Brigadier Donald Robert Agnew was born in Toronto on 25 Oct. 1897. He was educated at University of Toronto Schools and Royal Military College. From 1947-1954 he was both Commandant of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont. and A.D.C. to the Governor-General of Canada. From 1954-1958 he served as Director of the Imperial War Graves Commission in North West Europe. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1946. He would gain the rank of Brigadier-General and retired from the military in 1958.
Commander Ronald Ian Agnew, was born in Toronto on 6 June 1895. He was educated at the Royal Naval College of Canada. He served in the navy during World War I on the H.M.S. Manners and H.M.S. Princess Royal and with the North Russian Relief Force in 1919. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1935. He settled in Victoria, BC, with his wife, Eleanor Monteith. He died 22 March 1949, and was buried at sea.
Major John Agnew, 127th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, served in World War I, along with his three sons, Lt. Donald Agnew, of the Canadian Reserve Artillery, Lt. Ellis Agnew, 351 Brigade R.F.A., and Lt. Ronald Agnew, of the Royal Canadian Navy. Major Agnew's first wife, Daisy Edith Stocks, died in 1902. He married Elizabeth Dickenson prior to the start of the First World War. The Agnew family lived in Toronto, Ont. During the war, his wife Elizabeth Agnew, moved temporarily to Hamilton, Ont. while her husband and sons were overseas.
Published
RC0541
The fonds consists of correspondence, photographs and realia. There are letters from all three sons to their mother and their father as well as letters from their father to their mother, one letter from Donald to Ronald, news clippings and post cards. There are also two b&w photographs of French people and one b&w photograph presumably of Elizabeth Agnew, a handkerchief embroidered with the flags of various nations, a pencil and crayon sketch of a house, and money issued by Germany during its occupation of Belgium.
The fonds was acquired from Herb Groenweger whose son found the letters in the Hamilton dump approximately ten years before the letters were given to McMaster.
The exact date of acquisition is not known but was before William Ready's retirement in 1979. Some letters were too soiled to be retained.
Further accruals are not expected.
There are no access restrictions.