ontario |
| Allowance from Patriotic Fund | $ 31.50 per month |
| Next of Kin | Wife- Mrs. M.E. Ivison, Chatham |
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