First to Die – Book Review
First to Die: The First Canadian Navy Casualties in the First World War. Bryan Elson. Formac Publishing Company Limited 2010. 96 pages. Paperback. $24.95.
The book
First to Die – Book Review
First to Die: The First Canadian Navy Casualties in the First World War. Bryan Elson. Formac Publishing Company Limited 2010. 96 pages. Paperback. $24.95.
The book covers the operations led by the Royal Navy’s Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock and Germany’s Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee.
First to Die is much more than the title indicates. Although its story of the first four Canadian Navy casualties in World War I is an excellent and deserved tribute, the book is much broader in its scope. The four midshipmen serve as a vehicle for discussing larger events around them.
The book begins by reprinting an advertisement for the first intake of officers into the Royal Naval College of Canada (RNCC). Bryan Elson describes the RNCC as "embryonic;" it must therefore draw from the British nava