How to Get Involved

We are looking for volunteers to help with this project. Here’s how you can help:

1. Send us an email at archives@saanich.ca to let us know you'd like a name to research.
2. We will send you a name and a list of links to the soldier’s attestation papers and service record.
3. Using the links we send you and the other resources on our website, compile biographical information about the soldier.
4. Using other biographies on our website as examples, write up the information you discover into a biography of your soldier.
5. We’ll add the biography to the website and to our reference collections at Saanich Archives.

Resources for Volunteers

• Soldiers of the First World War - search attestation papers and sevice records
• Military abbreviations used in service files
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission - search for war dead
• A City Goes To War - search database of service records for Greater Victoria soldiers
• Saanich 1921 & 1911 Census Project Documents
• 1918 Saanich Voters List [PDF - 1.4 MB] - arranged alphabetically in wards
• Saanich postal stations [PDF - 16 KB] in 1918 
• 1912 Henderson's Greater Victoria City Directory (Vancouver Public Library website)
• 1920 Henderson's Greater Victoria City Directory (Vancouver Public Library website)
• BC Archives Genealogy - search birth, marriages, deaths in British Columbia
• FamilySearch.org - search birth, marriage, and death records
• British Army War Diaries - search and download unit war diaries held at the National Archives UK
• British Colonist - search index of historical Victoria newspapers
• Biographical form [PDF - 17 KB] for submitting information on a Saanich WWI veteran who is not listed on the Honour Roll

Explore Saanich Archives WWI Documents

View our collection of WW1 images on our photo search site.

Visit our Collections & Research page to view WWI references in the following:

• Saanich Council minutes (1914 – 1921)
• Annual Reports (1914 – 1919)
• Oral History Interviews
• other Saanich Archives collections

Explore correspondence and ephemera from Saanich Archives relating to the First World War in these links:

• Letter suggesting location for Saanich Honour Roll [PDF - 7.1 MB]
• Letters to Municipality submitting names for inclusion on Saanich Honour Roll [PDF - 796 KB]
• Military envelope, August 1918 [PDF - 2.8 MB]
• Victoria Patriotic Aid Society certificate [PDF - 941 KB]
• Request by soldier for Municipality to forward tax notice overseas [PDF - 11.8 MB]
• Explore more WWI documents