LANCE CORPORAL STEWART CULLETON. looking for info

[rogerculleton]

i'm looking for any information on stewart culleton who served with the royal winnipeg rifles 1st bn. he died on june 8th 1944 in france. there is a culleton lake in north west manitoba named after him. thanks for any info. roger

[Grant Bowker]

Since he died on active service it should be relatively easy to get any existing information from Veterans Affairs Canada and the National Archives.
I don't know enough about the process for naming geographic features to be able to tell you who to ask, but there has to be some kind of register of why the feature was named for an individual. Moving into guesswork - it seems likely that the lake was named for him as a result of some special action on his part (not all casualties got a lake named for them), so there has to be some kind of record existing for that action, whether in the unit War Diary or elsewhere. Do the records of his death mention any awards for valour? Citations for awards can sometimes be quite detailed and even if not directly helpful, might point in a useful direction.

[Bob Carriere]

Geez for once I can contribute.....

NRCan.... excuse me....Natural Resources Canada includes in it's mandate the maps of Canada.....

There is a secretariat called the .."Geographical Names Secretariat Board"

...ask for the Senior Toponomy Advisor....Jocelyne Revi......992-4100... she should be able to help.... they have the history for all names in Canada that appear on Maps......

BooBee

[rogerculleton]

i left a couple of messages at veterans affairs medals div., no call back yet. i also checked the canadian archives (collections canada) and i found the location of burial, a picture of his headstone and some documents of his death in regards to the war crimes committed by the nazi ss 12th panzer div. i heard he was mentioned in a book titled conduct unbecoming. i'll have to pick that up. thanks grant

[rogerculleton]

thanks for that info bob, do you have an area code

Originally Posted by rogerculleton

i'm looking for any information on stewart culleton who served with the royal winnipeg rifles 1st bn. he died on june 8th 1944 in france. there is a culleton lake in north west manitoba named after him. thanks for any info. roger

Hello Roger,

The June 8th date caught my attention right away as my Uncle was executed by Hitlerjugend with a group of mostly RWR's on that date in Normandy ... I have a copy of Conduct Unbecoming and "Lance Corporal Stewart Culleton" is listed in it on page 90, as one of the men executed in my Uncles group that day That chapter is all about the events of the execution in that field where your Stewart and my Uncle Ed happened. Heavy details

There is also a video put out by Cliff Chadderton, WarAmps, called "Take No Prisoners" about the executed POWS. Waramps sent me a complimentary copy because my uncle was one of the POWS:
http://www.waramps.ca/military/video/wwii/tnop.html

I joined MLU a few years ago and below is a link to my fisrt post lookiing for information about my Uncle. Many MANY pages to slog through, but if you do, you might find out a LOT of info, and names and links to resources, you didn't know before. Please check out the last/latest new posts in the thread as they may interest you!!!

http://www.class-five.com/~mlu/forum...ight=1944+POWS

By the way, Uncle Ed has a bit of Lake named after him up by Flin Flon, Manitoba as well

I hope, and trust, that you'll find out a LOT of info and directions to more, through MLU .........

I received a LOT of information and help from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Museum people. If you haven't been in touch with them as yet, I'd suggest contacting them and telling them your relative was one of the executed POWS and that you are wanting as much info as you can find out about him. I'm sure they will help you.

rifles@canada.com

And here is a link for the book "A Place of Honour" for the geographical places in Manitoba named after Fallen Manitoba soldiers: VBy the way ... you should be entitled to receive, or at least buy if no one else in the family has received the first certificate, a certified and signed map honouring Stewart and showing the location of the lake. It comes with a letter explaining the honour and signed by "up there" officials and arrives in a tube. Its coloured and beautiful for framing If you contact them and request one you'll find out whether you get a complimentary one or will have to buy one (very little money to buy them though!)

http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/ge...r-e/index.html

I have a copy (complimentary of WarAmps) of the Manitoba names and info extracted of just the RWR soldiers - below is exactly what's written for Stewart. I regret there is no photo of him included that I could scan and post for you

CULLETON, Lance Corporal Stewart R., of Badger (H 1713) Royal Winnipeg Rifles. He died on 8 June 1944 at the age of 24 and is commemorated at Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, France. He was the son of Richard and Blanche Culleton and was survived by his wife Jean Culleton. Lance Corporal Culleton was "executed" while a prisoner of war after the Normandy landing.

Culleton Lake (64 N/14) North of Nueltin Lake was named after him in 1972.

That's it

Here's contact info about getting certificates:

Manitoba Geographical Names Program
Geomatics Branch
1007 Century Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3H 0W4
Telephone (204) 945-1798 or 945-1032
Fax (204) 945-1365
Email Des Kappel (dkappel@gov.mb.ca)

[Bob Carriere]

....area code 613......

If you give me more details of the lake in question I can try to find the information for you......

Boob

[rogerculleton]

thanks for all the info, i got cut off on friday and could not get back on this site until now. i'll be in st james on monday so i'll pick up a copy of that book" a place of honour" i i also heard theres a evans rapids named after my grandmothers brother bob.
what part of mb was your uncle from karman.

Hi Roger,

Yes, the forum has been acting up and causing frustrations with access and such. Sorry you were cut off midstream

If you have a library card maybe the library has copies of the books as well, or they can bring them in from other branches for you. (just another option)

My family/ Uncle Ed Smith is a country boy from Beaconia/Balsam Bay, edging SE corner of Lake Winnipeg, a short drive from Grand Beach and about half hour from Selkirk.

I don't think you've mentioned your relationship to Stewart but if your last name is Culleton as well, then I'm assuming a close relationship. You should be able to get Stewart's service records from National Archives ... do you know about that?

Roger, I just checked my booklet of RWR Manitoba soldiers names extracted from that Place of Honour book and found no Evans, so your Grandmothers brother must have served with another regiment. Would that be WW1 or WW2?

For your information - If WW1 - Archivianet has uploaded a lot of WW1 enlistment papers to online for free viewing, a continuing project, and you can copy/save them to your computer. I just did a search for "Robert Evans" for WW1 as an example and it comes up with 44 entries.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/a...=&interval=100

I went through opening up more than 200 Joseph Smith's to find my grandfathers papers. I hadn't been sure he served until I found them, so it was a great break!

I'll be back as I think of anything that might be helpful to you or if you ask questions people will jump in with answers or try to help. MLU is great for this!!!

Take care.

[rogerculleton]

hi karmen, thanks for that link to archives. i'll have to find more info on bob and then start looking. found ww1 records on john thomas culleton which would be stewerts older brother but nothing on stewert. stewert was my dads uncle.
i spent quite a bit time in balsem bay fishing and duck hunting. dont live to far from there. nice place.

Originally Posted by rogerculleton

hi karmen, thanks for that link to archives. i'll have to find more info on bob and then start looking. found ww1 records on john thomas culleton which would be stewerts older brother but nothing on stewert. stewert was my dads uncle.
i spent quite a bit time in balsem bay fishing and duck hunting. dont live to far from there. nice place.

Hi Roger.

If Stewart was 24 at death in 1944 Normandy then he was born too late to take part in WW1, but you know, I've browsed the WW1 records with all of our family surnames and it's amazing how many relatives I came up with, both maternal and paternal. Wonderful for family history and remembering our fallen family soldiers and what actions etc that they sacrificed their lives in. Sure gives a broader knowledge and appreciation of family. "Old Uncle Joe" suddenly comes to life and has done amazing things, sort of thing : We just so often haven't got a clue about our families individual stories and it's great to learn them!

Even in that booklet, the extractions of Manitoba RWR's geographical places/names, I found relatives. It cleared up a mystery of what had ever happened to my Aunty Annie's first husband (he died of wounds on D-Day after the landing)

Balsam Bay/Beaconia all changing/changed now, although not much difference in the area where we lived, about a mile down a road from the Balsam bay dock. I hope you enjoyed the duckhunting and fishing ... as to fish, one thing I'll always remember is sometimes the awful overpowering stink of dead fish at the beach by Almdals ... eeeeewwwww. But hey, that fish smelled like money and food to the locals

Yes, it is very pretty and peaceful through most of that area still.

Any questions just ask away and someone will try to answer if they can.