Remembering the Forgotten Archaeology at the Morrissey WWI Internment Camp

To date, there is very little known archaeologically about First World War era Internment Camps, especially in Canada where many of the Federal Internment records were destroyed in the 1950s. Archaeologists can play a fundamental role in contributing knowledge where there remains a lack of oral and documentary evidence through a triangulation of data sets commonly used by historical archaeologists. This thesis focuses on one of Canada’s twenty-four WWI internment camps – Morrissey Internment Camp, and specifically its cemetery. Through an archaeological landscape analysis, GPR survey of the cemetery, archives retrieval and oral history interviews, the story of the Morrissey Internment Camp was brought to light and gaps in the historical record finally answered.