Remembering

Canadian ex-soldiers in Britain

Veterans of the First World War, including Hamilton Gault, the founder of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, met in London to relive old times. The cartoons suggest that it was a convivial occasion.

LACE 1940.pdf (21.84 MB)

Decoration Day in Winnipeg

The Manitoba capital first held a Decoration Day parade in 1886. The thirty-eighth such parade, like most others, featured militia units, local dignitaries, veterans organizations, and school cadet corps.

The Great War Veterans' Association

Founded in 1917, the GWVA was Canada's largest and most powerful veterans organization until it merged with other groups in 1925 to create the Canadian Legion.

One municipality, forty-four dead

The unveiling ceremony for this rural Manitoba war memorial included scripture readings, a song by local schoolchildren, an address by the provincial premier, and a reading of John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields."

Morden WM.pdf (13.55 MB)
Morden WM.pdf (13.55 MB)

Montreal newspapers look back at the First World War

To mark its first half-century, the Montreal "Star" produced this booklet relating the newspaper's history, but devoting most of its space to the First World War - flags of the Allied nations, awards and decorations, important dates, and photographs of leading Allied generals.

Fifty Years.pdf (9.63 MB)

Remembering in Pilot Mound

Veterans in Pilot Mound, Manitoba, organized this annual service to honour the dead of the First World War.

A war memorial altar

As part of the ceremonies marking the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927, the future King Edward VIII dedicated the altar in the Memorial Chamber, a national war memorial in the newly rebuilt Houses of Parliament. The altar would later be the resting place of the Books of Remembrance, listing all of Canada's war dead.

Reunion of "The Old Iron Second"

The 2nd Battalion drew its personnel primarily from eastern Ontario, and fought in every major Canadian battle of the First World War. By the end of the war, over 5200 officers and men had served in the unit; 1353 were killed in action or died of wounds.

2nd Bn Reunion.pdf (7.46 MB)

Reunion dinner of cavalrymen

Among the attendees at this 1947 cavalry reunion was Eric Flowerdew, whose brother Gordon had won the Victoria Cross for leading the charge by a squadron of Lord Strathcona's Horse at Moreuil Wood in March 1918.

CCBVA Reunion.pdf (21.71 MB)

For old and new veterans

His Majesty's Army and Navy Veterans was established in 1887, and made a concerted effort to draw members from the hundreds of thousands of First World War veterans in Canada. Its primary aim was "the protection, uplifting, comfort and welfare of every man who has taken up arms in defence of his country."