Humphrey Webb is often mentioned in the 1914 diary of Barry Galbraith, my grandfather, starting in March when Barry saw a familiar face pass the window at his Edmonton workplace. Humphrey had apparently immigrated to Canada between spring 1911 and spring 1912. In April 1914 Humphrey, Barry and another young man travelled to the Cosmo area near Sangudo where Humphrey and Barry had homesteads. Over the next few months the men worked together, first at Barry’s homestead and then at Humphreys, clearing and cultivating land and constructing buildings and fences. Humphrey enlisted in Edmonton within a week of the war being declared although his formal attestation is dated September 22 at Valcartier, Quebec. Humphrey and Barry kept in touch by letter at least until the end of 1914. Humphrey died September 9, 1916 and is commemorated on Canada’s Vimy Memorial, one of 11,285 Canadians killed on French soil who have no known graves. Barry Galbraith’s 1914 diary has been donated to the Provincial Archives of Alberta and a longer version of Humphrey’s story is being prepared for the journal of the Alberta Genealogical Society.

Marilyn M Astle