— Others Listed from Previous Genesee County Rolls —
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James A Hannah
Serjeant, B Co, 5th Battalion, Canadian Engineers, 2nd Canadian Division. Died of wounds received in action near Hendecourt, France, September 26, 1918. Age 24.
Listed under Elba on County List 1.
Actual home town: Cayuga, Ontario, Canada
Burial: Sunken Road Cemetery, Plot 2 Row F Grave 27, Boisleux-St. Marc, Pas de Calais, France
James Alexander Hannah had family ties to Elba (Genesee County), New York, but he was a lifelong Canadian citizen and is most appropriately honored as a Canadian soldier.
Hanna was born in Oneida (Haldimand County), Ontario, Canada on October 21, 1893 (his enlistment papers say 1894 but censuses and other sources indicate the prior year). He was one of eight children of farmer David Hannah and wife, Margaret Hannah. The 1901 Census of Canada shows James at age 7 living in Oneida with his parents and all seven siblings. The 1911 Census of Canada lists James and two siblings with his parents in Seneca township, also in Haldimand County, as is Cayuga, which Hannah gave as his town of residence on his enlistment papers.
James Hannah enlisted in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force on February 14, 1916. His parents immigrated to the United States the following year, in 1917, according to column 13, “Year of Immigration,” in the 1920 US Census. That census shows James Hannah’s parents as well as a brother (Leo C) and sister (Ethel) living on Fargo Road in Darien (Genesee County), New York. Area newspaper articles in the period prior to late 1919, however, place the family in Elba—“half a mile east of Lanckton’s Corners,” according to the October 5, 1918 Batavia Daily News article announcing Serjeant Hannah’s death. This explains why James Hannah’s home town on County Honor Roll 1, published in August, 1919. was given as Elba. That list also identified Serjeant Hannah as a U.S. Marine; this was an error.
Clearly, James Hannah’s parents and at least one brother and sister were living in Genesee County when he died from wounds received in action, but James himself appears never to have lived in the United States.
Serjeant Hannah arrived in France with his original unit, the Canadian 3rd Division’s 123rd Canadian Pioneer Battalion, on March 10, 1917, and spent the remainder of the war in the muddy, trench-riddled, war-torn terrain of the Somme, between Arras in the northwest and the Canal du Nord several miles east. In June, 1918, his unit was reorganized and became part of the 2nd Division’s 5th Battalion, Canadian Engineers. Building and repairing trench systems and water supply lines and creating and maintaining roads for the movement of troops and artillery, the engineers worked under horrific conditions, often under heavy fire from machine guns and artillery. Serjeant Hannah was wounded twice, once near Bully-Grenay on August 29, 1917, and again about a year later in August 1918, before being wounded a third time, fatally.
Tragically, Serjeant Hannah had just been sent back to his unit from the hospital when he received his mortal wounds. In a letter to Hannah’s parents dated September 28, 1918, excerpted in the November 5, 1918 Batavia Daily News, Lt. R.B. Elmsley, Hannah’s section officer, wrote: “You will know that about a month ago Serjeant Hannah was wounded and had only returned to the company from the hospital about an hour when he received the wound which caused his death. He was wounded in the leg, back and abdomen, the latter being the fatal wound. I helped to bandage him up and place him in an ambulance. He was conscious and seemed to know that his end was near. . . . I hope the knowledge that he was a fine clean-living, much-liked young man, a most efficient officer and held in respect by all, will in some measure help to comfort you in your great sorrow.”
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—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——
October 5, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c6
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November 5, 1918 Batavia Daily News p8 c2
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Source: Circumstances of Death Registers, First World War, Library and Archives Canada
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James A Hannah headstone, Sunken Road Cemetery, Boisleux-St. Marc, Pas de Calais, France
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James A Hannah Sources:
– County List 1
– Oct 29, 1917 BD p7 c2
– Sep 4, 1918 BD p7 c4
– Oct 5, 1918 BD p1 c6*
– Nov 5, 1918 BD p8 c2
– “Census of Canada, 1901.” Online index and images, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1901/Pages/about-census.aspx). Entries for David Hannah (age 48) and family, citing Fourth Census of Canada, 1901, Oneida Township, Ontario, District 67 Haldimand and Monck, Subdistrict 3, page 2, lines 23-32, item number 2321128.
– “Census of Canada, 1911.” Online index and images, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1911/Pages/about-census.aspx). Entries for David Hannah (age 58) and family, citing Fifth Census of Canada, 1911, Seneca Township, Ontario, District 75 Haldimand, Subdistrict 13, page 2, lines 13-17, item number 5216270.
– “United States Census, 1920.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for David Hanna [sic] (head) and family, citing Census Records, Darien Township, E.D. 02, Genesee, New York; sheet number 3B, line numbers 62-65, microfilm series T625, Roll 1114, page 216.
– “Canadian Great War Project” website, CEF Soldier Detail, Serjeant James Alexander Hannah (http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/searches/soldierDetail.asp?ID=14544)
– Attestation Papers, “Hannah, James Alex, Regimental Number 739119,” search results from “Soldiers of the First World War – 1914-1918” online database (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/canadian-expeditionary-force.aspx)
– “War Diaries of the First World War,” ArchiviaNet online research tool, Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/020152_e.html). Entries for: 5th Battalion, Canadian Engineers, Septembre 1918, p. 36, “Appendix 3, Casualties for the month ending 2nd Oct, 1918” (http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e050/e001235671.jpg); 123rd Canadian Pioneer Battalion, March 1917, p. 7 [unit arrives France 10 March] (http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e059/e001465628.jpg); 123rd Canadian Pioneer Battalion, August 1917, p. 12 [Hannah wounded 29 Aug] (http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e059/e001465913.jpg)
– “Circumstances of Death Registers, First World War,” Library and Archives Canada (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=28&interval=50&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=028f5r8mogpo7mf2v8hjq5qmo2). Entry for Serjeant James Alexander Hannah. Microform 31829_B016683, pages 14-15.
– “James Alexander Hannah,” Memorial Page (with headstone photo), Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) website (www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/virtualmem/Detail/284976)
– Book of Remembrance, First World War, page 423, Veterans Affairs Canada website (http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/books/page?page=423&book=1&sort=pageAsc)
– “Hannah, James Alexander,” Graves Registration Reports, Debt of Honour Register, and Headstone Schedule, Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website, (www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=284976)
– “Commonwealth War Graves Registers, First World War,” Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=27&interval=50&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=028f5r8mogpo7mf2v8hjq5qmo2). Entry for Sergt. Hannah, J.A.; Serial 38, microform 31830_B016675, pages 144-45.
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