Dan Black is author of Harry Livingstone’s Forgotten Men: Canadians and the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War. Published in 2019, this book has received excellent reviews. Dan will talk about the book, particularly how a small-town doctor embarked on a strange, secret journey after joining the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Instead of heading to the Western Front, Captain Livingstone, who is a relative of the great African explorer Dr. David Livingstone, travelled to China where he examined thousands of men intent on joining the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC). Approximately 100,000 young men travelled to France as members of the CLC in what was a British scheme to find labour to work behind the lines—stockpiling ammunition, unloading ships, repairing roads, and the grisly task of cleaning up the battlefields. Dan’s presentation will explain how Canada and the CPR offered the safest route for the CLC to war-torn Europe, and it will detail Livingstone’s journey with one of the large contingents that crossed Canada. Altogether, the talk—like the book—will shed light on Canada’s role in a forgotten scheme.
Dan is also co-author of Old Enough To Fight: Canada’s Boy Soldiers in the First World War (Lorimer, Toronto, 2013, 2nd Edition 2015) and Too Young To Die: Canada’s Boy Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in the Second World War (Lorimer, Toronto, 2016). He is former Editor of Canada’s Legion Magazine and more recently a contributor to the Singapore National Library’s BiblioAsia magazine. He lives near Ottawa.
