SSNS Home > Senior Years > Curricula 9-12 > Grade 11 > Canadian History > Remembrance Day > PPCLI Soldiers > Carvosso
Carvosso, James H., enlisted at Calgary, Alberta, originally of Dartford, Kent, England. M.C. and bar. Medals/Honours: Military Cross (MC) and bar. Occupation: Farmer. Military Service: Private, M.C., Lance Corporal, Lieutenant, Captain, 23rd Bn., PPCLI, Attestation Papers. Diary Reference: “Tonight we suffered a casualty. [J. H.] Cavasser [Carvosso] our sole remaining subaltern, the rest are away, got snooping around where he had no business to be and McMeichen [Macmeeken] shot him, thinking he was a German,” 4:5 Nov ’16. According to Hodder-Williams, 74, Carvosso was wounded 6 May 1915, 14 May 1916, 7 November 1916, 9 April 1917, 17 November 1917, and accidentally injured, 14 April 1918. In spite of his propensity of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Capt. Carvosso survived the war and was struck off strength 20 March 1919.
Additional Biographical Information:
7 November 1916: In a letter from Crater line, Belgium, to his wife Mabel, Lieutenant-Colonel Agar Adamson, formerly C.O. of the PPCLI, wrote, “Had a very interesting but most tiring night in the trenches. Cavasso, one of our officers, being shot in the leg by a sniper, this is the third time he has been wounded. He rose from the ranks, is a Cornish man, not an Italian as his name might suggest.” See .N. M. Christie, ed., Letters of Agar Adamson 1914 to 1919: Lieutenant Colonel, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, (Nepean, Ontario: CEF Books, 1997), 232.
20 November 1917: In a letter dated St. Hilaire, 20 Nov. 1917, Adamson wrote, “Carvosso has been wounded again which will give him 5 wound stripes, not badly this time, he will probably not get to England.” Letters of Agar Adamson 1914 to 1919, 314.
28 June 1917: Military Cross awarded to Lieut J. H. Carvosso – Lieut G. W. Guiou – Lieut J. T. Lownsbrough. PPCLI War Diary, La Targette, 28 June 1917.
17 September 1917: Bn. moves to Fraser Camp, Bois des Alleux. Strength Increases: - Lieut J. H. Carvosso; M.C. & 4 O R’s. Majors A. T. Hunter and R. G. McDowell (attached supernumerary officers) struck off strength on return to England. PPCLI War Diary, Bois-des-Alleux, 7 September 1917.