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Series consists of city records pertaining to the First World War, which were kept and maintained by city staff. The records include Victory Bond purchases made by various city departments and employees that participated in the campaign, including but not limited to, City Hall, Board of Health, Cemetery, Jail, Parks, Library, Fire Department, Police Department, Hydro, Hospital, and Public Works. Most of the entries record the names of the departments, but some entries record the names of individual employee contributions along with the name of the department they represent. The bonds were mostly purchased weekly and monthly and the amounts ranged from $2.00 to $500.00, with the higher amounts coming from the “General Salaries” account. The series also contains an index to casualty books, which alphabetically lists the names of the soldiers killed along with the page number that corresponds to one of 3 volumes that contain more detailed information. The series contains volumes 2 and 3, but volume 1 was not included with the material donation. The casualty books contain newspaper clippings glued to the pages, which pertain to individual Hamilton and area soldiers killed in action, died of war wounds shortly after, or who died of diseases like influenza and pneumonia while on active duty. The articles are short write-ups about the individual soldiers, and contain information such as rank, battalion, manner of death, previous battles or military operations participated in, prior injuries sustained, former workplace, place of residence, the family they left behind, and if they were originally from another country. The series also consists of a few Honour Rolls of the men who died in service, some of which include the soldier’s name, service number, rank, address and place of residence, as well as records pertaining to the Soldiers’ Benefit Fund Committee.

The material in the fonds consists of four volumes of administrative records pertaining to the Hamilton Branch of the Soldiers' Aid Commission. Two of the volumes are attendance books, including an undated book listing all the soldiers who attended dinners hosted by the Soldiers Aid Commission upon returning from overseas, as well as a meeting attendance book. There are also two volumes of meeting minutes for the Ontario Minutes Soldiers' Aid Commission, Hamilton Branch, dated December 1916 to October 1921, and November 1921 to November 1928.

Screw (propeller) steamer measuring 245 x 40 x 22 feet, 1,799 tonnage, built in 1903 in Greenock, Scotland by Grangemouth and Greenock Dockyard Company. The vessel had several owners and was captured by a submarine and sunk in April of 1917 during the First World War. The file contains a certificate of British Registry, ownership documents, as well as correspondence from the Customs House of Glasgow, Scotland to the Registrar of Shipping, Hamilton, Ontario.

Series consists of an honour roll, a commemorative volume containing information about relatives of members of the Paardeburg Chapter who served in the Canadian military. Records include the following information for military personnel: name and rank, birth date, parents, whether they were of United Empire Loyalist descent, marital status, where and when they volunteered, home unit, present unit, training location, and details about their military service, including promotions and honours received. All those included in the volume were born between 1859-1925. Names are listed according to rank. Photographs accompany the records of 7 of the 76 individuals named in the volume. This series also contains a ledger recording the list of boxes of hospital supplies sent by the shipping department of the Paardeburg Chapter Hospital Committee to the Red Cross during the First World War.

Twin screw (propeller) turbine-engine steamer measuring 250 x 33.2 x 12.6 feet, 1,064 tonnage, built in 1904 in Hebburn-on-Tyne, England by R.W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company. The ship was built as a passenger ferry service between Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario. The ship could accommodate 2000 passengers and was the most luxurious and fastest pleasure steamer to ply the waters of the lower great lakes. The vessel was used overseas during the First World War and returned to the waters of Western Lake Ontario in 1924. By 1927, its days as a Hamilton area cruise ship came to an end as fewer people travelled by boat or took pleasure cruises. It was then sold and used for service between Montreal and Sorel, Quebec. The file contains a surveyor’s report on crew space, a builder’s certificate, receipts, memorandums, mortgage documents, registration and ownership documents, legal correspondence, as well as correspondence from the Turbine Steamship Company, the Department of Marine and Fisheries, Canada Steamship Lines Limited, the Department of Transport, and Marine Industries Limited, to and from the Registrar of Shipping, Hamilton.

Subseries consists of records pertaining to the Soldiers’ Benefit Fund Committee, which was created by Hamilton City Council during the First World War to administer the fund and provide assistance to the dependents of soldiers killed overseas. The committee consisted of the mayor and the treasurer along with five citizens of Hamilton, who met monthly at City Hall to review the applications made by or on behalf of dependents. Claimants would apply to the fund and their applications would be thoroughly investigated by an officer of the committee, and then reviewed further at the meetings by all the members, to determine whether the application would be approved or denied. The subseries consists of the meeting minute book for the committee, which records the bylaws, polices, reports, examinations of individual claims, as well as the decisions to approve or deny the claims. The examinations determined whether or not the individual had other forms of insurance, was truly dependent on the soldier who had died, and if approved, what amount the person would be entitled to receive. Most of the claimants were granted payments, which were payable on the third day of each month in the amount of either $15.00 in the case of unmarried soldiers, or $20.00 if the soldier was married. Some individuals received other sums depending on the results of the review of their circumstances and the money available. The records indicate that some individual claims were denied if the person was unable to prove true dependency, or relation to the soldier. The subseries also includes a few accounts payable volumes that alphabetically record the names of the dependents of soldiers (most of whom are female), and in the case of the large ledger, the page number that corresponds to the specific account page that lists the details of payments. There are also a few other insurance account books.

The subfonds consists of minute books, and war service records.