Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada's First World War

Larry Ostola talks to Gregory Kennedy about his book, Lost in the Crowd: Acadian Soldiers of Canada's First World War. In December 1915, Acadian leaders in New Brunswick expressed concerns about their soldiers being "lost in the crowd" within the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I. They successfully lobbied for the creation of a French-speaking, Catholic, and Acadian-led national unit. Over a thousand Acadians from the Maritimes, Quebec, and the U.S. Northeast joined this effort. In Lost in the Crowd, Gregory Kennedy uses military archives, census records, newspapers, and soldiers' letters to explore the experiences of Acadian soldiers and their families before, during, and after the war. He highlights their enlistment rates, compares their experiences with English-speaking soldiers, and examines underreported issues like underage recruits, desertion, and army discipline. Kennedy also uses the 1921 Census to analyze the long-term impacts of the war on soldiers, families, and communities. The book offers a fresh approach to military history by focusing on the Acadians, a francophone minority in the Maritimes, reshaping our understanding of French Canadians in World War I. Gregory M.W. Kennedy is professor of history and dean of the Faculty of Arts at Brandon University and the author of Something of a Peasant Paradise? Comparing Rural Societies in Acadie and the Loudunais, 1604-1755. Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.