CAF DHH Archives?

[RichTO90]

Hi there everyone, it's been a while since I posted, hope everyone is well.

Does anyone have a clue as to what is going on at the Canadian Armed Forces Depratment of History and Heraldry? Why have they become so unresponsive and why have they not completed the website "improvements" that began nearly a year ago when they deleted all access to the AFHQ and other archived reports?

Have they lost funding? Lost interest in providing public access to documents that were easily accessed for years by the public? It can't be because of any major technical issues AFAICS since the documents were already digitized and online, it should have been a simple website redesign and resetting of links?

And why do they refuse to acknowledge email inquiries? I have been trying to track down the Christian names and some biographical details of Lieutenant J. J. Denovan, RCE, the inventor of the A.V.R.E. now for some time now for my "Funnies" book and have gotten zero response?

So what gives?

Rich

[servicepub (RIP)]

As with anything at DND these days they just don't have the resources. Although most Canadians don't realise this but Canada is at war and DND is the functional group delegated to address this 'issue'. Although we 'only' have 2500 troops in country it requires most of the resources available at NDHQ and positions in other areas of DND remain vacant while the war is being fought.
I agree that the links should be a simple thing and I will bring this to the attention of my contacts there. As to the lack of assistance in your research - DHH does not offer research assistance to the public. I can give you the name of a researcher if you wish as finding Denovan's given names shouldn't be too difficult. You may also wish to try the Engineer's Museum at CFB Gagetown as they may have some of this information.
Cheers,
Clive

[RichTO90]

Thanks Clive, that's very helpful. I kind of suspected that might be the case but didn't want to declare it was so.

And my fault for not realizing they didn't answer research questions, I suppose I was being too hopeful?

I will see what happens with Gagetown. Thanks!

Rich

[RichTO90]

Thanks again Clive, your suggestion regarding the Engineer Mueseum was a great help and their initial response was literally overnight. Hopefully now they'll be able to answer my burning question, what were the Christian names of Lieutenant (later Major) J.J. Denovan, the inventor of the AVRE?