Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Newspaper Clipping – From the Toronto Star. Submitted for the project, Operation: Picture Me

Cenotaph – Cenotaph Barrie, Ontario

Street sign – Barrie street named in honour of Captain William Offley McCarthy with a poppy.

Newspaper clipping – This article, which appeared in the Northern Advance newspaper (Barrie, Ontario), at page 1, on 15 March 1900, includes a report of William O. McCarthy volunteering for military service during the South African War (1899-1902) (also known as the Second Boer War, the Anglo-Boer War and simply the Boer War). McCarthy apparently first went to South Africa as a soldier during this war and then stayed after completing his military service.

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Telegram September 1916. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – A report that appeared on page 1 of the Northern Advance newspaper (Barrie, Ontario) on September 7, 1916.

Memorial – McCarthy family monument, viewed from the north-east, located on Plots 376 & 377, Section D, in Barrie Union Cemetery, 338 Sunnidale Road, Barrie, Ontario. Although Capt. McCarthy's grave is not located here, this monument includes (on the east side of its base) an inscription to his memory. (Image taken by Gregory J. Barker, of Barrie, Ontario, in 2024.)

Memorial – Commemorative inscription on the base of a McCarthy family monument in the Barrie Union Cemetery, 338 Sunnidale Road, Barrie, Ontario. The inscription, which has begun to deteriorate with time, reads: "Captain William Offley McCarthy, 2nd Rhodesian Regiment. Second son of J. L. G. McCarthy, Esq., M. B. Born at Barrie 17th December 1879, Killed in action at Wami River, German East Africa, August 1916." (Note: This is not the site of Capt. McCarthy's grave, but only an inscription on his family's monument. Also note that, more correctly, Capt. McCarthy died of wounds received in action at the Wami River. ) (Image taken by Gregory J. Barker of Barrie, Ontario, in 2024.)

Memorial – This World War I memorial stands, "IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE MEN OF THE SHAMVA MINE AND DISTRICT WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR." One of the names on the memorial is that of Capt. W. O. McCarthy, who before the war was a farmer in the area. He died of wounds received in action in German East Africa (in what is today Tanzania). This memorial is located in the town of Shamva, about 50 miles (or 80 kilometres) northeast of Harare (formerly Salisbury), Mashonaland Central Province, in northeastern Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). (Image credit: www.zimfieldguide.com, used here with permission.)

Newspaper Clipping – Death notice that appeared on page 8 in the Northern Advance newspaper (Barrie, Ontario) on September 16, 1916.