Chavarie and MacGillivray Families

Stories of Acadian Service

ANTOINE CHAVARIE AND FAMILY

Born in Aldouane, Kent County, New Brunswick, Antoine ‘Gaspard’ Chavarie was 22 years old when he was drafted under the Military Service Act in May 1918. He trained nine months with the New Brunswick Regiment before he was demobilized in February 1919. In 1921, Chavarie married Mary Alice Richard and the couple settled at Blackville, Northumberland County, where Gaspard worked as a cook in the lumber camps. There, they raised eight children.

When war broke out in 1939, Gaspard joined the Veterans Guard of Canada, and spent time working as a guard at the internment camp at Ripples, New Brunswick. The Veterans Guard was composed of First World War veterans who were too old for front line duty in the Second World War. Thousands served with the Guard across Canada, guarding internment camps as well as power plants and other strategic locations. The Ripples camp initially housed German and Austrian Jews, and later prisoners of war and Canadian critics of the war. One such internee was Camillien Houde, the outspoken Mayor of Montreal.

Meanwhile, three of Chavarie’s eight children made their own contribution to the war effort. One daughter, Anne Loretta, served with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. The man who would become her husband, Charles Morrison, served in Europe with the Canadian Army. Two others daughters, Mary Agnes ‘Helen’ and Evangeline Theresa ‘Bonnie’, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division. Their brother, George Joseph Chavarie, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy just after war’s end.

Gaspard Chavarie died in Blackville, New Brunswick, in 1969.

A daguerrotype image shows a young Gaspard Chavarie in his CEF uniform. — Gaspard Chavarie - First World War

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Gaspard Chavarie - Second World War

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Sepia tone photo. A young women is shown in full military dress, in a skirt uniform. She is grinning standing at attention. — Mary Agnes "Helen" Chavarie

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Teresa Evangeline "Bonnie" Chavarie

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"Anne" Loretta Chavarie

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Black and white photograph. Three young women stand in front of their father, in front of a house. They are all in winter military uniforms and their is snow on the ground. — Chavarie Family

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Black and white photograph. A young man sits at a small table, hands in his lap. There is a white dish on the table and a white vase with flowers. — Charles Morrison Holland

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REV. RONALD CAMERON MACGILLIVRAY

Rev. Ronald Cameron MacGillivray was born in 1885 at St. Joseph’s, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia; he was one of a family of six children born to merchant Angus MacGillivray and his wife Mary Cameron.

After receiving his education at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, and at the Urban College of the Propaganda in Rome, MacGillivray was ordained a priest in Rome in May 1915. After a short time as a parish priest in Cape Breton, he enlisted as a chaplain with the 25th Overseas Battalion and sailed for the United Kingdom on 9 November 1915.

Over the course of the next four years, MacGillivray was attached to several other units, most significantly to the ‘Fighting 26th’ Battalion from New Brunswick. Although there was no formal expectation for a Chaplain to go ‘over the top’ in the first wave, Fr. MacGillivray gained a reputation for bravery. He is known to have gone ‘over the top’ with his men on at least seven separate occasions.

In his work with the wounded and the dying, MacGillivray was well noted. The sense of humour with which he was associated throughout his life shone through even in the darkness of battle. In one report, he noted: “[On] the second day of the show a man was brought in in a dying condition, calling aloud for a Priest. I went up to him and he said, “Are you a Holy Roman Catholic Priest?” I told him I had grave doubt as to the ‘Holy’ but was unquestionably a Catholic Priest.”

In January 1919, the London Gazette carried the following citation for the Military Cross: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an attack. He went forward with the attacking waves and materially assisted the medical officer with his duties. In the open, and in the face of the heaviest fire, he dressed the wounded and attended to the dying. He set a splendid example to all with whom he came in contact.”

After demobilization, Honorary Major MacGillivray returned to parish life with appointments in various Nova Scotia parishes before being assigned to the parish of Sacred Heart, Sydney, in 1934.

MacGillivray’s busy but relatively peaceful life was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1941, he enlisted for active service as a military chaplain for the second time. During the course of the war, MacGillivray rose to the rank of Honorary Brigadier, and was named Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain to the Canadian Army in 1944. For his outstanding service, he was awarded the Efficiency Decoration, and was named in the New Years’ Honours List of 1946, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Returning to Sydney at the close of 1945, now Monsignor MacGillivray lived out the rest of his life as a parish priest in Sacred Heart, dying in Sidney in January 1963.