Relaxing

Albert Drummond was a nurse in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps in December 1916. He eventually served overseas with the 15th Canadian Field Ambulance. Judging by the titles of the poems, this volume was probably published in 1917.

In its sentiment and language, this sheet music could easily have come from the First World War - only the faint image of the tank on the cover places it in the Second World War.

This song version of the famous military march "Colonel Bogey" was recorded by the Happy Gang, one of the most popular entertainment acts in Second World War Canada.

Although it was probably written in 1939, this song, with its professed joy at the coming of war, sounds more like 1914.

By May 1916, Regina's Wascana Lodge had already seen twenty-six of its members enlist for active service.

These souvenirs cards, with original art by Lewis E. Smith, were produced in 1919 to mark significant events of the First World War, using the poems they inspired.

This songbook, donated to soldiers by a Hamilton, Ontario, businessman, including selections ranging from "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" to "Stop Yer Tickling, Jock."

This collection of specialty pieces and old favourites includes songs in two languages - English and Gaelic.

The Second World War was a less poetic war than the First had been, but there were enough amateur poets in the Canadian army in Italy to fill this collection of poems, all of which had originally been published in the military newspaper "The Maple Leaf."

Broadcast on the CBC from 17 August to 5 October 1944, this weekly program highlighted the work of Canadian composers such as Healey Willan, J.J. Weinzweig, J.J. Gagnier, and Alexander Brott.