Early Cupar Recruits WWI

Over the last couple of winters I have tried to gather as many WWI attestation papers for men from Cupar who enlisted in the war. I found over 70. 35 of these men were in the 195^th. It helped that the Local legion, United church and Anglican church have honour rolls, but there are still men missing. Part of the problem is sometimes there is no first name, just an initial. There appears to be 2 different attestation forms one asks for present address, the other does not, I therefore may have missed some.

I was also curious as to who were among the early recruits. The Cupar Herald 15 Oct 1914 lists 3 men who left “in the past week” to enlist in Regina. They were Bernard Hitchcox, Donald L. Copeland and George Watkins. It appears from an early paper dated 20 Aug 1914 that Bernard Hitchcox and W.M.Gawley had left their names with Captain Anderson of the 95^th Saskatchewan Rifles.

But the earliest Cupar recruits appear to have gone directly to Valcartier . Eustace E. Wallis ( later to be postmaster in Cupar) enlisted 21 Sept 1914 he was listed under 1^st Brigade CFA , and Frank Whiskin Reg. # 21902 (printer) 23 Sept 1914. He was designated with the 11^th Battalion CEF.

Frank Whiskin in reality was a journalist who worked for a number of small papers in the Cupar area.

He wrote a number of letters home from the front. The letter he wrote 21 Aug 1915,  is the most descriptive I have found, appears in the Cupar Herald 30 Sept 1915.