'Who were these men?' New photo exhibit tells the story of Eaton's employees who fought for Canada

They were young men from all backgrounds, but they had two things in common — they all worked at Eaton's, and they all enlisted to fight in the First World War. And now, they're being honoured in a photo exhibit titled Eaton's Goes To War.

"Eaton's was a large department store, and to encourage enlistment in the First World War, John Craig Eaton — the president of the company — offered to pay his employees' wages when they enlisted," explained Bruce Beaton, the museum program instructor at Toronto's Mackenzie House, which is showing the exhibit.

In Toronto and Winnipeg, 3,327 Eaton's employees answered the call to duty — 2,200 of them from the Yonge Street store alone.

Of the more than 3,000 employees, 315 of them lost their lives.

"There was an enthusiastic response to the war in general in Toronto," Beaton said. "Eaton's was part of this fervour. John Craig just went further than any other employer did here. He was knighted for this — he's Sir John Craig because of this. So his enthusiasm was above and beyond what most employers were offering their employees here in the city."

Photographs of every employee

As part of the enlistment process, each Eaton's employee was photographed.

In total, about 2,000 photos were taken. They were prominently displayed in the Toronto store during the war.

Those photographs survived and are housed in the Archives of Ontario, but apart from them, not much more was known about many of the soldiers other than their names.

"They knew nothing about who these chaps were," Beaton said. "Our exhibit attempts to answer [the questions], 'Who were these men? How were they remembered by their family?' It's the memories that live within the family that keeps these stories alive."

The city of Toronto launched a public outreach program to find relatives of the soldiers in the photos. The response, they say, was overwhelming — they received more stories than they could include in the exhibit.

All of them are being chronicled, however, and will be made public through the Archives of Ontario.

'A very humble man'

For the family of Cpl. Andrew Percy, taking part in the exhibit was a way to ensure his contribution isn't forgotten.

"What he was doing was very courageous, " said Percy's granddaughter, Cathy Scattergood.

"He was a very humble man, but he knew that he had to do this. It was his duty to defend his country, and he knew that some people — and possibly him — may have to pay the ultimate price," she said.

"But he had to do it."

Percy joined the 3rd Toronto Battalion in September of 1914. He served in the medical corps as a stretcher-bearer and water carrier. He was in the trenches in the Second Battle of Ypres and Vimy Ridge.

His family loaned a number of artifacts Percy had brought home from the war to the exhibit, including his medals, field glasses and a diary. The diary includes an entry from the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917:

"Intense bombt [bombardment] at 5:30 commenced general attack. We advanced at 7:30. By evening had captured Vimy Ridge. Miserable weather. 3rd took 4 guns."

Getting to know a soldier and grandfather

Scattergood never met her grandfather — Andrew Percy died when she was just two years old. But she recently took a trip with her mother to France and Belgium, walking the grounds her grandfather did during the war.

"It was amazing," she said. "It was very emotional — especially at Vimy. Just to stand there. Now you see it with the trees and with the monuments and so forth and try and imagine what it was like back then."

"It was just the most wonderful experience to be there. I felt a lot closer to my grandfather."

The Eaton's Goes to War exhibit is on until Jan. 31. During the month of November, admission is free at Mackenzie House and eight other City of Toronto museums.