The History of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada: Volume 1, 1759–1939: Volume 1: 1759–1939 9780228017110

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The History of

(Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Volume I: 1759–1939

The History of

(Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Volume I: 1759–1939

Roman Johann Jarymowycz

Published for

The Royal Highlanders of Canada by

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Chicago

© The Royal Highlanders of Canada 2023 isbn 978-0-2280-1710-3 (vol. 1, cloth) isbn 978-0-2280-1711-0 (vol. 1, epdf) isbn 978-0-2280-1713-4 (vol. 2, cloth) isbn 978-0-2280-1714-1 (vol. 2, epdf) isbn 978-0-2280-1716-5 (vol. 3, cloth) isbn 978-0-2280-1717-2 (vol. 3, epdf) isbn 978-0-2280-1719-6 (set, cloth) isbn 978-0-2280-1720-2 (set, epdf) Legal deposit second quarter 2023 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: The history of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada / Roman Johann Jarymowycz. Other titles: Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Names: Jarymowycz, Roman Johann, 1945–2017, author. Description: Includes bibliographical references and indexes. | Contents: Volume I: 1759–1939. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220429960 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220429987 | isbn 9780228017196 (set ; cloth) | isbn 9780228017103 (v. 1 ; cloth) | isbn 9780228017202 (set ; epdf) | isbn 9780228017110 (v. 1 ; epdf) Subjects: LCSH: Canada. Canadian Army. Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada—History. Classification: LCC UA602.R6 J37 2023 | DDC 356/.10971—dc23 Book design by Mike Bechthold. Unless otherwise noted, all images were sourced from the Black Watch Archives. The Black Watch of Canada welcomes any updates, corrections, or additional contributions to this history. This and other supplementary material may be found at www.blackwatchcanada.com/history Please contact [email protected] with your submissions. Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

This history of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada is dedicated to the men and women of the Regimental family who have served Canada in peace and war.

His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, Colonel-in-Chief, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada

I am delighted to contribute a few words to this splendid history of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. I need hardly say what pride it gives me to be the Regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief, following in the footsteps of my Grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who like me held The Black Watch of Canada in the greatest affection and admiration for its illustrious history, for the continuing part that it plays in the defence of Canada and for its people. This enthralling book leads us from the Regiment’s earliest days to the present. The inspiring story of its actions during the course of more than a century of conflict around the globe gives more than ample evidence of a fighting record second to none, and of the spirited determination and courage of the officers and men who have so proudly worn the Red Hackle in action and in barracks. We can remember with particular pride the nearly 12,000 officers and men who served in three battalions of the Regiment during the Great War, taking part in battles that earned for them no fewer than 26 battle honours, no better testimony to their professionalism and heroism. lndeed, amongst the more than 800 gallantry awards given, in itself an impressively high proportion, six Victoria Crosses were won. This remarkable example, so vividly described in this book, was followed by later generations of Canadian Black Watch during the course of the Second World War, and so conspicuously well most recently in Afghanistan. That spirit of devotion to duty and facing danger cheerfully in the face is a characteristic thread extending throughout the Regiment’s history. No wonder, then, that The Black Watch of Canada has been, and continues to be, so widely admired and respected not just as a professional fighting unit, but also as a band of men, and now women, who can be relied upon to uphold the finest traditions of fierce resolution in battle and of warm-hearted hospitality to its friends and supporters. This new history, with all its colourful and meticulous detail, does a fine job of honouring the past, encouraging the present and preparing for the future. It is a most fitting tribute to those who are still serving, to those who have gone before and to all their families who, over the years, have done so much to sustain and support the life and work of the Regiment. I offer my best wishes to them all as, with pride, modesty and dignity, they stand ready to answer the challenges of an uncertain future in a dangerous world and as they continue their sterling service to Canada and beyond.

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada

Col DF O’Connor, CD Honorary Colonel (2011–2020)

LCol CN McCabe, OMM, CD Honorary Lieutenant Colonel (2011–17)

LCol BD Bolton, MMM, CD Honorary Lieutenant Colonel (2017–2020) Honorary Colonel (2020–)

Col J Birks Honorary Lieutenant Colonel (2020–)

The 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Regiment provided the perfect opportunity to muster the resources and determination required to commission and publish the full history of the Regiment. The objective was to tell the story of the Regiment from the perspective of the officers and men and women of the Regiment, set in the context of their times. We believe you will agree that our late author, Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Roman Jarymowycz, has masterfully done so. Canada has achieved its well-respected position in the modern world in large measure through the efforts and successes of its military units. The very strong values and traditions perpetuated by Canada’s Highland Regiments have played a significant role in those successes. As Canada’s Senior Highland Regiment, the Black Watch was very much a part of that impressive story, as told in the pages that follow. As the Honorary Colonels of the Regiment, our main responsibility is to act as Guardians of its culture and values and to preserve them for future generations. We could not be more proud of the accomplishments of the officers, men, and women of the Regiment over the years, and of those who continue to carry on today in that same spirit of service and commitment that has been the history of the Regiment since its founding. This is their story. viii

Foreword

Regimental histories are always challenging to publish. These books are often uncritical histories that are easily influenced by bias and pride, the traditionals and commonlyunderstood history of the regiment, a tendency to exaggerate achievements, the need to please certain personalities, and the requirement to be cautious about offending prominent members of the regimental family. These three volumes tell our history and its author had to contend with these factors and more in writing an honest history of a regiment that is most decidedly pas comme les autres. Indeed, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada is and has been unique. The Regiment represented not only Scottish Montreal, but Montreal’s economic power for much of the history of our nation. No other Canadian regiment comprised three operational battalions in the First World War, two battalions during World War II, two Regular Force battalions during the most trying years of the Cold War, and two Militia battalions for so much of its peacetime history. Moreover, throughout more than 150 years of service, but especially during World War II, the Regiment contributed vast numbers of soldiers, NCOs, and officers to innumerable other Canadian units, where many went on to serve gallantly – many in positions of senior leadership. Despite being repeatedly savaged in battle, the Regiment continually rose to the next challenge with determination, valour and honour. The late Lieutenant Colonel Roman Jarymowycz had both the courage and the keenness to undertake the writing of our history and in 2007, our Regimental Advisory Board offered him the opportunity to do so in the lead-up to our approaching 150th Anniversary in 2012. While the history written for our 100th Anniversary in 1962 has been considered an excellent chronicle of our regiment, it was not planned as an academically researched history. In contrast, Roman was asked to produce a comprehensive analytical account of a military organization that had played a major part in Canada’s military history; he, by his own admission, never envisaged the ix

breadth of the task. Roman wrote in his characteristic and appreciated style that blended his backgrounds as a historian, military officer, sports coach, artist, family man, and teacher. He was also a tactician of some fame. His love for tactics is reflected in many drawings of his own creation found herein. The result is a highly readable, unique, and personable compilation. We feel it truly captures our regiment’s past and present, while guiding us into the future. As with most regimental histories, this book often tends to be rather concentrated on the officers, the members of a regiment making most of the decisions, interacting with and receiving orders from senior commanders, guiding a regiment on its path, and with a wider view of events than other ranks can easily gain. On the other hand, it is the NCOs and soldiers who make up the large majority of a regiment’s personnel and it is those more junior ranks that do the lion’s share of the fighting in war and other service in time of peace. In those chapters dealing with more recent events, there is appropriately greater visibility of those often less recorded efforts of our exceptional Highlanders, perhaps more junior in rank but not in achievement in making our regiment what it is and has been. Regrettably, we were unable to complete this history by 2012. The everexpanding scope of the work, as well as the lengthy illness and subsequent death of its author, were the main reasons for the delay. Our deep thanks go to Major Michael Boire, who was instrumental in steering this project from almost the beginning as Chairman of the Regimental History Book Committee upon the loss of Colonel George Logan, and to Roman’s devoted widow Sandy d’Apollonia who took over to complete the book and prepare it for publication. Subsequently, the Regimental History Book Committee finalized the book with the help of many others. We are greatly indebted to Earl Chapman, our “go to” person on the early days of the Regiment and a major contributor to the regimental journal, Canada’s Red Hackle, for the countless hours he volunteered. We are also indeed grateful to Mike Cher for his encyclopedic memory and expertise on individual First and Second World War soldiers and for his passionate and detailed research as Curator of the Regimental Museum. An epilogue has been added to bring this history up-to-date. It is crucial to acknowledge and pay tribute to Colonel Stephen F. Angus, CD, who passed away in November 2018. As Chairman Emeritus of the Regimental Advisory Board, he guided the development of our new regimental history book. His strong regimental connection through the Cantlie family and his own service since the 1950s added so much to the history we have recorded. It is most unfortunate that he was not able to see the work through to its culmination. It is difficult to express the degree to which we are indebted to Steve Angus for his unstinting support and encouragement.

Lieutenant Colonels Thurston (Tud) Kaulbach, whose loss we mourn, and Charles N. (Chuck) McCabe, and numerous former members of the Regular Force battalions made significant observations, as did former COs of the Reserve battalion. Experts such as David O’Keefe and Cal Kufta, with their writing and publication expertise, were particularly helpful with in-depth knowledge of our collections. Military historian Dr Mike Bechthold designed the book, improved the texts, and made important suggestions. This resulted in a publication which is much larger, and we believe, better than originally anticipated. The Regimental History Book Committee is convinced that these volumes will make a significant contribution to the understanding of the pasts of Canada, Montreal, and our Regiment. We can only hope that our readers will also enjoy this history since it truly embodies what Canada’s Black Watch has accomplished in its service to Canada. The Regimental History Book Committee LCol Bruce D. Bolton, MMM, CD LCol Hal Klepak, CM, CD LCol Gordon T. Lusk, CD

xi

The publication of this book is due to the generosity of: Col S.F. Angus † MacDougall, MacDougall, MacTier Hon. David Angus Capt I.A. MacKay Birks Family Foundation Hon K.C. MacKay † Maj Michael Boire Col T.E.C. MacKay LCol B.D. Bolton BGen D.S. MacLennan † The Black Watch Association LCol David Martin (Upper Canada Branch) LCol C.N. McCabe Elspeth and Tom Bourne Maj R.S. McConnell 2Lt Anne Brodie Capt P.J. McElroy P/M Harry Brown † David M. McEntyre Michael Brunner Malcolm McLeod LCol V.G. Chartier † Katherine Mills Chawkers Foundation Maj M.R. Mitchell Lionel Chetwynd Molson Foundation MGen A.G. Christie Col G. Scott Morrison † John Cleghorn Lt Robert L. Munro Maj Murray Cotton LCol W.J. Newlands Drummond Foundation Col D.F. O’Connor John Baker Fellows Foundation Larry Ostola LCol L.N. Ferdon Tim Price David Forest Prince Charles Foundation James Fraser James Purvis Gerald P. Gauthier Ronald Rice Cynthia Gordon LCol G.D. Robertson RSM (CWO) Claude Hamel † Ian Scott Hay Foundation LCol W.R. Sewell Stuart Iversen Ian † and Helgi Soutar Fabienne Jones Maj W.E. Stavert † Jawaid Khan † Patrick McG Stoker † LCol H.P. Klepak LCol J. Stothers Jake Knoppers HCol Peter Trent David Laidley Foundation Bruce Udle John Limeburner Derek Warner Alan C. Lindsay Estate of Ivor and Margaret Watkins Col G.L. Logan † R. Howard Webster Foundation LCol G.T. Lusk Peter Webster Macdonald Stewart Foundation Maj R.W.B. White Zeller Family Foundation † – In memory

Contents

Foreword | ix List oF Appendices | xix List oF MAps | xix AcknowLedgeMents | xxi note on MiLitAry rAnks | xxiii

the origins

oF

Part I MontreAL’s highLAnd regiMent 1759–1914

the scottish

ChaPter 1 MiLitAry trAdition

in

Quebec | 3

The First Scottish Colonies – Quebec City and Tadoussac | 4 Scottish Seigneuries Near Quebec and Montreal | 6 Highlanders and Orkneymen: Scottish Commerce and Martial Style | 7 The Quebec Militia 1763–1812 | 8 The War of 1812 – First Scottish Militia Companies | 10 Battle of Châteauguay 1813, First Battle Honour | 11 The Highland Rifle Company and The Montreal Light Infantry | 13 Act of Union 1840 – Militia Reorganization | 15 The 1855 Militia Act and The Highland Rifle Company | 15

the 5th bAttALion, the

ChaPter 2 royAL Light inFAntry

oF

MontreAL | 19

1862 – Lieutenant Colonel Routh Raises The Royals | 19 The First Regimental Colours, 11 October 1862 | 21

xiii

xiv |

Contents The US Civil War and Fenian Terrorists: 1864–1870 | 22 More Fenians: 1870 | 24 The First Dominion Militia Act, 22 May 1868 | 26 Vengeance and Regimental Reorganization: 1871–1875 | 26 A Scottish Rifle Corps | 27

FroM shAko

to

ChaPter 3 gLengArry – becoMing highLAnd | 31

The Royal Scots of Canada, 1884 | 33 The Black Watch Tartan | 34 Regimental Commanders During Transition: 1875–1890 | 34 Lieutenant Colonel EAC Campbell, 1882–84 | 35 Lieutenant Colonel Frank Caverhill, 1884–91 – “Greatly Beloved” | 35 The Strathy Affair – Lieutenant Colonel JAL Strathy, 1893–97 | 36 The Strathy Cup | 38 The Court of Inquiry, March – April 1897 | 40

the 5th royAL scots

ChaPter 4 – A robust highLAnd regiMent | 43

The New Guard 1897 – Lieutenant Colonel EB Ibbotson, 1897–1901 | 43 International Triumph: Portland 1898 | 44 South Africa 1900: The Second Battle Honour | 45 The Quest for “Highland Status” | 46 Aid to the Civil Power: Valleyfield, October 1900 | 47 Lieutenant Colonel Carson’s Burgeoning Battalions | 48 Borden: The First Militia Council | 49 The Armoury Realized 1906: 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC) | 50 Lieutenant Colonel Carson vs The Minister of Militia and Defence | 51

strikers, riots

And

Aid

to

ChaPter 5 the civiL power – 1864

to

1903 | 55

Splendid Field Trips: From St Helen’s Island to New York, 1878–1909 Grand Parades: 1909 Tercentenaries | 57 Affiliation with The Imperial Black Watch | 58 The Pipes, The Pipes | 61 Regimental Dress: Highlander’s Toil | 62

|

57

Contents |

trAining

the

ChaPter 6 regiMent 1862–1914 | 65

Lieutenant Colonel George Stephen Cantlie, 1910–51 | 65 Preparation: The Black Watch’s Rose | 66 The 1912 Colours: Fletcher’s Field | 67 Training for War: A Changing Militia, 1862–1914 | 68 The Cheese Factory: Getting Ready for the Kaiser | 70

notes to Part I | 73 pArt i –iLLustrAtions | 89

the royAL

Part II highLAnders in the greAt wAr 1914–1919 ChaPter 7 rushing to FrAnce | 125

Montreal – a Battalion Factory | 126 The First Contingent: Raising a Fighting Battalion – The 13th as RHC | 127 Mobilization Schemes and the Second Contingent – The 42nd Battalion RHC | 128 The 73rd Battalion RHC | 130 The 13th Battalion in England | 131 A Division for War | 136

ypres – the

ChaPter 8 13th bAttALion rhc | 139

The Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915: Empire Recognition | 139 The Horrid Cloud | 144 Norsworthy’s Supports – First Contact with the German Army | 145 Afternoon 22 April: A Threatened Garrison – An Isolated Front Line | 146 McCuaig Defends the Flank: 22 April | 148 Fred Fisher Saves 10th Field Battery: Afternoon 22 April | 149 The Apex – Morning, 23 April | 151 “About Turn!” The Deteriorating Apex: 9 am to Midnight, 23 April | 152 A New Line and Gas Attack – Dawn 24 April | 155 Bloody Withdrawal: 24–26 April | 156 The Cost of Battle | 157 L’Envoi | 159

xv

xvi |

Contents

FroM Mount sorreL

to

ChaPter 9 the soMMe – An Annus Horribilis | 161

The 13th and 42nd Battalions Royal Highlanders of Canada in France | 163 George Cantlie and the 42nd | 165 Tartan Envy | 167 The New Corps, a New Division, a New Brigade | 169 Mount Sorrel – The June Show | 170 The 13th Battalion Captures Observatory Ridge | 173 Tactical Revolution: The Belgian Rattlesnake | 175 The Somme Battles September–October 1916 | 177 The 42nd Attacks Fabeck Graben and Regina Trench, 15–17 September 1916 | 178 13th RHC at Regina Trench – 8 October 1916 | 181 Somme Epilogue | 183

viMy

And

ChaPter 10 pAsschendAeLe | 185

Red Hackles and Balmorals – November 1916 and November 1917 | 186 The Lice That Live in the Folds of the Earth | 187 Commanding the Infantry Battalion | 188 Vimy Ridge 9 April 1917 | 189 73rd RHC in the Great Raid | 191 Rehearsals and Tunnels at Vimy | 192 The Vimy Assault 9 April 1917 | 193 Major Norsworthy Protects the Division Flank: The 42nd at Hill 145 | 196 73rd Battalion is Let Go – Conscription’s Victim | 197 Currie Becomes Corps Commander – Hill 70 15–17 August | 197 Back to Ypres: Passchendaele October 1917 | 199 The 42nd RHC: The Capture and Defence of Graf House – 3 November 1917 | 199

the bLAck wAtch

And

THe

ChaPter 11 Hundred dAys – August

to

noveMber 1918 | 203

Raids | 203 Regimental Life | 205 The Hundred Days: 8 August – 11 November 1918 | 207 The Battle of Arras – to the DQ Line 27–28 August 1918 | 210 Battle of the Drocourt–Quéant Line 2 September – 4 September 1918 | 211 The Canal du Nord and Cambrai: Breaking the Marcoing Line 27 September – 2 October 1918 | 13th Battalion Crosses the Canal | 213 Marcoing Line 29 September: Ewing vs. the Brigadier | 214 13th Battalion Crashes Through: Blécourt, 1 October 1918 Post Mortems | 219

|

218

212

Contents

the inFLuence

| xvii

ChaPter 12 oF the greAt wAr | 223

Mons to Germany – The Black Watch Ends The Great War | 223 Battalion Colours – Earned in Battle | 225 The 20th Reserve Battalion, RHC – a Unique Entity | 226 Rococo War Diaries and Talented Men | 228 The Esprit de Corps – From Beer to Red Hackle | 231 The Canadian Corps and The Black Watch | 233 Seven Black Watch Units: Statistics 1914–1919 | 234 Goodbye to All That | 235

notes to Part II | 239 pArt ii – iLLustrAtions | 253 pArt ii – MAps | 299

Part III the bLAck wAtch

AFter the

between the

wArs 1919–1939

ChaPter 13 greAt wAr 1919–1939 | 313

“The Royal Highlanders of Canada” 1920 – Post War Regimental Reorganization | 314 Remembrance: The 42nd Window and War Memorials in Verdun and Montreal 1921 and 1924 | The Verdun and Montreal Memorials | 318

trAining

the

post wAr

ChaPter 14 MiLitiA – budgets

And

317

suMMer cAMps | 319

The International Highlanders: American Excursions | 322 The Silver Inkstand: A Mysterious Legacy | 324 Mystery Unsolved – Major William Gordon Peterson | 325 Regimental Writings | 327

the cAnAdiAn bLAck wAtch: new

ChaPter 15 titLes And new coLours – 1931–1935 | 329

The Canadian Black Watch, 1930 | 330 The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, 1935 The Red Hackle and the Pre War RHC | 333

|

332

The Regimental Church | 333 Colours for the 2nd Battalion RHC | 335 An Order of Divine Service: Laying Up the Old Colours, 1932 |

336

xviii

|

Contents

regiMentAL

ChaPter 16 cAdet corps 1890–1936 | 339

The Montreal Highland Cadet Corps | 339 Bishop’s College School – Almost a Regimental Depot | The Other “Regimental” Schools | 343

A sociAL

And

city

342

ChaPter 17 regiMent – inter–wAr Activities | 345

Exotic Guests: Prince Takamatsu and Montagu Allan | 346 Exotic Highland Guests: The Duke of Montrose | 347 Adding to Deserved Glory: Black Watch VCs | 348 Colonel Arthur Lennox Mills, a Brief Tour 1931–32 | 348 Victoria Cross Tablets and Lieutenant Colonel WS MacTier | 349 Fleming and the Imperials | 349 The Cantlie Dinner 1935 – A Half Century and A Regimental Centennial |

sports

And

MiLitAry diversions

ChaPter 18 – deALing with

the

greAt depression | 353

The Social Whirl: Polo at Saraguay | 354 Black Watch Associations – Toronto and Montreal | 355 Dress Regulations: Red Hackle and Stewart Tartan | 355 Camps and Militia Duty | 356

the LAst dAys

ChaPter 19 beFore the second worLd wAr | 359

Sergeant, Colonel, Bert Howard, 1936 | 360 Militia Patchwork 1936–38 | 360 Blackader Hosts a Last Reunion Dinner | 362 The King and the Colonel-in-Chief Visit | 362 The Regiment’s Organization and Structure circa 1939 | 363 Coda – The Black Watch Between Two Wars … | 364

notes to Part III | 367

aPPendICes | 373 Index | 447

351

Contents

|

Appendices Appendix A – The Battle Honours of the Regiment | 373 Appendix B – Honorary Colonels of the Regiment | 374 Appendix C – Lineage of the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada 1812–2022 | 376 Appendix D – Commanding Officers 1812–2022 | 379 Appendix E – Regimental Sergeants Major 1875–1953 | Regimental Pipe Majors 1876–1953 | Sergeants Major 1864–1915 | 386 Appendix F – The Black Watch Regimental Colours: 1862–2009 | 388 Appendix G – Honours and Awards | 397 Appendix H – The Great War | 412 Appendix I – Black Watch Rifle Company and Platoon Formations | 414 Appendix J – Regimental Homes 1862 to Present Day | 417 Appendix K – Inside the Black Watch Armoury Today | 424

List

oF

MAps

The Global Black Watch RHC 1900–2022 | 300 Ypres Front April 1915 | 301 The First German Gas Attack, Ypres, 22 April 1915 | 302 The Second German Gas Attack, Ypres, 24 April 1915 | 303 The June Show, Mount Sorrel, 2 June 1916 | 304 The June Show, Mount Sorrel, 3 June 1916 | 305 The June Show, Mount Sorrel, 13 June 1916 | 306 The Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9–12 April 1917 | 307 The Hundred Days: Allied Operational Art, August to November 1918 | 308 The Hundred Days: Canadian Operational Art, August to November 1918 | 308 The Battle of Amiens, 8–18 August 1918 | 309 Attacking the Hindenburg and Drocourt–Quéant Lines, 26 August to 5 September 1918 | 309 Canal du Nord and Cambrai, 27 September to 11 October 1918 | 310 13 RHC Crossing Canal du Nord 27 September 1918 | 310 Black Watch Battles, 1915–1918 | 413

xix

(1945–2017) was a decorated Canadian soldier–scholar, military historian, mentor and educator. An acclaimed expert on the historical evolution of the operational art, throughout his long career he was a prolific author of many well-received publications, among them, Cavalry from Hoof to Track, The Royal Montreal Regiment: 1945–1989, and Tank Tactics from Normandy to Lorraine, for which he received the United States Army History Foundation Award for distinguished writing and research. During his lifetime he was a frequent and passionate contributor to CBC documentaries helping Canadians understand their military history. An eminent graduate of Montreal’s Loyola College and McGill University, the author often lectured at the Royal Military College of Canada. He ended his military career as the Dean of the Canadian Army’s Militia Staff Course in Kingston, Ontario. A highly respected former commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Hussars in Montreal, he lived his regiment’s motto: Non nobis sed patriae (not for ourselves, but for our country). It is indeed unfortunate that the author did not live to see the publication of this history which he considered his best work.

rOman JOhann JarymOWyCZ

omm, Cd, phd

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of the Board of The Royal Highlanders of Canada for the confidence they placed in me to write the official history of The Regiment. I had not intended to write a protracted chronicle, but after a month in the Black Watch Archives I was overwhelmed by the historical complexity and the unique status of this Regiment. It would have been wicked not to recount its complete evolution, and particularly to record its sacrifices in the Second World War. The journey to understand The Watch led me through archival vaults in several cities and countries. I found the Regiment in Europe as well as Africa. I must admit my good fortune in this task, for I was given access to quite simply the most complete and detailed Regimental Archives in Canada. I am beholden to many people. I was initially guided by Colonel Paul Hutchison’s honoured histories of the Regiment 1862–1962, and the 73rd Battalion in the Great War; RC Fetherstonhaugh’s splendid record of the 13th Battalion, and the formidable account of the 42nd Battalion by Brigadier CB Topp CBE DSO MC. I am indebted to Brian Cuthbertson’s excellent history of the regular battalions during the Cold War years, and Harold Klepak’s account of the Regiment circa 1962-1987. Canada’s foremost military historians guided my path: the eminent war historian Terry Copp unselfishly surrendered his hard gained data and interviews; Desmond Morton, despite a delicate health, was always prepared to read, comment and ask the right questions. Jack Granatstein offered wise counsel and patiently read all modern sections. I am grateful for the advice offered by Lt Colonel-Dr John A English, Lt General Don Holder and the czar of historical details, Col Mike McNorgan, who kindly took time to note any enigmatic point. Major General David Fraser was generous with his perspicacity. Personal interviews and correspondence with Honoury Colonel Dan O’Connor covered an important era of Regimental evolution; buttressed by assistance from Lieutenant Colonels Len Ferdon, Douglas Robertson, John Stothers, Ian McCulloch, Gordon Lusk, Tom MacKay and Bruno Plourde. xxi

xxii

|

Acknowledgements

The soldiers of this Regiment were wonderful sources, as well as the invaluable staff at the Regimental Museum and Archives in Montreal whose diligence resurrected many a document I had given up finding. Bill Carlisle, Gord Ritchie, Cal Kufta, Sherry Duplessis and Alec McGuckin were cheerfully helpful. The professionals at National Archives, and the Directorate of History, particularly Dr Stephen Harris, whose encouragement and staff were founts of knowledge, ready to dig up essential minutiae. Thomas B Smyth, Archivist of the Black Watch Regimental Museum at Balhousie Castle, Perth, was continually helpful. My battlefield tours were doggedly led by Lt Colonel Charles Branchaud who sacrificed time and two good cars to ensure we visited key sites in all terrain, from Aldershot, to Verrières Ridge, to the Dinesen Farm outside Nairobi. This book took time. The support of the Black Watch executive board was cardinal. Foremost were Colonel Bill Sewell, whose records and fonds of regimental data, along with Honourary Colonel Bruce Bolton, who unsparingly shared his personal archives; he also arranged access to the Stewart Museum at The Old Fort, St Helen’s Island and ensured key photographs and artefacts were made readily available. His support cannot be exaggerated. My seven year trek was aided by many, including the patience of Major Michael Boire, soldier and academic, who understood the mechanics of this and offered both support and a cavalry écran behind which to finish writing. Lt Colonel Hal Klepak’s support at key moments must be acknowledged. The splendid illustrations in this book are used with the permission of the Regimental Advisory Board, the National Archives and the McCord Museum. Though he steadfastly refused the title, this book would have been a rough ride had I not the good fortune (he would suggest a higher guidance) to discover an ecclesiastic editor, Captain the Reverend Dr James Armour. His kind willingness to offer constructive advice and improve chapter after chapter, saw this book to completion. Throughout, my main editor, in history and life, was my wife Sandra, whose literary and cybernetic talents were, comme d’habitude, instrumental. Her unselfish toil and uncomplaining faith continually bolstered me through thin and thick. A project like this requires vision. I must acknowledge Colonel Stephen Angus. His exemplary support and unflinching encouragement in the completion of this endeavor, braced by his friendship, was a particular comfort. The creation of this history was made possible with the assistance of hundreds of citizens and brave soldiers; any errors are mine alone. Roman Jarymowycz Beaconsfield, August 2014

Note on Military Ranks Throughout this book, all efforts were made to refer to individuals by their rank held as at the time of the event being discussed. In the front and back matter, individuals are generally referred to by the most senior rank held. For ease of reading, we have not specified if an individual has retired from the Canadian Armed Forces.

xxiii

Part I

The Origins of Montreal’s Highland Regiment 1759–1914

Chapter 1

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec

When the Highland regiments landed in that continent their garb and appearance attracted much notice. The Indians in particular were delighted to see a European regiment in a dress so similar to their own.1 O ghillean bithibh ullamh, le armaibh guineach,… bidh an Rìoghachd seo again. Corporal Iain Campbell, 78th Foot, Plains of Abraham, 17592 The oldest Highland Regiment of the British Commonwealth outside Scotland is our local Black Watch. Colonel Paul P Hutchison3

This is the history of a Canadian regiment that chose to define itself in Highland fashion rather than emulate an orthodox style – a vibrant organism forging its own traditions that served and continues to serve in far-flung fields of danger, parading its valour with considerable pride into the new millennium. The institution that is the Canadian Black Watch is, firstly, the Scottish tradition of Montreal rather than a British martial legacy. It is also the story of a cultural progression coupled with a fierce determination to assert a reserved uniqueness augmented by a romantic élan. Like its namesake, “it owes its being to no particular chieftain or clan, but purely to the inborn love of the Highlanders for a warlike profession.”4 Its story begins in Montreal, but shares its soldierly origins with the battlefields of continental Europe and Asia, as well as the training camps of Quebec and the Maritime provinces. 3

4 |

Chapter 1

The regimental chronicles comprise three distinct periods: 1) a determined development of a city Scottish battalion; 2) a savage coming-of-age during The Great War (1914–18), resulting in a confident, cosmopolitan mix of Imperial and Dominion traditions; and finally, 3) a homogeneous North American military clan that is, by temperament, decidedly Canadian, and by style, distinctly Highland. The First Scottish Colonies – Quebec City and Tadoussac A people bewitched with love of heaths and barren mountains …5

The North American Black Watch saga begins dramatically with the appearance of Simon Fraser’s Highlanders outside fortress Quebec in 1759 where, following the battle, they witnessed the exchange of empire holdings from one Scot to another: the future first British governor of Canada, General James Murray, accepting the city’s surrender from Quebec’s governor, Jean-Baptiste de Ramezay,6 a descendent of Highland émigrés. This was succeeded within a year by the spectacular appearance of three Scottish regiments, all Highland, at Montreal. It was a virtual gathering of clans, all wearing the government sett, or “Black Watch tartan”7: both battalions of the 42nd Black Watch Regiment, Montgomery’s Highlanders (the 77th), and the 78th Frasers. It was to be the first and last time that all three Highland regiments would meet during their existence. The site of their campground eventually became a popular Montreal racetrack named, appropriately, Blue Bonnets.8 They were but a segment of General Jeffrey Amherst’s grand army, paraded to witness a change of flags and transfer of allegiance: His Britannic Majesty taking possession of Canada from His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of France. There were Scots on both sides. The auld alliance between Scotland and France existed for nearly three hundred years. Highlanders sought service with French royal armies and were prized as officers and swordsmen. Prestigious companies like the Compagnie de Gens d’Armes Écossais (the King’s Scots Guard) first raised in 1422, were considered elite.9 Scots fought on both sides of the English Channel and flourished within both cultures, and yet remained fiercely distinct. They had been an integral part of the history of New France well before the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). In Canada, Scot origins include crew members of Jacques Cartier’s ship exploring the fleuve Saint-Laurent in 1535. Quebec City and Tadoussac were the first Scottish colonies in North America. They were settled by Highlanders circa 1629 after the Scot corsair, David Kirke,

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 5 destroyed a fleet dispatched by Cardinal Richelieu to defend New France. The Kirke brothers forced Champlain to surrender Quebec, but three years later, England’s Charles I restored to France its American territory in return for half his wife’s marriage settlement.10 The Scot settlers at Quebec and Tadoussac either returned to Scotland or stayed on and intermarried with French habitants. Some settled in Cape Breton. The French fortress of Louisbourg was built on the site of an original Scot settlement established by Lord Ochiltree. Its colonists were ejected, only to recover their lands after Amherst and Wolfe had seized what was to become Nova Scotia in 1758.11 The Scottish presence among the French forces before the battle of Quebec was noted after the Battle of Carillon (Ticonderoga) in 1758: Some highlanders, taken prisoner by the French and Canadians huddled together on the battlefield and, expecting to be cruelly treated, looked on in mournful silence. Presently, a gigantic French officer walked up to them and “whilst exchanging in a severe French tone with some of his men, suddenly addressed them in Gaelic. Surprise in the Highlanders soon turned to positive horror. Firmly believing that no Frenchman could ever speak Gaelic, they concluded that his Satanic Majesty in person was before them.” It was a Jacobite serving in the French Army.12

The very battle that determined Canada’s future was fought across the farm fields of a retired Scottish river pilot, Abraham Martin, who settled west of Quebec City. Scots were part of General Montcalm’s staff and, of course, Highlanders comprised a robust part of Wolfe’s army, as both soldiers and senior officers. In the daring night attack, the sentry’s challenge at the Anse-au-Foulon was answered in French by Captain Donald MacDonald of the Frasers, who had served in the French army.13 Archibald MacDonald, the only regimental piper then available to the 78th, became a legend – both the goat and subsequent hero at Quebec and its less fortunate follow on, the battle of Ste-Foye.14 The Reverend Robert Macpherson, chaplain to the Frasers, held the first Presbyterian service in Nouvelle France on the Plains of Abraham after the battle.15 His progeny would later command the Montreal Highland Rifle Company and the 5th Royal Scots. The re-establishment of a vigorous colony, now called Canada, was nurtured by Governor Murray, who, possibly because of his Scottish origins, was sympathetic and protective of the Québécois whom he called “perhaps the bravest and best race upon the Globe.”15a They in turn held him in high regard.

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Chapter 1 Scottish Seigneuries Near Quebec and Montreal This was a conscious decision to opt for the preservation of a traditional way of life and the independence which comes from owning land. Lucille H Campey, Fast Sailing and Copper Bottomed – Aberdeen Sailing Ships and the Emigrant Scots16 Des trois groupes que constituent ce que nous appelons les Anglais ceux qui ont été ici depuis le plus longtemps et ceux qui ont été les plus remarquables, ce sont les Écossais. Pour nous, Canadiens français, ils sont aussi les plus sympathiques et les plus compréhensifs des trois groups en cause. Benjamin Sulte, 189817

The Black Watch bloodline is anchored in Scottish immigration, initially as retired soldiers, and later as immigrant colonists. Scots put down roots on both sides of the fleuve Saint Laurent and its parallel valleys from 1763 onwards. They established the parishes of St George (Cacouna), St Patrick (Rivière-du-Loup) and St Andrew (StAndré-de-Kamouraska). The Highland notables, John Nairne and Malcolm Fraser, both officers in the 78th, described by Wolfe as having “the most manly corps of officers that he had ever seen,”18 obtained grants of land in the neighbourhood of Murray Bay (La Malbaie). They took some of their discharged men with them who also accepted land grants and settled in Quebec after the war. Nairne and Fraser built manor houses and received guests in the auld style and custom. Their men became “the immediate progenitors of genuine Jean-Baptistes – such as the Warrens, MacLeans, Harveys, Blackburns and several other families who, of their Scotch ancestry, have retained nothing save the name.”19 While aspects of language and religion appeared to be gradually lost in that area, distinct cultural ancestry remained anchored. As late as 1914, the recruiting officer of The Black Watch noted the arrival of a piper who “played ably but spoke only French.”20 Scots settled in and around Montreal, along the north shore of the Ottawa River and in The Eastern Townships. The French seigneurial system was preserved by the British governors and acted as a spur to settlement despite its feudal restrictions. Gabriel Christie, a veteran of the Quebec battle, purchased five seigneuries south of La Prairie. The Christie fiefs created the town of Iberville (initially called Christie) and doubled the size of Chambly and St Jean. Scottish seigneuries were established in Terrebonne (just north of Montreal) as well as Beauharnois, to the southwest; Sir John Johnson farmed seigneuries at Monnoir and Argenteuil. The Scots prospered and blended. The Inverness-shire-born James Cuthbert, one of Wolfe’s officers at Quebec, became wealthy, married, and later imported a

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 7 minister from Scotland to act as tutor for his children. He built his own Presbyterian chapel.21 Having sent his three sons to France to be educated so they would learn French, they returned as Roman Catholics, much to the wrath of their staunch Protestant father. Despite this, Cuthbert mellowed and would later become a patron of the Catholic churches in and near Berthier. The fact was that James Cuthbert, and most of the other Scots who owned seigneuries, were content to live among French Canadians. They assimilated themselves readily into French society and became accepted.22 Conversely, attempts to turn the local French Canadians to Protestants were rebuffed. As the century waned, Scotland suffered severe economic depression and emigration to Lower Canada was significant. During the Scottish Diaspora, over five hundred thousand Scots left Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and sailed to America.23 Destitute immigrants, victims of the clearances (Fuadach nan Gàidheal, the expulsion of the Gael) sought fresh beginnings in a vast land that promised unlimited opportunity. The Highland exodus included people from Ross Shire, Sutherland, and the Orkney Islands. They sailed from northeastern ports like Aberdeen on “fast sailing and copper–bottomed ships.”24 Highlanders and Orkneymen: Scottish Commerce and Martial Style Generation after generation, Scots were the single most powerful group in the Montreal business community, which meant that they were the most powerful in Canada.25

Initially, the majority of immigrants to Montreal originated in Scotland’s rough northern valleys and barren islands. Their mercantile chronicle is at once Canada’s legacy. The Hudson’s Bay Company, established in 1670 and, initially, an English enterprise, gradually fell into the hands of the Scots; the directing staff was largely recruited from the Hebrides, the Orkneys, even the Shetlands and Faroes, as well as the Highlands proper.26 The Bay’s competitors were fierce entrepreneurs based in Montreal, the North West Company. The appearance of vigorous adventurers like Simon McTavish (“the most conspicuous of a troop of larger than life characters”27) established the temperament and style of the city. An emblem of this lifestyle was the Beaver Club, founded in 1785, in Montreal. “It was also seen as being typically Highland, although it was an experience that most Highlanders would never encounter. Huge amounts of food and drink, raucous songs and war whoops, dancing on the table, broken crockery and ultimate drunken collapse were the hallmarks …”28 Some may venture that this was vaguely reminiscent of the type of mess dinner preferred by today’s Black Watch subalterns.

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The Montreal Scots were a “close-knit group … whose leaders wielded great power in the city’s commerce and English-speaking social life”29 that continues to subtly influence today’s metropolis: One need only mention McGill and Dalhousie to have some idea of the vital contribution which the Scots have made to education in Canada … names like Murray, or Lord Elgin or Sir John A Macdonald, or George Brown … One need only speak of Lord Mount Stephen, or Lord Strathcona, or Sandford Fleming or the Allans, to realize what a tower of strength the Scots have been in the development of Canadian industrial enterprise.30

Not all City Scots were Highlanders nor were most in commerce. They represented people from various walks of life, although the majority of the farmers encompassing Montreal were from the Highlands or northern isles.31 The greater part of Scottishborn Montrealers came from the urban centres of Glasgow or Edinburgh. They developed an influence disproportionate to their numbers. Demographic studies have concluded that: [They] enjoyed above-average economic success in this city, as there were relatively few Scottish-born servants, labourers and other workers at the lower end of the social scale. The Scottish community was composed of people from various occupations and social levels. Montreal Scots were not rich merchants and businessmen, as is the conclusion that might easily be drawn from so many sources. Relatively few members of the Scottish community were able to build a commercial empire and maintain a huge house in the Square Mile. The average Scottish immigrant in Montreal was much more likely to be a baker or a clerk than a merchant. 32

For example, the recruits who joined the 5th Royal Scots were a comprehensive crosssection of their urban society. The Scots that took up service with the Canadian militia made up the bulk of the Regiment from the late nineteenth century until well after the First World War, planting a distinct Highland footprint on Montreal’s martial history. The Quebec Militia 1763–1812 The history of the Canadian militia spans five centuries. The military legacy of Montreal stretches back to the years before the Seven Years’ War (in North America) when volunteer cadres were created to fight English colonial raiders; however, most historians trace its origins to 1763 when French laws were rescinded and Governor Murray raised fresh local companies: two in Montreal, two in Quebec and one in Trois-Rivières.33

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 9 Initially, these militia cadres comprised mostly French Canadians as there were few British subjects in Canada. A 1764 census recorded fifty-six Protestant families in Montreal – most were Scottish Presbyterians.34 In 1765, the old Militia Laws of New France were formally abolished; commissions were annulled, and French Militia officers deposed. This caused a brief vacuum until the American Revolution and attacks from the south. The creation of the United States of America by armed rebellion had immediate effects on Canada. The Yankee invasion of 1775 captured most of inhabited Quebec, including St-Jean (popularly referred to as “St John” until after the Second World War), Trois-Rivières and Montreal. City tradition has Benjamin Franklin arriving with a printing press and starting a republican newspaper which soon became The Montreal Gazette and is still publishing to this day. General Benedict Arnold paused long enough to blow up Fort Senneville, which guarded Montreal’s West Island at the junction of the Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers. The final American assault against Quebec City took place on New Year’s Eve and might well have made this province the fourteenth American Colony. It failed, but was a near run thing: “… it was a Scot, ‘honest Hugh McQuarters of the Royal Artillery’ who put a match to the gun which killed the revolutionary commander [the Irish-born former British officer, General Richard Montgomery] and his two aides.”35 The British colonial government hastily raised Militia cadres by resorting to seigneurial traditions. The first Militia Act for Lower Canada (what is today the province of Quebec) was passed in 1777, and required companies commanded by captains from the more prominent men in the parish to appear in the summer for instruction. The first English unit appeared in Lower Canada in 1795.36 The second direct consequence of the American War of Independence (1775– 83) was the arrival of American immigrants – the United Empire Loyalists who settled in western Quebec and promptly changed the demographics of the colony. The government relocated six thousand people of British stock from the United States into Lower Canada. Montreal and the surrounding area remained mostly French Canadian, but this too changed as British settlers continued to arrive, including many Scots.37 A large majority of the United Empire Loyalists [who settled west of Montreal] … were Scottish Highlanders, descendants of men who, after Culloden had been transported to the southern plantations in the Carolinas and Georgias. During the brief peace of 1802, among other veteran regiments which had fought against the French, disbanded, was “The Glengarry Regiment” of Roman Catholic Highlanders, raised by the [chaplain] Reverend

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| Chapter 1 Father Alexander McDonnell, of Glen Urquhart … On its disbandment he obtained aid from the British Government to transport the men to Canada …38

The War of 1812 – First Scottish Militia Companies All citizens, all households and lodgers shall be enrolled whether British or Canadian born – that no distinction of religion shall be considered. Order forming Montreal Militia battalions, one French, one English in April 1828

The American invasions of Canada were defeated with great pluck and even greater luck. The attacks during the Revolution taught one lesson and the clearings of the Empire Loyalists taught another. When war was declared the citizens of Lower Canada, particularly land owners, reacted fiercely. The distinctive nature of the Canadian Black Watch can be found among the pioneers (both soldiers and civilians) who settled in Quebec and created a dynamic, vibrant community in a great city. Montreal’s Highland militia was the fighting face of a complex rustic culture now firmly rooted in Canada. In 1803, the Militia Laws were renewed, the militia reorganized, and a new battalion was formed in Montreal, under an enterprising Scottish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist, whose legacy is associated more with the university – James McGill. He was assisted by Captain Henry Griffin, who is often linked with the legendary Montreal area of Griffintown.39 The First Battalion Montreal Militia was composed of “all persons residing within the city and banlieue of Montreal other than French Canadians.”40 There were some concerns regarding the loyalty of certain French Canadian officers in the militia. Governor Sir James Craig dismissed five in 1809.41 The initial records of Canadian Scottish militia appear at the onset of the War of 1812 and continue, in an almost capricious fashion, until 1837 when rebellion spurred another military reorganization. To face Yankee invasion, Governor Sir George Prévost was forced to draft a provincial corps of Light Infantry or Voltigeurs from the greater Montreal area.42 This was paralleled with wide recruiting by The Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry, a unit formed from veterans of a British fencible unit, disbanded in 1803. These immigrants had initially settled in seigneuries and townships west of the city.43 The Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry is perhaps the first distinctively CanadianScottish unit, with many Canadiens français in its ranks, but historically overshadowed by the rapid creation of five volunteer (drafted) Montreal militia battalions in 1812. Popularly known as The Glengarry Fencibles,44 the Regiment recruited in Quebec

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 11 City, Montreal and as far west as Kingston. In due course, the Glengarries also recruited from French-speaking peoples in Lower Canada. The battalion’s companies participated in several battles, including the defence of Montreal. More significant to Canada’s Black Watch, one of the newly raised city militia units, the 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers, participated in the campaign. The Black Watch ideal of the clansman as bonnie fechter reflects the Scots’ determination to defend their homes against all invaders – the Highland Clearances and the expulsion of the Gael were never to be repeated. With firm resolve, the Scots of Lower Canada gathered in volunteer Highland companies; their military history as Canadians was anchored to this conflict with the United States in the War of 1812 – “The proudest war we ever fought.”45 They left their homesteads and, in Glengarry fashion, flew to arms when war broke out. The winter of 1812/1813 was the last occasion on which the fiery cross was sent round among Highlanders as the clan chief summoned his warriors to repel an American raid.46 Battle of Châteauguay 1813, First Battle Honour The 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers dubbed: “the Devil’s Own”; “Brigades des Devils”

At the outbreak of the war, there were few troops in Montreal’s sedentary militia: a cavalry troop and four battalion equivalents. The most serious attacks against the city occurred in the fall and winter of 1813. The first action proved encouraging – a force consisting of 1,630 mainly French-speaking Canadians, English, Scots and Mohawks from Kahnawake repulsed an American field force comprised of four thousand soldiers.47 The next battle was major – a determined defence at Châteauguay by a mixed force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry, which included the Voltigeurs with a healthy Scot representation and a company from the Fencibles, officered by Scots from the Imperial Black Watch.48 The War of 1812 and the Battle of Châteauguay would become the first Canadian Black Watch battle honour. Two hundred years after the battle, during their sesquicentennial anniversary as a regiment, the Canadian government commemorated the action by awarding the regiment an emblazonable honour (as well as a general War of 1812 honour) in recognition of the 5th Battalion, Select Embodied Militia of Upper Canada (raised in Montreal in 1812).49 The connection is perhaps aggrandized. The proper precursor of Canada’s Black Watch, at least with respect to its Highland “roots” is the Highland Rifle Company of Montreal (formed 1856) which transferred to the 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal in 1863. Nevertheless, the adjudication of the Directorate of History and Heritage is not incorrect regarding the presence of Montreal Scots at Châteauguay.

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The city’s Selected Embodied Militia (la Milice d’Élite et Incorporée) expanded dramatically when Governor George Prévost introduced conscription to raise four battalions of “Militia elite” in the city. In the spring of 1812, Prévost raised another unit in Montreal: the Fifth Battalion of the Militia. 50 The group was allegedly nicknamed “the Devil’s Own” or “Brigades des Devils” because many officers were lawyers – something which would have appealed to the Black Watch in the next century, particularly Colonel John Bourne. The new battalions were drafted into service to prepare Montreal for American invasion. Always ready for a good fight, the Scots went most willingly. The numerical connection to the 5th Royals of 1862 is serendipitous.51 Sir George Prévost disparagingly referred to the Lower Canada militia as “a mere posse, ill-arm’d and without discipline.” However, another British officer, Doctor William Dunlop, thought them: “in serviceable effective appearance – pretty well drilled … They marched merrily to the music of their voyageur songs as they perceived our [scarlet] uniform as we came up, they set up the Indian War-Whoop, followed by a shout of Vive le Roi along the whole line.”52 Many militia had their own hunting weapons, and during the war, large numbers of British muskets were imported and issued to the militia. The Châteauguay battle comprised a series of skirmishes (with minor casualties: two dead, sixteen wounded, four missing) but resulted in an important political victory. An unknown Highland militia company, attached to Captain Eustace of the 8th Foot (also known as the King’s Regiment), fought well in the campaign. The conduct of the Scots in the Ogdensburg raid was noted in the report to the governor general and cited in the London Gazette.53 The Châteauguay victory turned back the last serious thrust at Montreal. In Europe, Bonaparte’s surrender heralded the return of the British fleet and garrison, which quickly resulted in an American armistice. The period following the war also witnessed the demobilization of regular and militia regiments. The Fencibles were disbanded in Montreal in 1816.54 The 5th Battalion attracted unfavourable reports in 1814 (mainly because of the absence without leave of several of its officers); it was reorganised and reformed as a light infantry unit, the Chasseurs Canadiens circa 1816. This unit would not figure in the history of Canada’s Black Watch. The end of the Napoleonic wars also signalled the lifting of emigration embargos and a new flood of settlers appeared in Canada. Montreal’s population rocketed to over thirty thousand, half of them Anglophones, mainly Scots and Irish. This occurred as the city formed a Scottish militia battalion.55

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 13 The Highland Rifle Company and The Montreal Light Infantry The idea of a distinctly Scottish unit was first introduced amongst the Montreal citizen soldiers in the year 1837, when volunteer brigades were organized in this city to quell a rebellion. This Scottish unit had its beginning in a company of the Montreal Light Infantry. Alex Robertson, Esq to Lieutenant Colonel CN Monsarrat, 1 February 191656 … Highland Rifle Company originally raised in 1856 … through this Company the Regiment became identified with the Highland tradition. Colonel JT Ostell57

Faced with the third and largest influx of Scots, the government decided to subsidize farms in the Rideau Valley and Drummondville (east of Montreal) which attracted large numbers and when these lots were exhausted, the overflow of settlers was drawn into the Châteauguay Valley southwest of Montreal. As the rural and urban population swelled, unfortunately, enthusiasm for military service waned. By 1827, the city garrison dwindled down to one volunteer rifle company. Worse, political grumbling created tension within the garrison. Gregory and the Molsons were invited to form their own companies by Lord Dalhousie; at that time, the governor simply instructed the Montreal militia to form companies (not battalions) by city district. An independent Highland rifle company had been formed in Montreal sometime about 1830 and, as a distinguishing mark, its members were permitted to wear tartan plaid stripes on their trousers. This was the first Scottish military organization formed in Montreal, albeit only company-sized. It was later attached to the old Montreal Light Infantry which was originally organized as a result of the 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion. This was followed by another independent Highland rifle company on 16 October 1856 designated as “The Montreal Highland Rifle Company” and “authorized to wear the Highland Costume.” This historically complex subunit, under modified titles, doggedly persevered until 1863 when it would acquire the shelter of a battalion/ regimental structure – originally with the 1st Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada in 185958 and later with Colonel Routh’s 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal in 1863. Along with the Highland rifle company formed in the 1830s, the Montreal Highland Rifle Company of 1856 constitutes the historic as well as romantic connection to the Black Watch’s earliest Scot origins in Montreal. The British government’s establishing of French as an official language encouraged nationalist sentiment that, it may be argued, continued directly into twenty-first century Quebec. With the governor’s support, French asserted itself as an official language on a par with English in the Legislative Assembly.59 Loyalist clubs were formed by English-speaking Montrealers to challenge the growing political power of the Parti Patriote (a French Canadian nationalist organization) in the National Assembly. The Parliament buildings at the time were in Montreal.60

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Newly ordered militia companies created situations which in many instances meant that officer positions would go to English Canadians while most of the militiamen were French Canadian.61 The 1830 Militia Act solved little; the militia simply became more political, less military. The militia companies had not been manoeuvred or publically reviewed for years (“The Militia a Butt of Political Discord … sedentary militia battalions were in a hopeless state of disorganization”62). Many units were uncertain, either in loyalty, or military competence. Some Canadiens officers’ loyalties were suspect, and the British government gave notice it was prepared “to deprive [certain officers] of the distinction of holding commissions in the militia.”63 Recurring fear of renewed attacks from the Americans as well as local unrest, prompted attempts to cleanse and invigorate the militia; but these bills were defeated in Parliament. When the rebellion broke out in the autumn of 1837,64 Montreal, indeed the whole of Canada (“There were only four or five regiments in Canada when rebellion broke out”), had very little in the way of military protection.65 At the time, the population of Montreal was approximately 35,500, half Canadiens français and half English. In the Montreal district, sedentary militia battalions were in a state of disorganisation. The only ready volunteer corps were a troop of cavalry in Lachine, a second troop in Montreal (“The Royal Montreal Cavalry”) and two volunteer companies: the Highland Rifle Company and a second rifle company commanded by Major de Bleury – for whom Bleury Street is named, and where The Black Watch armoury stands.66 By 1837, anticipating the worst, Peter McGill, the second mayor of Montreal and president of the Bank of Montreal, urged Lord Gosford that additional volunteer militias be formed in select districts of the city. Such a step would release the army to restore order in the countryside. The initial eight battalions (essentially, district companies) raised and reorganized again and again via Governor’s decrees and Militia Acts from 1812 to 1837, were yet again reorganized during the 1837 rebellion. They were loose organizations; titles like regiment, battalion tended to be wishful thinking. The term brigade was introduced as an administrative catch-all – more complimentary, than a tactical or doctrinal description. The 3rd Brigade included the Montreal Light Infantry, with six companies augmented by “The Rifles” from 1st Brigade. This 1837 reorganization comprised: the 1st Battalion Montreal Militia under Lieutenant Colonel Norman Bethune; The Montreal Rifles and The Montreal Light Infantry. The Montreal Light Infantry (again, a collective of district militia companies) was largely recruited from the mechanic class of the city. It had a distinctly multicultural style; one company was decidedly Scottish.67 This date and occasion, more than the 1812 battles, was regarded by Montreal military historians as the proper inception of the 5th Royal Scots (Black Watch):

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 15 The idea of a distinctively Scottish unit was first modestly introduced among Montreal’s citizen soldiers in the year 1837, when volunteer brigades were organized in this city to quell the rebellion for Constitutional Government.68

Nicknamed “The First Royals,” the unit was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Griffin and saw action during the rebellion, participating in the battle of StEustache. These new militia companies were not given arms by the government; the gunsmiths used to loan the officers the muskets they had in stock, and the companies would drill with them and parade the streets at night. The men supplied themselves with a sort of frock-coat which they used to wear to work. The trousers of the Scots company of the Light Infantry were of plaid.69 Act of Union 1840 – Militia Reorganization Following the rebellion, the doldrums once again affected the militia, essentially a contrived paper force which included proud veteran companies that had served nobly in 1812 as well as ad hoc second-rate collectives of dubious quality and loyalty.70 The 1840 Act of Union suddenly created “Canada” which featured a united land force under one staff. The Act was designed to create a national force (the united provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, eventually Ontario and Quebec).71 In preparation, all volunteer corps were ordered disbanded: “A general reorganization of Militia and decommissioning of Militia officers took place by General Order 7 June 1839, which displaced many of the old, unhealthy, incompetent and disloyal officers.”72 This cleared out the good along with the bad and snubbed the valiant war service of many, for the sake of bureaucratic expediency. Selected independent companies were permitted to carry on training while the new broom swept clean, compelling all volunteer cadres to re-enlist and be officially re-gazetted.73 The 1855 Militia Act and The Highland Rifle Company The Militia Act of 1855 was one of the benchmarks in Canada’s military history. It established the country’s most honoured tradition, the volunteer defence force. Passed at the height of the Crimean War, it marked the creation of a truly “Canadian Militia”: uniformed, armed and paid to train by the federal government. The Act “reorganized the old territorial sedentary militia system as backbone of the national defence force and a nucleus of a national Canadian Army.”74 Britain’s bizarre war with Russia imparted a fresh impetus for reform as British garrisons were stripped, and troops sent to Europe. Frontier defence would be largely a job for volunteer formations. Perhaps the single most consistent policy tradition of any government is the reluctance

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to spend monies on the militia; but by mid-century, decisive reforms were deemed to be mandatory. Garrison units (that survived the Act of Union reductions) became the nucleus for new formations in 1855. Independent companies were marshalled into battalions, and the “new Militia” was restructured in a numbered sequence that would ever more figure in unit seniority, and instigate certain bragging rights regarding pedigree. In fact, it was occasioned more as an administrative convenience than a historical precedence: “a company of riflemen established in 1854 in Montreal was registered first and thereby became the volunteer militia company with the most seniority whereas in the same city there had been a volunteer cavalry company since 1812!”75 The new order of battle was sniffed at by the Montreal Cavalry and the Montreal Light Infantry. These regiments dated as early as 1803 and were active in the War of 1812 and the 1837 rebellion.76 Nevertheless, the Act gave order to a mass of companies in rural and urban areas, and created Militia districts with headquarters. This legislation is today regarded as the point of reference for certified seniority in the Canadian Military. The 1855 Militia Act created new “battalions” which again had a relaxed command structure. To lessen confusion, units were then referred to as the “old Montreal Light Infantry” vs the newly sanctioned Light Infantry battalions. The first duly authorized battalion of the active Militia was “The Montreal Light Infantry” which was formed on 30 October 1856 as a sedentary militia unit, embodied as a “Class B” volunteer unit, which meant that its soldiers were not paid for their services. Its grouping of companies included a distinctly Scottish outfit. The Highland Rifle Company of Montreal was gazetted in 1856,77 as an independent rifle company; part of Lieutenant Colonel John Dyde’s brigade of Volunteer Militia Rifle Companies, specifically noted as the No. 9 Company – Highlanders.78 It was commanded by Captain John Macpherson, whose grandson Colonel John D Macpherson was at a later date to progress from private to command of the Regiment.79 In August 1858, the Montreal Highland Rifle Company, along with six other Montreal independent rifle companies, was dispatched to Portland, Maine, as the government’s ambassadors to the United States. Portland was Montreal’s winter port – the Atlantic terminus for the Grand Trunk Railway, a vigorous enterprise that would become in time the intercontinental Canadian National Railways System (CNR) and maintain a close link to Canada’s Black Watch. The Scots were well received and enthusiastically reported: From the beginning, the dress of Montreal’s Highland Company was a green coatee faced with red and gold, plaid pants, tartan scarfs, Highland bonnet with ostrich plumes, and red feather [emphasis added]. The piper in full Highland costume, with his kilt and his

The Scottish Military Tradition in Quebec | 17 bare knees, attracted some attention. The Highlanders were thoroughly Scottish in form and features, spare and sharp, and in their native costume looked like true followers of the Bruce.80

When the 1855 Militia Act had been amended in 1859 to enable the formation of rifle and infantry battalions, the Montreal Highland Rifle Company, along with eight other Montreal independent rifle companies, were gazetted as the 1st Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada, and placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Wily81 with Macpherson’s highlanders becoming the No. 7 Company of that Battalion. The 1st Battalion was organized as a rifle regiment, and thus adopted that style of dress. The Scots were accepted with good grace even though their uniforms were a daring variation (to say the least): “[a] Rifle green cloth coatee with scarlet facings trimmed with yellow tinsel braid; trews and plaid of McKenzie tartan … Blue cloth forage caps, with white check band – Highland bonnets red and white check trimmed with ostrich feather and scarlet hackle.” The officers wore the dirk and broadsword, and the piper, “in full Highland costume, the kilt and its accoutrements.”82 This mariage de raison lasted for almost a year. In 1860, young Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, visited Canada. He spent time in Montreal, where he drove the last rivet into the Victoria Bridge – the first structure to span the mighty St Lawrence. The royal visit produced not only shows of patriotism but a gala social whirl enhanced by the presence of handsomely uniformed officers. Edward proceeded west, laying the cornerstone of the new parliament buildings at Ottawa, opening Queen’s Park in Toronto, and unveiling Brock’s monument at Queenston. The Prince even managed to visit Niagara and watch the French aerialist Blondin cross the falls on a tightrope. His great popularity prompted a bold request from the 1st Battalion in Montreal, “Would His Royal Highness consent to bestow his name on the unit?” “A pleasure.” The Highland Rifle Company’s accommodation with the 1st Battalion changed abruptly after the Prince of Wales became honorary colonel. The new regiment, “The 1st (or Prince of Wales’) Regiment of Volunteer Rifles,” was more fastidious in the matter of uniforms. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Devlin, requested his Highland company to conform to rifle dress and negate their company autonomy. The Scots declined and sought more obliging partners. The Militia Act’s creation of new units encouraged Montreal’s Scottish community to attempt once again the formation of a proper Highland battalion. A committee was formed in 1861 under John Rose, Member of Parliament, but failed to make headway. However, they held great hopes for the new 5th Battalion and this was

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finally realized when the Battalion was gazetted early in 1862.83 In 1863, the No. 7 Highland Rifle Company of the 1st Battalion was advised by Rose to parley with the brand-new organization commanded by his confrere, Haviland Routh. They were at once welcomed.84 Lieutenant Colonel HL Routh’s 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal, quickly absorbed the new addition as its “No. 9 or Highland Infantry Company.85 The Company adopted the regular infantry uniform of the Royals with one exception, “that tartan trews and shako with check band, shall be allowed, as a distinction.”85a This union was to prove propitious. The single Highland Infantry Company grew into two flanking companies and eventually converted the entire Battalion into wearing trews. But this was just the beginning. By 1880, Routh’s original battalion would be completely devoured from within, via a succession of Scottish metamorphoses.85b

Chapter 2

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal

1862 – Lieutenant Colonel Routh Raises The Royals The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada dates itself from 1862, the year it received its first set of Colours as the 5th Royals. However, as we have observed, the Regiment’s Highland flavor can be dated back to 1856 when the Montreal Highland Rifle Company was organized. Suffice it to say that, while the more senior Highland Rifle Company may be regarded as the Regiment’s soul, it is the 5th Royals which provided The Black Watch with a beating regimental heart. The legislation that prompted the raising of what became the 5th Royals, called for an additional six independent volunteer rifle companies.86 Regimental lore has made it a decidedly Scottish (if not Highland) occasion and romanticized it to some extent. The tradition is essentially accurate, although the wording “six local Montreal chieftains, who each undertook to raise a company” is somewhat whimsical. Six city gentlemen, patriots and military enthusiasts, each formed a “volunteer Militia rifle company.” First amongst the captains was Haviland Lemesurier Routh, a fiftytwo-year-old businessman with some important military connections.87 The second company was commanded by Andrew Allan, brother to the shipping and banking magnet, Sir Hugh Allan. Within nine days of formation, the six companies were

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gazetted into a battalion, the 5th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles, Canada – the antecedent to the 5th Royal Scots.88 Routh had offered to raise a militia company as early as 1838, but despite his impressive connections (his uncle was the British commissary-general for Canada, Sir Randolph Isham Routh), he had been refused by Brigadier John Samuel McCord, the Montreal garrison commander.89 Routh’s attempts were finally rewarded just before Christmas, 1861.90 Routh was gazetted as lieutenant colonel in February. His second-in-command was the former solicitor general of Canada and law partner to D’Arcy McGee, Major John Rose MP. Routh recruited technically proficient officers like Captain John Grant, who quickly established the Regiment’s name in musketry competitions at the provincial, city and dominion level.91 Colonel Routh selected as his officers men like himself: men of wealth, position and education. They in turn chose their men with the greatest care, and the Regiment made very rapid progress in drill and discipline, being assisted and encouraged by the regular troops then in garrison.92 The new battalion’s first parade was conducted under inauspicious circumstances. Routh found himself locked out of the exhibition building on St Catherine Street. Undaunted, the Royals, four hundred strong, marched to Place d’Armes, drilled and then cheered their colonel before dismissal. The Gazette noted with some caution: “The men will make first-rate material for the polishing hand of the drill sergeant.”93 The 5th was dressed as a standard British light infantry regiment of the line: “The uniform at this time was the army regulation light infantry shako and ball, forage caps like the Grenadier Guards with red band.”94 They trained at Montreal’s only militia armoury, Victoria Hall, located at the head of Haymarket Square (later renamed Victoria Square),95 sharing the facilities with the city artillery battery and the Montreal Cavalry. The men were allotted twelve days drill at fifty cents a day and six dollars per annum for uniforms. Additional training had to be scheduled in rented halls, giving rise to strong lobbying to build a large city armoury. Routh’s battalion eventually paraded at the city concert hall (the upper floor of Bonsecours Market) where Montreal’s corporation permitted volunteer units to train, without charge, although the volunteers did have to pay for the construction of special cupboards built to secure rifles and ammunition. Their arms were reasonably modern. The battalion was issued with 53 Pattern (.577 calibre Minie bullet) Long Enfield rifles – the same weapon used during the Civil War. The battalion paraded regularly, and reviews were generous: The Royals, in their scarlet uniform, made a very creditable appearance, the men, as regards physique, being equal to any battalion in the city, and their marching, with arms

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal | 21 sloped, was very good indeed … The uniform of the Royals is similar to that worn by the line regiments, but of far superior quality. They mustered very strongly, the full complement being present. Colonel Routh, Major Fletcher and the other officers of the Regiment have reason to feel proud at the success which has crowned their efforts to make the Royals one of the finest militia organizations in the country.96

By the fall of 1862, the battalion’s name was revised to 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal, which gave substance to its popular nickname “the Royals” – even though no regal warrant appears to have been issued.97 The formation sometimes confuses historians. In fact, there were two light infantry battalions in Montreal: the original Montreal Light Infantry and the 5th “Royals.” The former had soldiered on but waned after the Militia reorganization. Those who remained (one company, commanded by Captain K Campbell) were voluntarily absorbed by Routh’s Royals.98 As previously noted, the battalion had already amalgamated the Highland Rifle Company, establishing a patent Scottish lineage. The First Regimental Colours, 11 October 1862 The Black Watch celebration of its sesquicentennial in 2012 commemorated its ceremonial origins in October of 1862 when the 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry, was presented with its first Colours by Lady Monck, wife of Canada’s governor general. The Regiment has traditionally used this year to celebrate its lineage to the 5th Battalion, begetter of the Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders. The event, performed at a former musket range called Logan’s Farm (later renamed Lafontaine Park, Parc Lafontaine) was touted as “The finest volunteer review, without exception, which has yet been held in Canada.”99 The event coincided with the passing of another Militia Act, which augmented pay, included target practice allowances, an efficiency grant, and provided for better qualified officers to be trained for some two months, if they chose to attend. Training was limited by the weather; most active parade work was done in the spring, before the annual June inspections. However, the training of volunteer battalions was somewhat lackadaisical, requiring more time to reach an adequate military standard. It was reported that: “Up to the autumn of 1864, not one single company of militia had been organized or received even the six days drill which was the maximum permitted.”100 The 5th Battalion cultivated a reputation for shooting and dress, drawing forth complimentary letters to the editor: “One would be heard to say, “Whose company is that?” another would say, “What a fine body of men!” The answer to it would be,

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“Captain Grant’s, of the Royals.”101 Despite the gushing accolades, by 1865, the ranks of the Royals were somewhat diminished in strength, parading twenty-two officers and three hundred other ranks (out of five hundred) – the Highland company turned out fifty-five officers and men. The Civil War raging across the American border caused some concern, convincing the government to construct “drill sheds” (the precursors of Militia armouries) and to establish “Schools of Military Instruction” at Quebec, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto.102 Great expectation was held for a large drill shed to be built near the Champ de Mars on Craig Street, but there was some reticence. Besides expense, it was feared the militia training might disturb local churches. The cry went up: “Volunteers don’t drill on Sundays!” The Scottish-born minister of defence, John A Macdonald, was somewhat canny in bestowing monies to the Militia. He was prodded into action by Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who lobbied on behalf of the Royals and their Montreal confrères.103 McGee’s Irish nationalism would soon be tested by Gaelic brethren south of the border. The US Civil War and Fenian Terrorists: 1864–1870 We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war And we’re going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue And we’ll go and capture Canada, for we’ve nothing else to do. Fenian song circa 1866 “With the reduction of Montreal, a demand will be made upon the United States for a formal recognition of Canada, whose name will be changed at once to New Ireland.” Fenian Manifesto

Incidents during the American Civil War (1861–1865) created political tension. England’s cooperation with the southern Confederacy was considered provocation by the Union government. The great Canadian fear was that Washington, prompted by some incident or diplomatic gaff, would again invade British North America defended by less than five thousand regulars, only two thousand in the united provinces of “Canada.” A serious political incident did occur in the fall of 1861 when the US Navy boarded a British packet and removed two Confederate diplomats. The “Trent Affair” created a popular uproar with passionate demonstrations on both sides of the Atlantic. Hostilities were avoided as England continued to advocate a policy of nonaligned status yet aided the Confederacy. While acting aggressively neutral toward the United States, Britain tried to avoid commitment in something as internally divisive

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal | 23 as a civil war in which the favoured side practised slavery, despite a widespread sympathetic support for the South. Troops were dispatched to Canada and additional ships deployed in the Western Atlantic. Neither the United States nor Great Britain wanted war, but the Trent incident demonstrated the potential for armed conflict. The Royals’ first regimental deployment took place in 1864. An already tense political situation was exacerbated by a Confederate raid on a bank in St Albans, Vermont. The guerrillas fled across the border into Canada where they were arrested, put on trial, and freed by the court.104 The incident triggered “another violent spasm of Anglophobia in the United States”105 and resulted in acerbic American demands. Canadians were reminded again that their long frontier was undefended and unguarded. The militia was called out. One company of Routh’s Regiment, commanded by Capt W Scott, was ordered into a provisional battalion and sent to Sandwich, Ontario (today’s Windsor, Ontario) to watch Detroit. The Royals again served as aid-to-the-civil-power in 1866, just after the American Civil War ended. In answer to a terrorist threat posed by the Fenians, Montreal’s garrison was deployed to the frontiers of the Eastern Townships. The Fenian brotherhood, named for the Fianna, ancient Irish warriors, was a patriotic movement: a revolutionary group committed to the overthrow of British rule in Ireland. The association had roots in the United States and Ireland but the American version, featuring battle-hardened and well-armed Civil War veterans, was supported by wealthy backers as well as a good deal of less-than-subtle encouragement from Washington. They posed a serious threat. On 1 June 1866, Fenian forces from Buffalo, New York, crossed the border and seized the Canadian town of Fort Erie – presumptuously celebrated as the first Irish victory over British forces since the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Initially, Canadian militia failed to repulse the attackers, about fifteen hundred troops; but within a week, the invaders were driven back across the Niagara River. A similar attack was expected south of Montreal, from a large Fenian camp established in Vermont. The American government’s official action was difficult to gauge. Previous British support for the Confederacy angered many Americans. US President Andrew Johnson sniffed at British protests over early Fenian raids and caused concern when he stated his government would recognize the accomplished facts. Canadian-US relations remained delicate for a decade but what did become abundantly clear was the reluctance of the Imperial authorities for any confrontation in North America and the growing need of reducing regular garrisons in Canada. The Fenian threat did give impetus to Canadian Confederation and the building of an inter-provincial railway, ready to service operational deployments. One serendipitous result was the composition of a rousing march by a Scottish immigrant, Alexander Muir, who had joined the

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Queen’s Own Rifles, fought Fenians at Erie, and then went on to write, The Maple Leaf Forever. The Montreal Militia was called out for active service, and guards were established at key municipal buildings and the Victoria Bridge.106 The Royals were ordered to protect the Montreal courthouse and one company was sent to Cornwall. In early June 1866, the garrison was ordered to the American border. As the companies marched to the train station, each was greeted by tremendous cheering: The bands played various airs, Auld Lang Syne, The Girl I Left Behind Me, God Bless the Prince of Wales, and God Save the Queen. Finally, the two Quebec companies … took their places in the train – now numbering seventeen cars. As the train departed from the station, loud and enthusiastic cheers were interchanged between the Royals and those on the platform, the general impression being that if the Royals had the opportunity they would make someone generally uncomfortable.107

To the Regiment’s regret, the Royals did not engage in combat. Their ambitious deployment did produce some drama at the train station. The 5th’s senior officer and acting commander of the Montreal task force, Major John Grant, refused to embark without serviceable equipment. The Regiment was without “proper arms, boots, blankets, camp equipage, axes, pickaxes, spades, and … ammunition.”108 It had been a wet spring; the ground was sodden, and the men had no tools to dig trenches or even drainage ditches around tents. Grant displayed his firmness of character, and eventually the required stores were delivered. Meantime, the Montreal brigade was supplied with the Westley-Richards breech-loading rifle from the Imperial Stores; these were later exchanged for the Snider-Enfield (.577 caliber). The Regiment moved to St John’s (Saint-Jean) where its companies were absorbed into a provisional battalion and bolstered with regulars – a militia modus operandi that continued into the new millennium.109 The Royals drilled with resolve and manoeuvred with tenacity and skill. Finally, they were ordered back to the city to participate in a large review on the Champ de Mars, where “the whole population of Montreal was in the throes of military ardour.”110 More Fenians: 1870 On 25 May, at a place called Eccles Hill, in advance of Cooks Corners, on the Missisquoi frontier [Brome-Missisquoi, Quebec], the first attempt during the year 1870 to invade the territory of the Dominion was made, but the invaders were instantly met with gallantry and repulsed with loss, in the act of crossing the line from the State of Vermont, by a small

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal | 25 force of the Canadian militia, consisting of forty men of the 60th (or Missisquoi Battalion), and thirty-seven farmers, resident in the neighbourhood.111

The terrorist provocations continued. There were five Fenian attacks of consequence; the thrusts were quickly repelled by regular troops and Militia units. The two actions fought in Quebec were Pigeon Hill (1866) and Eccles Hill (1870). The covering-force battles (usually brief skirmishes) were challenging but not wide-ranging. The incidents divided Montreal’s Irish Canadians, some of whom were torn between allegiance to their settled home and sympathy for the Fenian cause. It was a tricky political situation. When the Fenians returned in 1870, they were considered sufficiently dangerous to cause the government to complete the transcontinental railway and hasten the inclusion of new provinces into the Dominion. The Fenian incidents bolstered recruiting, and the campaign produced a harvest of medals for participating units, including the Cadet Corps of Bishop’s College School in Lennoxville, which sportingly defended a nearby bridge from perceived Fenian attack.112 The British government did not lose much time in showing its appreciation to those dominion militia officers, who held responsible commands on the Quebec frontier during the raids. On 20 October 1870, an interesting ceremony took place in the large reception room of the St Lawrence Hall, Montreal, when an investiture of the insignia of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) was held by His Excellency the GovernorGeneral, Lord Lisgar, the recipients “being Lieut.-Cols. Osborne Smith, Fletcher & McEachran from the Montreal Garrison.”113 No regimental officer from the Montreal garrison received a CMG. The Fenian tests brought the 5th Battalion some solace: its strength was improved, at least temporarily, by the transfer of the remaining cadre of the older, but much smaller Montreal Light Infantry. Captain Kenneth Campbell’s company was the last vestige of that revered unit, formed in 1837. They petitioned to be amalgamated with the Royals, which was approved in 1866.114 They joined the other group, the 9th Highland Infantry Company (previously Captain John Macpherson’s Montreal Highland Rifle Company) which remained the only body of uniformed Scots in Montreal – a city bursting with highlanders, who longed for the style and music of distant, misty glens.115 Macpherson’s former company, which had participated in the Fenian campaigns, distinct in its tartan trews and a diced band around their shakoes, had long championed the cause.116 High hopes were held for the future; but while the Fenian raids had inspired a flocking to the colours, so, with their cessation, interest waned. A period of depression set in for the militia; recruitment fell again. The Royals’ second company ceased to exist. The unhappy state of the general militia begged for reform and reorganization.

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The Militia Act of 1868 added six paid training days, but required reenrollment by company. Six companies from the 5th Royals reenlisted, but Numbers 2 and 5 Companies disappeared. The First Dominion Militia Act, 22 May 1868 The “British North America Act” gave the management and control of the militia, during peace-time, to the dominion; but for some months, the old provincial militia organizations were maintained. The first Dominion Militia Act (22 May 1868) established Canada’s department of Militia and Defence.117 Its new minister, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, issued an act which retained the theory of conscription, but recognized voluntary training as the backbone of the dominion’s militia system. An infantry of forty thousand organized in companies within military districts now formed an Active Militia. The old provincial or Canadian militias were disbanded in 1869, with recruitment beginning in the new military districts. Again, reenlistment was required.118 The requirement for an effective militia was made dramatically clear when the British Army removed all its Canadian garrisons in 1871.119 For good measure, London cancelled plans to build border fortifications to thwart future invasions. Save for small strategic garrisons at the naval harbours of Halifax and Esquimalt, the Empire abandoned Canada to its own devices. With little enthusiasm, the government shouldered full responsibility for its own defence, although it had been doing so in modest increments since 1855. Raising, training and maintaining a high standard was difficult. The inspector general noted the standards of the militia varied: “Tallying the year 1872 … [it was found that] there were great differences between the regiments, some comparing very favourably with the best of the militia of England, others inferior, in the matter of training, to the very worst.”120 Vengeance and Regimental Reorganization: 1871–1875 “Caused by a dispute between Lieutenant Colonel Routh and the DAG commanding the district over a ball.” 121 “… in the late sixties or early seventies … the Regiment was organized as a Scottish Rifle Corps.” Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie122

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal | 27 When Routh sought approval to raise a volunteer company before 1855, he was thwarted by the commander of the Militia brigade, John McCord.123 Although his subsequent relations with the headquarters did improve, his nemesis proved to be Lieutenant Colonel William Osborne Smith of the 3rd Victoria Rifles. When Smith became commander of the 5th Militia District, there occurred a minor contretemps over a gala, which had serious consequences. Smith, it seems, planned a garrison spring ball (“It is to be a grand affair; some eight hundred guests invited”124) but the Royals declined to participate. “The officers of the battalion had incurred the displeasure of the then DAG by refusing to assist in a certain military ball, and some sharp words had passed.”125 There was an earlier conflict. The Montreal newspapers reported that Routh and his second-in-command had threatened to resign in 1867 in protest over the District’s reticence in promoting one of the Royals’ officers. This public airing of grievances annoyed Smith. Snubbing his garrison ball may have been the final straw. He proved to be a vengeful man – his retribution rocked both the Regiment and the Montreal garrison. In 1871, a formal report to Militia Headquarters in Ottawa declared the 5th Royals to be disorganized and inefficient, and ordered that the Regiment be reduced to nil strength. Smith stipulated that the battalion “be removed from the list of active Militia corps, it having been non-efficient for some two years past.”126 This was accepted by Minister of Militia and Defence George-Étienne Cartier without further investigation. In June, Haviland Routh and his senior major tendered their resignations. The 5th Royals ceased to exist, having been de facto disbanded; whereas, in fact, the battalion was still training for its summer qualifications. This was a below-the-belt blow to the Regiment, but its growing pains had scarcely begun. Petitions to the minister were followed by personal visits. These proved disappointing, as Cartier was not familiar with the Montreal garrison, despite the fact that he represented the city in the cabinet. In the end, subsequent communications resulted in a compromise of sorts. In mid-August 1871, the minister authorized two companies to be gazetted back into the Militia with a view to a reorganization of the Royals. This left the Regiment in limbo, and Routh retired. That fall, when Osborne Smith was posted to Manitoba, in command of a Militia district at Fort Garry, prospects for the Royals improved. A Scottish Rifle Corps It required another year of negotiation with the military bureaucracy and continued pressure from the local newspapers before the two promised companies were officially

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reinstated, and a further three years before the Regiment was gazetted into the Militia establishment. This traumatic “disorganization” could not have happened at a worse time and would have an extended effect on the Royals. The Militia remained in a slump. Government support was nominal and training budgets frugal. Rebuilding the Regiment would take time. Its most attractive features were its light infantry style and its adopted Scottish company. The battalion would have to revive that panache if it hoped to attract the interest of Montreal’s citizens. During the lull which followed the heady days of Fenian raids, all volunteer regiments became flaccid – this would continue until 1877. At the same time, a few enthusiasts, some of them former officers of the Montreal Light Infantry, made a determined effort to restore the Regiment to its old form “and they succeeded beyond all expectations.”127 To make the corps more attractive it was redesignated a “Fusilier Regiment” and adopted the rakish busby. The Regiment’s title was changed to “the Royal Fusiliers.” Why Fusiliers? Perhaps it was the influence of the British regulars with that name who (briefly) served in garrison beside the 5th in 1862 when the Trent Affair was at its height. Their dash and dress may have impressed Routh’s officers.128 In November 1875, the Regiment was officially reorganized as The 5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, adopting the bearskin-busby as its headdress. Orders indicated: “Troops equipped as Fusilier Battalion except the Flank Companies ‘A’ and ‘F’ which should wear tartan trews with Highland doublet, their officers to carry the claymore and dirk.”129 The first unofficial review took place in mid-November; six companies turned out in plain clothes, approximately 270 men.130 Unexpected recruits materialized via the breakup of the GTR (Grand Trunk Railway) Brigade and the demobilization of British regulars in Canada. Most joined the Royals. Many of the soldiers were from highland regiments and added to the battalion’s Scottish fact. The 5th soon comprised six robust companies. Its inner companies each represented a distinctive lineage: one contained veterans from the 60th Rifles, another held former Guardsmen and yet another hailed from the 78th Foot, the Ross-shire Buffs, which had been posted to Montreal in 1867 as part of the regular British garrison, and later known as the Seaforth Highlanders. The 5th became an extraordinary mix that thrived with change: from Light Infantry to Fusiliers – sporting formidable busbies that by the late nineteenth century were almost as grand as Grenadier Guard bearskins.131 On normal duty, everyone wore the glengarry cap, which was the standard headgear issued to all Canadian Militia in the nineteenth century. The parade busbies were ordered from England, arriving in July 1876, and the Regiment finally paraded in public in November, inspected by

The 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal | 29 the GOC Militia, Major General Sir Selby Smyth. The review presented an intriguing martial style – the inner companies in scarlets and busbies with regular trousers; the flank companies in trews, glengarries and attendant kilted pipers.

Chapter 3

From Shako to Glengarry Becoming Highland

Were I not French, I would choose to be a Scot. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, speaking at McGill University, 1893 Rifle tradition with Highland influence Regimental Order Book, 5th Royal Fusiliers, 1877132 Adopting the cultural emblems of its poorest region, the Highlands and Islands, Scotland redefined its heritage and gave itself a rich panoply of pipe bands and tartans. The same process also happened in the New World. Lucille H Campey, Les Écossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada133

The transition to a bona fide Highland unit makes for good regimental yarns. The Regiment had, quite literally, to reinvent itself: trading the éclat of its former British Light Infantry and Fusilier modes for a unique and distinctly Hieland style. It has been suggested that the public’s fascination for the two new Highland flank companies, buttressed by the cheers of Montreal’s determined Scots community, simply overwhelmed the 5th Fusiliers. Another version credits Major General Sir Selby Smyth who was heard to remark after its first inspection as a mixed battalion, “A pity that the whole battalion was not uniformed like the flank companies.” Thus was born the idea of adopting a Highland uniform for the whole battalion.134 It was Macpherson (via the Montreal Highland Rifle Company) and Lieutenant Colonel JD Crawford who firmly established the Scottish fact. The actual regimental 31

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sett worn is a source of historical speculation. It follows a convoluted path that incorporates an important Campbell influence, reaching its height when a Campbell (The Marquis of Lorne) was Governor General: but in the end, the Regiment chose Presbyterian simplicity and expediency in the adoption of the government sett, or “Black Watch Tartan.” The Highland companies represented but a glimpse of what the Scotsmen of Montreal had set their hearts on. The original 78th Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders) had a connection with Montreal, and its possible influence on the future Montreal independent highland rifle companies (raised in 1830 and 1856) is both interesting and important. While the Fraser’s were not disbanded in Canada, a large number of men were encouraged to take their discharge and settle in the new British colony – their veterans forging a strong connection through settlement and immigration. When the two highland flank companies of the 5th Royal Fusiliers were formed in 1875, they adopted the Black Watch tartan, which is in fact, a variation of the Campbell tartan. It is speculative, but not unreasonable, to assume this tartan was adopted for the best highland reasons – practicality. It was available and relatively cheap. A new 78th Regiment (no connection to Fraser’s Highlanders) served in the city garrison from 1867–1869 and a large number took their discharge in Montreal, and many would return to the Colours under the 5th Royal Fusiliers.135 However, it is clear that the Campbell influence was predominant after 1882, particularly after Lieutenant Colonel EAC Campbell took command. Another noteworthy regimental nuance occurred when the Lorne sett was adopted by the battalion.136 The appointment of the Marquis of Lorne (John Campbell) as Governor General of Canada in 1878 resulted in the final push to conversion. The governor general had married Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, HRH Princess Louise, and one of his wedding gifts was a personal tartan – a subtle variation of the Campbell sett. During Lorne’s term of office, the recession plaguing the Canadian economy ended and Sir John A MacDonald was returned as prime minister. Canada was experiencing a renewal of optimism and an upswing of nationalism. Following a royal review in which the Regiment and its Highland companies, in particular, had received praise from the governor general, the 5th Battalion announced: “it was decided to adopt the Highland uniform with the fusilier busby, the Marquis of Lorne having assented to the adoption of his tartan.”137 The 5th Battalion tried to espouse the fusilier tradition with Highland influence and so, by 1879, the entire battalion wore trews in the Lorne tartan.138 But trews would simply not do because to most Scots, kilts were a symbol of martial endeavour. By 1880, No 1 Company was the first to turn out in the kilt, and was followed by others until, by 1883, the entire battalion was dressed in the kilt. The final act (the

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conversion of the 5th Royal Fusiliers to a kilted Highland battalion) required another six years to realize. The first stage was a formal request to alter the official title of the 5th. On 27 February 1880, this was approved and “Scots” was added to make the unit The 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. The kilting process took time; initially, kilts were worn by “those who had ‘em.” By 1883, the Regiment was reported “fully kilted in Lorne sett”; they were the “first militia regiment so distinguished.”139 The Lorne tartan is a dexterous variation of the Campbell that only an expert could distinguish, while the Government or The Black Watch sett may be described as simply a much darker variant of the Campbell with only three colours displayed: green, an almost black hue of blue, and red. In that same year, the fusilier caps were discarded for glengarries. The Royal Scots of Canada, 1884 On 29 February 1884, the unit became simply, the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada. It had yet to acquire feather bonnets and select its sporrans, but it was de facto a Highland regiment in all but name. It was not until 1895, however, that the feather bonnet was adopted as the regimental headdress, in order to conform to the other Highland regiments of the service; the Royal Stewart tartan for the pipe band was not used until 1901. The right to wear the Red Hackle in Canada was granted in 1895.140 In 1899, red and white chequered hose was exchanged for the red and black hose. By 1899, therefore, the Canadian regiment wore the same uniform as The Black Watch except for the badges and sporrans, the former being the Campbell crest and motto, and the latter the white sporran with two long black tassels. The Campbell influence in The Black Watch was persistent. As highland transition pressed on with vigour, successive refinements reflected the influence of the Marquis of Lorne. In 1885, the Boar’s Head of the Argyll Branch of the Campbells was taken as the regimental crest and used in all matters pertaining to the Regiment until after 1914. As well, a new motto was adopted: Ne Obliviscaris (“Forget Not”). Its previous motto, adopted upon reorganization in 1875, was a traditional Campbell axiom, “I Beare in Minde” – out of respect for Major Kenneth Campbell, who delivered the remnants of the Montreal Light Infantry to the 5th in 1866. However, it was the 5th Royal Light Infantry’s original motto that might better have served a Quebec regiment in the closing decades of the century ahead: Quis Separabit (“Who Shall Part Us”). At one point, all three mottos were in use.141 The final motto, Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (No One Provokes Me With Impunity – Wha daur meddle wi me), was taken from the Imperial Black Watch but appears only occasionally after 1905. It becomes prominent after The Great War, and de

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rigueur after 1930 when the Regiment became officially, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada. Previously, there was no particular reference to The Black Watch displayed save for regimental letterheads where “Allied with The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)” appeared beneath the Boar’s Head device and motto. The Campbell influence, and of the Marquis of Lorne, remained dominant until the new century and waned at the presentation of the new Colours in 1912; until then, “The Campbells are Coming” was used as the Regimental March Past. The Black Watch Tartan The connection with the Black Watch tartan is somewhat elaborate. It was first used by the two flank companies established during the 1875 reorganization. Spurred on by Sir Selby Smyth’s comments, it was decided to equip all ranks with doublet tunics and tartan trews, in spite of the high cost. In 1878, while in the process of ordering the new uniforms, the Regiment decided, as a complement to the governor general, to adopt tartan trews of the Lorne pattern. This decision would prove to be an unfortunate choice due to the inconsistency of pattern and dye of succeeding lots of material. Eventually, the Regiment was forced to adopt a replacement pattern, and the obvious choice was the Black Watch tartan as it was a “sealed pattern” of the British Army and therefore reproduced with great uniformity.142 The decision to adopt the tartan of the senior British Highland Regiment was made “sometime before 1904.”143 This brief review of the path to full highland garb demonstrates a determined search for distinct identity via uniform, yet retaining a strong connection to Montreal roots. Regimental Commanders During Transition: 1875–1890 It was not until 1880, however, that the Regiment was recognized as a distinctly Scottish one and the Highland uniform finally adopted. Alexander Robertson, Esq., February 1916 144 In 1895, the feather bonnet became the head dress … with the exception of badges and sporran, the 5th Royals [were] dressed in exactly the same uniform as The Black Watch.145

The commanding officers who oversaw this transition had their hands full – but it was a time of some accomplishment. The Regiment grew and was able to perform efficient service when called out to guard and to quell riots, as well as conduct training sessions. Haviland Routh was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel JD Crawford, who deserves much credit for reinventing the 5th Battalion from Light Infantry to Scots Fusiliers.

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It was during his tenure that the inspections by General Selby Smyth (1876) and the Marquis of Lorne (1878) nudged the Regiment into further Scottishness. Crawford restored the battalion’s confidence, and his retirement was the cause of considerable anxiety for no suitable replacement was available. Headquarters petitioned Major Edmond AC Campbell, an experienced infantry officer who had served in the 92nd Foot, The Gordon Highlanders: “The battalion is virtually without any head and it is the universal desire…. that you will accede to the wishes of the many and allow yourself to be nominated and gazetted to the command.”146 Lieutenant Colonel EAC Campbell, 1882–1884 Campbell accepted. He brought with him an interesting lineage and a promise of future things. He was the grandnephew of a fabled Imperial Black Watch officer, Major Lord Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, whose oft-told meeting with an apparition, its ghostly prediction, and his subsequent death at Ticonderoga (1758) had become a regimental legend.147 A second granduncle, Captain Donald Campbell, also died in that famous battle fought on Lake Champlain, south of Montreal. Campbell, needless to say, hastened the 5th Royals’ progress toward Highland status. He personally engineered the changing of the unit’s name and uniform – renaming from 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers to 5th Royal Scots of Canada. He was captured by the famous Montreal photographer William Notman (a Scot), in a kilt – the first commanding officer to sport one.148 After his two years of command, Campbell left the Regiment decidedly and permanently Highland: its new name would usher into its golden age; and finally, the universal uniform was at last, the kilt. “Nothing but the expense prevented the adoption of the kilt … the Regiment came out at last in all the glory of philabeg, sporran and all the paraphernalia peculiar to the Highland dress.”149 Lieutenant Colonel Frank Caverhill, 1884–1891 – “Greatly Beloved” Chronologically, Lieutenant Colonels Campbell and Hood were bookends to Frank Caverhill’s seven years as commanding officer; he was greatly beloved by all ranks, and he made the Regiment a contender: “The Royal Scots takes a high stand in the Canadian militia. Efficient as any corps in the dominion, popular in the extreme, of very fine physique, strong in esprit de corps … Colonel Frank Caverhill is a most popular commander.”150 During Caverhill’s tenure, the 5th Royal Scots moved from Bonsecours Market to the newly reconstructed Craig Street Drill Hall, although the officers’ mess remained near the Chateau de Ramezay. The commanding officer required the adjutant to attend daily at the orderly room from noon to one o’clock.151

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Lieutenant Colonel Frank Caverhill was a pur laine 5th, having joined as an ensign in 1877 and served until he became commanding officer (1884–1891). His retirement was universally regretted. The 5th Royal Scots held a full military funeral when he died at the turn of the century. His successor, John Hood, joined the 5th as a second lieutenant. He was determined to make the Royal Scots an elite unit and stressed drill and shooting. He also emphasized appearance, seeking to recruit above-average men, particularly physically. In 1891, Hood ordered that “the standard of height, namely 5 foot 8, required for men enlisting, must be strictly adhered to.”152 He succeeded. The 5th Royal Scots stood out amongst the Montreal garrison. It was reported: “The physique of the men was good, none but well-grown men being allowed to join.”153 Lieutenant Colonel Hood retired in 1892 after two years at the helm. There was serious work to be done regarding training but in retrospect, the trio left the Regiment with better officers and far better prospects. The Strathy Affair – Lieutenant Colonel JAL Strathy, 1893–97 Lieutenant Colonel Strathy, as good a soldier as ever wore uniform. 154

Lieutenant Colonel James Alexander Lawrason Strathy was a Montreal patrician, a keen student of history, and a wealthy financier. The president of Montreal Trust, he worked directly for the herculean Canadian magnate, Sir Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal. Strathy was one of the first of the regimental commanders to be appointed an honorary aide-de-camp to the governor general, the Earl of Aberdeen – a position of which he was very proud. Strathy joined the 5th Royals as an ensign in 1880; he quickly became the senior major and took command in 1893, determined to make his regiment a well-disciplined organization. The new colonel set out to bring training to a high standard. The officers’ mess, very much a gentleman’s club, would be required to achieve military excellence. His intentions were well-meant, but his method ruffled not a few feathered bonnets. Seemingly at the dawn of a golden age, the 5th Royal Scots now faced dissension and, in Strathy’s view, duplicity. It was a predicament that required no less a personage than the minister of defence to solve. It drew in the British general commanding the Canadian Army, Major General William Julius Gascoigne, and eventually cost Gascoigne both his job and his credibility. Besides his own dogged ambition, Lieutenant Colonel Strathy’s personal nemesis proved to be his own second-in-command, Major EB Ibbotson, a Montreal dentist. Whatever their military philosophies, their personalities were irreconcilable. Strathy was part of an avant garde group that sought to modernize the reserves, but reform

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was difficult at the best of times – doubly so in the Victorian era’s paralytic militia system. He agreed with his adjutant’s opinion that the previous commanding officer had been slow to enforce certain rules. As a result, the battalion appeared to have a careless attitude toward training. The Royal Scots were in less than commendable shape when Strathy took over: rated dead last in comparative efficiency amongst Montreal garrison battalions. Strathy increased the tempo of training, dividing the Royal Scots into right half and left half battalions. Each battalion half was under a senior officer accountable for training (Majors Ibbotson and WM Blaiklock), rather like a small corporation. Church parades were held in the fall and spring; drills were ordered every Tuesday and Thursday except in the coldest (January–February) and hottest (July–August) months. Annual rifle practices and qualifications took place in June, at the Côte St Luc Ranges. Strathy demanded strict adherence to all Militia regulations and refused to sign off pay sheets unless range qualifications had been met: “No drill pay can be allotted until the target practice results are handed in.”155 In the next three years, Strathy managed to move them up to second place in two evaluation sessions, immediately behind the 3rd Victoria Rifles.156 But Strathy was not satisfied. He pushed harder, demanding intercompany competitions and held his officers responsible for a more active pace. This was received with mixed enthusiasm: “His second-in-command, Major EB Ibbotson, a leading dental surgeon, resented the abrupt transformation of the corps from the comfortable club he had joined, as did many other officers …”157 In 1895, two years after Lieutenant Colonel Strathy assumed command, the Royal Scots were authorized to wear the Red Hackle with the feather bonnet.158 Strathy immediately established a Feather Bonnet Fund to raise money to outfit the Regiment with the resplendent headgear. He took on personal debt but marshalled generous support within the City. Lord Strathcona personally donated $1,000.159 Regimental officers and even the GOC Militia contributed a respectable amount. Additional monies were raised through concerts and collections by the NCOs.160 By March 1896, Strathy had collected over $3000; by the end of the summer, it was nearly $5,000 (about $140,000 in modern dollars). It was not all about money. Strathy prompted the connection between the Regiment and the St Andrew’s Society’s Ball in 1895. Faced with the disappointment of the Society declining to hold a ball, the 5th Royal Scots “took the matter up and gave a dance at the Windsor Hotel … which was a brilliant success.”161 Despite these accomplishments, there were strains within the officers’ mess. At a mess meeting held on 10 February 1896, Major Ibbotson openly confronted Strathy: “When are you going to retire? I would like to get command.”162 The next month, Ibbotson neglected to submit some required reports and company dues. When Strathy made an appointment for a friendly talk, Ibbotson refused to attend. Alas, Strathy

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lacked the necessary social skills for command. He retorted with a registered letter ordering Ibbotson to pay the regimental fund $25 due from C Company. He even threatened arrest.163 Ibbotson was not the only recipient of such correspondence; letters were sent to negligent company commanders and the sergeants major of C and D Companies. The communiqués were considered offensive and degrading by officers in the Regiment.164 That same month, Strathy posted a notice to remind his officers that training was paramount and the officers’ mess “had come to be like that of a club [and will] revert to strict military discipline with all the rules …”165 The Strathy Cup Twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion. Sir Walter Scott

On 19 March 1896, Lieutenant Colonel Strathy presented a splendid silver challenge trophy for annual competition and directed his field officers, commanding the battalion halves, to hold similar competitions. They were to purchase a fitting prize at their own expense. This was announced in a printed order sent to all officers which detailed the rules and prizes.166 This last push into competitive action may have been the final straw. The officers’ mess reacted with reticence, if not downright rebellion. Strathy tried to manoeuvre. He apologized to Ibbotson, saying he was sorry if the registered letter insulted him. This frustrated his adjutant, Captain Frederick Lydon, who urged Strathy to press on and take immediate action. Lydon was convinced that “certain offrs conspiring to make his comd as uncomfortable as poss. With malcontents removed, regt would go on well. The rank and file are with him …”167 Strathy took the high road and tried to smooth things over. Nevertheless, officers gave notice, “… so many of them sent in their resignations at once that the battalion was close to disintegration.”168 Major General William Julius Gascoigne, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Canadian Militia, visited Montreal several times trying to patch things up but with little success.169 Gascoigne’s efforts included an extraordinary meeting at the Windsor Hotel with the serving officers of the 5th Royal Scots and the commander of the Canadian Army – a direct cabinet-level intervention into the affairs of the Regiment.170 The session proved inconclusive, but temporarily calmed the waters. The principals agreed to let bygones be bygones but on Monday, 30 March, Ibbotson tendered his resignation and demanded a Court of Inquiry.171 Strathy returned Ibbotson’s resignation and despite additional demands, flatly refused to hold the

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inquiry, pointing out no charges had been preferred against Ibbotson. He offered to meet with him to explain there was no personal feeling in the letter sent. This eased tempers and things muddled along until July. The summer of 1896 proved to be a scorcher, so training and annual qualifications were postponed to the fall. Inside the 5th Royal Scots officers’ mess, tempers were also sizzling. There is little evidence of actual plotting by the second-in-command or by other officers; however, drills stopped abruptly in June, and did not resume until after the new year. The Regiment simply stopped working. When Strathy requested his officers to appear for a regimental photograph, Ibbotson and three officers declined. Major Blaiklock told his captains that he personally had not the time, money or inclination to be photographed with Strathy.172 The colonel must have found it all most frustrating. Despite his skill as a businessman, he appeared to lack the delicate touch required to command the officers of the 5th Royal Scots, a complex, inbred and decidedly tetchy group. That fall, Strathy tried to get back to normal activity. He began by announcing that the regimental church parade would be held in early October. This was accompanied by public announcements (legal notices as required by the Militia Act) published in The Montreal Star and The Witness.173 When the parade took place on Sunday, 4 October, Major Ibbotson and other officers were absent without leave. This open snub was followed by an unpleasant confrontation on St James Street between Strathy and Ibbotson, two days later. The second-in-command confronted his commanding officer and exclaimed: “I will tell you to your face, outside of the Regiment, I have no use for you.”174 This witch’s brew bubbled on the regimental back burner until Christmas, when Strathy sent a registered letter to Major Ibbotson demanding an explanation for his absence from the October parade. Ibbotson responded by sending in his resignation, which Strathy accepted on 28 December with conventional regret.175 The new year found the regimental contretemps still unresolved. The Royal Scots continued to be an object of interest and gossip eagerly covered by the press.176 In March of the new year, the minister of militia and defence, an old hand at regimental politics (he never missed a militia camp in thirty-three years), got personally involved. Doctor Frederick Borden instructed his department not to gazette the Royal Scots’ resignations, even though the Montreal papers had already reported the incidents with some accuracy.177 Strathy became less rigid, perhaps despondent.178 He called a general meeting of all officers to sort things out. He was ready to sacrifice his own interests and make concessions, if they were reasonable. Strathy hit a stone wall. The minutes of the meeting are paltry. The officers simply refused to speak. Strathy attempted to open

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a dialogue but was met with cold silence.179 That left him with no alternative. It was clear to the Regiment’s officers that Strathy was not only indecisive but even worse, toadying to Ibbotson. Whatever the personal grumblings the officers had, the central issue was simple: Ibbotson and his confrères disobeyed orders. They showed no remorse and continued to defy the colonel, who was remiss in not charging them. The majority of officers wanted a Court of Inquiry. Strathy wrote to Gascoigne confessing his meeting “had produced no result.”180 The situation was awkward. Strathy’s steadiest senior subaltern, George Cantlie, again submitted his resignation, his third in Strathy’s service and the second in less than a year. He cited business and personal reasons, but it was clear he was uncomfortable with the backbiting within the Regiment. There seemed little point in avoiding the inevitable. Strathy asked for a Court of Inquiry. Gascoigne agreed at once. The Court of Inquiry, March–April 1897 A squabble of two washerwomen Major Gen WJ Gascoigne, GOC, the Canadian Militia

The 5th Royal Scots’ Court of Inquiry was held in Montreal in early spring. It was conducted by Colonel Charles Frederick Houghton MP, deputy adjutant-general (an easy-going, sports-loving Irishman) and friend of Strathy. He was, according to Gascoigne, “always more or less drunk.”181 It was one of the longer investigations in Militia history, lasting twenty-five days. Sittings were in camera and conducted after 8:00 pm as a convenience to the testifying officers, most of whom were professionals or in business. Lawyers representing officers argued for more access, but in the end, only Strathy and Ibbotson were permitted to be present throughout.182 Testimony was passionate – tempers flared. Colonel Strathy was called to order twice for his loud, private ejaculations, but promptly apologized. Gascoigne found the revelations surprising and irritating. He wrote to Lord Aberdeen, “You Sir, never in all your life saw such a mess of discreditable material brought to light.”183 The Court’s findings were bland and predictable: there was proven dissatisfaction in 5th Royal Scots, and Major Ibbotson and others had been absent without leave from the October 1896 church parade. The ministry took no immediate action. Houghton had suggested to Borden that the inquiry results be kept confidential, making reference to “the Ibbotson clique.”184 The minister of militia and defence would have preferred to ignore the whole thing: “I think we should not worry ourselves over the idiosyncrasies of these

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gentlemen, particularly as neither of them seems to have done anything demanding action …”185 The city followed the events with rapt attention. Ardent letters appeared in the editorial pages of the Herald and Gazette. Some spoke on behalf of Strathy and suggested the situation was due to a small number of trouble-making officers who had combined together not to attend the parades of the Regiment, notably the previous fall: They tried to vent their spleen against a colonel who had done more for it than any of his predecessors … a friend to the rank and file who could credit him with getting them many a job. Scottish dourness in going it alone to get the feather bonnets. His crime was to attempt to make the Regiment soldiers instead of make believe.186

Three months after the inquiry, Gascoigne decided to reprimand both officers – Strathy for lack of tact and consideration for his junior officers and Ibbotson with oversensitiveness; but he also determined that Strathy alone must go.187 Gascoigne sent Strathy and Ibbotson a strong rebuke – stronger than Borden would have preferred. If this did not exasperate Borden, the GOC’s next action made him livid. The minister authorized Gascoigne to offer a statement to the press. The GOC bantered with eager reporters and then suggested that the Royal Scots’ dispute was comparable to “a squabble of two washerwomen over a washtub.”188 This was reported with glee. Strathy was humiliated. He replied directly in a sarcastic manner and scotched Gascoigne through the press. The general threatened instant dismissal. Strathy got out his big guns – the Montreal business community, considered the biggest artillery in the dominion. The directors of the Montreal Trust included Senator Forget, Lord Strathcona and Mayor Wilson-Smith. Strathy prepared a lawsuit. As president of a large trust company, he could not afford to have his reputation besmirched or himself humiliated. He had been dealt a grievous injustice. The minister must appreciate that he was accountable to “widows and orphans who gave him their savings.”189 He then appealed to Lord Aberdeen. The counter-attack staggered Gascoigne and further irritated Borden, now facing the dominion’s most powerful personae. Strathy’s threat to take legal proceedings against the commander of the army and make the matter a national, perhaps even international, scandal was enough to convince Borden to allow the colonel to retire (when he was ready) into the reserve list at his present rank and seniority – possibly remaining ADC to the governor general at least for a time. This was made contingent on the understanding that legal proceedings against General Gascoigne would be dropped.190 Strathy accepted. After the furore subsided, Strathy was quietly but firmly nudged from his office by simply removing his authority to run the Regiment, bit by bit. In the end, he was

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rudely terminated via a terse message from Militia headquarters.191 His retirement was hastened with unnecessary vindictiveness by Gascoigne; but by then, the GOC was himself on his way out, his own reputation and credibility tarnished. Doctor Borden and Lord Aberdeen, much irritated by the Strathy Affair, “[which had] helped Gascoigne lose his last shred of prestige in the force,”192 applied pressure. He resigned three months later. Lieutenant Colonel Strathy, as his battalion entered the twentieth century, was now history. He left behind a handsome silver challenge cup that enriched the regimental trophy case, a well-drilled,193 admirably-dressed battalion in full highland gear and red-hackled feather bonnets. Regrettably, his legacy was overshadowed by melodramatic events. Within a decade, they would become an elite regiment that simply dwarfed the competition in deportment and style, from the baronial presence of their new armoury, to the quiet sophistication of their officers’ mess. The incident may well have broken Strathy’s heart. He died three years after losing command.194

Chapter 4

The 5th Royal Scots A Robust Highland Regiment

The New Guard 1897 – Lieutenant Colonel EB Ibbotson, 1897–1901 What can almost be called a reorganization followed … [and] a number of former officers of the Regiment were transferred back to the Royal Scots from the reserve of officers.195

The assumption of command by Lieutenant Colonel Ibbotson was marked by a complete turnover of officers (Cantlie, Edgar Hill and Meighen were promoted) and the appointment of the Honourable Robert Mackay, a member of the Dominion Senate, as Honorary Colonel. Mackay showed a tremendous interest – two of his sons were officers. This was the new guard that would advance the Regiment through its golden age and take it into The Great War.196 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Benjamin Ibbotson joined the militia as a bugler in the 6th Hochelaga Light Infantry in 1868, served in the ranks in the 3rd Victoria Rifles, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers. Ibbotson came from a family of soldiers. His father, the late Captain Benjamin Ibbotson, was one of the organizers of the 6th Fusiliers, and his grandfather, Captain Henry Ibbotson, marched from Halifax to Quebec with the 103rd Foot, to take part in the engagement at Lundy’s Lane in 1814. Ibbotson actually preferred ranges and excursions to the divisive contests of former years. He abandoned company competitions and encouraged formal regimental shooting contests, but not for the 43

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Strathy Cup. That reminder of his predecessor was retired, bundled up with the regimental silver, and eventually forgotten.197 A later successor, Lieutenant Colonel Carson, who recognized a good thing when he saw it, reintroduced the inter-company efficiency challenges; but the Cup itself continued to gather dust. Indeed, when it was “borrowed” from the regiment, its absence was not noticed for over a century. It mysteriously reappeared when a complete stranger left a box of mementos at the regimental orderly room in 2008. At the bottom was a darkened presentation piece that, when examined by a regimental historian, became again the splendid silver trophy presented by Colonel Strathy 112 years ago.198 The Royals had a reputation as a shooting regiment. Routh’s battalion cleaned up at competitions and often bested regular Army rifle teams. In the disarray of the 1870s, skills deteriorated. Two decades after its reorganization, the battalion was rated only average in musketry. Lieutenant Colonel Hood, the founder of the Montreal Amalgamated Rifle Association, underlined the importance of rifle skills, and encouraged his officers and soldiers to shoot regularly. In 1894, Ibbotson commanded Canada’s Bisley Team, which included several members from the Royal Scots. Later, as commanding officer, he stressed an active shooting program, aided by Militia headquarters, whose enthusiasm for range work increased dramatically with the South African War. International Triumph: Portland 1898 But never before had it been my privilege to witness troops in a foreign country, with discipline relaxed, behave in such an exemplary manner as did the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada. United States officers freely expressed to me their opinion that the carriage, drill and conduct of the men was inspiring, and excelled any Volunteer Militia which they had ever inspected. Keating, British vice-consul to the minister of militia and defence, Dr. Borden, 6 July 1898199

Despite Ibbotson’s musketry efforts, the very Scottish 5th was better known for smartness on parade than range work. They were the preferred Canadian unit to be “shown off” in the United States. The Regiment returned to Portland, where the Montreal Highland Rifle Company triumphed forty years earlier (1858). The excursion was managed by the 5th Royal Scots’ senate. They were all railroad men, and Portland was Montreal’s winter port. At government expense, the battalion enjoyed a grand excursion for the Fourth of July celebrations that year. Ibbotson was chuffed: “The Regiment never looked better and was never in better shape than when it left Montreal on the evening of 2 July on this important official

The 5th Royal Scots | 45 mission of goodwill to the great kindred nation across the lines.”200 The Royals left Montreal by special train. It was the first of many excursions across the border. Next to the Mounted Police, the Montreal battalion became the most travelled and bestknown Canadian military unit in America. South Africa 1900: The Second Battle Honour The South African war roused parliament to a sense of urgency. From 1899 to 1904, militia budgets increased, as did the allowable numbers for recruitment and daily pay for camp. New rifles and artillery were purchased. Training standards and officer promotion criteria were reviewed, and the army adopted more practical field uniforms. Finally, the last bit of Empire left Canada in January 1900 as the British garrison in Halifax was sent off to South Africa.201 If the Western Rebellion was the first Canadian expeditionary venture, then the South African War was its first international endeavour. Prime Minister Laurier was loath to commit Canadian forces to an imperial enterprise, but Canadian enthusiasm urged active participation. This, in turn, fostered French-English division in the province of Quebec. Of the regular force cadres in the Permanent Active Militia, the units assigned to combat arms schools were sent first: the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry (RCRI, soon to be known simply as the RCR) and the Royal Canadian Dragoons. The Dominion then elected to support the Empire via volunteer contingents. Those who signed up were grouped into ad hoc provisional battalions of Mounted Rifles: “The 5th Royal Scots contributed more men in proportion to its establishment to the Canadian contingents than any other infantry regiment in Montreal, if not Canada.”202 Five officers and forty-nine other ranks volunteered, leaving with the First Contingent in 1899.203 Corporal RC Goodfellow and Private Frederick Wasdell were the 5th Royal Scots’ first fatalities, killed at the battle of Paardeberg in February 1900. The contribution of its officers and men earned the Regiment its first Battle Honour:204 “South Africa 1899–1900.”205 The war created a sense of self-confidence. Soldiers returned bemedalled and victorious, with a strong sense of being Canadian. Above all, they now enjoyed a reputation for military professionalism: “Some Canadians agreed with Sam Hughes that the war had been a triumph of sharpshooting amateurs over blinkered professionals; most believed that active service had made Canadian soldiers as good as the British.”206 The immediate effect of the war was a rise in the popularity of the Militia, indeed all aspects of martial activities. Cadet companies grew rapidly, shooting clubs abounded and militia regiments were filled with keen recruits.

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| Chapter 4 The Quest for “Highland Status” What is most outstanding was the superior physique of all ranks; there was not an undersized man visible. Lt Colonel Gordon, DOC and Inspector of Infantry, of the 5th Royal Scots, 1899207 … the uniforms are identical including the most distinctive and jealously guarded Red Hackle in the bonnet. Ibbotson to DOC MD No 5 letter 30 April 1901

The 5th Battalion’s quest for an appropriate niche was to be solved within the next seven years during the commands of Colonels Ibbotson and Carson. This quest was supported by a formidable collective of Montreal financiers – Scots to a man! The 5th Royal Scots sought an affiliation with which they could be comfortable, and with a style that its pedigreed officers and mainly Scottish rank and file thought worthy of a crack unit from chic and powerful Montreal. It had much to do with dress and exclusivity. In the fall of 1901, the Royal Scots participated in a Royal Review on the Plains of Abraham and were inspected by the Duke of York (later King George V) who had just dedicated the impressive iron bridge spanning the St Lawrence. They stood out, and were often mistaken for a British regular battalion. They displayed a brawny swank and confidence, from a métropole unique in Quebec, and indeed Canada. At the turn of the century, the city of Montreal and its central commercial area was a predominantly English enclave.208 Indeed, until 1914, the mayor’s office alternated between English and French-speaking incumbents on a regular basis.209 Ibbotson’s great desire was to have the 5th recognized as a bona fide “Highland” Regiment. His officers were steadfastly behind him: “… it was unanimously resolved [to seek] permission to change name of the Regiment from Royal Scots of Canada to ‘Royal Highlanders of Canada.’”210 Ibbotson earnestly petitioned his district headquarters: The title Royal Scots is that of a Lowland Regiment, not wearing kilts, and was chosen by the Regiment under my command before it adopted the kilt.… It is somewhat of a hardship and anomaly that we should bear the name of a Lowland Regiment … we would of course expect the secondary title “Black Watch”…. If so much has been granted we might be allowed to bear the same name.211

Although the battalion was burgeoning and back in good graces, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The 5th Royal Scots | 47 Aid to the Civil Power: Valleyfield, October 1900 Lieutenant Colonel Ibbotson’s most exciting moments, other than tilting with Strathy, were spent facing a violent strike at Valleyfield, a factory town on the south shore of the St Lawrence. The 1899 summer camp was cancelled in anticipation of trouble brewing in the textile mills on the Beauharnois Canal, about fifty miles southwest of Montreal. The situation remained tense over the summer and into fall. In October, the situation boiled over: “Two drafted companies RSC which left Montreal by special train at 2:30 pm arrived at Valleyfield at 4 pm under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ibbotson.”212 The mission proved exhilarating for the Regiment and good for Ibbotson’s reputation. When the temper of the mob reached a serious stage, the Riot Act was read. The incensed crowd surged forward, throwing rocks and threatening to surround the forward companies: [Ibbotson] first ordered three selected men to fire a volley in the air over the mill. This temporarily quieted the mob. The stone throwing being renewed, Lieut.-Colonel Ibbotson had the bugles sounded; and charged the mob with fixed bayonets, forcing them back to a bridge …213

A trainload of reinforcements was dispatched from Montreal, which included artillery and the remainder of the Regiment under Captain George Cantlie. The situation remained tense until the arrival of two troops of cavalry from the Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars and four companies of the 65th Carabiniers MontRoyal. These had a soothing effect upon the excited public. The mob dispersed, and the strike ended. Many officers and men of the Royal Scots received wounds from stones and other missiles; nine were briefly hospitalized. Ibbotson and the Regiment received compliments from the Dominion Parliament.214 He retired shortly thereafter. Colonel Ibbotson was succeeded in command by Lieutenant Colonel George W Cameron, who joined the Royal Scots in March 1888. He served twelve years, obtaining his majority in February 1898. In 1900, he volunteered for duty in South Africa, reverting to the rank of captain in the Lord Strathcona’s Horse where he was awarded the DSO in active service – the first officer of the Regiment to win this distinction. Upon returning home in June 1901, he replaced Ibbotson as the commanding officer of the 5th Royal Scots. A few months later, he was again seconded for special service in South Africa with the 2nd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles. Upon his transfer, command of the Regiment was awarded to Major John Carson.215

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| Chapter 4 Lieutenant Colonel Carson’s Burgeoning Battalions The Royal Scots have always borne the reputation of being a well drilled and steady regiment on parade, and this reputation has only been acquired by hard work in armory and drill hall …216

When Lieutenant Colonel John Carson took over the Regiment, the 5th Royal Scots were an efficient battalion and marshalled 368, all ranks. However, when Carson marched them into the new Bleury Street Armoury four years later, the Royal Scots’ full establishment was set at sixteen companies, 1060 troops; and thirty-five officers – the largest number in the Canadian Militia.217 They were considered the elite regiment in the dominion. Effusive descriptions of regimental troopings at the Champ de Mars, Quebec City and Ottawa might invite skepticism were it not for the plentiful records provided by William Notman, photographer to the Queen. An internationally renowned Montrealer and a keen Scotsman, his photographs bear witness to the achievement of the 5th Royal Scots after a decade of exacting endeavour.218 Militias are notoriously varied in style, deportment and height; however, since before the turn of the century, the Royal Scots’ parades displayed notable precision and a remarkable uniformity: meticulous rows of determined looking fellows in white Universal pattern service helmets, white shell jackets and dark tartans. At a time when the average worker’s height was about five foot six, the 5th Battalion towered above their peers. John Carson joined the Royal Scots as a second lieutenant in May 1891. He assumed command eleven years later. He was a successful insurance broker and conducted his regimental career in similar style, as a form of risk management, and a hedge against contingent loss. Carson thought he could read people and was prepared to gamble. He always succeeded; that is, until he met the minister of militia and defence. He was a model commanding officer and prospered: during his tenure, the Regiment grew from six companies to eight. In 1902, the 5th was upgraded into a rare entity, a militia regiment comprising two battalions (full conversion would only be effected after the Regiment had occupied their new armoury on Bleury Street). In the spring of 1904, the 5th were finally granted the title that they had most desired: “5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders.”219 Two-battalion regimental status provided extra accoutrements, including officers’ chargers; from then to the end of The Great War, all field officers paraded mounted. The unit was allotted extra administrative staff and officers: four majors, two lieutenant colonels and a lieutenant colonel commanding; accommodation for officers became a scarce

The 5th Royal Scots | 49 commodity.220 Promotions were carefully managed and bestowed to worthy recipients like rare jewels. In the midst of this corporate steamroller, the traditions of officership and the democracy of the mess were maintained. Subalterns were consulted on promotions of peers and asked to sign waivers in deference to a fellow Royal Scot (“I have the honour to waive promotion to the rank of Captain in favour of lieutenant”221). Like any coveted club or privileged guild, the Regiment became, despite all alleged protests to the contrary, a select society to which membership was an arduous path and one that favoured wealth and patrician connection. There was but one other regiment with two battalions in Canada (Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles) and keen competition would eventually lead to a predicament with the minister of militia and a major shift in senior regimental officers, essentially Lieutenant Colonel Carson and a few sympathetic friends.222 Borden: The First Militia Council In 1904, the face of the military changed. The Minister of Militia and Defence, Sir Frederick William Borden KCMG, created the first Militia council, which gave him greater control over the GOC of the Militia in Canada, and other senior officers.223 Even after Confederation, the Canadian Army was led by British generals who answered to the minister of militia, but were also accountable to London – a clear conflict. The Harvard-educated Borden felt his mostly British staff officers had to manoeuvre between the Foreign Office directives and the intentions of the Canadian Cabinet. By means of amendments to the Militia Act, the general officer commanding (GOC) was replaced by a Militia Council in which the senior officer would be chief of the general staff (CGS), and not necessarily British.224 Nevertheless, lacking experience, Canadian officers deferred to professional British soldiers. Save for Brigadier General Sir William Otter, the lone Canadian CGS (1908–1910), this continued until just after The Great War. The establishment of the Council offered some resistance to a very British system. Administrative decentralization quickly followed; in eastern Canada, the nine old militia districts were reorganized into four large commands. As president of the Council, Borden had greater control, although it would still be some time before Canadian officers actually “ran” the Canadian Army and filled all the necessary senior staff positions. The advent of Dr Borden created the foundation for the Canadian armies of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.

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| Chapter 4 The Armoury Realized 1906: 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC) The Armoury was built with grey Montreal limestone in the Scottish baronial style, its façade recalling a portcullis and drawbridge gateway of an ancient Scottish castle. Paul P Hutchison

Carson seemed to conjure impressive armouries – at least he was blessed with the ability to attract the generosity of wealthy Montrealers. In the midst of his career, he oversaw the construction of the regimental home on Bleury Street and seven years later, he would lead another regiment into a handsome armoury on Esplanade Avenue. The Black Watch’s attachment to its armoury is the stuff of legend. The path to Bleury Street was a protracted quest for unique identity, a parade route with many twists and turns. By the time the Regiment marched into its highland keep, its commanding officers were frequent correspondents with the minister of militia. Their opinions and proceedings merited editorials in major newspapers, even their minor disputes became the subject of stuff of Cabinet discussion. The Regiment’s earlier training sites spanned from pathetic to the majestic: the Bonsecours Market to the Champ de Mars. By 1900, the new Craig Street Drill Hall (though only 12 years old) could not meet the needs of the city militia for it was shared by eight units and their garrison bands.225 There was only one solution for the 5th Royal Scots – their own regimental home. Acquisition was swift. The land was owned by Sir Hugh Graham, who later became Lord Atholstan, the last peerage granted by the Canadian government. He was the publisher of The Montreal Star and a member of the Regimental Association.226 Subscriptions came from other distinguished supporters, including serving officers. Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona, and Senator Robert MacKay matched Atholstan’s handsome donation of $5,000.227 The Royal Scots now joined an exclusive club. Besides the Bleury Street armoury, there were only three other regimental armouries in Canada: The Queen’s Own Rifles in Toronto (1893); the Halifax Rifles’ Armoury (1899), and in Montreal, the original Victoria Rifles’ Armoury, built in 1887.228 The same year the armoury opened its gates, the Regiment’s title was again adjusted, and it was now the 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC). Although the Regiment had been granted two-battalion status in May 1902, Carson did not expand the Regiment until four years later when the new Bleury Street headquarters became available. In hindsight, this shrewd investment by the regimental board had much to do with the Regiment’s meteoric rise. The effect of the new armoury on the Regiment’s evolution cannot be understated. The excitement generated by

The 5th Royal Scots | 51 their impressive citadel resulted in an explosion in recruitment and allowed Carson to march into his baronial fortress a burgeoning unit, fast approaching its wartime establishment. So great were its numbers, that the Regiment soon outgrew its new home and was forced to adjust the armoury training schedule to alternate battalions. Lieutenant Colonel Carson vs The Minister of Militia and Defence I regret that I have failed so utterly to make myself understood by Colonel Carson. Borden to Cantlie, 30 March 1909229

The Regiment survived three “trials” in its first half century. These proved to be a maturing process that left the 5th Royal Highlanders ready for anything, including the Kaiser’s Army. The first trial was a falling out between Lieutenant Colonel Routh and his district commander that resulted in an unthinkable act of revenge, which almost terminated regimental history; the second concerned a power struggle within the officers’ mess; and the third was a conflict of wills that pitted a regimental lieutenant colonel against the commander of the Militia and his minister. To Carson’s annoyance, despite being upgraded in size and given generous addendums, command of his large unit did not include a promotion to full colonel.230 This was to prove Carson’s regimental undoing. Although it did lead to the genesis of a Guards battalion and a politically-managed career, Carson, like Strathy, would tilt with the CGS and eventually, Doctor Borden himself. Unlike Strathy, he would eventually emerge exultant, encouraged by a powerful patron in Ottawa. Much of it was simple pride and dealt with the other two-battalion unit in the Militia and Carson’s only rival, Toronto’s Queen’s Own Rifles. Their commandant, the flamboyant financier Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General Sir) Henry Pellatt, was promoted to full colonel. This caught Carson’s attention immediately for both officers had the same regimental profiles and the same military qualifications. There was only one obvious reason Carson decided: in 1902, Pellatt at his own expense, took his unit to England as participants in the Canadian contingent for King Edward VII’s coronation. “Was this meritorious enough to win him promotion?” asked Carson but was denied equal consideration. Carson fumed. This was difficult to ignore. That Pellatt, from Toronto of all places, was made a full colonel, while he, Carson, with his magnificent highland regiment and the mercantile might of Montreal at his back, was to be denied! It was lofty hubris and exhibited at lofty heights. First, Carson engaged in a spirited and unsuccessful correspondence with Major General Sir William Otter, the CGS.

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Typically, the tiff was reported with great enthusiasm by the major newspapers. Borden was forced to mediate.231 By the winter of 1909, the correspondence on the issue of promotion rose to prodigious heights. One can only speculate at the clout of this single regiment that took so much of the minister’s time and included a bushel of letters, telegrams and luncheon notes. It was, for the most part, a cordial exchange but hovered on the edge of being testy. Doctor Borden did his best to soothe Carson – this included several personal meetings. Carson held firm and threatened to leave, taking his best officers with him; finally, Borden called his bluff.232 Pellatt may have found the whole thing amusing and, perhaps to twist the knife, he announced he intended to take his entire six hundred man regiment (including its horses) to participate in manoeuvres in England, to mark the regiment’s fiftieth anniversary in the summer of 1910. The exercise would last nearly two months, from 13 August to 3 October. That may have been too much for the proud Carson. Shortly after New Year 1910, he and his senior battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel FS Meighen, and a number of sympathetic officers tendered their resignations. The adjutant general of the Canadian Militia, Quebec City-born Colonel François-Louis Lessard, pleaded with George Cantlie, the remaining RHC battalion commander, to convince his boss to withdraw: “no such thing as an establishment for a full colonel … [ask him to] take his resignation back.”233 Carson, Meighen, WOH Dodds and several retired RHC officers then joined, and revitalized the venerable Prince of Wales’ Fusiliers, a regiment on the point of disbandment. Carson had been approached by prominent Montrealers to resurrect the Fusiliers and agreed on three conditions: 1) that the Fusiliers lobby to become the Canadian Grenadier Guards; 2) that the new regiment retain the seniority granted by the 1855 Militia Act and finally; 3) that this association of interested gentlemen build him a new armoury. This would have been an impossible request in any Canadian city but Montreal. Carson got what he wanted: a striking drill hall at the foot of Mount Royal, with Fletcher’s Field (the traditional militia skirmish ground) as its front lawn. It opened in April 1914, less than four months before the start of the war. The final endowment was conversion to a Foot Guards Regiment. In 1859, the Prince of Wales’ Rifles sheltered for a brief time the forebear of the RHC, the Montreal Highland Rifle Company raised in 1856. The Regiment returned the favour. Having established the Guards with Carson, Meighen went on to be the first commander of another respected Montreal fighting unit, the Royal Montreal Regiment. Military wags liked to say that the Royal Highlanders lost two senior officers but founded two regiments for the same price.

The 5th Royal Scots | 53 The Grenadier Guards may have been a parvenu regiment, but a well-led, disciplined battalion. In their early career, two Black Watch COs, the last during The Hundred Days, would command them. As a senior Guards colonel, Carson proved capable enough to catch the eye and favour of the new minister of militia, Sam Hughes. During The Great War, Carson succeeded Cantlie and became Hughes’s representative in Europe, running an elaborate headquarters based in London. Despite the shining tactical successes of the Royal Highlanders’ Major General Sir Frederick Loomis, it is John Carson who not only occupies more space in the Official Canadian History of The Great War, but provides us with an intriguing picture of one man’s quest for power.234 For a brief time, Carson was Canada’s most influential senior officer. However, ambition (and an attempt to meddle in the operational art) may have got the better of him. His influence was scotched by senior serving officers who controlled the operations of the Canadian Corps in France. By 1916, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden had enough of both Hughes and his protégé. Carson was sent on extended leave, his influence ever waning, until he retired from active duty at the rank of major general. His style was not typical of the Royal Highlanders. They preferred officers who were less self-serving. In each of the three regimental trials, the rank and file was, for the most part, unaffected; save for gossip and some sensationalized press, there was no discernible effect. The Regiment, when tested, proved strong, indeed, resilient.

Chapter 5

Strikers, Riots and Aid to the Civil Power – 1864 to 1903

“Remember you are not going to fight unions but to protect the freedom of all citizens without any distinction whatsoever.” Cautionary Orders to Militia Battalions, Montreal235 The officers or sergeants would point to the highlanders and say “Why don’t you do like the highlanders and particularly the Fifth Royal detachment?” Major Birchall reporting on Regimental Coronation Contingent, sent to London, 1911236

Training for war is the Militia’s primary task but in reality, its most immediate use is a job that does not require field work or augmentation with regular cadres: aid to the civil power. This task takes in everything from riots to strikes and, in the modern era, natural disasters. The Regiment was called out on nine occasions between 1864 and 1903 and five times to confront fellow workers, an unpleasant task for citizensoldiers: “The occasion when ordinary militiamen might meet their neighbours at the end of a bayonet.”237 Most regarded these “call to arms” as distasteful duties, but some officers, it seems, relished them. The enthusiastic cavalier, Lieutenant Colonel Septimus Denison, had his troopers charge a Toronto crowd in 1906, while he rode behind brandishing (and using) his whip shouting “Give it to them boys!”238 This was hardly in the spirit of the rules of engagement offered to Royals moving toward the

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dock strikers in 1903: “Remember you are not going to fight unions but to protect the freedom of all citizens without any distinction whatsoever.”239 The Regiment’s appearance in the streets included confronting local squabbles over language, religion or education, as well as supervising interprovincial gatherings of Irish patriots. The Orange parades served as pretexts for calling in troops. The hardest events to control were strikes. The Royals’ earliest policing duties included the Lachine Canal and the Quebec Dock Strikes in 1878, and two Montreal riots.240 Added to the drudgery of police work, was the more inflammatory issue of pay. The government’s record in this regard was lamentable. Several lawsuits for overdue pay were forced in the Maritimes. Added to this was the cost of litigation. It was not until 1904, that the Department of Militia and Defence finally assumed responsibility in such cases. Prior to this, the commanding officer himself had to retain counsel, deposit fees, and, after much time and effort, await a judgement. There was every possibility the officer would leave the court, as one critic of the system observed, “a sadder but wiser man.”241 Regardless of class, the Royal Highlanders’ “other ranks” tended to have the same opinion as their officers regarding social reformers and striking workers. In July 1878, three thousand militiamen were gathered in Montreal in anticipation of disturbances by a proposed march of Orangemen, many of them from out of province. The Royals were deployed at Fletcher’s Field as a ready reserve. The dangerous situation was defused by a quick-thinking mayor and an efficient police force. The garrison Militia, personally led by its suddenly zealous GOC, Sir Selby Smyth, was not required. The call-out constituted the largest single military force gathered in a Canadian city to enforce civil authority until the Quebec conscription riots of 1917. The textile worker’s strike in Valleyfield required a week-long deployment in 1900, and a full two weeks duty was necessary for the Montreal dock riots in 1903.242 The Valleyfield strike was the most interesting from a military point of view, while the harbour strike was the most annoying. More than one thousand Montreal militia were called out to police the longshoremen. After two weeks, most of them were stood down. The city corporation balked at the bill and refused to pay. Finally, Doctor Borden pushed through a new Militia Act which established that municipalities requesting troops must put up a substantial deposit with the balance to be paid directly to the crown. The 5th Royal Scots did their duty as good citizens and good soldiers, and they were warned not to expect thanks for this sort of effort. It was not the challenge of the South African veld, but it encouraged them and was a diversion from an otherwise

Strikers, Riots and Aid to the Civil Power | 57 insubstantial social role. Few could imagine the continental whirlwind that would sweep them up in a decade. Splendid Field Trips: From St Helen’s Island to New York, 1878–1909 The Regiment was a select social organization. The soldiers and non-commissioned officers held their own mess dinners and often joined their officers in raising money or donating their pay to the regimental fund. A greater difficulty was the length of time they could be kept from their daily work. Sir John A MacDonald noted the militia often comprised “the higher order of artisans and yeomanry too valuable to be drawn away from their avocations for any length of time.”243 The alternative was to rely on the better-trained and always available professional soldiers. This proved to be very expensive. The average year’s training amounted to about fifteen “drills” or parades. These were usually held in the evening. Tuesdays and Thursdays were allotted as parade nights to the Montreal garrison. This tradition continued into the twenty-first century. Regimental training was essentially drill and shooting pasted into a varied schedule that focused on those months where winter’s assault or summer’s heat would not discourage attendance. To break the monotony, the commanding officer often included excursions on steam frigates as part of the training. In April 1883, Colonel Campbell took the regiment on a jaunt to Chambly. Tickets were fifty cents, which included a boat ride from the Jacques Cartier wharf and a day of sports and entertainment. Some excursions required extensive planning and intricate logistics. The regiment visited Niagara Falls in 1884 and thrice attended Dominion Day parades in Ottawa. The grandest expedition was the gala visit across the border to Portland, Maine, in 1898, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Grand Trunk Railway. The regiment conducted twenty-five summer excursions in a span of thirty-nine years – an impressive average.244 Grand Parades: 1909 Tercentenaries The two tercentenaries (Quebec City 1908 and Lake Champlain 1909) were highlights in regimental history. The first, at Quebec on 24 July, featured a magnificent military review but seemed to celebrate the 1759 battle as much as the foundation of the city by Samuel de Champlain. It was conducted on the Plains of Abraham and the assembled military (12,422 men and 2,134 horses) outnumbered the combined forces that Wolfe

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and Montcalm were able to deploy. The Royal Highlanders were piped through the city from the rail station to the Anse au Foulon and made quite an impression. The Regiment was given a place of honour directly opposite the Royal box under the keen eye of the Prince of Wales (the future King George V). The Plattsburgh celebrations were almost as grand. The Regiment was reviewed by William Howard Taft, the American president. They were joined by the Governor General’s Foot Guards from Ottawa, both guests of the 5th Regiment, United States Army. Taft was accompanied by ambassadors from Britain and France and dozens of dignitaries. The march-past was striking – the Foot Guards in scarlet and great bearskins and the Royal Highlanders with equally imposing feather bonnets. Lieutenant Colonel George Cantlie led five hundred Royal Highlanders, piped and played through by both regimental bands. These were the last grand parades before the war. Affiliation with The Imperial Black Watch The Regiment was regarded as a trustworthy guard of property. Seldom were any of the men drunk and they seldom swore…. 245 Officers are to provide themselves with black feathers for their bonnets which for the future are to be regimental. The non-commissioned officers to wear bearskin tufts as they do …246

In 1905, the Regiment was given approval for affiliation with the Imperial Black Watch, thus making it the senior Highland Regiment in Canada. The unit was sometimes referred to as The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch), but this was not yet official.247 The affiliation and assumption of Black Watch trappings by the 5th Royal Highlanders was almost a religious conversion, resulting in exotic appurtenances and adaptation of uncommon military tenets. The new regimental model was the oldest highland unit in the Empire. The Black Watch, arguably the most prestigious of Scottish military outfits, afforded a certain cachet; although it could be argued that the 5th Royal Highlanders did not need further glamour or exclusivity. However, it has also been suggested that Imperial affiliation brought a greater legitimacy to a colonial reserve unit that, while splendid and rich, had not yet fought a war. By the end of The Great War this argument became redundant; but in 1905, it appeared valid enough. At this point, therefore, it is important to review the history of the parent regiment. In 1725, Scotland’s Highland Chieftains were commissioned to raise bodies of their clansmen. The independent companies “gladly availed themselves of engaging in a profession which relieved them from the sense of degradation and dishonor attached

Strikers, Riots and Aid to the Civil Power | 59 to the idea of being disarmed.”248 The independent companies each wore the tartan of their company commanders – mostly dark green, blue or black tartan. “Plaid belted about his waist, which hangs exactly like the folds of the Roman garment which we see on equestrian statues.”249 The original tartan plaid was rough cloth “plaited round the middle of the body to form a kilt, the upper part being fixed to the left shoulder” and included “a blue bonnet, tuft of feathers or piece of bearskin on the left side …”250 The locals named them “dubh” or black “to distinguish them from the regular soldiers or Saigdearan Dearg (Red Soldiers).”251 The first commander of the Highland Regiment, the Earl of Crawford, had no family tartan and a special pattern was designed for his regiment, ever since known as the 42nd Tartan. In 1740, the 42nd wore a tartan plaid of 12 yards; the “belted plaid” was used on full dress parades … but in barracks, and when not on duty, the philibeg, or little kilt, was worn.252 The Highland Regiment embarked for Flanders in 1743, its first foreign service. While they missed the action at Dettingen, they did participate at Fontenoy in May 1745 where they were referred to as the “Highland Furies.” In 1749, their original regimental number (43) was changed, and the corps was renamed the 42nd or “Highland Regiment.” Its second foreign service was in North America, where it appeared during the Seven Years’ War. In 1756, The Black Watch was billeted near Albany, New York, just south of Montreal, where it was well-drilled in Indian warfare; indeed, the highlanders were issued tomahawks and taught to use them, with the caveat that “soldiers were forbidden to scalp women or children.”253 For their service, they were granted the title “Royal” which was conferred in 1758. A second battalion was raised at Perth; both were sent to North America and present at the surrender of Montreal. Their dress in the forests of New York and Quebec was distinct: “Officers are to provide themselves with black feathers for their bonnets … The non-commissioned officers are to wear bearskin tufts.” Men’s bonnets included cockades made from narrow black ribbon: bonnets to be cocked and the tufts affixed to them … made according to the pattern which was shown in Montreal, they are therefore also to complete themselves immediately with proper tufts made of the blackest bearskin that can be procured and not exceed five inches in length which are to be fixed inclining towards the crown of the bonnets.254

This was the origin for the “Black Bear” of Black Watch musical culture; its genesis related more to the forests of North America than Europe. Even more interesting is the origin of the most sacred of Black Watch emblems, the Red Hackle. It was during the frontier fighting around Canada that the Red Hackle, synonymous with The Black Watch, probably appeared. Despite other legends

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(Geldermalsen being the most prominent), there is reason to believe that the Hackle was introduced by another Scottish regiment, The 84th, known as the Royal Highland Emigrants.255 When the American Revolution began, General Donald Macdonald arrived from Nova Scotia to raise three regiments to fight across the colonial frontier: “Through the solemn silence of the pine forests the shrill notes of the bagpipes broke wild and high as in the days of old they sounded through the glen for Lochiel or Argyll or the Lord of the Isles.”256 Imperial Black Watch archives in Perth noted: The origin of their [the 42nd] wearing this feather commenced early in the American War of 1776 when the Regiment was brigaded with the Grenadiers and Light Infantry of the army under the command of the late Marquis Cornwallis – at this period there were no regulation feathers – the Grenadiers wore White Feathers, the first Battalion Light Infantry wore Green – the 2nd Battalion Light Infantry wore Red and to make the whole uniform General Sir William Howe, then Commander-in-Chief, ordered the 42nd to get Red Feathers which they have wore (sic) ever since.257

Specific origin also extends to an officer initially from the Fraser Highlanders: Lieutenant Colonel Maitland of Lauderdale who marshalled retired Scots into a new regiment, the Royal Highland Emigrants, during the American Revolution. He attracted the attention of General Washington during skirmishing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1776–77. They were acquaintances during the Seven Years’ War (the French and Indian War in American histories): “Colonel Maitland sent intimation to the American commander, that in the future his men would be distinguished by a red feather in their bonnets, so that he could not mistake them, nor avoid doing justice to their exploits …” Fraser Highlanders wore the red feather after Maitland’s death, and continued to do so until the conclusion of the war. “Such was the origin of the red feather subsequently worn in the Highland bonnet, about which some idle tales have been repeated. In the year 1795, the red feather was assumed by the Royal Highland Regiment.”258 Despite historical speculation regarding origin, it is a matter of history that by the early nineteenth century, the Red Hackle (composed of vulture feathers, it was claimed) was the private accoutrement of The Black Watch: A circular letter by the Horse Guards [Army Headquarters, London] in 1822 to every Commanding Officer in the Service [was sent] clearly laying down the fact that the Red Feather was solely and exclusively a badge of honour for the use of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment.259

Strikers, Riots and Aid to the Civil Power | 61 The “Forty Twa” gained fame by gallant actions during the Napoleonic wars (particularly at Egypt, Spain, Quatre Bras and Waterloo) and the Crimean War (1853– 56). Following this, “Queen Victoria authorized that the Royal Highland Regiment was to be distinguished in addition to that title, by the name ‘The Black Watch’.”260 In 1881, a Royal Warrant discarded numerical titles. The well-known “42nd” disappeared. At the same time, the former second battalion (which had become independent as the 73rd or Perthshire Regiment) was ordered back into the Regiment losing the number it had held for two hundred years, becoming the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch. These Imperial numbers, a bagatelle of history to the uninitiated, were to figure significantly for Montreal Black Watch battalions raised to fight in The Great War. The Imperial Watch fought in the Sudan in 1884, under an experienced “Canada hand,” Sir Garnet Wolseley, and participated in the relief of Khartoum. It was during this campaign that the unthinkable occurred: “But for all the odds agin’ you, FuzzyWuz, you broke the square.”261 The Black Watch allegedly commemorated this tactical embarrassment by cutting a nick from the toe of their white spats: “the Regiment redeemed itself later [and] the remnant of the spat is now worn at the heel.”262 In 1883, the 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers adopted the kilt and wore in turn the Campbell then Lorne tartan. “A few years later substituting the distinctive Black Watch tartan … and in 1895, the feather bonnet … with the exception of badges and sporran, the 5th Royals [were] dressed in exactly the same uniform as The Black Watch.”263 The Pipes, The Pipes Recalling the battle of Culloden, the Highland Scots liked to say, “Gin [if] they had a’fochten [fought] as they pipet [piped] there would have been another tale to tell.”264 Other than the kilt, the binding feature (the symbiotic secret-weapon that is the sine qua non of the fighting Highlander) are the bagpipes. The presence of a pipe band was not simply advantageous to the legitimacy of the 5th Royals – it was its guarantee of authenticity. Forever associated with the élan in battle, the military allurement of bagpipes is that they are defined as not musettes or instruments, but rather “weapons of war.”265 Napoleon once said he would not trust his corps commander, Marshal MacDonald, French of Scottish descent, within the sound of the pipes. Whether at the Plains of Abraham, Waterloo, or Vimy Ridge, the sound of the pipes made the blood boil. The 5th Royals commanded a vast source of Scottish talent, knowing Montreal’s enthusiastic appreciation of a first-rate pipe band. In 1889, Queen Victoria sanctioned

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the wearing of the Royal Stuart tartan by the pipers, which had been discontinued in 1882, at the time of the Army’s reorganization. This was duly adopted by the pipers of the 5th Royals in 1901.266 Regimental Dress: Highlander’s Toil Our only equipment is the white shell jacket for drill order purposes – which is wholly unsuitable for camp work. Letter to Adjutant, 5th Royals 28 November 1911267

While the pursuit of the kilt is an important part of the regimental saga, there were lesser accoutrements to be considered. Imperial martial vogue was instantly adopted. A novelty is the introduction, for officers and pipers, of the Sgian-dubh (Black Knife) stuck in the right hose, and introduced as early as 1840, in some regiments, although unknown as such in Highland dress previous to that. The sporran was abandoned by the close of the eighteenth century to reappear on active service in the Crimean War (1853–56) only to be abolished yet again during the South African War.268 The feathered bonnet was discarded by all pipers (save for the 42nd) in favour of the blue glengarry bonnet. Whiskers were forbidden in 1875, but moustaches allowed. By 1890, the 5th Royals abandoned forage caps and wore glengarries, the standard headgear (undress cap for ordinary duty and walking out dress) issued to all Canadian Militia and continued to be worn by The Black Watch until the 1930s. The Regiment also adopted the white “Universal” pattern service helmet for special parades, and later, khaki pith helmets for camps. After the Boer War, these were often adorned with Red Hackles issued from the QM and carefully recovered after the reviews.269 In 1897, the public were introduced to the niceties of military dress. Following a church parade, the 5th officers were criticized for their dress in a letter to the Army and Navy Gazette. The question raised: were the 5th Royals officers improperly dressed – specifically, should mounted highland officers wear the kilt? Captain Meighen wrote a spirited rebuttal but was challenged in turn, by the adjutant of the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders. It was good fun – yet to the 5th Royals, Highland style was not to be taken lightly nor unadvisedly. After the incident, mounted officers were seen wearing trews.270 Highland kit is expensive and demands care. By the turn of the century white shell jackets were issued for important parades, and then returned to Quartermaster Stores. Their care commanded curious procedures: “Cleaning White Jackets: the Jacket should be laid on a table and rubbed all over with a lump of dry pipe clay then shaken to get rid of the loose pipe clay. Jackets must never be washed.”271

Strikers, Riots and Aid to the Civil Power | 63 The Regiment received khaki jackets and khaki spats before the 1912 camps, and soldiers reported to the quartermaster for sporrans, web equipment, and khaki aprons to put over kilts when in the field. They were now ready for modern war.

Chapter 6

Training the Regiment 1862–1914

Ne Obliviscaris (Forget Not ) Motto of 5th Royal Scots, with Boars Head device, adopted 1885 A commission in the Queen’s Own or the 10th Royals of Toronto or the 5th Royal Scots of Montreal was a patent of social respectability in a community highly respectful of such distinctions. In the most popular units, even service in the ranks was no detriment for a socially conscious young man. Desmond Morton3

Lieutenant Colonel George Stephen Cantlie, 1910–1951 Carson was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie, the officer next in seniority. He accepted command “under the condition that the indebtedness of the Regiment in connection with the armoury, be cleared off.”273 Cantlie was promoted directly from Borden’s office concurrent to an Order-In-Council in which the minister of defence declared the building free of debt and the government had assumed all maintenance responsibility.274 George Stephen Cantlie was an officer totally devoted to the Regiment; his extended service would span two centuries. He was destined to become both the legendary and spiritual father to the Montreal Black Watch. Cantlie joined on 20 March 1885; and was confirmed lieutenant colonel by 15 August 1906, commanding the 2nd RHC Battalion under Carson. He took command of the Regiment on 18 65

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January 1910.275 He had soldiered through difficult times and was certainly tested under Colonels Strathy and Carson, but in different ways. His most exciting incident may have been commanding the reinforcement train heading to reinforce Lieutenant Colonel Ibbotson and the Regiment at Valleyfield in 1900. He had no idea that his most intense challenge would be faced later, on the battlefields of Europe. Cantlie’s immediate task was to orchestrate the Regiment’s fiftieth anniversary, featuring the presentation of new Colours. The 5th Royal Highlanders were now a Royal Regiment, a title approved by His Majesty the King on 3 December 1909 after nearly a half-century of unofficial colloquial use.276 The weight of responsibility on George Cantlie’s shoulders was enormous during the winter of 1910. He had taken over a regiment that lost its two most vibrant senior officers, and he was about to stage an event that would be keenly observed by every metropolis in the Dominion, and certainly a number of major American cities. The Colours would be presented by The Duke of Connaught, Governor General and son of Queen Victoria. This would mark the first occasion that a prince of the blood presented Colours in Canada. The Duke and his royal entourage would be buttressed by a gathering of eminent military and political personalities from Ottawa. As well, Cantlie was acting on behalf of the regiment’s advisory board, composed of the foremost power brokers of the land. Preparation: The Black Watch’s Rose Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie could handle the pressure, but he required support. The weight of technical demands simply overwhelmed his senior staff as well as the noncommissioned officers. They were mostly business executives and fully committed during the working day. There were dozens of items to sort out, including the design and stitching of the Colours themselves – a gift from the ladies of the St Andrew’s Society.277 There was to be a consecration, but the Regiment was currently without a chaplain (Dr. Hill of St Andrew’s Church of Scotland died the previous year). No one in his Militia district had experience with this type of event and in despair, Cantlie’s regimental sergeant major resigned. The reason was officially recorded as illness, but most people were of the opinion it was stress caused by the forthcoming parade. Cantlie needed experienced advice. Wisely, he petitioned the Imperial Black Watch. They recommended Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Rose of Kilravok, CO of the 42nd Battalion at Edinburgh Castle, an officer knowledgeable in grand parades and royal (as well as Black Watch) protocol.

Training the Regiment 1862–1914 | 67 Rose proved a competent advisor. He and Cantlie corresponded cordially, and soon developed a literary camaraderie; Rose offered to sail over to help in the final days before the ceremony. This sporting gesture was matched by free passage on the Empress of Britain (one of Sir Montagu Allan’s steamships) and a suite at the Windsor Hotel (Allan’s flagship hotel, the Ritz Carlton, would not open until late December of that year). Rose’s leave was delayed, which proved fortunate as his earlier intention was to be a passenger on the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic. The firm friendship established between Rose and Cantlie proved a lasting bond between the two regiments.278 This was the first formal liaison between the Montreal and Imperial Black Watch. Rose invited Cantlie’s regiment to the UK: “Some officers, NCOs and perhaps men of your distinguished Regiment could come over to the old country when the 42nd have crossed from Ireland, and take part in manoeuvres as part and parcel of their Allied Regiment.”279 The 1912 Colours: Fletcher’s Field The grand parade was to be held at Logan’s Park (formerly Logan’s Farm and then renamed Parc Lafontaine). A dress rehearsal proved that the ground was too soggy for such a huge parade and, at the last minute, it was relocated to Fletcher’s Field, directly in front of the site of the intended Guard’s Armoury. One can only speculate if Lieutenant Colonel Carson attended the event. The Regiment, two battalions strong, paraded to their new quick march, “Highland Laddie” while the Duke of Connaught took the salute, dismounted. Cantlie led a military who’s-who of fighting men who were to take five different battalions into battle during The Great War. They included: Major A Hamilton Gault, who would later found the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry; Captains McCuaig, Buchanan, Clark-Kennedy; Lieutenants Blackader, Drummond, Molson. In addition, CJ Armstrong, who was destined to be the Commander Royal Engineers CEF, and a Brigadier General in the British Army; JG Ross would become Canada’s first Paymaster General; and WOH Dodds, later a brigadier in the Artillery. Peers Davidson would be a battalion commander of the 73rd Battalion; Majors Norsworthy and Buchanan would command battalions in France. McCuaig would command the 13th and retire as colonel commandant. Blackader would win an MC on the western front and in the Second World War command the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade on D Day. He would retire as brigadier and colonel commandant. Frederick Loomis would become major general and command the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.280 The

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regimental sergeant major was Donald “Alex” Bethune. He enlisted as a private in the 5th Royal Scots in 1888, and by leveraging his previous military service in Scotland, soon rose to colour sergeant. In 1901, he was appointed regimental sergeant major, replacing Thomas A Gardner. In 1915, at a mature 50 years of age, he became an officer for The Great War, twice Mentioned in Despatches in France. The regimental association included the two honorary colonels, the Hon Robert MacKay MP and Sir H Montagu Allan in collaboration with Lord and Lady Mount Stephen, Lord and Lady Strathcona and the Colours committee, convened by Lady Allan. The Scottish affiliation was given tangible proof in the presentation of a splendid ram’s head silver snuff mull, inscribed from the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Imperial Black Watch who had seen service in Montreal as long ago as 1760 – a gift with a distinctive highland flair. Training for War: A Changing Militia, 1862–1914 Talking or spitting in the ranks will not be permitted, nor the unsoldierly habit of applauding by clapping hands or otherwise. 5th Battalion Regimental Order Book, 7 March 1877

Shooting was the most useful infantry training the Militia received. Early on, the 5th Royals’ musketry prevailed at the competitions held at the Point St Charles Rifle Ranges. They even won against the vaunted 60th Rifles, a regular British battalion garrisoned in Montreal. Targets were set at 200, 400 and 600 yards, respectable distances for their Enfield rifles. The Hon John Rose could scarcely contain his satisfaction: As marksmen the Royals have proved themselves superior to any regiment in Her Majesty’s service. The contest between you and the 60th Rifles – which, I believe, stands at the head of the list in the army – was most creditable to both, and the result such as it was has made you the envy of many a rifleman.281

By 1893, the Regiment was forced to train on a four-day schedule; two companies per day with Fridays off. The annual drills, which were recorded and vetted by district headquarters, began in March. They were required if the Regiment was to receive its training budget. Shooting qualifications were particularly important and the certification weekend (usually in June) involved a train trip to the closest rifle ranges, Côte-St-Luc or Pointe-aux-Trembles. The training year ended with a church parade and a final battalion review. The annual inspection parade drew large crowds. These events were fully covered by the press in extensive, chatty articles.

Training the Regiment 1862–1914 | 69 In 1895, the summer recess was highlighted by a battalion excursion to Ottawa for the unveiling of the national monument to Sir John A MacDonald. It was a fiveday operation beginning with a QM parade on Thursday, departure from Bonaventure Station on Saturday, and a major review held on 1 July (a Monday) to celebrate the statue’s unveiling. The weary regiment returned to Montreal at midnight, cleaned (then turned in) their kit, in full knowledge that they had to show up at their civilian jobs that very morning. Militia training parades seem to fluctuate with the stock market, having bullish and bearish years. Between 1862 and 1890, the average year’s training comprised seven to nine days; in some years, parades exceeded twenty or even twenty-five days. The garrison eagerly awaited the construction of the Craig Street Drill Hall, a military megaplex. Once completed, it was immediately booked solid.282 The hectic schedule was only relieved as the city regiments constructed their own armouries and directly profited.283 By August 1906, the RHC establishment had been raised to over one thousand all ranks, including three lieutenant colonels and four majors. This hearty formation paraded two sergeants major and a band master sergeant in addition to a full support complement.284 The Ibbotson–Carson era (1898 to 1909) established a robust training regimen that averaged twenty-five days per year. One remarkable year (1906) Carson recorded thirty-six training days. The nineteenth-century militiaman was generally a working man and had few holidays. Training on weekends required giving up personal or family time. Before The Great War, a soldier wearing the kilt could anticipate at least twenty days paid training, of which about half were evening parades at half a day’s pay. At the turn of the twentieth century, in a militia where many an old soldier still recalled one day’s paid muster, anything above fifteen days was considered almost lavish. The first militia training camp was held in the fall of 1865 at LaPrairie, a direct spin-off from the successful “Military Schools” created by the 1863 Militia Act. The imperial garrison provided the commandant, most of the instructors, and equipment. Tents, flooring, blankets and paillasses came from the garrison stores. Even the fatigue party that dug latrines and built field kitchens was made up of regular British army soldiers.285 The 5th Battalion’s camps were few and juxtaposed with visits and excursions. Summer training comprised trips or a short camp that rarely exceeded one and a half days and later averaged about a week, although one July session in 1879 lasted thirteen days. Training on Sundays, save for parading to church, was frowned upon. Over forty years (1874 to 1914), the Royal Highlanders attended only eight camps.

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At first, militia training was conducted by British regular cadres. In 1891, the GOC, Major General Ivor Herbert, converted the military schools of instruction into regular regiments (The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment). Permanent sites were chosen for the annual camps; a medical service was set up, and the Militia offered six-week qualification camps for officers and NCOs. There were Royal Schools of Infantry at Toronto and Quebec. Officers’ and sergeants’ courses were conducted at St John (Saint Jean) and Trois-Rivières. These were as demanding in 1912 as in 2012. Instruction was held in winter and spring, requiring the attendants to secure time off work. Courses averaged twelve days.286 However, equipment was aged, budgets skimpy and there were still no real quartermasters’ stores. Despite the bravado and style shown by some regiments, as an operational instrument, the militia remained generally disorganized and in some cases, demoralized. Success depended largely on an individual colonel’s ability and enthusiasm or (in the case of the Royals) an affluent metropolis. Nevertheless, the Canadian Militia was on the cusp of a renaissance. Doctor Borden (for whom the second major Canadian training facility, Camp Borden was to be named) increased the number of militiamen trained in annual camps from 10,462 to 35,035 and, to the horror of the militia upper echelon, limited the tenure of command to five years: “Nothing shows better the downright senility and deadness of the Canadian Militia than the fact that of ninety-two battalion commanders, thirtyseven averaged eighteen years’ continuous command.”287 The first recorded camp at Farnham, Quebec was in June 1911. Three more camps were held in succession, clearly indicating the most furious pace yet witnessed in Canada, in anticipation of a war in Europe. The 1913 camp at Trois-Rivières was remembered because of the “the worst storm experienced by anyone before, lasting twenty minutes…. the Pipe Band assisting greatly in the cheerfulness of all by playing, practically before the storm had subsided.”288 The Cheese Factory: Getting Ready for the Kaiser Marching into camp: Blue/White jackets (dependent on rank) kilts etc, glengarries, claymores, whistles, great coats, haversacks worn over rt shoulder, trews, box spurs, capes. Officers so provided will be allowed to wear Khaki uniform in camp. Memo for RHC Officers re Farnham Camp. 12 June 1911289

Summer camps became serious business – or about as serious as the militia could manage. Masses of troops were deployed under canvas, and enthusiastic war games were conducted, followed by even more enthusiastic mess dinners in the field. Sundays

Training the Regiment 1862–1914 | 71 were set aside for light manoeuvres and church parade. Training methods changed little from the Crimean War. Sometimes a flag would signal the notional presence of a machine gun, but no one was really sure what to do with them. Infantry never trained with artillery and could not imagine the effects of shrapnel. The bayonet and a bold “hurrah!” was still the solution to most tactical problems and the cavalry concluded training with a massed charge brandishing l’arme blanche. Veterans of South Africa knew better of course, but summer camps did not seem occasions to review Duffer’s Drift or the techniques of advancing under observed fire.290 This is not to suggest the Militia did not try. During the Militia Camp, held at Farnham in 1911, the final manoeuvre problem, conducted on Sunday morning before lunch, offered an interesting challenge: Enemy is reported to be holding defensive position running appx east and west 1 mile to 1¼ miles north to your rendezvous. Our cavalry patrols report his strength as 1 battalion without guns. The centre of his line is at the Cheese Factory. You will attack him. Your reconnaissance can commence immediately … Your reserve may be imaginary….291

It could have been a dry run for the BEF’s romp with von Kluck between Mons and the Marne. The last camp in the summer of 1914 was the largest yet seen in the Canadian Militia. It was conducted at a new military site north of Ottawa: Camp Petawawa. Although training was focused and determined, nothing could possibly prepare the Canadian Militia, or indeed, any continental army, for what was about to be unleashed in Europe, in August of that same year.

Notes to Part I

1. Cited in Michael Brander, The Scottish Highlanders and their Regiments (London: 1971), 161. 2. “O Lads, make ready with death-dealing weapons … This country will be ours before too long.” Cited, Ian McCulloch, “Oh Lads, make ready” – An overview of Highland Regiments During the French and Indian Wars. Article, 2007; Black Watch Archives. Hereafter, BWA. 3. Col Paul Phelps Hutchison, The Early Scots At Montreal, monograph; Riordan Family Papers. Hereafter PPH. 4. John Stewart, The Story of The Black Watch (Edinburgh: 1924), Preface. See also, Major General David Stewart, Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland; with details of The Military Service of The Highland Regiments, Vol I & II (Edinburgh: 1825). 5. Stewart Museum, rare book collection. Jacob Robinson (presumed), A Short History of the Highland Regiment (London: 1743); reputedly the oldest history of The Black Watch regiment, 51. 6. The two dominant families in New France of Scottish descent were the de Ramezays and the de Douglasses. see Henry BM Best, The Auld Alliance in New France – The Scottish tradition in Canada; also Benjamin Suite, “Les Ecossais au Canada,” La Revue des Deux Frances, II (1898), 120, and, Col Paul Phelps Hutchison, The Early Scots At Montreal, unpublished article: “Amherst … settled his troops for the night in a field which is now the Cote des Neiges Reservoir … that night the French plenipotentiaries came out to negotiate for the surrender at the farmhouse, which later became known as “Capitulation Cottage.” It was in the reservoir field and not, as many have thought, the bigger freestone house known as “Amherst House” further along Cote des Neiges. The latter at the end of the Victorian Era was owned by Lt Col JAL Strathy … he knew the history of the district and gave his home the Amherst name.” See BWA: BW 13–1759–1, MS Collections, Rare Books. “Extracts from Orderly Books Capt Stewart’s Company 1759–61”; “Regimental Orders 1759 42nd Bn, New York”; and, “Journal of a Subaltern in the 63rd Regt , 8 May 1759–17 May 1760 – Wm Fraser/ John McPherson.” 7. There is historical speculation whether the Frasers wore the Fraser tartan or the government sett at Quebec. Given the haste in raising Highland regiments for the Seven Years’ War, the government sett seems logical. 8. See Ian McCulloch, Sons of the Mountains: The Highland Regiments in the French & Indian War, 1756–67 (Fort Ticonderoga Museum 2007). Hereafter, McCulloch. 9. McCord. L’Auld Alliance : les Écossais au secours du roi de France au Moyen Âge. 10. See David Dobson, Scottish Emigration to Colonial America, 1607–1785, 32. 11. James A Roy, The Scot and Canada (Toronto: 1935), 64. Hereafter, Roy. See also: BWA. Diary, Officer 42nd Bn Black Watch in New York and Canada 1758–1760. BW soldiers issued and taught to use tomahawks. 12. John Murray Gibbon, Scots in Canada (London: 1911), 78. 13. The Light Infantry under Lord Howe, took advantage of the ruse and quickly scaled the cliff. Gordon Donaldson, Battle for a Continent (Toronto: 1973) 166; see also: CP Stacey, Quebec, 1759 (Toronto: 1959), 127–128. 14. See McCulloch (Vol. II: 168–169) for an anecdote about the missing piper at Quebec and his redemption in the subsequent 1760 battle. 15. JSS Armour, Saints, Sinners and Scots – a History of The Church of St Andrew and St Paul, Montreal 1803–2003 (Montreal: 2003) 4. Hereafter, Armour.

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15a. Murray to the Lords of Trade, Quebec, 29 October 1764, Adam Shortt and Arthur Doughty, Documents relating to the constitutional history of Canada, 1759–1791 (Ottawa, 1907), 16. 16. Lucille H Campey, Fast Sailing and Copper Bottomed – Aberdeen Sailing Ships and the Emigrant Scots They Carried to Canada 1774–1855 (Toronto: 1999), 9. Hereafter Campey, Emigrant Scots. 17. “Of the three groups who form what we call Les Anglais, those who have been here the longest and those who are the most remarkable are the Scottish Group. For us French Canadians, this is also the most sympathetic and the most understanding of the three groups concerned.” B Sulte “Les Écossais au Canada.” La Revue de Deux Frances, II (1898), 120. 18. WS Wallace, “Some notes on the Fraser Highlanders,” Canadian Historical Review, Vol XVIII (2) (1937), 133. 19. Le Moyne, Maple Leaves, 71, cited in Roy, 64. In the Great War approximately 14% of The Black Watch were French Canadians. 20. Black Watch Archives (and Museum), hereafter, BWA. 13 Battalion CEF Files, “Recruiting 1914.” NB: BWA files/fonds combination of BWA – nr; Hist Records 1–7 (etc) BW 1–17 (etc: old BOR records) and RX 01 (ie: the “Roscoe files” – chemically restored water-damaged files – and extremely fragile). Much of collection reorganized by Ms Anne Stewart (original Archivist) and, Cal M Kufta, BWA Archivist 2007–2012. 21. It should be made clear that most of the initial fighting Highlanders were Catholics and thus after 1715 and 1745 and even before, could often be found fighting in continental armies, especially those of Austria, France and Spain rather than for their Protestant monarch at home. 22. Lucille H Campey, Les Écossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada 1763–1855 (Toronto, Heritage, 2006), 9. 23. Appx 1792–1857. See: Campey, Emigrant Scots (Toronto: Heritage, 1999); Jenni Calder, Scots in Canada (Edinburgh: Lauth Press, 2002) and, “Les Écossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada 1763–1855,” Natural Heritage, January 2006. 24. Campey, Emigrant Scots, 7–8. “Whereas before the outbreak of the American War in 1775, people had emigrated from both the Lowlands and Highlands, after the war ended … most emigrants originated from the Highlands and the Islands.” 25. Douglas McCalla, Sojourners in the Snow: The Scots in Business in Nineteenth Century Canada, from, PE Rider and Heather McNabb, Editors, A Kingdom of the Mind – How the Scots Helped Make Canada (Montreal: 2006), 92. 26. See: Jennie Calder, Scots in Canada (Edinburgh: 2002). 27. Ibid., 71. 28. Ibid., 71; The partners of the North West Company formed the famous Beaver Club in 1785 which met at Dillon’s Inn on the Place d’Armes (Hutchison). 29. Donald MacKay, The Square Mile: Merchant Princes of Montreal (Toronto: 1987), 26. 30. Roy, 5. MacDonald was a former Jacobite who had returned to the fold rather than a current one. 31. “The settlers are almost wholly Highlanders” – Rev Walter Roach, cited in, Lucille H Campey, Les Écossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada 1763–1855 (Toronto: 2006), 52. 32. Heather McNabb, Butcher, Baker, Cabinetmaker: A View of Montreal’s Scottish Immigrant Community from 1835 to 1865. Cited in A Kingdom of the Mind, 247. McNabb notes that in 1861, about 18% were merchants, doctors and clergymen; 32 % were clerks, bookkeepers and grocers. The largest group (36%) included artisans and tradesmen such as bakers, blacksmiths and tailors; 10% were carters and gardeners; 4% were common labourers. 243. The census of 1861 recorded only 3,235 natives of Scotland, compared with 4,394 English and 14, 469 Irish living in Montreal. McNabb concludes: “there were comparatively few Scots at the high and low extreme of socio-economic status in Montreal. The majority of Scottish immigrants seem to have been relatively successful in their new home.” See also: Heather McNabb, Montreal’s Scottish Community 1835–65: A Preliminary Study. Masters Thesis, Concordia University, 1999. 33. On 19 September 1760, Colonel Haldimand organized an initial militia in Montreal by ordering “those who served under the French regime … to surrender their arms and make submission, which being borne, the arms could be restored [and the officers, with an] oath of allegiance, recommissioned.” Captain Ernest J Chambers, The 5th Regiment, Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders: A Regimental History (Montreal: 1904), 12, 36. Hereafter, Chambers, 5th Royal Scots. There was difficulty in recruiting because of the clash of French customs, religion and English Criminal Law. 34. Armour, 3; by 1781 five thousand protestants lived in Montreal; the city population climbed: nine thousand in 1800, sixteen thousand in 1816 and, twenty thousand by 1822.

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35. Roy, 64. 36. Circa 1795 two battalions of “the Royal Canadian Volunteers” were raised in Lower Canada, the 1st Battalion was French Canadian, the 2nd Battalion predominantly English. Captain Ernest J Chambers, The Canadian Militia – A History of the origin and development of the force (Montreal: 1907), 37, 46. Hereafter, Chambers Canadian Militia. LAC RG 9–1 Part 2 Vol 84 notes the presence of Montreal Light Infantry in 1770 to 1811. It may have meant Voltigeurs. LAC. RG9 Part 2 2.1 Lower Canada. Militia Act 1777 George III Chapter 8. The province was divided into two military districts, Quebec and Montreal. In 1789 three districts (St Thomas, Trois Rivières and Boucherville) were added. The Militia Act of 1793 made the battalion a basic unit of organization. Each county was awarded a “battalion” commanded by a Lt Col: “annual musters on four successive Sundays in late June and early July when there was an inspection of arms, firing at marks and general instruction of the militiamen.” 37. Marianne McLean, The People of Glengarry – Highlanders in Transition 1745–1820 (Montreal: 1993), 211. 38. Chambers Canadian Militia, 37. 39. Quebec Almanac 1813; Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 16. Griffintown was the first industrialized area outside the walls of Montreal; name derived from the intrepid Mary Griffin, who commissioned Louis Charland to subdivide the land and plan streets for the area in 1804. 40. LAC. RG9, Militia Act 1793 (34 George III, Chapter 4) reorganized militia: battalions were assigned to counties; this Montreal battalion was reserved as a special corps for the enrolment of the English-speaking citizens by an order dated 22 May 1811. McCord Archives. 28 May 1812 Militia Bill, Montreal. Four battalions of “embodied militia in Lower Canada and a regiment of Voltigeurs” raised under Major De Salaberry. 41. Craig expressed concern re “the proprietors of a seditious and libelous publication Le Canadien.” 42. LAC RG 9 Militia General orders 1805–1846 C1524–30. Also J MacKay Hitsman, Safeguarding Canada 1763–1871 (Toronto: 1968), 57, 81. “The maximum standard of height for the French voltigeurs was four feet eleven inches, and the smaller they were the better. They were armed with light guns, and at first with sabres.” Chambers, Canadian Militia, 52. 43. United Empire Loyalists also settled west of Montreal c. 1784; this included former members of 1st Battalion, Kings Royal Regiment of New York and the 1st Battalion, 84th Regiment, The Royal Highland Emigrants (disbanded about 1802). See Raymond Masson, Généalogie des familles de Terrebonne (4 vol., Montreal, 1930–1931) and, Marianne McLean, The People of Glengarry – Highlanders in Transition 1745–1820 (Montreal: McGill– Queens, 1993). 44. The Fencibles (from defencible) were regiments raised in Britain and North America for defence against invasion, late 18th Century. Temporary units of local volunteers, commanded by Regulars. See Rene Chartrand, and Mclean, 246. The Fencibles were raised in conjunction with Loyalist veterans and émigrés from Great Britain: former members of the Fencibles formed Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles c. 1812. See also, Roy, 77. 45. Dennis Ruhl. When the Fencibles were disbanded most remained in Montreal. Scottish “Chieftain Families” became influential (Allan, McGill, Redpath, Campbell, Dow, McTavish, etc). 46. Frank Adam, The Clans, Septs & Regiments of the Scottish Highlands (Edinburgh: 1908), 320. 47. Rev JD Borthwick, History of the Montreal Prison 1784–1886 (Montreal: 1886), 80. Hereafter, Borthwick. 48. LAC RG8 Vol 797 C series, Quebec Volunteers 1813. Referred to as the “Glengarry Light Infantry.” Montreal Scots who had enlisted into the Voltigeurs and Fencibles later joined the city Highland Rifle Company which paraded with McGill’s English battalion. See: M McLean, R Henderson, His Majesty’s Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry 1803–1816; and, J Symons The “Auld Alliance” in Canada (Montreal: 1992), 17. 49. Various titles: 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers / 5th Select Embodied Militia / the Fifth Battalion of the Militia. DHH/BWA. Battle Honours, Lt Col B Plourde correspondence DHH, January–February 2012. 50. On 28 May 1812, Prévost ordered the draft of two thousand militia; chosen by “Draw,” singles eighteen to thirty years old, recruited for a period of ninety days (“In the event of war with America continues, they may remain enlisted for two years.”); The Stewart Museum. See “The John, John Jr., Thomas, William & John Thomas, Molson Papers,” also, The St Andrew’s Society Archives 1835–62; The Montreal Mechanics Institution; The Montreal Almanac. LAC: Muster Rolls, Canadian Militia, 1837–50 (MG 13 WO13). 51. Government agencies enthusiastically strived to confirm 1812 battle honours that could be awarded to modern Canadian regiments in time for the 200th anniversary of the war. The RHC acknowledged the new honours, although the Regiment continued to emphasize 1862 (the awarding of Regimental Colours) as its preferred anniversary.

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52. Dunlop: “Such a body of men in such a temper, and with so perfect a use of arms as all of them possessed, if posted on such ground as would preclude the possibility of regular troops out-manoeuvering them …” See: Donald Graves, The Incredible War of 1812 (Toronto: 1999) and, Jack L Summers; Rene Chartrand, The Glengarry Light Infantry Fencible Regiment; Military Uniforms in Canada 1665–1970 (Ottawa: 1981), 71–73. 53. Ogdensburg, 22 Feb 1813 report “The Highland Company of Militia under Captain Eustace of the King’s Regiment, gallantly rushed the fort …” Report, Major G MacDonald, Glengarry Light Infantry to Sir G Prévost. Annual Register 1813 (London: 1823), 852–3. 54. LAC RG9 Militia Order 1 March 1816: Several militia battalions (raised in haste) were disbanded (“Canadian Militia Voltigeurs … and the Battalion Militia in both Provinces … disbanded on the 24th of that month”). 55. See Borthwick, Chambers, Henderson. 56. BWA 008–24, Vol I 1–17. Correspondence: Robertson / CN Monsarrat (1 February 1916); Wm J Tupper KC (Winnipeg); Campbell Smith (Edinburgh). Hereafter, Robertson. 57. LAC RG 9–1 Part 2 Vol 84 file “Montreal Light Infantry 1770–1811.” BWA–18, Historical Vol II. Col JT Ostell, cited by Lt Col RLH Ewing, correspondence, PPH, 18 June 1928; “Colonel Ostell was of the opinion that the Montreal Light Infantry whose offrs received their appointments, were the original Battalion of the Royal Highlanders.” BW008 Hist (1–17) V2 22 May 1916. Ostell: “Highland Rifle Company originally raised in 1856 … through this Company that Regiment became identified with the Highland tradition.” 58. In September 1860, this regiment was re-designated as the 1st (or Prince of Wales’) Regiment of Volunteer Rifles, today’s Canadian Grenadier Guards. 59. Most militia captains were French Canadians and were suspect; this was reinforced by 1837 in the autumn of 1837, when justices of the peace were replaced by captains of militia. 60. The Capital or Parliament Building (“the St Anne’s Market building”) lodged the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada. Burned in 1849 by Loyalist (Anglophone) rioters in retaliation for the 1837 Rebellion Losses Bill which offered amnesty to former rebels and an indemnity for financial losses. The Parliament stayed prorogued until it reconvened in Toronto on 14 May 1850. In 1857 Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the new capital. 61. W Mills, Call To Arms, Ibid. 62. Borthwick, Ibid., 15; Gazette. 63. Mills, Ibid., LAC RG 9–1; RG9–1 Part Vols 27, 46, 84 (1823 to 1839): Paylists, Independent Companies, Montreal Rifle Company. 1855–1868 included the perplexing Cote St George Highland Company. See Muster Rolls, Canadian Militia, 1837–50, MG 13 WO13: “Montreal Light Infantry” and “Montreal Rifles 1837–40”; also, Militia General Orders 1805–1846. Quebec Almanac 1827 notes re the Volunteer Rifle Company commanded by Captain Norman Bethune, 34. Also, Chambers, Canadian Militia, 23, 67. 64. There were two simultaneous Canadian Rebellions in 1837 – both armed uprisings that occurred in Lower and Upper Canada in 1837 and 1838. The main goal was responsible government. Fighting took place around Montreal and Toronto (Upper Canada). The rebellion in Lower Canada began first, November 1837 (skirmishes in St-Eustache, St-Charles, St-Denis). Fighting in Upper Canada ended quickly with the Battle of Montgomery’s Tavern. Sympathetic rebellions in Atlantic Canada were feared where there were similar concerns with corrupt government. Rebellions led to investigation by Lord Durham and a Report on the Affairs of British North America which led to The British North America Act, 1840 (united Canada) and eventually, the British North America Act 1867 (Confederation) which created the federal Dominion of Canada. 65. Garrison organized as eight battalions of infantry, two troops of volunteer cavalry, two companies of artillery and two companies of rifles (including the Highland Company). Seven of the battalions were French Canadian: some officers were under investigation, later divested of their commissions, accused of being “sympathetic to insurgent interests.” See Chambers, Borthwick. 66. Stewart; McCord. The Montreal Almanac Register, 1813, and 1829–1831 ‘Montreal Militia Battalions’. City Militia Battalions had existed for 25 years, and were reformed eight years prior to 1837 according to Almanac. 67. Mills, Ibid., 28. Their boy bugler was (later Lt Col) John Fletcher CMG. He served with 6 Company MLI to 1839, then joined the Fire Brigade (Militia); commissioned, major in 1855, appointed instructor of musketry in the Rifle Corps in Lower Canada. Joined 100th “Prince of Wales,” Royal Canadian Regiment; returned to Montreal 1862, volunteered for Lt Col Routh’s 5th Battalion continuing the Highland tradition and lineage. 68. Mills, Ibid., 27; BWA Robertson. Regular reorganizations left confusing records. Both Holmes and Griffin commanded the Light Infantry within a year of each other.

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69. Quebec Almanac 1837–1838, and, McGill Rare Books, Lande: Regulations and Standing Orders of the Montreal Light infantry: The six companies of the Montreal Light Infantry were sanctioned on 18 December 1856. Garrison regulations stipulated that the standard of height was five feet six inches. Recruits were approved by the Commanding Officer and the Regimental Surgeon lest there be “any doubt to health or habits.” McCord Family Papers. The Montreal Militia garrison circa 1838 comprised three brigades. 1st Bde: Montreal Cavalry (2 x Troops), Artillery Company and, The Montreal Rifles; 2nd Bde: Queen’s Light Dragoons (1 troop), Montreal Light Infantry; 3rd Bde: the First Royals [Montreal Light Infantry],the 15th, 24th, 32nd, and the 66th.” Of the twenty-nine senior Militia officers, nineteen were French Canadian. Chambers Cdn Militia, Ibid. 58; Borthwick, Ibid., 15. McCord Family Papers: Militia, General 1819–1865: 0710–0723; 0734 (Bethune); 0739–41 Montreal Volunteer Rifles (1838–1839); 0753–0755 Montreal Light Infantry (1837–1839). 70. Units were disbanded after 1813 and 1837. Circa 1845 the 3rd Brigade The “1st Bt. MLI & 2nd Bt. MR’s [with] Eight Sedentary Militia Battalions” continued to parade. 71. The first Militia Act for United Canada (9 Victoria Chapter 28) passed in 1846; created three Montreal brigades; 10 Montreal Fire Brigades (each of 40 men) were grouped as a militia “Brigade” (MGO May 5th, 1847) under Lt Col James Ferrier, then Mayor of Montreal. The 1846 Militia Act (9 Victoria Chapter 28) was the first “modern” militia act and provided for the maintenance of purely volunteer regiments. Ten days guaranteed drill per year plus special allowances for kit and bands, made the creation of new battalions realistic. The act emphasized an “Active Militia” but still required only one day’s drill a year: 29 June. Chambers Cdn Militia, Ibid., 61. 72. LAC RG 9 2.1 Adjutant Generals Office Lower Canada 1776–1850. Correspondence 1794–1862. Militia Act General Order 7 June 1839. 73. LAC. RG 9 C Series Vol 1053. Militia and Volunteers Disbanding 1841–1843. 74. Chambers, Canadian Militia, 64; RG 9 1855 Militia act: annual training and pay for five thousand men. The reserve force was divided into two groups: Sedentary Militia (ages 18–60) “with no actual service or drill required” and a force of Active Militia. The Act provided for sixteen troops cavalry, seven field and five foot artillery troops; fifty companies of rifles – divided into nine militia districts. Volunteers were armed, equipped and paid 5 shillings a day for ten days of training; (twenty days for those in the artillery); men had to provide their own uniforms. The Act’s popularity forced the government to double its size to ten thousand men by 1856. The Militia Act of 1855 (18 Victoria Chapter 77) 19/440: “At the time of the Union, the muster rolls of the sedentary militia … in Lower Canada, (Canada East) there were 178 battalions with 118,000 men,” Chambers, Ibid., 60.The 1st Battalion perpetuated “The Montreal Rifle Rangers” organized In 1854 and in turn perpetuated The Montreal Rifles or “Rifles” of the 1837 Rebellion. 75. Rene Chartrand, Canadian Military Heritage, 416. 76. The Montreal Cavalry, 1803, The Voltigeurs and Fifth Battalion Montreal Militia, 1812, in addition to Militia companies based on seigneurial organization but raised by the British government and composed almost entirely of French Canadians beginning 1763. RG 9, Militia Ordinances 1787, 1789, 1816, 1829. 77. Montreal, 16 October 1856. Four additional independent Highland companies had been previously gazetted at Hamilton, London, Kingston, and Toronto. All were part of the new volunteer force known as the “Active Militia” and all had been authorized to “wear the Highland Costume.” 78. Amendment to militia act (19 Victoria Chapter 44) 8 May 1856, 16 October 1856. 79. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 24, 28; PP Hutchison, Canada’s Black Watch (Montreal: 1962), 10–11. Hereafter, Hutchison. Toronto had raised a Highland Company in 1856 and later amalgamated with the Queen’s Own Rifles who were not as accommodating. The company was refused permission to wear the kilt; became extinct after the 1868 Militia Act. 80. The Portland Transcript and Eclectic, 28 August 1858, cited in Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 36; also, according to Chambers, the Mackenzie tartan was “of the pattern worn by the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot,” later the Seaforth Highlanders, thus the tartan was the Mackenzie of Seaforth (a Black Watch variant with thin white and red overstripes). They initially crossed from Montreal to Longueuil on the south shore by boat; the Victoria Bridge had not been built. The seven-company detachment carried the colours “of the old Montreal Light Infantry – on loan.” 81. The 1st Battalion was gazetted on 17 November 1859. Thomas Wily was a former colour sergeant in the British 83rd Regiment. In September 1860, the 1st Battalion was re-designated as the 1st (or Prince of Wales’) Regiment of Volunteer Rifles.

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82. Lt Col Macpherson, cited in Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 36. NAC RG9 or early DMGO for Montreal Militia Dress regulations do not specify tartans. See EJ Chapman, “A Short History of the Montreal Highland Rifle Company,” unpublished article, BWA – 2008, 5. There is a standing Campbell tradition in the Regiment that was finally realized with the adoption of the Lorne sett for Regimental tartan in the 1880s. See EJ Chapman, “The Tartans worn by Canada’s Black Watch: 1863-Present,” Military Collector & Historian, Vol. 67, No. 3, Fall 2015. 83. Montreal Gazette, 24 December 1861: “…A large number of citizens of Scottish birth and extraction met in Mr John Leeming’s office yesterday afternoon to take into consideration the propriety of forming a Scottish Rifle Battalion.” The new battalion was gazetted on 31 January 1862 as the 5th Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada, but later that year, redesignated as the 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal. 84. Mills, Ibid., “…the new regiment absorbed Captain John Macpherson’s Highland Company of the 1st Prince of Wales’ Regiment…and thus fell heir to the record and seniority of that historical company, which had been raised as the Montreal Highland Rifle Company by authority of an order dated 16 October 1856. This Highland Company had earned an enviable reputation for physique and drill. Its transfer to the Royals marks the nucleus from which has been developed the Royal Highlanders of Canada as a Highland Regiment.” 85. LAC, RG8 Militia General Order, 9 October 1863: First “or Prince of Wales Regiment” Volunteer Militia Rifles, Canada. “The Highland Rifle Company.” This Company is hereby transferred from the First “or Prince of Wales Regiment,” Volunteer Militia Rifles, to the Fifth Battalion “or Royal Light Infantry of Montreal,” and will be designated hereafter as No. 9 or “The Highland Infantry Company” of that Battalion.” RG9 IC2 Vol 64: Quarterly Returns, Volunteer Militia, Lower Canada 1862: The Highland Company reported 4 officers (Captain Peter Moir, Lt George Brown and 2/Lts G Lindsay and WW Slack); six NCOs, fifty-four privates and one bugler. They were inspected on 20 June 1862 with the 5th Battalion but still listed as an Independent Company, not yet part of Col Routh’s returns circa 1862. See EJ Chapman, “From Rifles to Red Hackles: the birth of a highland regiment,” Canada’s Red Hackle, No 028, July 2017. Hereafter, Rifles to Red Hackles. Also, Montreal Gazette, 17 October 1863. 85a. Rifles to Red Hackles, 23. 85b. Robertson to Monsarrat, 1 February 1916. 86. RG 9 Militia General Order No 1, 22 January 1862. 87. Routh’s firm of “general merchants and traders,” called LeMesurier, Routh and Company. Haviland’s son, John Haviland, married the daughter of Colonel John Dyde, commandant of Montreal’s militia. See also: PP Hutchison, 8; and BWA Colours 1–20: Hutchison’s The Colours of The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, Regimental publication, 1931/32. Also, HCS Routh, A Short History of the Routh Family. Privately pub, Devon: 1953. Ed 2002 C Humphrey. See also, EJ Chapman, “Regimental Notables: Havilland Lemesurier Routh (1810–1878),” Canada’s Red Hackle, No. 26, July 2016. 88. Militia General Order No. 2 published on 31 January 1862 (independent companies gazetted 22 January 1862), “The six Volunteer Rifle Companies that were gazetted at Montreal, by General Order No. 1 of the 22nd instant, are hereby formed into a Battalion … and will be styled the 5th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles, Canada.” Forming independent companies was not an unusual first step as most battalions at that time were only gazetted after its intended composite companies had been previously organized. In other words, this was business as usual. However, the Scottish community in Montreal must have been a little disappointed when the new battalion was formed without any “Highland flavor.” Routh was appointed major by the same MGO. 89. Correspondence Routh, Griffin, McCord date 20 November 1838. Correspondence Routh/McCord. McCord Family Papers. McCord Museum, McGill University: hereafter cited as, MCD. 90. Six independent companies were formed by Militia General Order 22 January 1862; the captains were (in seniority order): Havilland Lemesurier Routh, Andrew Allan, Gordon Gates MacKenzie, James L Mathewson, John William Hopkins and Alexander Campbell. See Montreal Gazette, 23 December 1861. 91. Routh also appointed his son, John Haviland Routh, as his adjutant. The first big Canadian rifle competition was held in Montreal in 1864 (for twelve days) under the nominal patronage of Lord Monck. The first Canadian rifle team to participate in the matches of the National Rifle Association went to Wimbledon in 1872. 92. Captain TS Blackwell, “The Active Militia of Canada,” Outing Magazine, Volume 17, 1882, Nos 1 and 2; hereafter cited as Blackwell. 93. Montreal Gazette, 2 January 1862. Montreal Militia circa 1862: 1st or Prince of Wales’ Regiment (Lt Col Wily, 800 all ranks), The Victoria Rifles (Col Smith, 350), 5th Royals (Lt Col Routh, 500), The Chasseurs Canadiens (Lt Col Coursol, 1000). Montreal Cavalry (four Troops), Artillery, Engineers, a scrum of independent companies and two exotic formations: The Grand Trunk Brigade (350 all ranks) and The St Garbriel Lock’s Volunteers (350).

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94. BWA BW011 Hist 1898 (Lt Col Ibbotson), manuscript “History 5th Royal Scots”; dated 13 October 1898. RG9–1 C8.3 CO’s reports Clothing and Equipment of Volunteers. Routh noted “drilling as the battalion does at least once a week with extra parades and field days – I consider the uniform will last three summers.” 95. BWA, BW011, “The Royals”; Montreal Gazette. See: Transcriptions, EJ Chapman, “Montreal Gazette Transcriptions, 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry 1861–1866,” BW Archives, 2007. Also: RG9 IC2 Vol 64: Quarterly Returns Volunteer Militia, Lower Canada 1862. 96. Montreal Gazette 16 July and 4 August 1862. “There was no regimental band … [for] important parades, [the Royals] would rent the services of local bands, or use one of the bands of the British garrison regiments.” 97. Militia General Order, 7 November 1862. The addition of the “Royal” prefix, in effect, making the Regiment a “Royal” regiment was authorized “by command of His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor-General and Commander-in Chief.” It was not until many years later that it was realized the prefix “Royal” had not been approved by the Sovereign – this was rectified by King Edward VII on 3 December 1909 (Colonial Office Despatch, Canada No. 707). See also EJ Chapman, The Black Watch of Canada: the early years 1862–1878 (Black Watch of Canada Foundation, 2006), 12. Hereafter, Chapman, early years. 98. Captain Campbell’s company was absorbed by the 5th Royals on 9 January 1866. MLI structure was interesting. “Company Rules” were partly democratic – “agreed to by any company or altered by vote of the company and sanctioned by regimental order.” McGill Rare Books S1584 Montreal Lande Collection Regulations and Standing Orders of the Montreal Light Infantry 1857. Also, BW008 Hist Vol I 1–17; correspondence Ross, Robertson et al 1 February 16. 99. Logan’s Farm, later “Logan’s Park” and finally renamed for Quebec politician, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. The Parade was held within the area bordered by Rachel, Papineau and Sherbrooke Streets. Montreal Gazette 13 October 1862. 100. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 61. 101. Montreal Gazette 26 February 1863, Letter to the Editor re The Rifle Match. 102. LAC. RG9 IC2 Vol 64: Quarterly Returns Volunteer Militia, Lower Canada 1865. Plus two schools of gunnery at Montreal and Toronto; school of cavalry at Toronto. As at 30 June 1865, 5th Battalion paraded eight companies: three field offcrs, four capts, eight lts, seven 2/lts, two staff sgts, twenty-four sgts, five buglers, seventeen cpls and 252 privates. The Gazette on 14 January 1862 reported the Montreal Militia as five infantry battalions: 1st or Prince of Wales’ Regiment; The Victoria Rifles; The Royal Regiment (Lt Col Routh – five hundred all ranks); The Chasseurs Canadiens; Voltigeurs Canadiens; and, The Montreal Light Infantry. The Montreal Cavalry, four troops; Montreal Field Battery, Foot Artillery, Sedentary Artillery (seven companies). Montreal Engineers, two companies; Montreal Sedentary Militia (called out by MGO) twelve companies, 75 men each; Grand Trunk brigade; St Garbriel Lock’s volunteers; other city independent companies included Molson’s, etc). Total c. 5650. 103. Montreal Gazette 17 January 1886. 104. Montreal Gazette 19 October 1864. Confederate cavalry (Lt BH Young) staging from St Jean in Canada robbed three banks (208,000 US 1864 dollars). Canadian court refused to extradite them to US: “legitimate military belligerents, not criminals” – interpreted by USA as a tacit British recognition of Confederacy. 105. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 36. 106. Hutchison, 12. 107. Montreal Gazette 11 June 1866. 108. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 40. 109. This included companies from the Prince of Wales Regiment, The Victoria rifles, the Royal Canadian Rifles and a company from 30th Regiment of British regular troops (Cambridgeshire or East Lancashire). 110. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 42. 111. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 91. In 1899 the veterans of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870, and the Red River Rebellion, were recognized by Queen Victoria with special General Service Medals enscribed; see: JA MacDonald, Troublous Times in Canada, A History of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870 Ottawa: 1910. Ch7, 270. 112. RG9 IC3 Vol 10 Militia Nominal Rolls and pay lists Independent Companies. Volunteers groups included: Bishops College infantry, Vienna Infantry, Chicago Volunteers (from Toronto) and the Civil Service Rifles – 152 companies in all, full of zealous chaps, some patriotic, some local condottieri. RG 9 IC 2 Vol 64 “Bishops College Rifle Company,” 1 July 1865: one capt, one lt, one 2/lt, five sgts, four cpls, one trumpeter, fifty-five privates. Also, Bishop’s College School Archives, Lennoxville. Ms Merrylou Smith, Archivist. A comprehensive collection. The BCS Corps of Cadets continues to parade with its battle honour. 113. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 91–92.

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114. Campbell’s company joined the Royals on 9 January 1866, when they marched “into its place on the regimental parade with some little ceremony,” the Company Order Book stating: “In obedience to orders from Lt Col Routh, the No. 2 Company will formally join the Battalion of ‘Royals,’ on Tuesday evening, the 9th of January. The men will muster at the City Hall Armoury, at half-past seven o’clock p.m., in full winter uniform, with greatcoat, tunic, waist belt, and pouch belt, being careful to have everything neat, trim, and soldier-like.” 115. RG 9 IC3 Vol 15 Militia Nominal Rolls and Paylists. 1857–59 “Captain John Macpherson’s Company of Highland Volunteer Militia Rifles at Montreal: Captain John Macpherson, Lt Gibbon, Moir and Brown” sixty-four officers and men. 8 May 1859. 116. BWA Vol 1 Hist October 1863; Regimental Photo Archives. Photo of officers 5th Bn taken at Hemmingford in 1866 shows two officers from the Highland flank company wearing diced highland bands on regimental forage caps. 117. NAC, RG9 BNA Act 1 July 1867 (30, 31 Victoria Chapter 3); Dominion Militia Act 22 May 1868 (31 Victoria Chapter 1). 118. Given the option to reenroll in the Militia, Companies 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 reenrolled. Companies 2 and 5 became non-existent. BWA Box 18. Hist 1–17 Vol I 1868. April of 1869 some ten battalions plus a few independent companies comprised mainly of French Canadians made their appearance in Quebec. The active militia would rapidly enlist 37,170 volunteers, 3,000 short of their authorized strength. The sedentary militia comprised 618,896 (in theory). 119. Initially, the central Canadian garrisons were withdrawn; Halifax and Esquimalt remained open with UK regular garrisons in situ well into the first decade of the twentieth century. The North American and West Indies squadron remained with Royal Marines as well and some were retained in Esquimalt under the variety of names given to that station and its ships over the following decades. As became clear in the subsequent crises with the US, the Admiralty and War office were told in no uncertain terms that the Empire had not ‘abandoned’ Canada and that they were obliged to prepare for war in defence of the Dominion if attacked. 120. NAC, Rare Books. RG9. Lt Col Fletcher [Military Secretary to the Governor General], Memorandum on the Militia System of Canada. Ottawa, 1873, 5. 121. BWA–18 Vol II (Box 18) Regimental Archives and Chambers Listed ref P 4. Ibid., 49. 122. BWA–20 Colours Vol I November 1907–December 1911. Lt Col GS Cantlie to Lt Col Rose, correspondence, 15 March 1911. 123. McCord Family Papers. Correspondence Routh, Griffin, McCord, 20 November 1838. Correspondence Routh/ McCord McCord Family Papers. MCD. 124. Volunteer Review, 20 March 1871. 125. Ibid. 126. NAC, RG 9 II B1, Vol 517–521. 127. Blackwell, Ibid., “The Active Militia of Canada,” 365–366. 128. Elinor Kyte Senior, Roots of the Canadian Army: Montreal District 1846–1870 (Montreal: 1981), 52. The 7th Royal Welsh Fusiliers also served in the Montreal garrison in 1863 and may have made a favourable impact. 129. The newly resuscitated battalion would feature two Scottish flank companies which would wear Highland bonnets as their full-dress headgear, while the four “inner” companies would wear the traditional fusilier bearskin cap. See Chapman, early years, 26. BWA–008. Hist. 1–17; Vol I. 1875, “Fusiliers.” 130. Hutchison, 16–17; The Montreal Gazette October, November 1871, November 1875. 131. Bearskins were by then issued to all Foot Guard regiments and not just to the Grenadier Guards; 19th century Glengarries were issued to the entire Canadian Militia as standard dress. 132. BWA–18. Hist. 1–17; Vol I. 1875 [Historical Records 1–17 File of BW008 carries the old BOR filing number 1–17]; “Fusiliers.” Also noted: “Talking or spitting in the ranks will not be permitted, nor the unsoldierly habit of applauding by clapping hands or otherwise.” Regimental Order book, 7 March 1877. 133. Lucille H Campey, Les Écossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada 1763–1855 (Toronto, Heritage, 2006), 157. 134. BWA, Box 18 Vol II Historical; May 1880, See Morton re Major Gen Sir Selby Smyth; Desmond Morton, Ministers and Generals (Toronto: 1970), 116; Hereafter, Morton. 135. The 78th, also known as the Ross-shire Buffs, was formed in 1793 by the chief of the clan Mackenzie. It served with the British Army until the 1881 reforms, when it merged with the 72nd (Duke of Albany’s Own Highlanders) to become The Seaforth Highlanders. 136. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 41–42. BWA. Hutchison Papers “Notes on the History BW (RHR) of C; and BW Bulletin #4, November 1944.

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137. BWA, Box 18 Vol II Hist 1878, Marquis of Lorne. “In 1878 it was decided to make the entire Regiment uniform in dress with its Highland flank companies, and out of complement to the Marquis of Lorne: the Campbell tartan and crest were adopted for the Regiment. The unit turned out for the first time as a purely Highland regiment in tartan trews at an inspection the following year by the new Governor General and HRH The Princess Louise. The intention however was that the Regiment should become a kilted one as soon as possible.” Hereafter, Lorne. 138. BWA. Regimental Order Book, 23 April 1879: “Dress Parade is ordered for Sat the 10th of May at 2 pm when the new Highland uniform will be worn for the first time.” Path to full Highland status was twenty-two years: 1862–1884 or, fifty-seven years if Highland Rifle Company is considered (1827–1884). 139. BW Museum: Regtl Order Book, Battalion Orders (June 1881 “All men in possession of the kilt will parade in full dress with forage caps.”; July 1881: “The kilted men to parade in kilts”; later refs to “The kilted Company …”; also BWA–18 File 1–17. Correspondence, C Monsarrat to A Robertson 1 February 1916, Historical Records (1–17) Vol. I 3 November 1871 – 22 May 1916, BW008: “Regt reorganized as a distinctly Scottish one and the Highland uniform finally adopted [1880].” See also, Desmond Morton, A Military History of Canada (Toronto: 1999), 97. 140. The question of the Red Hackle and “Royal” prefix is the subject of speculation, legend and various references to Militia District Directives. The specific path is interesting and generally, bold. It was worn at Militia Camps before 1914. See: Section II, Chapter 4, re the adoption of Red Hackle during Great War, “Red Hackles and Balmorals – November 1916/November 1917”; and, Gov General Georges Vanier’s speech, Section V Cold War, Chapter 3, “The Reunion Dinner, 17 November 1962.” 141. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 68, 69; “Ne Obliviscaris” was also the motto of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. “Quis Separabit” is the Regtl Motto embroidered on the 1862 Regimental Colour. 142. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 67: “The trews worn by the flank companies up to this time [1884] had been of the Black Watch tartan.” Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 68: “As this tartan [Lorne pattern] was not of a sealed pattern considerably difficulty was experienced in preserving that precise uniformity which is the essence of regimental smartness. In spite of every precaution each issue of the Lorne tartan would have its own peculiar shades of colour, which imparted to the regiment on parade anything but the desired appearance of uniformity. Every effort to establish a standard pattern of the Lorne tartan having failed, it was agreed that the only remedy lay in the adoption of a tartan worn by one of the Highland regiments in the Imperial service, and as such, being a sealed pattern. After full discussion of the subject the adoption of the tartan of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) was decided upon, and the decision put into effect at the next issue of clothing.” 143. Lorne, Ibid. “By 1880 No.1 Company was the first to turn out in the kilt and was followed by the others, until in 1883 the entire battalion was similarly dressed. Because of the difficulty in establishing a standard pattern of the Lorne tartan however, it was decided to adopt one of the sealed patterns of the Imperial Service, and that of The Black Watch was chosen.” BWA 008 Dress. 5th Royal Scots Correspondence. No 1 Coy (Captain John Hood) first in kilts in 1880; another year before No 6 Coy was in kilts; Regiment in 1883. Imperial BW influence predated affiliation and change in 5th Royal Scots uniform was 1899. The white and red checkered hose was exchanged for black and red. Uniform much the same as Imperial Watch except for badge and sporran. The 5th adhered to white sporran with two long black tassels while the Imperial BW had five short “bobs.” Pipe Band adopted Royal Stewart tartan in 1901. Also, BWA, The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch): A Brief History of the Canadian Battalions of The Black Watch, by Captain PP Hutchison, Historical Records (1–17) Vol. II 22 May 1916 – 31 December 1932, and, Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 68. 144. BWA 008–18 Historical V 1–17. Correspondence Alexander Robertson, Montreal to Lt Col CN Monsarrat, 1 February 1916 re history of the 5th Royal Highlanders. 145. Stewart of Garth, Sketches of the Highlanders,Vol II (Edinburgh: 1899), 64–5, 72. 146. BWA Regt Orders Book. Correspondence 5 Mil Dist HQ, Major Campbell November 1884. 147. Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (Boston: 1884), 109; this story was published as a poem Ticonderoga a Legend of the West Highlands by Robert Louis Stevenson in Scribner’s Magazine December 1887. 148. His kilt appears to be the Campbell sett, forgivable since it is practically the Lorne tartan. 149. Blackwell, 368–369. 150. Ibid. 151. Hutchison, Canada’s Black Watch, 31. 152. Regimental Order Book 1891; Blackwell, 368–369.

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153. Blackwell, 366. 154. EJ Chambers, The Montreal Highland Cadets (Montreal: 1901), 55. 155. BWA 5th Royal Scots Regimental Order Book, 19 May 1894: Correspondence GOC Gascoigne / HQ Militia Dist 5, 26 October 1895. 156. BWA Strathy 1895–1897; and, McCord Family Papers: “Return of Comparative Efficiency Montreal Battalions 1894–1896”; Inspections re drill, firing and bayonet exercises, clothing, arms and armouries, books and records, rifle practice scores, officers’ questionnaire and deduction for absentees. In 1894 the 5th Royals placed last (98.17) behind the POWR, 6th Fusiliers, and 3rd VRC (first). In 1895 and 1896 the battalion placed second (122.3 and 103.97 pts) rated against eight units (five major; three minor). 5th RSC establishment was: twentysix officers, 278 ORs and four horses. District Headquarters noted: “Battalion invariably parades over strength.” 157. Morton, 116. 158. MGO 26, 25 May 1895. See also Battalion Order Book, 15 April 1895: “The following extract from a letter received from Head Quarters is published: The officers, NCOs & Men of the 5th Batt. Royal Scots of Canada have been permitted to wear the red hackle, when in uniform in their feather bonnets.” 159. About $25,000 Canadian in modern conversion. Most donations averaged $25 (apx $600 Canadian 2013). 160. BWA: Regimental Orders Book, 3 March 1896 and June–July 1896. 161. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 78. 162. LAC RG9. Report of Court, April 1897. Strathy just incurred a debt of $4500 (1893 Canadian) to get feather bonnets; refused to leave until it was recovered. 163. BWA Adj Notes; and Report of Court; Strathy Correspondence, Strathy/Ibbotson, 17 March 1896. Hereafter, Strathy Papers. 164. Strathy Papers. Correspondence 17 March 1896; Letter, threat of arrest Sgt Maj Kennedy; 26 March 1896 Strathy–Captain TH Browne (“same sort of accusing letter as Ibbotson about handing over $25 to the Rifle Assn”). 165. Regtl Order Bk, 21 March 1896 Strathy to 5th RS Offrs; printed notice. 166. Regtl Order Bk 19 March 1896. “… Parades will be held every Thursday without being advertised in newspapers …Lt Col Strathy’s Challenge Cup will be competed for annually … Major Ibbotson’s and Major Blaiklock’s Challenge Cup for the Right Half and Left Half Battalion will be competed for annually … there will be Prizes in money for the best Section in the Regiment and the second best Section.” 167. Strathy Papers, Correspondence Lydon/Strathy, 1896. 168. Morton, 116. 169. Strathy Papers; see also, Gascoigne: “… 1896 Windsor Hotel Conference, meeting all officers, one offr apologized; others did not and withdrew.” Strathy says five. 170. See: Ibid., and, Morton, 194. 171. Montreal Gazette March 1896, report re meeting at Windsor Hotel of 5th Royal Scots officers and Gascoigne. 172. Strathy Papers 8 August 1896. Strathy to Ibbotson and Blaiklock; Ibbotson, Frank Meighen and two other offrs would not attend; Captain JW Carson 11 August 1896 wrote: “any day but Saturday.” 173. Strathy Papers, 23 September 1896; Notes re officers’ meeting 7 September 1896: Montreal Star Notice of Church Parade 4 October 1896; J Edger Hill presiding chaplain, St Andrew. Notice repeated 26 September; Montreal Star 3 October, Daily Witness 2 October. 174. Strathy Papers: 6 October 1896 Confrontation Strathy vs Ibbotson. 175. BWA. 18 December 1896 Ibbotson resigned; Captain GS Cantlie, 23 November 1894, second resignation 12 December 1896, and then, 28 December 1896. 176. The Canadian Military Gazette, Vol XII, 1 January 1897 “… trouble has broken out afresh in the Royal Scots … The affairs of this regiment – one of the best officered in the country – have for some time been in unsatisfactory condition … The public was heartily sick of regimental troubles.” 177. LAC RG 9 Post Confederation Records 1867 – 1903; Borden Letterbooks, Strathy Case, V5 Item 983; 5th Royal Scots, 5 March 1897; “show letter re Royal Scots to Panet, tell him not to gazette resignations.” Hereafter cited as Borden Letterbooks. 178. Battalion training had averaged fourteen parades a year, in 1897 the regiment literally stopped cold with only eight training days recorded. Regtl Orders Book. December 1894 – December 1897. 179. LAC RG 8. Strathy Papers: 22 March 1897, Minutes of the meeting of 5th Royal Scots Officers at Military Institute: Ibbotson: “… it would be well for him to name date … [resignation].” 23 March 1897: GS Cantlie respectfully insisted on forwarding his resignation; refused by Strathy.

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180. Meeting at Military Institute 22 March; Strathy to GOC 23 March. 181. Borden Letterbooks. 1737 Gascoine / Borden, 9 April 1897. 182. Ibid., Letter Blaiklock / Houghton, 21 April 1897: “Frank S Meighen insists on right to attend”; Victor E Mitchell, was lawyer for Captain JS Ibbotson brother to EB Ibbotson. 183. Ibid., Gascoigne / Aberdeen, 10 November 1897. 184. Ibid., Houghton / Borden. 5 August 1897, Re Court of Inquiry. 185. Ibid., Borden to Gascoigne, Borden Papers, 9 November 1897 p 640; and, 23 October 1897 Borden – Gascoigne. 186. Letter to Montreal Herald August 8th or 12th; also Military Gazette VXII No.1 1 January 1897 “More trouble in the Royal Scots.” 187. Borden Letterbooks. Borden/Gascoigne December 1897. 188. The Montreal Star 18 November 1897. 189. Morton, 127. 190. Borden Letterbooks. Strathy Case, Borden /Beique QC, 18 January 1898: “[GOC] anxious to have the whole matter settled promptly … v glad if you would give me an assurance by telegram that no further legal proceedings will take place.” 191. “The further services of Lt Col JAL Strathy having been dispensed with, his name is removed from the list of officers of the Active Militia.” Order, 22 December 1897, published 15 January 1898. BWA, Dist Order 13, 8 January 1898. 192. Morton, Ibid. 193. Less than six months after Strathy resigned, the 5th Royal Scots of Canada was rated “a steady, efficient Battalion; excellent Band and Pipers … Physique, Arms excellent; Drill and Uniforms very good.” BWA. Mil Dist Inspection Report, 1898. 194. His only son, Lt Ralph Strathy, who did not join the 5th Royal Scots, received The Military Cross in The Great War. 195. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 70. 196. Ibid. 197. First awarded 1895; the first winners were GS Cantlie 1895, J Carson 1896–97. It was not awarded thereafter. 198. The author discovered the Strathy Cup in a box of darkened trophy cups and bric-a-brac circa fall 2008. Its wellcrafted style and careful engraving survived over a century of mysterious absence. 199. BWA 0078–18 Vol II 1–17 (BWO 11) Ibbotson File; July 1898 and Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 73–74. 200. Ibid., 73. The officers included Ibbotson, Cameron, Carson, Blaiklock, Meighen, Gault, Cantlie; Lt Col Caverhill was among the guests. 201. The degree to which 1900 is really the last day for a British imperial connection on the regular military side is debated. Esquimalt and Halifax garrisons are still officially there until 1907, and of course an HMS Canada continued with British regular naval personnel to the Second World War. Both bases were in constant RN usage throughout the first half of the twentieth century even if, from 1911, under something like Canadian command. 202. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 81. 203. The 5th Royal Scots provided one officer (Lt CJ Armstrong) and thirty-two other ranks to E Company from Montreal, one other rank to G Company from Saint John and two other ranks to H Company in Halifax. 204. Technically, the second Battle Honour. 205. This was embroidered on the 1862 Regimental Colour in 1901. 206. Desmond Morton, The Canadian General: Sir William Otter (Toronto, 1974). Desmond Morton, “Sir William Otter,” Dictionary of Canadian Biographies, University of Toronto, 2000. 207. LAC. Military Gazette Vol XIV No. 12, 20 June 1899, 12 “Inspection of the Royal Scots.” 208. Circa 1901 Quebec was about four-fifths French Canadian and one-fifth English. Montreal Island and immediate area of Montreal numbered about 60 percent French Canadian citizenry. 209. “In those days [1901], the term “Québécois” referred solely to an inhabitant of Quebec City.” It was not until 1910 and the enactment of “La Loi Lavergne” obligated public services to communicate in both languages; a serious attempt was made by the Quebec government to promote the French language. See: Paul André Linteau, René Durocher and Jean-Claude Robert, Quebec: A History, 1867–1929 vol. 1 (Toronto, 1983) 52–54; Margaret W Westley, Remembrance of Grandeur: The Anglophone Protestant Elite of Montreal, 1900–1950 (Montreal, 1990) 17, 136; JMS Careless et al., The Canadians, 1867–1967 (Toronto, 1967) 99, 100–104, 120, 126; HH Stikeman, The Mount Royal Club 1899–1999 (Montreal, 1999), 13–14.

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210. BWA–18 Hist Vol 1, Correspondence Ibbotson–DCO 5 Militia Dist HQ, 23 April 1901. Also BW008–24, 1–17 April 1901. 211. Ibid., Ibbotson–District HQ 23 and 30 April 1901. Ibbotson to DOC MD No 5 letter 30 April 1901. “… until today the uniforms are identical including the most distinctive and jealously guarded Red Hackle in the bonnet [emphasis added].” 212. Regtl Order Book 5th Battalion Royal Scots Bk 3, 25 October 1900. 213. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 84. 214. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 84–85, and, EJ Chambers, Histoire du 65e Régiment de Carabiniers Mont-Royal (Montreal: 1905), 140. Hereafter Histoire du 65e 215. Lt Col Cameron was twice mentioned in the London Gazette, awarded the South African medal with three clasps and the DSO. He was gazetted an Honorary Major in the army in September 1901. 216. Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 79. 217. Establishment: 5th Royal Scots, GOC 20 June 1902, from six to eight Companies, 376 all ranks; 23 February 1904, “peace footing of eight companies of 419 of all ranks and a war footing of sixteen companies with a total strength of 1060 all ranks.” The Regiment regularly paraded “over strength”; normal parades averaged 415 all ranks; see BWA 1900–1912 and Chambers, 5th Royal Scots, 72. 218. Notman’s studios were on Bleury Street, just below the regimental armoury. 219. “Highland status” Militia General Order 2 May 1904 5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders; on 1 October 1906 a General Order was published authorizing the title “5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada.” Peacetime enrollment limits were increased to 419. 220. 25 November 1902; to DOC 5 Dist 2 March 1904. See also letters Ibbotson/DOC 25 November 1902 and 25 March 1904. 221. BWA–18 Lt McCuaig pers file 1 March 1914; and Bk 3 115; subalterns 5 R Scots signed pro forma waivers re promotions to Captain; for other examples see pre-WW1 officer files BWA 005 series passim. 222. Gen Order 20 June 1902 On 20 June 1902 5th Royal Scots authorized eight rifle companies and reorganized as two battalion unit with a regimental headquarters. 223. The November 1904 order in council established the Militia Council (similar to the British Army Council), to include the minister, his deputy minister and the departmental accountant, along with the chief of the general staff, the adjutant-general, the quartermaster-general and the master general of ordnance. Though less powerful than the GOC had been, this Council would in fact be more influential. Borden was its unchallenged master. 224. Desmond Morton, Ministers and Generals, 193; and, Sir William Otter (Toronto: 1974). 225. Circa 1890–1905 the Craig Street Drill Hall was used by the Victoria Rifles, 6th Fusiliers and No 1 Sqn 6th Hussars on Mondays, The Prince of Wales Regiment on Tuesday, the 65th Mount Royal Rifles on Wednesday, the 5th Royal Scots Thursday, 3rd Field and 2nd Montreal Regiment Canadian Artillery on Friday and general band practices on Saturdays. 226. In 1931, Graham, as Lord Atholstan, laid the cornerstone for the new regimental church on Sherbrooke Street, which he helped design. 227. Approx: $5,000 in 1900 equiv to $115,000 in 2014. Regimental officers, including Angus, Cantlie, both Meighens subscribed $500 each. BWA (JB 15983 “Roscoe” Files, hereafter RX) Armoury Records 1905–1910. “Arrangements made by Senator MacKay and myself on behalf of the Dept of Militia by Frederick Borden were verbal as follows as soon as Regt out of debt re building lease to be given by the Regt Assoc to the Dept of Militia at rental of $1.00 per annum. BWA RX01 Docs 29 September 1910 BWA JB 15983. Letter John Carson to Major Peers Davidson 30 November 1909. “Our regts are to be protected for all time in event of sale of the property the regt will benefit from the proceeds.” 29 September 1910. RG9 Order in Council Re 5th Royal Scots Armoury. Total Cost of Armoury was $101,131 ($2,750,000 in 2013 CD). The Govt contributed $43,000; Regt contributed $37,000; Balance $20,701. An Order in Council called for a further grant of $15,000. The Net Balance due: $5,000. As at 22 September 1910, Regt owed $5,000. Subscriptions: Lord Mount Stephen $5,000, Lord Strathcona $5000, Robert MacKay $5,000, Hugh Graham $5,000, Bank of Montreal $1,000, Angus $500, Meighen $500, Cantlie $500, Reid $500, Baton $500, Rose $500, Molson’s Bank $500, Captain Norsworthy $100; Expenses to lay the cornerstone $448.65. 228. The initial Victoria Rifles armoury was succeeded by a more modern structure on Cathcart Street in 1934. 229. LAC. Carson 1–22.

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230. BWA. Regtl Order Book, 1 August 1906. 231. BWA–18 Hist 1–17 Vol I 1871–1916. Correspondence Percy Lake – Borden re 5th Royal Scots. 232. Borden to Cantlie advising Carson’s requests had not been approved by the Militia Council. There would be no promotion to full colonel. Borden preferred Carson withdraw his resignation. BWA–20 Carson Files, Command File (CMD) 1–22, 30 March 1909. Cantlie advised he is appointed CO 18 May 1909 directly from the Min of Militia and Defence’s office. BWA 20 CMD File 1–22 Vol I: Offrs resignations with Carson: Meighen, Captain Birchall, Lts NE Hill, Duggan etc. 233. Lessard / Cantlie 25 March 1909. BWA. Borden/Cantlie 30 March 1909, CMD 1–22, Vol 1 1909–1930. Carson/ Borden/Lessard/ Cantlie. April–March 1909; Carson resignation dated by RHC as of 18 January 1910. 234. Col GWL Nicholson, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919 (Ottawa: 1964) passim. 235. Chambers, Histoire du 65e, 141. 236. BW 008, 20 Colours (1–20) 25 July 1911 correspondence; the 5th Royal Scots sent seven sergeants to London. 237. Ibid., 411. 238. The Toronto Globe, 26 November 1906. 239. Chambers, Historire du 65e. 240. The Hackett Funeral, 1878, and the Smallpox or “vaccination riots” in 1885. 241. Lt Col Henry R Smith, “Military Aid of the Civil Power,” Canadian Institute, Selected Papers, X, 1900, 87. Cited in Desmond Morton, “Aid to the Civil Power: The Canadian Militia in Support of Social Order, 1867–1914,” The Canadian Historical Review, Vol II, No.4, December 1970, 410. 242. Key Dates Regimental History 1862–1914: 5th Royal Scots Aid of Civil Power: December 1864–May 1865, Fenian Raids (1 Coy in Composite Battalion); 1866 Fenian Raids (Guards on Victoria Bridge), Court House; St Johns and Hemmingford; 1870 Fenian Raids; 13 June 1878 Quebec Dock Riots; 12 July 1878 Montreal, Hackett Funeral; 1885 Montreal Smallpox Riots; 25–30 October 1900 Valleyfield Textile workers strike; 28 April – 11 May 1903, Montreal Dock riots. 243. MacDonald / Lord Lorne, 8 August 1882, MacDonald Papers, Vol 82, 32137. 244. Regimental Camps and Excursions 1875–1913 (selected): 1875 Quebec City, inspection by Gov Gen; 1877 August St Helen’s Island; 1878 July St Helen’s Island; 1880 July St Helen’s Island and Quebec City, Queen’s Birthday; 1884 June Niagara Falls, Toronto Excursion; 1885 Ottawa; 1886 Cornwall; 1887 Ottawa, Inspection by Maj Gen Middleton, GOC Canadian Militia; 1888 June London Excursion; St Johns; 1889 London; 1891 Ottawa Dominion Day; 1895 Ottawa, unveiling Sir John A’s Monument; 1898 Portland – 50th Anniversary GTR; 1899 La Prairie 30 June–1 July; 1901 Quebec, HRH Duke of York; 1903 Kingston; 1905 Cartierville; 1906 De Levis Camp; 1907 Cartierville ; garrison manoeuvres; 1908 Three Rivers; sham battle near Mount Royal; Quebec Tercentenary Grand Parade; 1909 Plattsburg; Chaplain Tercentenary; 1910 Three Rivers Camp 1911 Farnham Camp – Composite; 1912 Regimental Camp at Three Rivers; 1913 Camps at Three Rivers and Farnham; 1914 Petawawa Camp. See: BWA passim and, Trg 4–3 Vol I Camp 1899–1913. 245. Stewart of Garth, Sketches of the Highlanders, Vol II 64–5 (Edinburgh: 1899), Hereafter, Stewart; Roy, 9. 246. MS Collections BW Archives: Orderly Book of Captain Stewart’s Company, The Black Watch 1759–1761 and, Captain James Murray Company Orderly Book, Murray’s Company of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment February 1763. 247. BWA. Dist Order 2 March 1904 and, Mil GOC 5th Royal Scots 1 October 1906; see also, Hutchison 44; Regiment is titled “Black Watch” in 1930. 248. Stewart, Ibid. 249. Stewart Museum; Rare books: Jacob Robinson, A Short History of the Highland Regiment (London: 1743), 5. 250. Ibid., 7. 251. Ibid., 6. 252. Lt Col Percy Groves, Illustrated History of the Scottish Regiments. Book 1, 1st Battalion The Black Watch Royal Highlanders 42nd Foot (1729–1893) (Edinburgh: Johnston, 1893), 3. 253. BW MS Collection. – Extracts from Orderly Book Captain James Stewart’s Company 42nd Regiment1759–61 (Edinburgh: 1885). Hereafter Stewart. See: Captain James Murray, Note Book 2nd Battalion 42nd Foot Highland Regiment, 1761–1763; Hand written, leather bound. See also BW MS 008 13–1759: William Fraser, Journal of a Subaltern in the 63rd Regt from 8 May 1759 to 17 May 1760.

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254. BW MS: Orderly Book Captain Stewart; entry 28 August 1761, 47. 255. Correspondence, Tommy Smyth Esq., Regimental Historian, Black Watch, Perth, September–November 2008. See also: Correspondence LtCol Sir Robert Dick / Gen. James Stirling of Craigbarnet, 1822, cited in: “The origins of the Red Hackle,” The Red Hackle (UK), April 1982, 11. And, Stewart of Garth, Sketches of the Highlanders, Vol II 64–5 (Edinburgh: 1899); Roy, 64. 256. Reverend JA Macdonald, cited in Roy, 78. 257. Lt Col Dick / Gen Stirling correspondence, September 1822. 258. Stewart of Garth, Sketches Vol II, 65. However, Lord John Murray sent the Regiment four piper’s coats, four piper’s bonnets with red feathers – perhaps these were part of the hackle. Correspondence T Smyth, BW Archivist, Perth, 20 January 2007; see William M Forbes “An Instrument of War” re Pipers in Highland Regiments in Colonial North America 1756–1767: cited in McCulloch, Sons of the Mountains, 165. See also Dispatch The Journal of the Scottish Military Historical Society, No. 147, 1998. 259. Stewart, 22. 260. Stewart, 43. 261. Rudyard Kipling, “Fuzzy Wuzzy” War Stories and Poems (Oxford, 1990). “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” was the British soldiers’ slang term for the 19th-century Beja warriors supporting the Sudanese Mahdi in the Mahdist War (1881–1899).They were armed with swords and spears and some rifles. Kipling’s famous poem referred to either or both historical battles between the British and Mahdist forces where British Infantry squares were broken (Tamai 1884; and, Abu Klea, January 1885). Kipling praised their bravery in breaking the square – an achievement which few other British foes could claim. The battles inspired much literary comment, including Sir Henry Newbolt: “… The sand of the desert is sodden red. / Red with the wreck of a square that broke; / The Gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead / And the regiment blind with dust and smoke …” 262. Col Paul H Hutchison, The Black Watch RHR – A Short History 1705–1940 (Montreal: 1940), 10. 263. Stewart, 72. 264. Cited in Francis Collinson, The Bagpipe (London: 1975), 161. 265. Judges ruling against Jacobites captured, 1747: Although they did not bear arms, they were found guilty of high treason: “no regiment ever marched without musical instruments such as trumpets drums and the like … a highland regiment never marched without a piper … and therefore his bagpipe in the eyes of the law was an instrument of war” Collinson, Ibid. 266. Stewart, 61. 267. BWA 008, Camps Vol 1, 1899–1913; 4 Division HQ/Cantlie, 28 November 1911. 268. Stewart Museum Archives, Pamphlet: Major IH Mackay, “Historical Notes Upon the Scottish Regimental Dress” (Curator, Edinburgh Castle Museum: 1933), 11, 16. 269. BWA 010–15. 5th Royal Scots Battalion Orders 1893–1905. 9 June 1881 and 14 May 1900: “All men in possession of the kilt will parade in full dress with forage caps.” BWA 010–15 5th Royal Scots Battalion Orders 14 May 1900 Refs to “Helmets and Red Hackles” [emphasis added] issued for summer camp June 1912 and 1914. Also, entries 18 May, 13 June 1898. “Red and black hose replaced red and white hose.” 270. Army/Navy Gazette and, The Canadian Military Gazette XIII No 23 9–12 December 1898. “Officers may wear trews at church parade or at a funeral, when the CO, 2nd in Command and Adjutant wear trews, cross plaid and spurs … the only exception is when, as members of a court martial. On this occasion all officers wear full dress, only trews are worn instead of kilts.” Correspondence Stewart, Meighen, Streatfield. 271. BWA 10–15 5th Royal Scots Battalion Orders 1893–1905. Clothing instructions Battalion Order 14 May 1900. 272. Desmond Morton, “Aid to the Civil Power: The Canadian Militia in Support of Social Order, 1867–1914,” The Canadian Historical Review, Vol II, No.4, December 1970, 416. 273. LAC/BWA. CMD 1–22, Vol I 18 May 1909; CO 18 May 1909; Min Militia and Defence to Cantlie. BWA Armoury 14–13–21: “Report to the Privy Council, Approved by the Governor General, November 1909.” 274. LAC. The armoury subsequently handed over to Government “free of debt, the Government to maintain it, to heat and light it, and provide for the caretaking thereof. (s) R Boudreau, Clerk of the Privy Council, 14 December 1909.” The RHC Armoury Association was incorporated 28 February 1907. 275. BWA Cantlie File. Regimental Dates differ somewhat from AP &R Dates in Record of Service; Militia Records have Cantlie Lt Col. Commandant of 5th RHC from 11 May 1909.

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276. When the regiment was redesignated the 5th Battalion “Royal Light Infantry of Montreal” (7 November 1862), the addition of the “Royal” prefix was authorized by the commander-in-chief, the Governor General of Canada. It was not until many years later that it was realized the prefix “Royal” had not been approved by the Sovereign – this was rectified by Edward VII in 1909: 3 December 1909, Colonial Office Despatch, “Canada No. 707”: Earl of Crewe, Downing Street, London, to the Governor General, “to request you to inform your Ministers that His Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of the 5th [Royal Highlanders of Canada], 8th [Royal Rifles], 10th [Royal Grenadiers], and 13th [Royal Regiment] Regiments of Canadian Militia using the title “Royal.” This change in nomenclature was officially published in the Canada Gazette on 3 January 1910 as “General Order 6.” 277. BWA, 20 Colours (1–20) Vol 1, 1907–1911. BWA passim – see Resolution of the St Andrew’s Society, 3 April 1911: minutes and a complete list of the Ladies Committee for procuring Colours. It is interesting to note that on the professional proofs for the Regimental and King’s Colour, the title “The Black Watch Royal Highlanders” is crossed out and the instruction given is: “Substitute name ‘5th Royal Highlanders of Canada.’” Cantlie Correspondence, RJ Inglis & Son. Montreal. 278. Ibid., Correspondence 20 April 1912; September 1912; Rose’s gift, a book entitled: “Advice from a Senior major” was presented to Cantlie. 279. BWA 008. Colours (1–20) Vol I, Rose/Cantlie 19 November 1910. 280. Ibid., Parade 1 June 1912: see official programme for complete list officers/Sr NCOs on parade. 281. Hon J Rose, cited Montreal Gazette17 January 1886. 282. Craig Street Armoury Training allocation 1895: Monday, 3rd Victoria Rifles; 6th Fusiliers; No 1 Sqn, 6th Hussars; Tuesday, PoW Rifles; Wednesday, 65th Mount Royal Rifles; Thursday, 5th Royal Scots; Friday, 2nd Montreal Regiment Canadian Artillery; Saturday, General Band Practice. Côte-St-Luc and Pointe-aux-Trembles Ranges were used in May-June. 283. Initially the Victoria Rifles and RHC; the Carabiners built a splendid armoury on Pine avenue in 1911. 284. One QM Sgt, four Orderly Room Sgts, one Paymaster Sgt, one Sgt Drummer, two Medical Sgts, one Signals Sgt, two Armourer or Sgts and two Transport Sgts. Officers roster included three Adjutants, Pay Master, Qm Offr, Medical Officer, Transport Officer and one Chaplain. 285. Chambers, Canadian Militia, 58. 286. BWA 008. Royal Schools 1902–1932 (4–4) passim. Instructors’ courses and qualification for field officer and Captain were held in Nova Scotia by 1915 at the Royal School of Infantry – Halifax. 287. Norman Penlington, “General Hutton and the Problem of Military Imperialism in Canada, 1898–1900.” The Canadian Historical Review Vol 24 No. 2, 1943, 157. 288. BWA Hist, Visits, 4–3. Camps: 18–24 August 1877, 8–20 July 1878, 23 June–3 July 1880, all at St Helen’s island; 13–17 June 1884, Toronto; 14–19 June 1888, London, Ont; 1891 Training Camps: Quebec, Montreal, LaPrairie, Lauzon; 15–18 June 1911, Farnham; 18–25 June 1912, June 1913, both at Three Rivers; 20–25 June 1914, Petawawa, Ont. Correspondence AF Gault to GS Cantlie, 23 June 1913. 289. BWA 008 Camps Vol 1, 1899–1913. Regtl Memo, 12 June 1911. At 1906–1914 Militia Camps the 5th Royal Scots sported summer pith helmets, each fixed with a Red Hackle – both on temporary issue from the RQM stores. 290. Major Gen Sir Ernest Swinton, The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (London: 1905). This brilliant tactical primer was a cornucopia of tactical savvy based on the South African war and continues to be used by western Armies. 291. BWA 008 Camps Vol 1, 1899–1913; Farnham 1911.

Part I

Illustrations

90 | Part I – Illustrations

Black Watch in North America – Legacies

The rustic bravado of the Scots appealed to all … Eighteenth Century cartoon. Anon, A Boo at Court or the Highland Salute Front & Rear!, Published by J. Le Petit, c.1801

42nd assault through the abbatis – The Battle of Carillon, also known as the Battle of Ticonderoga (8 July 1758), during Seven Years’ War. It was fought on the shore of Lake Champlain in the frontier area between the British colony of New York and the French colony of Nouvelle-France (Canada). Painting: BWA

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The Seven Years’ War 1756–1763. The European Soldier’s great fear: Ambush and death beneath the scalping knife….

RHC visit to Fort Ticonderoga: RSM John Barron, Lt Col Tom MacKay (centre), WO Rob Unger, RSM-in-waiting, 2010. Captain John Campbell

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Black Watch in North America – Legacies

The Battle of Bushy Run 1763 – fought near Pittsburgh, Penn. Relief attack by The 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch) and The 77th Regiment of Foot (Montgomerie’s Highlanders) – the battle was the origin of the grand friendship between the Imperial Black Watch and the 111th US Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and later, with The Black Watch in Montreal. This portrait was presented to 3 RHC by Colonel C Kennedy Allen, Adjutant of Valley Forge Military Academy, and an ardent military historian. Seven Years’ War Diary, Sergeant John Stewart, Capt James Murray’s Company, 2nd Battalion of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment. Written in New York and Quebec 1763. BWA Rare Books.

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The War of 1812

Battle of Chateauguay – south west of Montreal, 1813. The participation of the 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers led to the awarding of the Black Watch’s first emblazonable battle honour.

Right: British troops burned the White House in Washington, 24 August 1814. During Harry Truman’s renovation of the White House in 1948–52, wood from an East Wing window was carved into a gavel (below) and presented to the 3rd Battalion The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada by the 111th US Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard on 13–14 September 1958 as a token of friendship. Photo: Peter B Ferst

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Left: Portrait, Lieutenant George Fraser Brown, “Highland Company,” 1st or Prince of Wales’ Regiment, Volunteer Militia Rifles (VMR) – presented by his NCOs and men, 12 October 1863. The tartan trews and fly plaid are Clan Mackenzie of Seaforth (a Black Watch variant with thin white and red overstripes). Below: “Capt Esdaile’s Sharpshooters, 5th Royals,” circa 1869. Representatives from Line and Flank (Highland) companies. (Photos: McCord Museum Montreal, BWA)

Above: Officers of the “Highland Company,” 1st Battalion VMR, 1859 – the year they joined that battalion. Later in 1860, the Battalion was redesignated 1st or Prince of Wales’ Regiment, VMR. Advised their Scottish garb was no longer tolerated, they left that unit to meld with Lt Col H Routh’s 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal in 1863.

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Above: Officers Montreal Garrison, 1860; note Lt Col Hedges H Whitney, Montreal Light Infantry. At right, Lt Col Eleazar David, Royal Montreal Cavalry, a lawyer from a prominent Jewish family in Montreal. During the 1837 Rebellion, he led the newly-raised Queen’s Light Dragoons – his horse was shot from under him and he was mentioned in despatches by Sir John Colborne. The “Lights” (Montreal Light Infantry) were finally disbanded in 1868, the artillery amalgamated into the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment, RCA; Prince of Wales Rifles are now The Canadian Grenadier Guards; the Montreal Cavalry is now perpetuated by The Royal Canadian Hussars (Montreal).

Right: Lt Colonel Haviland Lemesurier Routh, gazetted in February 1862. His second-in-command was the former solicitor general of Canada and law partner to D’Arcy McGee, Major John Rose MP. Independent volunteer rifle companies were raised in 1861 by “Six city gentlemen, patriots and military enthusiasts.” These were grouped under Routh to form the 5th Battalion, VMR, renamed, 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal. They were joined by the “Highland Rifle Company” of the 1st Prince of Wales Regiment in 1863, and by the remaining company of the Montreal Light Infantry in 1866. Photos: McCord

96 | Part I – Illustrations Right: Capt Henry Lyman, 5th Bn Royal Light Infantry, 1866

Capt Lyman’s Dress Shako Photos: Peter B Ferst, McCord

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5th Battalion receive Regimental Colours, 11 October 1862, presented by Lady Monck, wife of Canada’s Governor General. The Parade was held at a former musket range known as Logan’s Farm (now Lafontaine Park) and marked the reception of Colours by the 5th Battalion. The event was touted as “The finest volunteer review, without exception, which has yet been held in Canada.” Shown: The Royal Montreal Cavalry holds the ground; the military band of one of the British regular regiments then stationed in Montreal [likely the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment] appear resplendent in their white tunics; the 5th Battalion, soon to become The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal, wears light infantry shakos (see illustration of Capt Henry Lyman on previous page). Photo: McCord, BWA

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Above: Company No 2, “The Royals” after duty during the Fenian Raids, on the Champ de Mars in Montreal, April 1866. Capt Kenneth Campbell, Officer Commanding. Right: Capt Kenneth Campbell, 1865. Below: NCOs, 5th Bn Royal Fusiliers, c.1880. The man standing left centre wearing a blue frock coat and holding a swagger stick is undoubtedly the sergeant major of the 5th Battalion – over the period 1875-1881, this appointment was held by James Fraser. The drum major appears in the upper group of three in the left background – his rank insignia being four chevrons surmounted by a drum Photos: McCord, BWA

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Above: Officers of “The Royals” at Hemmingford, Quebec during the Fenian Raids, 1866. Major John Grant (centre, holding papers) Officer Commanding. Note officers from the Highland Company wearing forage caps with checkered bands, the bands forming part of the “Highland flavor” conceded to the Company when it transferred over from the 1st Prince of Wales’ Regiment in 1863. Below: “A” Company, 5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, commanded by Major Kenneth Campbell (who appears in the right centre wearing a blue patrol jacket with hands behind his back). “A” Company maintains the status of the “Highland Flank Company.” Most of the men had seen service in the regular British Army, the majority with the 78th Highlanders who had taken their discharge in Montreal. This military mélange indicates the Regiment’s path towards Highland status. Photographed and composed by Notman, set in a camp on St. Helen’s Island. Bonsecours Market (the Battalion’s depot and armoury) and Mount Royal in distance. Photos: McCord, BWA

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Lt Col HL Routh 1862–1875

Lt Col JD Crawford 1875–1882

Lt Col EAC Campbell 1882–1884

Lt Col Frank Caverhill 1884–1891

Lt Col John Hood 1891–1893

Lt Col JAL Strathy 1893–1897

Lt Col EB Ibbotson 1897–1901

Lt Col GW Cameron 1901–1902

Lt Col JW Carson 1902–1909

Commanding Officers 1862–1915

Lt Col GS Cantlie 1910–1915 Photos: McCord, BWA

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Montage, “D” Company, 5th Royal Scots of Canada, 1884, commanded by Captain Henry Lyman (standing to the right of the piper).

Capt FS Lyman (left) in fusilier attire worn until 1884: gargantuan busby, tartan trews and fly plaid. Colonel EAC Campbell will complete the Scottish conversion of 5th Royals; and acquire new title: 5th Bn Royal Scots of Canada, dress entire Bn in kilts and assume a new motto: “Ne Obliviscaris” (Forget Not) which will last until 1930. Smartly dressed rifleman on right: Sgt William McGilton, 5th Bn Royal Scots of Canada, 1884. The tartan is the Lorne pattern; the Regimental March: “The Campbells are Coming.” Photos: McCord, BWA

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1888 – Lt Col Frank Caverhill and his officers. After Col EAC Campbell’s command, the 5th Royal Scots of Canada are completely Scottish, kilted and resplendent. It had yet to be formally awarded the title “Highland” but its impressive style could not be ignored. This collage was created by the great Montreal photographer, William Notman, who took everyone’s photos in the city and arranged all the regimental portraits. Note that Col Caverhill and his staff officers (centre foreground) are wearing tartan trews, standard practice as these officers sometimes paraded on horses, although the practice was not regulated until 1900. Of the twenty-three individuals depicted, twentytwo have been identified. From left-to-right: Douglas Corsan MD (Surgeon); 2nd Lieut James H Miller; Capt William M Blaiklock; 2nd Lieut James A Linton; 2nd Lieut George W Cameron; Rollo Campbell (Asst Surgeon); Lieut Farquhar S MacLennan; Capt Edward B Ibbotson; Capt Charles E Gault; Rev J Edgar Hill (Chaplain); Major John C McCorkill; Pipe Major John Matheson; Lt Col Frank Caverhill; Lieut George S Cantlie; Major Henry H Lyman; 2nd Lieut William LS Jackson; Capt Frederick L Lydon (Adjutant); 2nd Lieut James L Rankin; Capt John Hood; Capt Charles C Newton; Capt James AL Strathy; Robert G Foster (Quartermaster); William Foulis (Paymaster). Of the twenty-two officers listed (PM Matheson excluded) five would go on to become regimental commandant: John Hood (1891), Alexander Strathy (1893), Edward Ibbotson (1897); George Cameron (1901), and George Cantlie (1909). Photo: McCord/Officer IDs courtesy EJ Chapman

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Above: Tercentenary of Quebec City in 1908. Right: Colours, Montreal Highland Cadet Corps, sponsored by the City; trained and supported by the 5th Royal Scots.

Left: 5th Royal Scots Bandsman. Note the white universal pattern service helmet with Boar’s Head helmet plate; Boar’s Head badge on glengarry. The white service helmet was introduced in 1886. Right: A young cadet, Montreal Highland Cadet Corps, 1908. Note plain glengarry with eagle feather. Photos: McCord, BWA

Far left: Pte J Hetherington, 5th Royal Scots of Canada; Left: Drum Major WR Boyd circa 1890. (McCord, Montréal) Above: Field Officer of the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada 1890. Above right: Pith helmets with Red Hackle circa 1905. (RJ Marrion – Canadian War Museum; BWA)

Above: The Strathy Cup, recovered after 110 years. Presented by Lt Col JAL Strathy (1893–97), seen left with one of his regimental successes: the feather bonnet with Red Hackle. This ambitious and expensive project saw the 5th Royal Scots in No. 1 attire and Red Hackles, a decade before they appeared in the field on pith helmets. (McCord, Merrett, BWA)

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Above: Pipers of the 5th Royal Scots, Montreal, 1898; Pipe Major David Manson can be seen sitting, second from left. Note the pipers are wearing twin feathers in their glengarry caps. Below: Sergeants. The groups posed before the Regiment’s formal visit to Portland, Maine representing Canada’s railroad interests and managed by the Royal Scots’ senate, all railroad men – Portland was Montreal’s winter port. Excursion at Government expense for the Fourth of July celebrations, 1898. (McCord, BWA)

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5th Royal Scots, Dominion Day Parade, Ottawa, 1 July 1891, Lt Col John Hood commanding. Note the military band standing on the left of the Battalion wearing regulation white bandsmen tunics; four pipers (sporting feathers in their glengarry caps) stand behind the military band, along with three drummers and two buglers. Drum Major WR Boyd stands in front of the band, wearing the only feather bonnet on parade.

Black Watch RHC Montreal Regimental Sett: Evolution 19th to 20th Century

THE MACKENZIE OF SEAFORTH TARTAN: 1863–1875

THE LORNE TARTAN (Sir John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne): 1878–c.1898

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5th Royal Scots, on the wharf, Quebec harbour awaiting embarkation to Cape Town, 1899

Boer War Contingent, Quebec, 30 October 1899; participation resulted in the Regiment’s second battle honour. Photos: BWA

THE GOVERNMENT or, BLACK WATCH TARTAN: 1875–1878; and c.1898 to present

THE ROYAL STEWART TARTAN (Pipers): 1865 (unofficial); 1901 to present (official)

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5th Battalion, Royal Scots of Canada, Champ de Mars, Montreal, 1890. The product of Lt Col Frank Caverhill’s seven years of command. The battalion is almost surreal in its perfection: height, dress, deportment – it is doubtful if an Imperial Highland Regiment could have done better. They are wearing white universal pattern service helmets, introduced about 1886, as well as Lorne tartan kilts. Photo: BWA

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Above: The Valleyfield textile strike, 26 October 1900. The 5th Royal Scots were the first to arrive by train and deploy. The incident became violent; Lt Col EB Ibbotson’s prompt action controlled a nasty situation. In this photo he sits, scratching his nose, with Hamilton Gault (left) and his officers, including Meighen. With him is staff officer and the Squadron commander from the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars. Below: Montreal Garrison Parade circa 1905, near McGill Campus. 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada in centre, a robust militia unit of two full battalions. Fully kitted in kilt and feather bonnet. Photos: BWA

Right: Lt Col JD Crawford, who made the Regiment undeniably Scottish by ordering trews for all in 1879. Left: Pipe Major Matheson, part of a grand Black Watch tradition. Below: The Montreal Garrison in happier times, 1907. Buttressed by too many plumes, the 5th Royal Highlanders tower with hackled feather bonnets. In two years, Lt Col Carson (front left) would leave with Lt Col Meighen (front centre, senior battalion commander) and the Regiment would soon be led by GS Cantlie (not in picture). Photos: McCord, BWA

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Above: 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch) in white shells and glengarries, marching from the train station to the Anse au Foulon and grand Quebec Tercentenary Review, 24 July 1908, Lt Col JW Carson commanding. Nationalists complained that the occasion became a celebration of Wolfe at the Plains of Abraham more than Champlain’s establishment of a settlement: the assembled military (12,422 men and 2,134 horses) outnumbered the combined forces deployed by Wolfe and Montcalm. Below: 5th Royal Highlanders at Farnham Camp; platoon from “Composite Battalion” created for Militia Training 1911. Photos: BWA

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5th Royal Scots under Lt Col Carson, 1904. The heart of this group marched into the new Bleury Street Armoury, witnessed Carson’s schism and next followed Loomis and Cantlie into the trenches of France and Belgium. Cantlie beneath Carson, as Adjutant; Loomis, Davidson, Meighen and Hamilton Gault at left corner. Ross, top right. A valuable record taken before Carson, livid at Minister Borden, stormed out in 1910 and joined the Prince of Wales’ Rifles to found the Canadian Grenadier Guards taking Meighen then the senior battalion commander, and Dodds with him. Photo: BWA, Norman, McCord

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Above: Getting ready for the Kaiser’s machine guns, Farnham Camp, June 1911. This splendid target, though posed for a photograph, did not vary much from an infantry battalion in the attack as taught by then current doctrine. Below: A well drilled, resplendent regiment parades in review before President Howard Taft at the Lake Champlain tercentennial on 7 July 1909. Lt Col GS Cantlie leads two battalions of the 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch). The Highlanders were joined by the Governor General’s Foot Guards from Ottawa; both were guests of the 5th Regiment, United States Army. Taft was accompanied by ambassadors from Britain and France. These were the last grand parades before the war. Bottom: A last word before march-past at Lake Champlain 1909 tercentenary. Note Cantlie’s aide-decamp from the 5th Infantry Regiment, US Army. Photos: BWA

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Pre-war Militia Summer Camps featured much route marching.

Cantlie watches Ross adjust trews

Right: Pipe-Major David Manson (later Major) of the 42nd Battalion CEF, at leisure, Petawawa Camp, June 1914. For curious reasons, Regimental praxis at summer camps included the inevitable pose à la Grecque in nothing but glengarry and sporran – this continued well into the 1930s and included posed photos of quarter guards. This was never popular in the trenches or rest areas of France.

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Public kudos to the 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch), and a good indication of the popularity and effect of the regiment on the city populace circa 1912.The crowds are ten deep as the great column made its way to the Bleury Street Armoury. Pipes and drums (in glengarries) lead, followed by the brass band in feather bonnets. The composite battalion forms a phalanx 20 men wide. Montreal Standard, 29 June 1912

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5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch). Posed on the eve of receiving their new Colours, May 1912 in the Officers’ Mess of their new armoury. In the centre are the Honorary Colonel, the Hon Robert MacKay MP and Lt Col GS Cantlie. Photo: BWA

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New Colours, 1 June 1912. The 5th Regiment, Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch): the 50th Anniversary and presentation of Colours by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, the first Governor General of Canada of royal descent. The parade was held at the foot of Mount Royal, on Fletcher’s Field. The Regiment, commanded by Lt Col GS Cantlie, paraded both Battalions wearing feather bonnets, in Government Sett and Red Hackle – a complete match to the Imperial Black Watch, with whom they were formally affiliated in 1905, thus making it the senior Highland Regiment in Canada.

Photos: McCord, BWA

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The 1912 Colours – destroyed in the Armoury fire, 4 March 1950.

Photos: McCord, BWA

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Top: Petawawa, Ontario, 20–25 June 1914: The last Summer Camp before the Great War. The Regiment manages four weak companies and a band. Every pith helmet is fixed with the Red Hackle. Bottom: Three Months later…The 13th Battalion CEF (RHC) at Valcartier Camp, almost ready for France. The manly Highland dress remains in spirit, sporrans removed and the kilt covered by a khaki apron. The glengarries were worn as late as Ypres, 1915. Photos: BWA

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The Cantlies, the McLennans, and the Molsons: Blood Princes of the Black Watch. Above: Cantlie and McLennan lead a gaggle of martial girls dressed as 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada along Sherbrooke Street, past the former Royal Victoria College, originally the women’s college at McGill – now the Music Faculty. Right: Maj Herbert Molson with sons Tom and Hartland (centre) before shipping out with the 42nd Battalion in 1915. Despite the tailored Highland kit, young Hartland de Montarville Molson decided to join the RCAF when he left RMC. Photos: Molson Archives, BWA

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Above: Officers’ Mess, 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch), July 1914. Front: (l to r) Maj Victor Carl Buchanan (commanded 13th Bn CEF); Maj Peers Davidson (commanded 73rd Bn CEF, 1917); Surgeon Maj Ernest Randolph Brown; Lt Col (later Col) George Stephen Cantlie (commanded 42nd Bn CEF, 20th Bn CEF), Capt Arthur Fitzroy Gault, Adjutant; Maj (later Maj Gen, The Hon) Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis (CO 13th Bn CEF at 2nd Ypres, commanded 7th Cdn Inf Bde, 3rd Cdn Div during The Hundred Days); Maj George Spalding Cleghorn, pre-war 4th Bn CO (4th); Maj (later Lt Col) Edward Cuthbert Norsworthy (commanded 13 Bn at Ypres). Last row, second from right, Capt (later Lt Col) Hew Clark-Kennedy, VC (commanded 24 Bn CEF in 1918). Many of these officers, and others not shown, would join Lt Col Loomis’ 13th Battalion CEF to fight at Ypres, representing Montreal Scots and Canada. It was de facto, noblesse oblige. Photo taken at Mess main entrance, south wall, now enhanced with cabinets of silver and collectables. The door on right was rebuilt to create a Presbyterian bar – a modest serving counter with room for two stewards and an intelligent choice of spirits and good whiskys. The beer, of course, was Molsons. Photos: BWA

Part II

The Royal Highlanders in The Great War 1914–1919

Chapter 7

Rushing to France

About 65 percent to 75 percent of the recruits were Old Country men, the remainder native Canadians, with a small scattering of total outsiders who for one reason or another had decided to join up. RC Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada1

The Canadian Black Watch was born in battle. Its association with the Red Hackle, though traced to the 1905 affiliation with the Imperials, was, for a decade, a whimsical connection. The Black Watch that determinedly asserted itself as a Canadian fighting regiment arose out of the gas-sodden fields of Flanders. While the beginning of the war was not a complete strategic bombshell to the military, it was, as intended by Germany, an operational surprise. In Europe, the events were almost automatic on both sides with well-rehearsed deployments executed in response to the Schlieffen Plan and its counterparts. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF), a small elite army commanded by Field Marshal Sir John French, began by fighting a dogged retreat from the city of Mons to the river Seine. Its two corps recovered to join the Battle of the Marne (5–12 September 1914); they then participated in a frenzied battle of manoeuvre to secure the English Channel coast, and at the end of it, found themselves in Flanders. The outbreak of the war was a shock to the citizen in the street. Despite apparent preparations (there was some desultory talk of war in the Militia camps during the summer), no one had expected an invasion of Belgium that summer. The empire was

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suddenly at war, and therefore, Canada was at war. The event was greeted with wild enthusiasm in the dominion’s cities; Montreal’s English population was swept away by imperial zeal and an almost bizarre loathing for England’s staunchest ally of the past two centuries. Quebec would contribute 5,733 men to the First Contingent, and one-fifth of these would originate from the Royal Highlanders of Canada.2 Montreal – a Battalion Factory The city of Montreal, particularly the 5th Royal Highlanders, spawned more Victoria Cross winners, generals, and nationally celebrated soldiers than the whole Canadian militia ensemble. This may appear bombastic until the count is made, and accomplishments exacted: sixteen battalions of infantry, five artillery batteries, and thirteen other military and medical units, including the No. 3 (McGill) General Hospital. The university’s contribution was mammoth with more than three thousand volunteers, mostly officers; three CEF units bore the McGill name.3 Of the eight Montreal battalions that fought in France and Flanders, three were raised in The Black Watch armoury. The furor that swept the City was little different from that which catapulted England’s manhood and the empire legions. The initial dominion drafts that volunteered to aid Britain’s war were, for the most part, British born. The cliché about Canadians fighting foreign wars in The Great War is moot. Montreal had an enormous reservoir of manpower with much of it born in the British Isles or sons of British immigrants. The thickest accent was unnoticed. While the officers of the three Black Watch battalions were predominantly Montrealers, and Canadian born, the majority of the rank and file were from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales: close to 80 percent of the 13th Battalion’s first draft and over 56 percent of the 42nd (raised in late 1914).4 The 73rd, raised a year later, was split down the middle with 50 percent of the men born in Canada, the remainder born in the UK, and several hundred from the United States and exotic parts of the empire. The term ‘Imperial’ was initially used by the War Office to designate troops beyond the limits of the United Kingdom and of India. During the war, the Canadian forces, recognizing thousands to be congenitally and concordantly, though not politically British, used the word to indicate troops from the British Isles; conversely, in the British Army, it signified troops of the empire from overseas dominions or colonies. The Australians used the title ‘Australian Imperial Force,’ but this was rejected by the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, and the CEF continued to be regarded as “Canadian volunteer militia on active service.”5

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In the confusion and patriotic frenzy to rush troops to the continent, impetuous decisions were made. The first irritated the militia. Sam Hughes would not permit regiments to simply mobilize. They would produce cadres for the Minister of Militia and Defence who would then arrange them in numerical collectives, forbidding mention of traditional titles. Hughes’s annoyance with the British government allegedly stemmed from his bitterness at not being granted a Victoria Cross in South Africa he was sure he had earned. His suspicion of British politics was little different from Dr Borden’s but lacked the elegant touch. In fact, Hughes had difficulty with most people. One of the extraordinary instances in the 1912 War Games, the last major manoeuvres before the war, occurred when King George V and the secretary of defence came upon a fist fight between Sam Hughes and a colonial counterpart, the Minister of Militia and Defence for South Africa. Evidently, the latter remarked that one Afrikaner was worth twenty Englishmen; Hughes countered that one Canadian was worth twenty Afrikaners – and the fight was on. Luckily for Bleury Street, Hughes seemed to like the Royal Highlanders and particularly, George Cantlie. The First Contingent: Raising a Fighting Battalion – The 13th as RHC The Park Avenue streetcar taking us to the armoury in Bleury laboriously pushed its way through the crowds … lads in trews and white shell jackets were inside the CPR station hall and the pipes and bandsmen kept the spirits of everyone in fever heat … Again came Auld Lang Syne, again the wild horse cheering and at last it was over. Montreal Daily Star, 25 August 1914

When war was declared, 4 August 1914, the formation of an overseas unit from the two battalions of the 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada was immediately begun. Unluckily, the RHC commandant was stuck in London seeing about a regimental gift to the Imperial Black Watch. It was a handsome silver inkstand fixed with the boar’s head insignia of the 5th Royal Highlanders, but the sudden war caused it to vanish from sight and corporate memory. Lieutenant Colonel George Cantlie won kudos for his ability to direct the regiment as a Montreal cultural centrepiece as well as an efficient militia unit: “training that reached its peak in the pre-war years.”6 However, he would not return to command his regiment in battle, at least not yet, for Sir Sam Hughes requested Cantlie stay in London as his special representative. The interim regimental commandant would be the striking Lieutenant Colonel James G Ross, head of a prestigious firm of chartered accountants. Ross was a keen infantryman and an expert shot. He was president of the Dominion Rifle Association and commanded the Bisley Team in the summer of 1914, returning to Montreal just

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before the war broke out. However, his military future was destined to be national rather than regimental; Ross would become Paymaster General for the Canadian Forces in Europe during the war.7 The first challenge was to form a complete battalion for Valcartier Camp, a newly purchased training ground north of Quebec City. It would be transformed overnight into a dominion soldier machine with the largest ranges in the empire. The Ross Rifle Factory was just beside Quebec’s Citadel cranking out hundreds of weapons, which, despite considerable commendation for accuracy, had not been properly tested in field conditions. The complexities of recruiting and actually equipping a complete battalion was an impossible task for the average Canadian Militia unit but a mere bagatelle for the 5th Royal Highlanders thanks to Montreal’s Scottish barons – a powerhouse of men, material and credits. The 5th Royal Highlanders arrived fully outfitted and clothed from local sources, ready to deploy to Europe.8 One day after war was declared, Major Peers Davidson telegraphed the minister of militia offering a full overseas battalion. This was immediately accepted. Incredibly, within three weeks, the first mobilized unit entrained in Windsor Station and joined the other forces at Valcartier Camp to be designated as “13th Battalion” in the Canadian Expeditionary Force’s 3rd Brigade: “It had the honour of being the only unit which had come to Valcartier full strength to be taken as a battalion.”9 The 5th Royal Highlanders’ reputation was again proven. This was a unit that delivered. Is it any wonder George Cantlie was Hughes’s favourite commanding officer? In an impressive display of Canadian organizational skills, the First Contingent sailed from Quebec on 30 September, just over a month after they entrained at Windsor Station. Mobilization Schemes and the Second Contingent – The 42nd Battalion RHC The next plan was to create a Highland reinforcement battalion for immediate service. Suggested by Cantlie, it was actively followed up by Ross, who contacted the 48th Highlanders in Toronto, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Hamilton, The Seaforths of Vancouver, and The Cameron Highlanders of Winnipeg commanded, coincidently, by George Cantlie’s brother, James A Cantlie Jr. The scheme was enthusiastically supported in concept, but foundered in practical reality. The regiments which promptly sent off cadres to Valcartier were left with very few qualified volunteers who could go on active service. Equipment remained the obstacle. The Seaforth Highlanders conceded: “our [first] contingent took all we had.” Individual companies were next proposed “to replace casualties in their own battalions now at the front.”10 The scheme was abandoned when the government decided to form a Second Overseas Contingent authorized in October 1914. Montreal was allotted one

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infantry battalion to be raised by the Victoria Rifles. The 5th Royal Highlanders were directed to establish a recruiting depot for the Second Contingent with the assigned the task of recruiting 410 other ranks (ORs) for the “Vics.” The RHC commenced recruiting on 28 October and ceased on 12 November as by that date the attestation papers of all 410 ORs had been transmitted to the “Vics.” In addition to the 410 ORs recruited by RHC, nine junior RHC officers volunteered to serve with the “Vics.”11 The battalion, initially the 2nd (Service) Battalion 3rd VRC, was finally designated the 24th Provisional Battalion (VRC). The RHC’s strong contribution created a lasting bond between the two Regiments. Eventually, the 24th Battalion would be commanded by a 5th RHC officer who would win the Victoria Cross. It soon left for Valcartier under Lieutenant Colonel JA Gunn to join what would ultimately become the 2nd Canadian Division. Directly the Second Contingent had been trained, the minister announced the raising of a Third Contingent. It was more than Cantlie could bear. The 5th Royal Highlanders had marched off to war while he served in London. He had missed his first opportunity and now a second chance to command his beloved regiment was threatened. Adamant communiqués were cabled to Ottawa. Hughes sympathized. He relieved Cantlie and permitted him to sail back to Montreal and take command of the next fighting battalion. His place was taken by another 5th RHC officer – at least by lineage. John Carson, former RHC regimental commandant and inaugural colonel of the Canadian Grenadier Guards, was appointed as Hughes’s new special representative. Carson would become one of the most powerful military administrators overseas. He built an expanding headquarters in London. Actual operational command exempt, he generally ran everything from socks to billets and bullets. Carson was promoted to major general and, with Frederick Loomis, Ross, McCuaig and Dodds comprised a powerful junta of former or serving Royal Highlanders in the senior echelons of the CEF. George Cantlie eschewed a cushy job with guaranteed promotion in order to go to war. Arriving in Montreal in late November, Cantlie quickly organized his battalion. He discovered seventy-eight officers and nearly nine hundred other ranks ready and waiting. The only irksome aspect was that in keeping with Hughes’s determination to create an all-new all-Canadian force, it was designated the 44th Battalion. In early December 1914, GS Cantlie sent a telegram to the Minister of Militia and Defence requesting a meeting in Ottawa.12 There are no records of their chat, but regimental tradition has it that Cantlie persuaded Hughes to tweak his strict numbering system and permit the second 5th RHC battalion to be named the 42nd. It was a smart political move; the number meant little to the CEF but everything to the Royal Highlanders for it underlined the alliance with the imperial Black Watch, whose long

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empire history included deployment to Canada during the Seven Years’ War with its initial regiment, the esteemed forty twa. It took until May 1915 to outfit the 42nd RHC. Highland accoutrements were not to be had. Cantlie found inspiration in The Black Watch officer’s tweed – a sporting variation of the traditional government sett. He had it adapted to create a more or less khaki kilt with glengarry, which became popularly known within the Regiment as The Cantlie Tartan. Collar badges bore the cross of St Andrew and the number 42. The battalion wore a leather pocket sporran, and the glen was fixed with The Black Watch badge forged with “42nd Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch)” which all but made it official. The regiment perfected the strategy that it is far easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Again, the 5th Royals made good on their determination to be unique, or at least be prominent. Within the CEF, the RHC battalions, like their brother highland units, stood out via distinct badges, headgear and of course, the definitive highland warrior’s garb, the kilt. In fact save for accents, the divisions of the empire were virtually indistinguishable in dress and equipment. In an almost amusing deference to camouflage and technology, the BEF and CEF kilts required a khaki apron to wear over their individual tartans.13 It was about as effective as the canvas casings given French cuirassiers or the Hessian covers fitted over Prussian Pickelhauben. However, the important thing was to go into battle as a proper Highland regiment. Cantlie’s battalion left Montreal in late May, well after the second battle of Ypres. They reached their British training camps in mid-June. The 73rd Battalion RHC No sooner had Cantlie departed than the defence minister, at a regimental mess dinner at the Bleury Street armoury, announced that he was willing to let the Regiment raise a third active service battalion. In June 1915, permission was requested that the name and number considered be 73rd Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada to complete the historical homage to the parent Regiment in Scotland. Sir Sam accepted. Lieutenant Colonel Peers Davidson was appointed commanding officer. He had been a member of the 5th Royals since 1898 and his father, Chief Justice Lieutenant Colonel the Hon Sir Charles Davidson, was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 73rd that winter. His brother, Thornton Davidson, a prominent stockbroker, had joined as a lieutenant in 1912, but had been aboard the Titanic and lost at sea; he was the only Black Watch officer associated with that infamous disaster. Davidson’s battalion was much like its predecessor, but with a slight modulation.

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Most of the 73rd were Montrealers of Scottish birth or descent ( the Regimental Sergeant Major, J McClements had been a Boer War veteran with the British Grenadier Guards; the Pipe Major, AJ Saunders, was formerly of the Highland Light Infantry) but there were also a number of Americans. One-fifth of the 73rd’s original officers were, curiously enough, the sons of American mothers.14 Training was conducted at Fletcher’s Field and McGill University campus. Lieutenant Colonel Davidson followed Cantlie’s lead and adopted the Cantlie tartan with leather sporrans fixed with the number 73. By September, the unit was at Valcartier. The 73rd RHC reached England in April 1916 and by the summer, detrained south of Ypres, ready for the Somme. The accomplishment was daunting. Although several regiments attempted to raise more than one CEF battalion, only the 5th Royal Highlanders managed three combat units serving in the line. Perhaps the most enduring 73rd tradition, and one that was eventually adopted by the Imperials, was the publication of the first Regimental Journal, The Red Hackle. It was launched in Montreal on 19 February 1916, and was even published aboard the troop ship on its way to England.15 The 13th Battalion in England My Dear Dad … it is raining cats and dogs …16

Colonel Ross wrote personally to Hughes requesting that Frederick Loomis, not a seconded officer from another regiment, be given command of the 13th Battalion. There were specific concerns dealing with cultural identity. Ross appealed in order to preserve its individuality as a Highland unit and, if possible, under regimental name. He reminded the minister of a meeting in Ottawa 12 August where “assurance [was] given.”17 Loomis was duly appointed. He took over a complex unit with a solid reputation and elite, albeit homegrown, pedigree; the 13th paraded 1034 all ranks, including the Pipe Band. The final iteration of the 13th Battalion was a combination of Highlanders from two provinces: 996 officers and men from Montreal, reinforced by 260 officers and men from the Pictou Highlanders and the Cumberland Highlanders from Nova Scotia.18 The battalions organized at Valcartier were patterned after the BEF, yet retained an eight-company organization that would be promptly adjusted to four in the UK. As training commenced, the force prepared for a war destined to be dominated by science and technology – particularly artillery and machine guns. Canada had few of either. To fix this, Sir Sam ordered fifty Colt model 1895 machine guns from the United States. Each battalion received at least two Colt guns; the 13th immediately sported

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four, simply because they went out and bought them.19 They were the only rapidfire weapon within the battalion until the Lewis gun became available in mid-1916. Machine guns were not really well understood, except for the appreciation they put down a lot of fire quickly. The British Vickers was the preferred heavy machine gun but simply not available. Although often criticized as complex and requiring much care, the Colt would have to do. The initial order from Macfarlane & Co in Boston included machine guns for both 13th and 42nd Battalions, as well as 45 Colt revolver samples. The Department of Militia in Ottawa noted the Regiment’s initiative: “Thank you for your gift of machine guns. Sam Hughes.”20 Military history chronicles techniques of battle while war’s aftermath affects the families of the Regiment. The RHC had a bountiful harvest of family groups. Its officers were a complex mix of the very young and the very professional. Some were just out of college, most worked in the city for brokers, banks or their family companies. If there was a distinction between more recent conflicts and The Great War, it was the scale of noblesse oblige and patriotic duty. In the 5th Royal Highlanders, Highland tradition exceeded clannish custom and inspired families. There were a dozen kin within the battalion with the more well-known being the Molsons, Norsworthys and the three McCuaig brothers who all fought in the Battle of Ypres. Loomis’s serving officers were intriguing and singular. William Hew ClarkKennedy was a debonair officer who easily inspired confidence. Scottish-born, the thirty-five-year-old cavalry officer gained substantial experience in South Africa with the 7th Hussars and Rhodesian Horse. He seemed fearless. He settled in Montreal and promptly joined the 5th in February 1905. Before the war, all RHC subaltern officers were required to vote on the promotion of their peers. If the colonel had selected a deserving officer, junior officers were invited to waive promotion. The Mess unreservedly supported “CK’s” promotion to captain. Clark-Kennedy very soon became widely known and extremely popular and one of the organizers of the famous St Andrew’s Ball of 1913, attended by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, which was reputed to have been the most brilliant social event ever held in the dominion. Apparently a die-hard bachelor, Clark-Kennedy suddenly married while at Valcartier, days before the battalion shipped out.21 CK’s dearest friend, Edward Norsworthy, was a senior captain with ten years experience when war started. McGill knew him as the best mathematician of his time. He was a successful broker in his family’s Montreal firm and a modern Edwardian, well-known in the Square Mile where he owned and operated the first luxury car in Montreal. Yet, he was also respectful and traditional as evidenced by the fact that Norsworthy’s letters to his father were always signed “Your dutiful son.” His

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three brothers, consummate patriots, would follow him into the war with The Black Watch.22 The junior major was forty-four-year-old Victor Buchanan, also a stockbroker and keen athlete. His devotion to the Regiment was such that he had a boar’s head (the RHC‘s heraldic device) tattooed on his left leg, made just visible when he wore the kilt. Tattooed gentlemen were very unusual in any officers’ mess, but Buchanan was a burly subaltern, as was his adjutant, Eric McCuaig, who sported a similar boar’s head. Buchanan, standing midst an eclectic gathering of 13th officers, and Pipe Major D Manson, the regimental pipe major, were immortalized by Bundy in that grand painting, The Landing of the First Canadian Division at Saint-Nazaire, 1915. It hangs in the Canadian Senate and shows Frederick Loomis, Eric and Rykert McCuaig, Buchanan and General Turner VC, watching the battalion march ashore led by the pipes and drums.23 Perhaps the most prominent Black Watch officer of the early war years was 28-year-old Guy Melfort Drummond, who inherited affluence, an honoured name and a romantically short life. While the majority of the 13th’s officers were well-heeled, Drummond was (near enough) a contemporary billionaire. His father was Senator Sir George Drummond, director of Redpath Sugar, and president of the Bank of Montreal. Drummond took this in stride with a classic nonchalance. When he filled in his attestation papers, after “Occupation” he simply wrote “Clerk,” for he worked in his father’s bank. He had just concluded his honeymoon when the war began but straight away signed up to go. Lady Drummond, accompanied by her son’s bride, moved to their London house to work at the headquarters of the Canadian Red Cross and to be closer to her dashing son. Drummond’s arresting six-foot-four physique with handsome features, made him prominent; his conduct in battle was to make him memorable.24 The three sons of Clarence J McCuaig scored The Black Watch hat trick: they went off to war together and all fought in Canada’s first battle. One would be captured in close combat but win the DSO, which arguably could have been a VC; a second would be a veteran of every major battle and become the youngest general officer in the Canadian Corps. Their letters home reflected their devotion and classical education: “Dear Pater” and “Dearest Mater”; it would have sounded juvenile if all three were not so damned tough. The 13th (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion was brigaded with old rivals and familiar city chums; in orderly sequence: the 14th CEF Battalion (The Royal Montreal Regiment), the 15th CEF Battalion (Toronto’s 48th Highlanders) and the 16th CEF Battalion forged out of men from Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hamilton. “The Canadian Scottish” were more of a martial smorgasbord than most.

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“The men of the different companies could be picked out by the colours of their kilt – the yellow stripe of the Gordons, the white of the Seaforths, the red of the Camerons and the dark green of the Argylls, with the 14th Battalion men in their khaki uniforms mingled in.”25 The kilted battalions liked to refer to themselves as “The Highland Brigade,” which was an understandable exaggeration, given the numbers and perhaps the very manifest 5th Royal Highlanders lineage traced to Lieutenant Colonel FS Meighan, the RMR’s first commanding officer. “With the exception of four, every officer of the 13th Battalion was a native-born Canadian, the majority of Scottish ancestry;”26 however, the rank and file of the battalion they led was mostly British born or first and second generation Scottish immigrants.27 They were all Montrealers by birth or choice. These ratios were to change dramatically by the end of the war. Their colonel, forty-four-year-old Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis, was destined to be one of the brilliant coterie of Canada’s generals who distinguished themselves. Loomis was from Sherbrooke and educated at Bishop’s College School. He settled in Montreal, managed a successful contracting firm, and was accepted into the 5th Royal Highlanders in 1904. His war record, which included every major campaign, ended with him commanding the 3rd Canadian Division. It began with Canada’s first battle, in the Ypres salient. When he joined the regiment in 1904, Loomis identified his profession or occupation as “Gentleman” – this was an important qualification if one hoped to enter the 5th Royal Scots, and was simply de rigueur if one hoped to command. The officers’ mess was chock-a-block with Montreal’s crème de la crème. Millionaires were common and social position and style were more carefully scrutinized than military talent. It was assumed that carefully selected gentlemen would be naturally brave and ready to sacrifice their all for the regiment, leading by example. As it turned out, that proved to be quite true.28 Beyond the lines of Loomis’s officers’ mess, the battalion ranks also included dozens from established Montreal families, professionals, and university students who joined as soldiers, just to go to war with the 5th RHC. Many of them would be promoted in the field, and several became colonels in their own right. One was brawny Frank Stanton Mathewson, stockbroker and gentleman, who enlisted as a private. The Mathewson clan was yet another of the grand Black Watch families that served. His grandfather was Captain James Mathewson, an original company commander of the 5th Battalion in January 1862. There were five altogether and all, save for Frank, were with the 42nd: Mathewson’s brother Hugh (a stockbroker), and three cousins Samuel (an engineer), James (a lawyer) and Kenneth (a student) fresh out of the McGill COTC.

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A lance corporal by the fall of 1914, Frank Mathewson would be commissioned in the field at Ypres and would later be awarded the DSO. He was a keen observer of the world around him and carefully recorded what he saw in the mud and tents of the Salisbury Plain. Mathewson grumbled about negligent training: “We haven’t fired a shot since we left Valcartier … Discipline is absolutely up to the NCOs. If they are not strict the officers can’t expect order.” He was critical of inept technique: “The bombs are bowled like a cricket ball, not thrown.” The British, testing Mills Bombs (hand grenades) threw them as they bowled on the cricket pitch – a technique both unnatural and aggravating to North American soldiers who were used to baseball. Mathewson commented on Canuck comportment, which the British often compared to the Australian: The Canadians have a frightful name all over the country for discipline, but that is earned by not saluting when on leave. Jack and I saluted every little Squad Lieut on our first leave, but there were too many, so afterwards we only saluted Staff Officers and from majors up…. Our officers are not strict enough about standing still when at attention, talking etc., but after all, these things are not the important part of discipline – what is important is to get orders obeyed, and that is done very well.29

Mathewson’s chronicles are interesting because his officers were also his school chums and acquaintances from Montreal society. Command is never easy, but to some it came naturally: There is much familiarity between officers and men … Stuart Molson, and he is the only man I know of who could do it and still be respected. Next to CK [Clark-Kennedy] he is the best and most popular officer. CK is of course the most popular … he was the only officer with a ribbon [South Africa] which inspired confidence … He is always the first to dismiss his company, gets them outfits ahead of the others, visits the tents or huts to see if the men are being treated right. He is not very strict – never curses or pitches into the Company as a whole – which sometimes I think is a mistake …30

Had his notes been available to officers, they would have provided helpful advice: The gentlemen rankers are by far the best workers and the least trouble, while the kids of the lower classes are always the most undisciplined. Old soldiers, while the worst offenders re drunks, absentees etc., know enough to obey an order without question, although they grumble like hell afterwards…. Tips – don’t lend the men money if you can help it – you might lose quite a lot, and they will all try you.31

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The regimental chaplain was referred to as “the Sky Pilot” by the soldiers. Just before embarking for France, Mathewson watched as a new servant took brash advantage: The batman pinched the padre’s raincoat and officer’s glengarry, and was making all the privates salute him, so that the pickets took him for an officer and let him pass. Then he proceeded to get half tight, and was getting on the horse, with an admiring crowd of Tommies standing around, when he was caught.32

Captain, the Reverend Edwin Ernest Graham, a thirty-three-year-old Presbyterian minister from Acadia, and a South African War cavalry veteran, began with a munificent and benign trust but soon learned the battalion ropes. He won an MC, then the DSO, and was duly appointed lieutenant colonel and senior chaplain for the 4th Canadian Division in 1916. The last Christmas before leaving for the front was significant to each company: Cleaning all morning to make the hut spotless … dinner consisted of turkey, parsnips, cabbage, mashed potatoes, excellent plum pudding, apples, nuts, raisins, biscuits and two barrels of beer. We also had a wonderful 60lb cake. Mr Lindsay’s gift. Beer began to take effect; Colonel [Loomis] came around, piped by the pipe major and made a speech. We thought he would never stop, until one of our men interrupted him by calling for three cheers for him which we gave. Then the same man called for three cheers for the Majors, the Captain and the Lieutenants. He was pretty drunk, but useful, as the Colonel hadn’t the nerve to continue. CK thought it was a great joke on the Colonel.33

A Division for War Approximately one-third of the officers of the 1st Division were not qualified to hold their positions. Furthermore, the training of the soldiers in the infantry battalions varied widely, with some having previous service in the British Army, and others having no experience or training whatsoever. Colonel GWL Nicholson, The Official History of the CEF, 1914–191934 We are about to engage the enemy under very favourable conditions. Special Order to the 1st Army, (Sd.) D Haig, Commanding 1st Army, 9 March, 1915.

Colonel Nicholson was primarily speaking of staff officers and those who dabbled in the operational art. Canadians, quite bereft of experienced senior officers, would have to make do with British tutors until they trained their own in the harshest of all finishing schools, the Western Front. The Canadian contingent was first commanded

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by Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alderson who was personally selected by General Haig; he was described as indefatigable and a kind, gentle, little man. The division headquarters was the Bustard Inn, beside Bustard Camp, smack in the middle of the very open and miserably muddy Salisbury Plain.35 It was organized initially into four brigades, each of four battalions. The number “four” would recur in the Canadian Military lexicon: four divisions in the corps, each brigade of four battalions, every battalion with four companies, each company of four platoons; each platoon with four sections. The only change was the reduction to three brigades per division as casualties mounted and the corps expanded. The infantry battalion was shrunk from eight to four companies and alphabetically titled (A, B, C, D) but the stubborn Canadians persisted in referring to their companies in the same old way (No. 1, 2 etc.) until 1916. The first battle of Ypres was fought from October to November 1914 and involved three allied armies as well as a host of Germans. Marshals Joffre and French barely outlasted von Falkenhayn in a bloody struggle for a town that was considered strategic because it was the last speed bump before the English Channel. The battle cost over one hundred thousand Allied soldiers and about half that number of Germans. It was the first of the Flanders sausage grinders and quickly put paid to all previous doctrines and tactics – from Attaque à outrance to the use of cavalry corps as a breakthrough force. It again established (at least until 1917) the superiority of the defensive over the offensive. The battle effectively destroyed the last of the BEF’s “Old Contemptibles” and a chunk of British and German trained reserves, including young inexperienced just-mobilized formations. The Prussian staff called it die Kindermord bei Ypern (The Ypres massacre of innocents). The front was a hasty affair that reflected French offensive doctrine via a series of temporary trench lines. The end state was an inconclusive, disordered and hazardous battlefield. The BEF inherited a part of the mess, and it became a symbol of coalition warfare: a front held by Belgian, British, French, and soon, Canadian formations. Ypres proffered ominous signs in late October 1914 when the Germans broke through the Imperial Black Watch and captured most of the battalion. It was promptly rebuilt from Scottish reserves but remained a sombre caveat for Loomis and his officers. The Canadian Army, represented by a novice yet robust division, was gently eased into professional war. The 13th RHC first went into the trenches near Armentières on 23 February and lacked only experience to make it a useful body of men. Brigades were deployed in rear areas, within the sound of the guns; battalions occupied quiet sectors of the front and the soldiers felt their way around trench lines, did sentry duty, light patrol work and were introduced to the discomforts of modern

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war: “Our men are at present wearing trousers and we are wearing riding breeches as the mud is so frightful. In places in the rear of the trenches, it was right up to my hips. All our men are lousy and it is a thing that can’t be prevented.”36 This inaugural stay seasoned the battalion and adapted them to the constant dangers of technological battle. After losing a few to snipers and prowling howitzer shells, General Alderson’s division was deemed acclimatized and ready for a more demanding bit of front. It turned out to be an apocalyptic experience.

Chapter 8

Ypres – The 13th Battalion RHC

The Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915: Empire Recognition Rain was falling heavily by this time and the night was bitterly cold, but the men’s pulses were quickening and stirred by the fact that ahead of them the black sky was lit up from time to time by brilliant flashes, while low, but unmistakably, came the rumble of the distant guns. The front, that legendary region of unspoken hopes and fears, was now within sight and hearing. RC Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada37 When the time comes you will hear of the Royal Highlanders. Maxim cited by Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie in May 1915, reporting the losses at the second battle of Ypres The country is very fertile, and looks for the most part like the Province of Quebec. Captain Roy Kerr, letter, Ypres, 18 April 1915

The 13th Battalion arrived south of Ypres aboard London buses, still painted red and carrying advertisements. They marched into terrain that to the untrained eye appears flat and unexceptional (“gently undulating, populous farming country with small plantations or woods, the farm buildings being of fair size.”38) but to a soldier, the area incorporated enough subtle dips and hollows to provide concealment as well as tactical advantage. It was spring; the weather was splendid, and, outside of

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shoring up dugouts and digging communication ditches, it seemed like a reasonable spot. In fact, it was the untenable salient – a bulge in the Allied front line that nearly circumvented the city of Ypres, which had already earned an evil and sinister reputation. The 1st Canadian Division and its cohorts were surrounded on three sides; the situation invited an attack that could snip off Ypres and devour two Allied corps. The 13th Battalion RHC deployed within the salient on 21 April 1915, occupying the extreme left of the division, whose front extended over four thousand yards. Five hundred yards of it belonged to the 13th. They took over an area previously held by the 14th (Royal Montreal) Battalion. On their right was the 15th Battalion (Toronto’s 48th Highlanders) and further east, two battalions of Brigadier General Arthur Currie’s 2nd Brigade. Their own 3rd Brigade headquarters under Brigadier General Turner was three miles to the southwest. The remaining brigade was in army reserve behind the divisional HQ, some five miles to the rear behind the Ypres Canal. On the battalion’s left, part of the contiguous line of trenches, was the French Army comprised of a brigade from the 45th Algerian Division with four battalions: The African Light Infantry, 2nd Zouaves, and the 1st and 2nd Battalions Tirailleurs (referred to as “Turcos” by the British, a nickname from the Crimean war). These troops were to suffer the full effects of the gas attack. Lieutenant Colonel Loomis commanded twenty-seven officers and nine hundred forty-six men.39 Battalion headquarters was in the village of St Julien, almost two miles behind the front line. His adjutant was thirty-year-old Captain Eric McCuaig, a stockbroker from a prestigious family firm whose brothers, Rykert and Clarence, were company and platoon commanders. Loomis inherited a secondary task; he had been appointed garrison commander of St Julien and allotted two additional companies from the brigade. The battalion’s rear echelon (transport and quartermaster stores) was in Ypres itself, another three miles south. Loomis deployed the battalion three companies up: No. 1 left (Major Rykert McCuaig), No. 2 centre (Captain Robert Jamieson) and No. 4 right (Captain Hew Clark-Kennedy); he maintained a small battalion reserve in St Julien under Major Victor Buchanan. This included an engineer section, one machine gun detachment and half of No. 3 Company, led by Captain Thomas Morrisey, a twenty-four-year-old Maritimer, an engineer and RMC graduate. The platoons were commanded by Lieutenant Clarence McCuaig, twentytwo, the youngest of the three McCuaig brothers who was a bond salesman in the family brokerage, and Lieutenant Stuart Molson, a young banker from a well-known Montreal brewing family. Of the six Molson cousins and brothers who served (all but one were in The Black Watch), Stuart seemed to love the Regiment most and had wanted to serve since a child.40 Loomis’s second in command, Major Edward

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Cuthbert Norsworthy, a thirty-five-year-old broker, heir to the family firm, spent fifteen years in the 5th RHC, holding every position except commandant. Norsworthy was given the remainder of No. 3 Company and positioned directly behind McCuaig’s and Jamieson’s companies as the supports; he was also tactical commander of the firing line. The Highlanders moved into their assigned trenches on a fine spring evening. “Each company commander provided himself with a Belgian hand-cart for drawing up rations and ammunition, as well as wine casks for water … Dawn, however, had broken before we finished getting our supplies.”41 The defences proved to be flimsy and unfinished in many places. With few proper tools, they set out to reinforce the parapets. At first light, the officers “took careful note of our surroundings through the periscopes. All in front of us the ground was strewn with the bodies of dead Germans and French soldiers in various stages of decomposition … The smell when the sun got up was terrible.”42 The trenches had changed little from the chaos of the first Ypres battle, and the 14th Battalion had not managed to improve them. Most of the 13th Battalion’s front (referred to as “the firing line”) was in low ground. It was bisected by the YpresPoelcapelle Road: one of those long paced roads lined with big trees, a metalled macadam thoroughfare that connected to St Julien and disappeared north into the German lines. The western section was divided by the Lekkerboterbeek that created a one hundred yard space between Nos. 1 and 2 Companies. A communication ditch was attempted across the gap but halted as water and bodies made up a few inches of the surface. A second creek, the Stroombeek, flowed behind Nos. 2 and 4 Companies, joining the Lekkerboterbeek east of the road. Each position had “a continuous parapet, much of this was only one sand bag thick. It was useful mainly as a screen from view.”43 The division CRE (Commander Royal Engineers) sent an officer to report on the condition of the front line. The engineer discovered that the four companies had haphazard fire trenches of varied sizes generally connected by communication aisles, which were little more than drainage ditches. The wire entanglements consisted of about one strand of low barbed wire and one or two coils of French coiled wire. The trenches were seldom more than two feet deep, and the water table made any digging result in water and mud: Numerous corpses were lying on the surface or buried at a very shallow depth making it impossible for us at many places to excavate at all. There is also human excreta littered all over the place … there are no parados [buttressing, giving protection from rear fire] …

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very little could be done in the way of filling sand bags or building dugouts as the parapets were built above ground, the lower parts being partly built up of bodies.44

The parapet in No. 1 Company area was in some cases nonexistent, and in many cases not bullet proof; No. 2 Company, set along a line of trees, was in an area full of shell holes and water with about six isolated posts along the willows. The parapet was only waist high and consisted of earth without any revetting. Clark-Kennedy’s No. 4 Company enjoyed improved communication trenches and was in slightly better shape as it was revetted by the Canadian engineers with sandbags. The earth was filled in front and the parapet was levelled and thickened so that it was now bullet proof. The trench itself was also dug down to 4½–5 feet below the ground. The engineer’s evaluation of the Canadian front line was sombre: “things are in a deplorable state from the standpoint of defence, safety and sanitation [emphasis in original report].”45 The 13th’s machine gun officer, Lieutenant James Gordon Ross, a thirty-fiveyear-old Oxford mining engineer, had eleven gun detachments (dets) with which to cover the battalion area; in addition to his four Colts, he was lent three guns by the RMR (manned by crews from the 13th) and another two-gun section from the 15th Battalion. A couple of French machine guns were at the left flank of No. 1 Company. He deployed his detachments liberally: four dets with No. 1 Company, (including the two French MGs with McCuaig’s left platoon); two dets with Captain Jamieson’s No. 2 Company; and a det with Major Norsworthy’s supports (half of No. 3 Company). Finally, No. 4 Company was supported by two MG dets loaned by 48th Highlanders’ machine gun officer, Captain Robert McKessock. Ross recorded: “the one good point [in the front trenches] was the excellent series of machine gun emplacements. These were roofed with arched sheets of heavy corrugated iron and had loop holes for cross fire three sand bags high.”46 No. 1 Company, under Major Rykert McCuaig, a senior broker and heir to the family firm, was astride the Poelcapelle highway; its four platoons were led by Captains Ward Whitehead, a twenty-four-year-old manufacturer and retail executive from a well-known Montreal family, and Herbert Walker, a twenty-two-year-old junior banker. The lieutenants were Charles Pitblado (called “Pitt” by his friends), a recent RMC graduate, and Melville “Mel” Greenshields, the son of James Naismith Greenshields KC, a prominent Montreal lawyer, financier and art collector. The father had been one of Louis Riel’s lawyers and then turned to commercial and corporate matters, which eventually became Shawinigan Water and Power and Wabasso Cottons. Lieutenant Greenshields was one of the three designated heirs. Melville was an earnest officer and caring professional who was liked by his men. He later recalled

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he was wary “of the difficult frontage to defend, as we had a straight road running right through our line.”47 A ditch was dug across the road, and a rough redoubt constructed. The trenches to the east were held by Captain Robert Harry Jamieson’s No. 2 Company. Jamieson was a forty-four-year-old manufacturer who had served fourteen years with the 5th RHC. It was this section that was closest to the German front line trenches. In the centre, the distance to the Germans was about 30–75 yards.48 The 2 i/c was Captain Kenneth Perry, a thirty-one-year-old civil engineer; his platoon leaders were Lieutenant Ian Macintosh Roe Sinclair, a twenty-four-year-old graduate student from the University of Toronto, Lieutenant Alan Worthington, a twenty-four-year-old civil engineer from Toronto, Lieutenant Alastair Fisher, a twenty-seven-year-old chartered accountant who immigrated from Edinburgh in 1903, and Lieutenant Ernest Marmaduke Sellon, a forty-year-old insurance broker and Boer War veteran, born in Bombay, India, who grew up in South Africa. The elegant Clark-Kennedy’s No. 4 Company included Captain Gerald Lees, a thirty-eight-year-old broker from Wolverhampton and an avid sportsman who had joined the 5th Royal Highlanders in 1905; Lieutenant Stanley Bagg Lindsay, a twenty-five-year-old law student just out of McGill but preferring to attest as a gentleman; and William MacTier, another McGill graduate and broker, whose father was the senior vice president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. MacTier, at 6-foot 3-inches, presented a tempting target; every time a bullet pinged by he would fairly telescope. The position included a stone house; in its cellar, Major Norsworthy set up an advanced battalion headquarters and installed a telephone connected to Loomis’s HQ and his own supports. The battalion supports were deployed four hundred yards to the rear of No. 1 Company, east of the junction of the Poelcapelle Road and the Lekkerboterbeek. Norsworthy’s force comprised a tactical headquarters with telephone; an MG detachment under Lance Corporal Watt and half of No. 3 Company: two platoons commanded by Captains Guy Drummond and Charles Smith, an insurance broker who had previously served twelve years with the 4th Black Watch Territorials. The rest of the company was a mile and a half south, next to battalion headquarters.

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A whiff of hellish brew. 13th Battalion War Diary, 22 April 1915 This supreme test [of] all the training of the Battalion, the traditions of the home regiment … the individual characteristics of the men, and their upbringing as citizens of Canada were called into play. Lieutenant JG Ross, Machine Gun Officer, 13th Battalion RHC, reporting on the Ypres battle

April 22 began tranquilly. It was bright and sunny with a gentle breeze blowing from the north-east. In late morning, the Algerian’s front, including McCuaig’s Company, was subjected to steady artillery fire (a storm of lyddite and shrapnel); by the afternoon “the enemy batteries began searching the country for artillery and supports, shelling the roads and Ypres with the heaviest bombardment we had yet heard. Hun aeroplanes became active.”49 The adjutant noted: “No warning was given, except for a general note in orders that gas might be used …”50 In St Julien, Lieutenant Colonel Loomis was alerted by a crescendo of rapid volleys from French 75s: the gas was probably seen at St Julien before it was seen on the line. Major McCuaig noticed “the sun had a peculiar greenish appearance.”51 The eerie spectacle heralded the first use of poison gas in civilized warfare. The machine gun officer recalled: About 5

pm

the general activity increased and a greenish cloud slowly swept towards the

Turco Lines … [who] got the full force of it … with their flimsy parapets blown to pieces, this unknown horror was too much for them. Those who could, tried to escape … but the poor fellows fell in windrows on the open grass behind their trenches. The edge of the gas wave caught us, but luckily not so heavily.52

The 1st Battalion Tirailleurs, alongside the 13th, were not completely overcome by the gas and for a time remained in their trenches. After a brief pause to allow the gas to dissipate, the Germans launched the main attack. Their divisions pushed southwest, but one formation turned east toward the 3rd Brigade lines, taking apart the Tirailleurs and threatening No. 1 Company’s flank – de facto, the Canadian front line. McCuaig’s defences were tossed about by artillery; the parapet was down, and the entrenching tools were inadequate to rebuild it. Their common front began to empty as the Algerians fled. “Major McCuaig rallied these French troops and placed them back in their trenches … he held them together by putting one platoon of his own company with them. About 150 yards of the French trench was held for an hour

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under heavy enfilade of artillery and rifle fire.”53 The advanced platoon was led by Captain Herbert Walker, vibrant and innovative, remembered at his university as one of the founders of the McGill Daily: My platoon on the very left of the line joined the Turcos … I rendered them all the assistance possible and we held on practically surrounded until it would have been ridiculous to stay longer. The coolness of the platoon was wonderful contrast to the excitement and hubbub of these wretched Algerians, and we stemmed the tide of Bosches until the company could make dispositions to save the flank of the Regiment. We then abandoned about twenty-five yards of trench and threw our line back at right angles.54

McCuaig tried to extend his company to shore up the abandoned front but “the Germans immediately started bombing their way down the captured trenches to get at us.”55 Faced with an open route into his position, McCuaig decided to bulkhead off the end of the trench and prepare to resist a flank attack. Norsworthy’s Supports – First Contact with the German Army Everyone who goes into action is sure of a cross – a wooden one or a Victoria Cross … Naturally, some of us won’t come back, and if I don’t – well, there must be some satisfaction somewhere in knowing that you died like a gentleman in the company of gentlemen. Major EC Norsworthy, 13th RHC, before embarkation, September 1914

Behind McCuaig, Norsworthy’s supports were thoroughly shelled. He was out of telephone contact with Loomis, and the only means of communicating was by runner. A report from the firing line advised him that the French had broken and were in wild retreat. The German War History recorded: “the psychological impact was massive.”56 Norsworthy realized that his was the only force on a two thousand yard open flank stretching to St Julien. Sometime after 6 pm, he advanced his platoons toward the Poelcapelle Road and lined the ditch on the north-west side facing the advancing Germans as they followed up the fleeing Turcos. Peppered by small-arms fire, Norsworthy walked up and down his impromptu flank guard exhorting the men to “keep down; keep at it.” Captain Drummond, who spoke fluent French, did all in his power to stay retreating Algerians. He managed to steady over a hundred (the numbers vary) and placed them on the extreme left of the ad hoc line along the road ditches and Lekkerboterbeek Creek: “The last thing that I saw Captain Drummond doing was trying to rally these Turcos. He tried to lead them to battle, but they were too nervous. [He] walked up and down the road, cheering and jollying us up, and

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speaking to each one of us.”57 It was nigh on surreal; swarms of Tirailleurs, eyes burning, foaming at the mouth, hotly pursued by Pickelhaube’d Germans confronting the crème de la crème of Montreal’s Square Mile. The enemy assault was ragged but conducted by an overwhelming force. The striking Drummond and Norsworthy made tempting targets as both were over six-feet tall. Norsworthy yelled “Come on men, remember we are Canadians” which would have sounded fatuous from others, but characteristic of the man. It was a vigorous defence, but courage and grit were not enough; the supports were soon overwhelmed, and both Major Norsworthy and Captain Drummond were killed. Norsworthy was shot in the throat but refused help saying, “No man should retire that could hold a gun.” He tied a kerchief around his neck and continued to direct combat. Finally, he was struck by a second bullet. Drummond was wounded as well, but continued to hearten his platoon and inspire the Tirailleurs until he was cut down by shrapnel. A historian described Drummond, and this would easily apply to all the slain RHC officers, as “Canada’s lost generation – a man of enormous potential whose life was snuffed out before he reached his prime.”58 Only Private Frederick Teffer and five men survived to report to Major McCuaig that the supports had been overrun and the officers killed. This often overlooked mêlée marked the Canadians’ first engagement in The Great War and the first hand-to-hand encounter of the war by the Canadian Expeditionary Corps. Afternoon 22 April: A Threatened Garrison – An Isolated Front Line Menaced by Germans driving into his flank and rear, Rykert McCuaig redeployed his machine gun detachments. Where raw courage failed, automatic fire prevailed. The advance was checked; the enemy fell back and dug in on a rise parallel to the road, but still threatened the brigade’s left flank. The main German attack continued to press toward the Ypres Canal, penetrated over two miles, and seized fifty-seven French guns. At St Julien, Loomis’s adjutant, Captain Eric McCuaig, brother to Rykert, recalled that the Turcos started to withdraw through the village, and the retirement became a disorderly rout. Nevertheless, about a hundred Tirailleurs were rallied and stayed to help the garrison’s defence. Just west of St Julien, the enemy captured “Kitchener’s Wood” (the soubriquet was actually a deviation of Bois des Cuisiniers since the area was used as a hideout for the Algerian division’s field kitchens) and a battery of guns, which they turned on the 13th. Loomis had little news of his battalion, but was fully occupied. He was mobbed by fleeing Algerians, harassed by artillery, and hassled by small-arms fire.

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St Julien was on the verge of becoming an island in a German sea. The division’s western flank was a wide breach stretching from the axis of the gas attack to beyond Kitchener’s Wood. A secondary thrust threatened 3rd Brigade’s flank. The eastern edge along the Poelcapelle Road, between McCuaig’s company and St Julien, was virtually unguarded. If Loomis had only a rough idea of what was happening at the front, his senior headquarters was totally bemused. Brigadier General Richard Turner VC, was a respected South African warrior but has been treated unsympathetically as a tactical commander: “[he] showed little understanding of how to control his forces … he was incapable of deciphering the true situation at the front.”59 The appraisal is unforgiving in a battle where no one knew what was going on. However, good commanders (here some may insert “lucky”) have a sixth sense for battle – what the Germans call Fingerspitzengefühl. The brigadier and his staff struggled throughout the day. Turner’s brigade major (chief of staff) was Garnet Hughes, son of the Minister of Militia and Defence and rated as loaded with ambition but with modest tactical talent. The brigade HQ was two miles south of its forward battalions, and even in flat Flanders, there was little to see through the smoke. Still, they stayed put in the ironically nicknamed Mousetrap Farm; no one left their maps and telephones to go for a closer look. The brigade exaggerated threats to its immediate flank, particularly from Kitchener’s Wood.60 Information was slow and generally out of date or inaccurate. Instructions were given by telephone, which, since German artillery had wrecked the lines, stopped with Loomis. Beyond St Julien, the control of the battle was conducted via valiant soldiers working their way north clutching pieces of paper. Lieutenant Colonel Loomis sent off a series of runners; two disappeared trying to reach the battalion’s trenches. One finally got through to No. 1 Company. Loomis’s instruction to McCuaig was to use his own discretion. Concurrently, he established a firing line to defend St Julien. He ordered the attached 14th and 15th Battalions’ companies and two RMR machine gun dets to dig in astride the Poelcapelle Road, facing west.61 Captain McCuaig recalled a hectic scramble to defend the town: “We threw out a defensive flank to the left. This consisted of headquarters troops, batmen, pioneers and others.” To his irritation, Colonel Loomis was then ordered to support the French withdrawal near Kerselare, north of St Julien. At 8 pm, he dispatched a segment of his garrison companies under Major Hanson (RMR) and Captain Morrisey (15th). The Germans shot them up, wounding both officers and forcing them back. The main enemy force continued to push towards Ypres. Loomis warned Turner that the left must be supported quickly. His problems amplified; shortly after dark the Germans established a line just west of St Julien and started throwing up flares. In the darkness, he faced infantry probes, in places, house-to-house fighting.

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The division’s reaction to the German breakthrough came at 8 pm with a vigorous counterattack that retook Kitchener’s Wood with the bayonet. This was a heroic action with a terrible price and an example of how not to do things: a rushed attack in fading light with no reconnaissance, incomplete orders and no leadership from the brigade. Nevertheless, it was a temporary victory, dearly bought, and this was occurring all across the Canadian front. McCuaig Defends the Flank: 22 April The Germans captured the French trenches which brought them right next to us on our left. During the night they rushed troops through this gap and next morning were right behind us. Lieutenant Stanley Lindsay, 3rd Platoon, No. 4 Company, correspondence, 27 April 191562 Our position is precarious. Major DR McCuaig to Loomis, delivered by runner, 22 April 1915, 6:40 pm

Major Rykert McCuaig reacted to the brigade’s threat with cool initiative. He sent in a platoon to reinforce the troops on the left. The French were occupying a line to protect their flank so he immediately detailed another platoon-and-a-half and placed them in a ditch on the Poelcapelle Road in echelon with the French. Meanwhile, the Germans worked well around the back of them. He was too extended. At 6:40 pm, he ordered the remainder of Lieutenant Melville Greenshields and Lieutenant Herbert Walker’s platoons back into the ditches along the Poelcapelle Road. Greenshields later wrote: “it was some job, under rifle and machine gun fire, and in addition could hardly breathe or see from the effects of the lyddite smoke and asphyxiating gases.”63 At 8 pm, the French troops finally broke: “we rallied the survivors and formed a curving line back along the road for 200 yards; the enemy were constantly trying to work up on us; this happened all night.”64 As he now commanded the firing line, McCuaig directed two more platoons from Nos. 2 and 4 Companies to buttress his perpendicular perimeter. That left the battalion’s “proper front” reduced to eight infantry platoons: two in No. 1; three in each Nos. 2 and 4 Companies. “Captain Whitehead and Sergeant Major Abelson held on to fifty Turcos and used them for holding their part of the front line so that more men were available for the road … he [Whitehead] was always cool no matter what the danger.”65 Supporting artillery fire was scattered, often short and impossible to correct. McCuaig directed Lieutenant Ross to reinforce the Poelcapelle Road. Ross

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led two machine gun dets forward; Sergeant John Trainor, a professional soldier who served five years in the RCR, and Lance Corporal Stanley Parks. They worked tenaciously: “the only cover the men had were paving blocks they pried up or picked out of shell holes and piled in front of them.”66 Captain Walker wrote later: “With the aid of some machine guns … we held on all night. Oh what an evening it was.”67 McCuaig held a council of war with the other company commanders, Captains Jamieson and Clark-Kennedy. He reckoned a better chance by continuing to refuse his left but shortening the front line. He decided that if no reinforcements arrived before dawn, he would abandon his outflanked position and withdraw to a switch line to be constructed by Captain Jamieson’s company behind their own trenches three hundred yards east of the main road and parallel to the Lekkerboterbeek. The moon went down at 2 am, leaving McCuaig’s platoons pretty much blind; they had no Very lights, and only German flares and machine guns gave them any idea of enemy locations. The Germans continued to press and the Highlanders replied, hoping to disguise the weakness and inadequacy of their force: “we pumped our rifles until they were so hot we could scarcely hold them.” Walker recalled, “we lay all night [along the] road – we on one side and the Germans on the other.”68 Ammunition was low and they were out of water. Fred Fisher Saves 10th Field Battery: Afternoon 22 April … most gallantly assisted in covering the retreat of a battery. War Office, writing of Fisher, 23 June 1915, cited in The London Gazette

By late afternoon of the 22nd, the division’s left flank was wide open; nothing but Germans and retreating Tirailleurs between St Julien and the 13th Battalion trenches – nothing, except for the four 18 pounders of Major William King’s No. 10 Battery. King, a manufacturer from Toronto, was a seasoned militia officer, a South African veteran, and a famous gunner name in the Niagara Peninsula. He was deployed in an orchard beside the main road, just south of the hamlet of Kerselare, and about 600 yards northeast from St Julien. The battery laid phone lines to their forward observation officer (FOO) in the 13th Battalion trenches and an observation post on Gravenstafel Ridge. All were cut by the first German barrage. As the gas clouds drifted south, King’s 18 pounders continued firing in support of The Black Watch. When retreating French troops began streaming through the battery, he requested assistance. King was instructed to fight until the last moment and if he was about to be overrun, “to try to remove his breech blocks … and make the best of it.”69

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General Turner ordered Loomis to help the gunners, but the St Julien garrison commander was hard pressed; his headquarters was filled with groaning, bleeding men. Loomis’s own staff was tossed around; his adjutant, Eric McCuaig, was hit: “lying out in the field, no protection whatever … I was wounded on the top of the head by shrapnel. We had no ‘tin hats’ then.”70 The battalion surgeon, Major Ernest Brown, was whelmed as casualties poured into St Julien – overflows from the four aid posts on the reverse slope of Gravenstafel Ridge. Loomis sent what he could spare: one platoon from each of the attached companies and his remaining MG detachment. The “Emma Gee” det was commanded by Lance Corporal Frederick Fisher, born in St Catharines, but a Montrealer for most of his life. His number two, Private Henry Holdway, was the machine gun platoon’s cook. “Bud” Fisher was hard as nails and remembered as a dynamic leader. He was an exceptional athlete: a McGill football star and a favourite with the gals. Fisher was an engineering student before enlisting in 1914, and, with other 5th Royal Highlanders, a member of the prestigious Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. His cousin, Captain Gilbert McGibbon, was the 13th Battalion’s signals officer.71 The battery relief force, a mix of RMR/48th Highlanders and Corporal Fisher’s MG Det came under fire; the officers and sergeants were soon hit, and their sections entrenched well short of the battery – the rescue lagged. Although Fisher was without instructions, he demonstrated what modern armies call mission command; he grabbed a few men from the 13th Battalion supports (No. 3 Company reserve, still near St Julien) and began to move forward. At 7 pm, Major King, destined to earn an MC and become the commander of the 4th Division’s artillery, suddenly noticed a shower of leaves falling on the battery, cut from the willows by enemy rifle fire. King spotted Germans advancing in large numbers on his left. He acted with commendable sang froid; “reversing two of my guns I opened fire on them at about 200 yards.”72 King’s action surprised the Germans; shrapnel rounds (there were no HE rounds for 18 pounders available as yet) shredded their ranks, and they withdrew to cover. But as daylight waned, they advanced again; rifle fire became intense. At 8 pm, King received instructions to withdraw and sent for the horses. His limber teams took heavy casualties, and many were in panic. The battery would lose thirty-eight men and seventy horses either killed or so badly wounded that they had to be destroyed. King was becoming very anxious about his guns. It was at this time that Lance Corporal Fisher appeared on the scene with his Colt detachment.73 On his initiative, Fisher moved north astride the road, and to his surprise “came across Major King’s field battery in difficulties … the horses [had] been stampeded …”74 King’s gunners hooked up to ammunition limbers, and started to pull the guns away

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by hand until horses from the echelon were brought forward. Now under heavy fire, Fisher crawled into an isolated farmhouse which commanded the area, set up his machine gun, and began laying down precise bursts to suppress the Germans; the Colt gun was handled with the greatest skill and daring. His detachment was killed off one by one, until only Fisher and Holdway were left. They did not cease firing until King’s battery retired, circa 11 pm.75 Fisher then returned to St Julien looking for 3rd Company, but Major Buchanan had already marched to assist McCuaig circa 10:45 pm.76 Coming upon a skirmish, Fisher went forward, found a French machine gun, got it working, and discouraged a German attack into the town. He next came across a company from the RMR: “I remember one lance corporal, Fred Fisher, of the 13th Battalion. He came down looking for eight volunteers to carry up a machine gun, so eight of us stepped out.”77 Still without orders, the nineteen-year-old junior NCO led his detachment north to the 13th’s firing line until he found his platoon officer and turned over the identity discs of the killed men. His action with 10th Battery, and his next valiant efforts, would earn him the CEF’s first Victoria Cross – the first Canadian-born man to do so. The Apex – Morning, 23 April Now began a long day of heavy casualties. Lieutenant JG Ross, Ypres Report, 1916 For a short time we held an outwork built on the road but that became untenable and after the loss of fifty men we retired into the trench and held it all day with the Germans on three sides of us. Major Rykert McCuaig, interview, 1933

Loomis was fed scraps of reinforcements – as it was, what little was sent, arrived in the nick of time. There has been criticism of the British way of war circa 1914– 1916, principally for not demonstrating the flexibility of the Prussian system of Auftragstaktik (mission directed tactics) – the sine qua non of the modern staff college curriculum. The bayonet attack that cleared Kitchener’s Wood was a costly reprise of the worst Napoleonic tactics. Still, there is evidence of flexibility and prompt resolution. Directly the offensive was reported, the army commander, General Horace Smith-Dorrien (nicknamed “Smithereens”), immediately released 1st Canadian Brigade from army reserve and made it available to Alderson. Before the end of the long battle, thirty-three British battalions would be seconded to his headquarters, although the British still hesitated to put full brigades under Canadian command.

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Just after midnight, Lieutenant General Sir Herbert (“Old Plum”) Plumer, GOC 5th British Corps, provided Alderson with a composite brigade of four battalions cobbled together from 28th Division, under Colonel Augustus Geddes. When the Geddes detachment arrived at 3rd Canadian Brigade HQ, one company was immediately allotted to Loomis to reinforce the 13th Battalion. Loomis sent Major Buchanan with the reserve platoons as a reconnaissance in force. They reached the area where Norsworthy’s force had been annihilated, came under heavy fire, and returned to report to Loomis. When the British company appeared, Loomis again dispatched Buchanan to reinforce McCuaig, who, unknown to him, was about to fall back. The force comprised No. 3 Company buttressed by the new acquisition, B Company, 2nd Buffs (The Royal East Kent Regiment) under Captain FW Tomlinson, and a party of Engineers from 3rd Field Company CE. They left at midnight carrying twenty-five boxes of ammunition. “About Turn!” The Deteriorating Apex: 9 am to Midnight, 23 April The 13th Battalion held its narrow crumbling length, in spite of incessant bombardment and rifle fire from three directions, for eleven hours longer.78 No. 1 Company under Major McCuaig was in the very worst position of the whole line. Lieutenant Colonel FOW Loomis, 13 July 191579

By dawn, McCuaig redeployed south of his original position in good order. No sooner was this accomplished, Major Buchanan arrived with his 150 reinforcements. This acted like a tonic, and spirits rose. McCuaig ordered “About Turn!”80 No. 1 Company reoccupied their original trenches, and set about strengthening the sandbag redoubt at the intersection of the Poelcapelle Road and the Lekkerboterbeek. Buchanan assumed command of the firing line. To the southwest, a major British/Canadian counterattack against the centre of the German advance did not succeed. Ypres remained much threatened; at 10:30 pm, Canadian engineers reported all canal bridges were prepared for demolition. The German attempt to envelope St Julien continued. It was a busy battlefield. Hundreds of guns were engaged on both sides, and the air was filled with planes spotting for German artillery. There was no respite for Loomis and his exposed battalion – a hook at the apex of the Canadian front line. Communication was infrequent. One runner was intercepted and killed by the Germans far back of the trenches, but another, Lance Corporal James Campbell, managed to scuttle back and forth all day. After the war, McCuaig singled out Private Butler Giveen, who greatly distinguished himself by

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carrying through a message to headquarters explaining the situation and returning. It was the 13th Battalion headquarters runner, five foot four Private Harry Danson, who was awarded the Battalion’s first Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) on 22 April. The citation stated, in part: “For gallant conduct and devotion to duty at St Julien … in carrying orders, when the telephone lines were down, under very heavy shell and rifle fire.”81 Re-occupying the old trench line proved imprudent. McCuaig’s position steadily deteriorated: “The Hun had the drop on us from three sides.” The close fighting was a bloody inauguration for young soldiers: In defending Herbie’s [Captain Walker] position we lost practically all of number 1 and number 2 platoons … We were now in the position of having to hold our frontal trench with Pitt [Lieutenant Charles Pitblado] and one platoon, whilst Herb and his few men re-enforced me. The Germans then attacked our road position, but we repulsed them. Our men kept wonderfully cool: took careful aim and dropped them before they reached us.82

The battalion defeated successive attacks and endured tormenting shelling. “The wounded could not be moved – we had not even water to give them.”83 Half the men were directed to rebuild trenches; the remainder returned fire. By 9 am, the casualties were unacceptable; it was decided to abandon the western positions and retire to Jamieson’s ad hoc switchline. Withdrawal was difficult given the open terrain and not many made that fifty yards in safety: “Nearly every man crossing the creek was potted.”84 Lieutenant Ross made a determined effort to suppress enemy fire. He brought up another machine gun section and tried to set it up in a shallow trench. Both the det commander and his No. 2 were killed attempting to position the gun – it was Lance Corporal Fred Fisher and Private Henry Holdway. Ross and Fisher crawled out along a shallow trench ducking enemy snipers. The Colt was a difficult piece of work, weighing nearly forty pounds; the tripod was fiftyfour pounds. Fisher was five foot nine and a half inches tall and, on the morning of the 23rd, quite exhausted – without sleep or a meal. “Just as we had the gun in position and Fisher was putting the ammunition box on … a bullet got Fisher in the heart and he fell back dead.”85 Sergeant Alex McLeod immediately moved forward to replace him but was struck down in the same way. Finally, a third MG detachment, Privates Scott Perkes and Kongland Glad (an Australian), set up their machine gun. This worked. Their accurate fire against the most annoying German positions neutralized them for most of the day. The dead were interred in the trenches. Fisher and McLeod were buried by Lieutenant Ian Sinclair in his own dugout.86

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The position remained critical. Buchanan commanded elements of five companies, including the 2/E Kents. German spotter aircraft flew overhead reporting targets for their artillery. The biggest fear was the Jack Johnson, a German 15 cm shell. It was named after a popular American boxer and arrived like a freight train; its explosion blew men to pieces midst a huge sooty blast. The Germans repeatedly assaulted the 13th Battalion line; sure their artillery had eliminated them. Each foray was defeated by angry fire. Loomis wrote to Turner: “Retirement is inevitable unless counterattack takes place without possible delay.”87 Captain Clark-Kennedy was sent to brief Loomis, who promptly dispatched him to report personally to Turner. At 5 pm on the 23rd, Clark-Kennedy returned after an adventurous trip to brigade headquarters with new orders: Major Buchanan was to withdraw and occupy a new position at an obtuse angle southwest of the 15th Battalion. Lieutenant Colonel Loomis had immediately requested major reinforcements because the proposed line would be on a forward slope and exposed to direct artillery fire; but none were available.88 Abandoning the original battalion line made tactical sense; after two days of artillery and small-arms fire, the trenches had been shot to pieces, dugouts and machine gun positions sagged and crumpled. Nevertheless, the Germans recorded: “the Canadians to the east were able to offer stubborn resistance.”89 The plan, which originated with General Alderson, was to create an extended flank guard based on a frugally reinforced 13th Battalion. It would start at the original firing line anchored on the 15th Battalion (The 48th Highlanders), continue at an angle east of the Poelcapelle Road, and fix onto St Julien, thus shortening the 13th’s exposed front and offering a stronger brigade flank. In fact, it simply established a slightly better-defended bulge. The operation began with the evacuation of casualties, assisted by the sappers of 3rd Field Company. Captains Ward Whitehead and Kenneth Perry (a future 13th CO and brigadier; his father was a brigadier general and commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police) rendered devoted service ensuring the dead were buried, and the wounded were placed on make-shift stretchers to the 15th Battalion lines and then south over Gravenstafel Ridge. In darkness, the battalion companies prepared to move. The withdrawal was covered by fire from a machine gun commanded by Sergeant John Trainor and a dozen men under Corporal Walter Macfarlane, whose regimental ties included Lieutenant Colonel Ibbotson as father-in-law, and who would later be awarded an MC and Bar. He eventually became a Black Watch colonel himself.90 The position was successfully abandoned without a single casualty.

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A New Line and Gas Attack – Dawn 24 April Men all around me being blown into the air in pieces, and a constant hail of machine gun and rifle fire passing over the men.91 It was terrible to see our men blown to pieces in groups of four or five at a time.92

The 13th spent the night digging their new position; by dawn, they managed a trench about two feet deep. Their line extended from the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders) and comprised, in order from north to southwest, B Company of the 2nd Buffs; remnants of Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 Companies of the 13th; three companies of the 7th Battalion (British Columbia); and finally, three RMR companies up to and including the St Julien area. The line was covered by five strands of wire, 700 yards long, erected by 7th Battalion and 2nd Field Company CE. Everyone was exhausted. One small relief was Corporal Edward Waud, commissioned in the field during the battle, who got through with machine gun ammunition, biscuits and cheese – “but with no water, eating biscuits was like chewing sand.”93 The 13th remained a bulge in the line, but still holding the shoulder of the penetration – the classic defensive solution to a breakthrough. Their persistence further annoyed the German commander, Generaloberst Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, already irritated by the unanticipated resistance. He ordered a second gas attack for the morning of the 24th, this time against the Canadians. Determined to excise his nuisance, Albrecht’s objective was Gravenstafel Ridge, a mile behind the front line.94 To reach it, his corps must crash through the remaining Canadian front, destroy the 13th Battalion hinge, and overrun both brigades. The 1st Canadian Division, specifically the 48th Highlanders, the 13th Battalion, and 8th Battalion CEF (Winnipeg’s “Little Black Devils”), were to be the first troops in the BEF to be directly attacked by gas. The second attack was preceded by a ten-minute barrage followed, at 4 am, by the release of chlorine gas along a 1200-yard front. The cloud floated directly through the 48th Highlanders and partially through McCuaig’s Company; it was supplemented by artillery fired gas shells. Damp cloths did little to thwart chlorine; blinded, with burning throats, the Highlanders suffocated while trying to fight, because their Ross rifles jammed. The official history noted: “Almost one-third of the 5000 troops who survived the ordeal at Ypres had given an unmistakable verdict by throwing away the Ross and picking up the Lee-Enfield.”95 The fighting was fierce and bloody. “Several batteries enfiladed our improvised trench. The casualties from this were the heaviest yet as we had practically no cover … The German artillery opened fire on us from all directions and

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simply murdered us. For three hours we lay there under a perfect hell of fire.”96 The last battalion machine gun was knocked out. The 48th took the worst of the gas, and by 6 pm, both battalions were forced to withdraw: “having been literally blown out of their trenches.”97 German infantry closely followed and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, “endeavouring to rush the remnants of the Highlanders and administer the coup de grace … The place we had dug in during the night being low and in a turnip field gave no field of fire whatever.”98 Shrapnel killed Captain Gerald Lees; No. 1 Company’s second in command, Captain Ward Whitehead, was severely wounded. At 8:30 am, Loomis ordered Buchanan to fall back 400 yards to Gravenstafel Ridge: “We could see the artillery, who were out of ammunition limbering up.”99 The withdrawal, under enfilade fire, was costly. Regrettably, there was some confusion in the retirement order; confirmative written messages were not passed, and neither McCuaig’s company, nor Tomlinson’s gallant Buffs were aware the withdrawal had started until retirement actually began. Both companies were overrun. The fifty remaining Buffs were cut off and captured. This grieved the 13th who had been impressed with their “marked courage and coolness.”100 No. 1 Company, reduced to three officers and forty men, tried to dash for cover, but a most intense rifle and machine gun fire opened on them from three sides and only about a dozen reached the ridge. It was a bitter fight; McCuaig and his men were shot to pieces. Pitblado returned to carry the critcally injured Captain Whitehead to better cover. He spotted Major McCuaig and as he went to report to him, “I got one through my leg just above the ankle and the Major one through both legs.” After the war, McCuaig praised his subaltern: “Pitblado, in spite of my protests, refused to leave me and bandaged up the wounds in my leg under a very heavy fire. He was then wounded a second time in the leg, which finished his chances of getting away.” As they lay helpless, McCuaig was hit five more times before they were captured.101 Bloody Withdrawal: 24–26 April Canadians held their ground with a magnificent display of tenacity and courage … these splendid troops averted a disaster. Field Marshal Sir John French, the official despatch for Ypres, 1915 South of Kerselare, in the farms and hedgerows of St Julien, the enemy continued to resist. German Official History, Der Weltkrieg 1915102 One man and I got back – all that remained of fifty of No. 1 platoon. Captain HF Walker, commanding 1st Platoon, No. 1 Company, letter, 8 May 1915103

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The second Ypres gas attack produced greater casualties for the division. The 48th Highlanders were practically annihilated, losing 662 all ranks (67 percent), and each battalion in 2nd and 3rd Brigades suffered correspondingly heavy losses.104 The fighting withdrawal on 25 April resulted in severe losses as soldiers, officers and NCOs were hit in rapid succession: “Men dropping around you and begging you not to leave them. Poor devils. I guess most of them were bayoneted.”105 With German infantry hot on their heels, Captain Clark-Kennedy, with Lieutenants Stanley Lindsay and William MacTier, conducted a resolute rear guard. But the new battalion position proved just as hazardous, for it was quickly taken under observed fire from the Germans in occupied Canadian trenches. The brigade shifted to better cover on the reverse slope of Gravenstafel Ridge and dug in along the ditches of the main road, their left stretching past St Julien and anchoring on Weiltze, which was in flames. When 2nd Brigade completed its withdrawal, the retreat paused with the order to stand fast. The Canadian front, initially five miles long, was reduced to two. St Julien was assaulted by the German 51st Division and 2nd Reserve Ersatz Brigade from three sides, and abandoned around midnight. However, the German offensive lost steam. Colonel Loomis reached the 13th at 3 pm with Pioneers and ammunition, and sorted out what was left of his battalion. At about the same time, fresh British units moved through the Highlander lines; as they watched these brigades go into action: “It would be hard to imagine anything finer. They advanced as though on manoeuvres, and few of them came back.”106 The withdrawal soon resumed. By 26 April, the Germans held Gravenstafel Ridge, the front steadied and the battalion had their first meal in three days. What was left of them became the divisional reserve. The Cost of Battle Over half of our regiment is gone. Lieutenant Clarence McCuaig, letter, 1 May 1915 I certainly must have a guardian angel, after what we have come through. To me it is in fact like a dream…. To attempt a description of what it was like is out of the question but it was Hell sure enough, with all the furies let loose … I carried a wounded man who was blown forty yards away, and he was still conscious, being able to say, “Well boys, they got me this time.” It was indeed heart-breaking to see the regiment at roll call. My brotherin-law went under, but I have had no word from my own brother, and I do not know if he went under or not …” Pipe Major D Manson, letter, 1 June 1915

The total cost of the battle to the 13th was 483 all ranks, or 49 percent.107 The ferocity of the attack and close quarter fighting resulted in the largest number of the 13th’s

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prisoners of The Great War: 130 were captured, of whom two were officers. Nearly half were wounded when taken prisoner. Of its sixty-eight machine gunners, eleven answered roll call after Ypres; another eleven were wounded and made prisoner; one later died. Lieutenant Ross’s Colt detachments proved commendable at Ypres. Each commander exercised initiative and demonstrated bravery: besides Fisher, Sergeant Major (later Major) John Jeffrey was awarded the MC; Sergeant Tarinor was wounded and taken prisoner as was Lance Corporal Watt. Sergeant Peter McLeod, who had taken Fisher’s place, was also shot dead. Sergeant William Morrison seemed to bear a charmed life; of the seven machine gun dets manned by 13th Battalion crews at Ypres, he was the only detachment commander not killed or taken prisoner. His luck ended at Hooge near Ypres when he was killed on 13 June 1916 during the Battle of Mount Sorrel. Frederick Loomis, Rykert McCuaig and Clark-Kennedy were awarded the DSO, while MacTier and Pitblado were given the MC. Loomis commanded the 13th for another eight months. Both Pitblado and McCuaig survived Ypres, but as German prisoners of war. McCuaig would be appointed commandant of the regiment in 1925 – most who witnessed his conduct at Ypres felt he deserved a VC. Given the actual date and times of his action, McCuaig’s DSO was the first awarded in the CEF; Pitblado’s decoration was one of the first Canadian MCs in The Great War.108 Lance Corporal Frederick Fisher became the regiment’s and Canada’s first recipient of the coveted emblem of battlefield prowess, The Victoria Cross, in The Great War.109 Fisher and most of his regimental mates lie in an unmarked grave; their names are engraved on the Menin Gate, in Ypres. Except for No. 1 Company, which was closest to the 15th Battalion, the 13th escaped the worst of the gas. It had dissipated by the time it reached Nos. 2 and 4 Companies, although the men were hampered by laboured breathing, nausea, watery eyes and some collapsed. The real killers were artillery and bullets.110 Hundreds were torn by explosives and shrapnel or shot down; dozens died in bitter hand-tohand struggles holding the line, or when Norsworthy’s supports and McCuaig’s No. 1 Company were overrun. Numerous individual and section duels took place during the two long nights when the 13th held the division flank unsupported by artillery, low on ammunition and without food or water. How these exhausted men, without sleep for over seventy-two hours, managed again and again, to march, dig and do battle is the stuff of regimental legend and legacy. The 13th Battalion casualties were first treated at St Julien, and then at the brigade aide station behind Mousetrap Farm, by the battalion surgeon Major (later Lieutenant Colonel and CBE) Ernest R Brown, and by the RMR Surgeon, Captain

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Francis Scrimger. Both were Scots and McGill lecturers; their colleague at the Royal Victoria Hospital was yet another Canadian Scot, Dr. John McCrae. Scrimger was to win a VC in this action and some reputation for two other incidents. During the initial triage for the gassed Highlanders, he and the brigade chief surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel George Naismith, considered immediate treatment. Scrimger recalled his own lectures from McGill: chlorine reacted readily with urea (present in urine) to form dichlorourea, thus diluting the effects of the poison gas.111 While Scrimger was not the only doctor to come to this solution, his prompt action saved many. His instructions were simple and quickly spread up the line: wet kerchiefs and puttees with any available liquid and then mask the nose and mouth. In the front trenches, without water for two days, urine was often the only alternative. Scrimger’s more famous contribution may have been saving a poem that an officer had ripped out of his field message pad and thrown away. He urged his fellow surgeon to publish it instead. The confrere was Captain John McCrae; the poem was In Flanders Fields. Despite the fighting retreat and loss of ground, the second battle of Ypres was considered more a victory than defeat, and was celebrated at a brigade church parade held in Poperinghe a few weeks later. The massed pipes and drums (RHC, 48th Highlanders, and Canadian Scottish, joined by the Scots Guards) were again under the 13th battalion pipe major, Sergeant Major D Manson. From unproven reinforcements to sudden heroes, the Montreal battalion joined a select group of Canadian units who had distinguished themselves in checking the first gas attack. Even the normally reserved Imperials took notice, indeed, embraced their colonial brethren. Recruiting posters in Glasgow and Edinburgh for Scotland’s Black Watch, now proudly added, “with which is allied the 13th Canadian Battalion, RHC.” L’Envoi At Southampton docks … I was coming off the train there was a big crowd waiting and I was the first one off. Someone shouted “He’s a Canadian,” so they burst into cheers. Private Alexander Leys Brown, Machine gunner 13th RHC, wounded at Ypres, 2 May 1915

Ypres established the temper of the Canadian Black Watch. Its rightful battle heritage is neither Ticonderoga nor Waterloo, which, while admired, are traditional and familial but not RHC regimental history. It was the 13th Battalion’s conduct at Ypres that set the tenor and standard for succeeding cadres. Ypres was the regiment’s first test. It was Canada’s first trial in the war. It is not that the 13th were braver than other battalions but they were certainly more conspicuous. More was expected.

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Bleury Street’s front line battalions would now emphasize “Black Watch” rather than explaining numerical collar dogs imposed by bureaucrats. It was the practical alternative when tutoring novice replacements that came from across Canada as well as Montreal. Ypres became an uncompromising inculcation for new soldiers. Thus, the most sacred traditions of the Royal Highlanders of Canada were forged by themselves and paid for in blood. The 13th was at the apex of Canadian military history as much as it was at the apex of the Canadian front line. It demonstrated pluck and a stubborn resolve – the legacies of its first battle. On 28 April 1915, while still in the battle area, the 13th received a draft of 276 men, none of them via Bleury Street. As the war continued, the battalion would become less 5th Royal Highlanders and more Black Watch. The fighting ethos of the regiment would begin with Ypres, not Montreal. Tested in the furnace of the second battle of Ypres, it proved its worth. Major General AC Macdonell, GOC, 1st Canadian Division, writing of the 13th Battalion, 1918

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From Mount Sorrel to the Somme an Annus Horribilis

Etienne Dutort, Pierre Lachapelle, and Jean Baptiste Trudeau Are skirmishing to capture a rough and tumble foe They’re husky boys, all three of ‘em, tall sturdy and well built Why no they can’t be French Canucks, for each one wears a kilt B Deacon, “Some of the Kilties,” apropos RHC leaving Montreal, September 1915

The aftershock of Ypres hit Montreal with devastating results; newspapers published photographs and eyewitness reports for the two weeks following the battle. The Montreal Star and Gazette featured daily montages of the dead, most regularly featured were officers of the 13th Battalion. Clark-Kennedy was reported “killed” in three issues; beside him, Captain Ward Whitehead was listed as “wounded.” The opposite was true. A poignant photograph entitled “All That Is Left Of Them!” was published in The Star showing Loomis surrounded by his officers directly after Ypres – not his original twenty-seven but the seven that remained alive and unwounded.112 There is a remote, uncompromising look in their eyes. Closure was important for the soldiers’ families, but difficult, if not impossible, after Ypres. The initial front was far behind the new German lines; the bodies of the battalion lay shredded and scattered in a vast shell-scarred plain of mucky ditches and shattered trenches. One Black Watch family was particularly ravaged by uncertainty. Captain Ward Whitehead’s father received three telegrams saying his son was “missing”; city

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newspapers, based on official reports, also pronounced him wounded and missing, which offered a straw of hope the entire family clung to. Whitehead searched for witnesses and even acquired legal affidavits from soldiers invalided back to Montreal. He received ambiguous reports that Ward had been rescued by Pitblado, but the young captain was a prisoner of war in a German hospital.113 Whitehead beseeched the Red Cross for information; finally, he used business contacts via New York, Switzerland and at last, Germany, to get verification. Just as he was notified Captain Pitblado had been found and a letter would be arranged, a small brown envelope arrived marked No. 4 Field Hospital, Hadfield Ward, Bed 6. It was from Private WE Jones, 3rd Company, 13th Battalion CEF and contained a straightforward but stark account: “on Saturday, April 24 … Captain Whitehead was the third man from me during the attack – he had his face blown off.”114 The Whitehead portfolio comes to a staggered halt with this letter. His mother had begun to needle-point a large sunflower with golden strands and the word “Ward” in the centre. It was placed unfinished over the letter from Private Jones with the threaded needle affixed to the envelope. Whitehead’s determined pursuit irrevocably ended with a letter from Sigmund Ingold in Zurich. It included a word-for-word citation of correspondence from Pitblado: “Ward Whitehead got a piece of shrapnel through his cheek which, I think, cut out his tongue. Please tell Mr Whitehead that the shrapnel went in his cheek and one could put one’s fist in the hole. I don’t see how he could live.”115 That seemed to end it for Whitehead. The Norsworthy and Drummond family were just as anxious. Edward’s father sent several cables to George Cantlie, John Carson and Sam Hughes pleading his son’s body be returned to Canada. The phrases “bear all expenses” and “cost not a factor” were repeated, but in vain. Edward Norsworthy’s and Guy Drummond’s presumed remains would not be recovered until well after the war. The war continued. Within three weeks of Ypres, the 13th went into battle at Festubert (19–23 May 1915). Fighting in support of the Canadian Scottish, it captured “the Orchard” in a morning attack, moved forward under heavy shell fire, relieved the 16th, and then repulsed a strong enemy counterattack. Rebuilding was accelerated. Of the initial draft that left Montreal, almost five hundred were casualties by June 1915.116

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 163 The 13th and 42nd Battalions Royal Highlanders of Canada in France Peace, Peace! Oh for some peace! This “Hate” is a trifle too strong; If they sent us some guns we could stafe a few Huns In the Beautiful Valley of Bong. Lieutenant Benjamin Henry Rust, 3 Company, 13th CEF (RHC), near Givenchy 22–24 June 1915117

After Ypres, the battalion became perceptibly confident; it had accomplished the one thing the 5th Royal Highlanders expected and strived for: prominence. This time, the accolades were for that most prized of highland honours – proven in battle. The rest of the year was almost as bloody as Ypres, but taken with an undeniable poise. The Times editorial said it best: “The Canadians have won their spurs.” By the fall of 1915, MCs and DSOs were practically de rigueur in the battalion. The 13th relaxed enough to permit officers to notice uniform infractions; Buchanan dressed off a lieutenant who had drawn a leather coat from QM. The orderly room drew its breath and took in a flood of replacements. One officer suddenly left. In London, Brigadier General Carson was surprised to get an urgent cable from Sam Hughes ordering him to pluck A/Captain Charles Cantley out of the 13th RHC, bring him to England; and arrange a Cook’s Tour of major arms plants, including Woolwich, Vickers and Enfield before putting him on a ship to Canada. Cantley, former president of the McGill University Union, was an eminent metallurgist and an expert in armament production. His father, Colonel Tom Cantley, owned Nova Scotia Steel and Coal, a leading industry in the Maritimes, and had just received a glut of new orders. Cantley was with the 78th Pictou Highlanders and transferred at Valcartier to be the 13th’s transport officer; he refused previous offers to work in the war industry in order to do his bit at the front. He survived Ypres, and that seemed to provide a more than adequate taste of war. This time, he did not balk at either his father’s pleas or a ministerial request and reported to Carson. He inspected the British foundries and left for Halifax to ensure much-needed shells reached the Canadian guns.118 Another loss was Hew Clark-Kennedy, who was transferred to brigade headquarters as a staff officer; just as he left, his much overdue DSO was announced. He would soon achieve even greater distinction. Meanwhile, the battalion began to change as the ranks of the originals were filled in. Although the new men were no older than the men they reinforced, the 13th was now veteran, and it demonstrated a panache more striking than shown parading down Bleury Street or on the Champs de Mars. By the year’s end, they were joined by their sister battalion.

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The 42nd Battalion RHC arrived in England in the summer of 1915, and in October sent for training in France “under the guidance of the 13th.”119 The newcomers were less than enthusiastic about the continental topography: “The mud here now is simply indescribable.”120 Already converted to the new alphabetized Company System (A Company, B Company, etc.), the 42nd was given a new working lexicon that included Blighties (wounds not serious but enough to get sent back to UK), primus stoves, sniper plates, funk holes (a tiny dugout for one or two men to rest in some discomfort within the trench wall, also cubby-holes), flying pigs (Minenwerfer mortar bombs) and Toc Emmas (trench mortar or TM and Jack Johnsons). Trench architecture was important: fire trenches were eight-feet deep so that soldiers could walk upright without attracting sniper fire. A fire step along the front edge brought soldiers up to firing position along the raised parapet. Ditches covered by wooden duckboards drained water to sumps. Everyone had steel helmets now and wondered in amazement how they had been mad enough to go into battle facing shrapnel and bullets in glengarries. Everyone except George Cantlie, who “hated the damn things” and tended to bump his head every time he entered a dugout. Between stints in the line, the battalions continued training while staying in local billets. Cantlie printed tickets to be signed by the proprietor to ensure the soldiers respected private property; they were in English and French.121 They played sports and acquired talismans, although the origin of the most famous Black Watch mascot, the goat Flora MacDonald, remains unclear. The regiment was confident it rescued and adopted a baby goat from the ravages of war. Some suggest it was a gift from the Ghurkhas; another version is a complaint from the 3rd Indian Division that suggests the goat may have been expropriated from their lines.122 By a clever marketing gambit, tobacco companies successfully had cigarettes defined as rations; billions were produced and sent to the front where they were much in demand. Most soldiers smoked, and if they did not, they usually acquired the habit by the end of the war. The most popular cigarettes in The Black Watch were Players Navy Cut and Sweet Caporals. The most available drink was rum and cheap French wine. Life in France began with shuttling about in the soon to be familiar French railroad cars stamped “40 Hommes, Chevaux 8” and buying snacks in shops and bistros. The Montreal crowd was not baffled by the français per se, but the exotic surroundings: “The lads crowded into a Café Débit (a licensed café) and bought what treats they could find. Privates invariably asked, “Who is this guy Debit?”

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 165 George Cantlie and the 42nd Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie’s battalion was very much a doppelganger to the 13th in terms of officers and the nucleus of non-commissioned officers. The rank and file were close to 60 percent British-born or first-generation Scots and English. However, there was a Canadien français piper. At first, there were smatterings of out-of-city and out-of-province recruits. Then, as the battalion was moving to Valcartier, it became apparent that Montreal would be hard-pressed to maintain its commitment: the Victoria Rifles, the RMR, levies from FMR and Maisonneuves, a McGill battalion, the Irish Rangers, two batteries of artillery, engineers, a field medical hospital and cavalry drafts, let alone a second, perhaps third, Black Watch battalion. The 42nd all but swept clean the mess in Bleury Street. The officers were younger; Henry Birks and Royal Ewing had just started work; Blair Wilson had finished Winchester College OTC; others, like Eric Morse, were straight from the McGill COTC. The senior officers were still very much Square Mile, beginning with Cantlie, McLennan, Molson and Norsworthy. The sudden onset of a very modern war driven by science abruptly transformed society, and it certainly and permanently affected RHC culture. A sombre practicality took hold. The same officers who identified themselves as “gentleman” when applying to the officers’ mess now offered unassuming but accurate descriptions for “occupation or trade” in Attestation papers. Loomis had written “contractor”; most penned “broker,” “lawyer,” “real estate,” or “jeweller” (Henry Birks); Herbert Molson, head of a huge corporation, with droll understatement quietly wrote “brewer.” George Cantlie, however, was quite certain of his status and went to war confidently signed on as a “gentleman.” He was born, appropriately, in the year of Confederation and would go on to serve the unit that he loved until the Second World War. His name immediately comes to mind when the term “Father of the Regiment” is used. But Cantlie would have none of that. He was an old-fashioned Scot, who believed in hard work and loyalty. He was the son of James A Cantlie, a leading Montreal merchant, and the nephew of George Stephen, the opulent Lord Mount Stephen. Educated under private tutors, then McGill University, Cantlie entered service in the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 as a clerk in the audit department in the same year he joined the 5th Royal Scots. He enjoyed rapid advancement and in 1908, was appointed General Superintendent of Car Service. In 1914, Cantlie retired from the CPR to take the 42nd Highlanders to war.123 Cantlie joined the regiment as a boy soldier, and then served as a platoon officer and adjutant. He discreetly endured classic power struggles between Strathy and

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Ibbotson, and later, between John Carson and the Minister of Militia and Defence. In the end, Dr Borden won and asked Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie to take over the premier of the dominion’s brace of two-battalion regiments. He took command at the beginning of the Edwardian era but Cantlie remained the classic Victorian throughout. There was popular scuttlebutt that loyal officers helped get his horse Bluebell, a white stallion, to the continent: “an enterprising member of the regiment dyed the horse brown …” but sage family historians genially admit this may have been a stretch. His favourite charger in France was “White Heather.”124 The 42nd second in command, the urbane Bartlett McLennan, was only a year younger than Cantlie. Another Square Mile millionaire, he was an accomplished officer, businessman and avid horseman; the New York Times referred him to as “the Canadian turf man.” McLennan graduated from RMC with high distinction. He succeeded his father as president of the Montreal Transportation Company, and was prominent in the Montreal Hunt and Back River Polo Club (which became the Montreal Polo Club), as well as one of the organizers of the Montreal Jockey Club. A noted philanthropist and art collector, his biggest nuisance before the war was having his trainer ruled off turf after he gave Bartlett’s thoroughbred, Blackthorn, whisky and coffee as stimulants. In Montreal, he divided his time between business and social diversions like the 5th Royal Scots. Out of the city, he had regular seats in the Stewards’ boxes at Belmont, Saratoga and Louisville.125 His love of horses nearly ended his military career in France. Stanley Norsworthy was the adjutant and, like McLennan, destined to lead the battalion in battle. He was the second of four Norsworthys to go to war. Similar to the McCuaigs, the Norsworthy sense of patriotic duty has been a worthy regimental archetypal. When he learned his brother Edward had been killed at Ypres, Norsworthy immediately left his job in Mexico City, where he ran the Bank of Montreal branch, and took the first steamer to Montreal to rejoin the 5th Royal Highlanders. He was in France within months. Norsworthy and another future CO, Royal Ewing, were dwarfed by McLennan. Although the latter was tactically overshadowed by Norsworthy, McLennan remained daunting, albeit in the most refined way. Of the 42nd officer collective, Norsworthy proved to be the best war leader, though curiously, he was not a favourite with the upper strata. The 42nd’s four rifle companies were commanded by Major HC Walkem, Captain H Molson, Major SB Coristine, and Captain GH Blackader. Of the group, Herbert Molson probably had the best sense of humour and a good eye for problem solving. He was a close friend of Hamilton Gault and might have joined the PPCLI except for the fact that he lacked military experience. Molson set high standards for himself

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 167 and his officers. Just before The June Show he chastised Royal Ewing, one of his four platoon commanders (destined to command the 42nd within a year), for not knowing all the names of the soldiers in his platoon. Ewing protested that it was difficult to remember the names of nearly forty men, especially when replacements were regularly appearing. At the next pay parade, with Ewing at his side, Molson called out the names of every single man in the company in alphabetical order without the aid of a nominal roll.126 An atypical member of the battalion hierarchy was the highly regarded quartermaster, Captain John Kay Beveridge, who served the Imperial Black Watch for eighteen years from private to colour sergeant. He immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1914, and was taken on by Cantlie to teach the 5th RHC drill. He made things run, and was soon invited to join the officers’ mess. As a commissioned-fromthe-ranks captain, he was joined by Donald Alexander Bethune, whose family had been a part of the regiment since its onset. A contractor in business, he devoted thirtysix years of service to the 5th Royal Scots. Captain Bethune rose through the ranks to colour sergeant and warrant officer. He was to serve as the 42nd transport officer throughout the war. The battalion paymaster was Captain Hartland MacDougall, a noted stockbroker but far more famous as an athlete. The MacDougall family served in the 5th through its various iterations since 1862. Hartland graduated from Bishop’s then played goaltender and centre for four Stanley Cup winning teams. His line mate was his cousin, Percival Molson. MacDougall also excelled at polo, winning many national championships, and founded the Back River Polo Club. The Montreal Star later noted he was “second only to Lionel Conacher as Canada’s national all-time, all-round athlete.”127 MacDougall was elected chairman of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1914, but immediately left to join the British Remount Regiment, where his expertise was appreciated. MacDougall was generally recognized as one of the best horsemen in the game. He transferred to the 42nd RHC when they arrived in Europe in 1915: “His skill as an advance agent and billeting officer was known and envied throughout the corps.”128 In January 1918, he was appointed as deputy assistant adjutant general to the British military mission in Washington. Tartan Envy According to their regulations, the 42nd wore Black Watch tartan for trews and kilt with the dark-blue glengarry bonnet. With nine Imperial battalions mobilized, The Black Watch sett became near impossible to obtain. The battalion’s creative solution,

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“the Cantlie tartan” or “field khaki tartan” proved only marginally easier to acquire. The Black Watch officers’ hunting sett was adopted as a field sett for the 42nd and soon became a favourite. It was unofficially referred to as the war tartan and well received in Ottawa. One memo suggested that every Highland battalion in the CEF may be required to adopt the khaki kilt. The 5th Royals were surprised to learn that the “Minister of militia is proposing to use khaki cloth for the kilts, caps of future Highland units from Canada.”129 When the 42nd uniforms finally arrived (five hundred kilts, five hundred glengarries, sporrans, hose tops, garters), the shipment initiated minor drama: “Brigadier General Carson declined to have the goods accepted.”130 Carson, who had handed the regiment over to Cantlie when he resigned, knew as well as anyone the importance of this type of kit to a Highland battalion. He may have been giving the 42nd a hard time just for old time’s sake. The next drama to vex Bleury Street was the discovery that new battalions, not from Montreal, forming for service overseas were adopting The Black Watch tartan. This prompted nasty letters and acidic cables: “enclosing copy of protest from Officer Commanding 5th Regt RH of C against the use by the 96th Battalion CEF [Saskatchewan’s first Highland unit] of The Black Watch tartan … asking that this unit adopt some other tartan.”131 Worse, a Halifax unit proposed to do the same thing. This tempest was soothed when on 2 November 1915, 85th Battalion [Lieutenant Colonel A Borden] agreed to change his tartan provided the 5th RH take over the glengarries he ordered. The Department of Militia ended it officially: “I have the honour by direction to acknowledge receipt of a pattern of khaki tartan … Pattern has been placed on file … design for the sole use of the marginally named unit (42nd and 73rd Battalions CEF), and its unauthorized use by other units should be immediately brought to the attention of the Department. 25 October 1915.”132 With bands, badges, goats and special tartans, hose, sporrans, glengarries and finally balmorals with Red Hackles, the RHC did not simply stand out – it was resplendent. After the war, Hartland Molson, ever practical, had another take: “We were probably the biggest nuisance the army ever created.”133 Not all things went well. Even George Cantlie’s clout could not fight the machinations of military bureaucracy and ministerial politics. Just before it left for France, well after being issued with the much preferred short Lee-Enfield and completing all musketry training, the 42nd was rearmed – eight months after the Ypres debacle – with the distrusted Ross rifle: “It was obliged to go through a further intensive course at the ranges at Lydden Spout.”134 That decision would conceivably haunt the bureaucrats responsible; it certainly would have telling consequences for

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 169 the soldiers in battle and severely test the commanding officer. Cantlie was the least experienced commanding officer in his brigade and had no recent training in battalion tactics. The Western Front would be a very harsh school. The New Corps, a New Division, a New Brigade On 1 April 1915, Brigadier General John Carson wrote to Sam Hughes: “Why do you not … have our two divisions in the field as an Army corps with your good self in command?”135 He was not joking, though he may have been toadying up. The gist of the pitch was a good idea and quickly adopted. The creation of the Canadian Corps (September 1915) required more brigades and battalions, which would have lasting effects on The Black Watch and Montreal. The 3rd Division was formed in December 1915 under command of Major General Malcolm Mercer, a Toronto barrister, who led the 1st Brigade at Ypres, where he demonstrated courage under fire. The 42nd RHC gave itself over to needle-work, sewing on the tunics the black and green distinguishing colours of the division and the brigade. The 3rd wore a black patch (the 1st sported a red rectangle) until spring 1917, when it changed to French Grey. The 42nd came over with the third contingent as part of 7th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General AC Macdonell, a bizarre character but a popular soldier who was sometimes called “Batty Mac” but other times “Fighting Mac.” Its stable mates were a diverse collection: a regular army unit of the permanent force (The Royal Canadian Regiment or the RCR), a privately raised battalion (The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light infantry, the PPCLI), and a rough but game bunch from Edmonton with a coyote on their badge (The 49th Battalion CEF). The “Forty-Niners” were compatible with the 42nd. They had their own Scottish company, and their march past was Bonnie Dundee.136 While the PPCLI insists the regiment was born in Ottawa, old members of the 5th Royal Highlanders recalled its genesis was in Montreal, over lunch at the Mount Royal Club and across the street from George Cantlie’s house. The founding officer, Hamilton Andrew Gault, a veteran of the Boer war, had been a member of the 5th Royal Scots since 1901, and one of the three lieutenant colonels in the regiment. Like his fellow officers, he was an affluent resident of le Mille Carré. Patriotic and passionate, Gault could not wait to get overseas; he certainly could not stand the thought of Sam Hughes and Valcartier. Gault provided $100,000 [almost $3,000,000 Canadian 2014] to finance and equip a battalion for overseas service. His aim was to create a straight-away elite unit comprised of experienced soldiers – veterans of South Africa and the British Army. The PPCLI was in France by the end of December

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1914 (with the modest Gault serving as a company commander), months before any Canadian fighting unit. However, it shared its first battle honour, Ypres, with The Black Watch.137 The Patricia’s had a distinct bond with The Black Watch, McGill University and the City’s society. Herbert Molson, for example, was on particularly good terms with the Pats. His brother, Percival, was a platoon commander and many Patricia officers (Hamilton Gault, Charlie Stewart, and particularly the neo-aristocratic Talbot Papineau) were regular guests at the Molson house. Percival Molson was a renowned McGill athlete, a player on Stanley Cup winning teams, and director of several sports associations; he would have been expected to join the 5th Royal Highlanders like his brother and cousins when the war broke out, but his deep connection to McGill University prevailed. The McGill COTC had been organized in the fall of 1912 under the guidance of a 5th RHC company commander, Captain VI Smart, who taught military engineering at the university. When war began, members of the alumni, including 5th RHC officers JC Kemp and Allan Magee, organized a McGill provisional battalion from students, graduates, professors, and even citizens with no university connection. The second COTC Company was raised by Molson and George MacDonald. Four university companies left Canada circa June 1915 to April 1916; the McGill group directly reinforced the depleted PPCLI shortly before its gallant stand at Hooge in June 1916. The Patricias, mostly comprised of British-Canadians where a bona fide campaign ribbon was required for acceptance into a veterans club, were changed straight away by the appearance of the McGill companies. The influx of university students transformed the regiment overnight from a brotherhood of gruff grognards into probably the best-educated battalion on the Western Front. Initially, losses among the Montrealers were heavy; however “the university companies saved the Regiment from practical extinction,” wrote the Patricias’ historian.138 Mount Sorrel – The June Show He belongs to the 13th and stands about six-feet high; his kilt is covered with a brown canvas apron, and he wears a steel helmet sideways on his head. Thin streaks of black hair come down over his eyes and his face is entirely covered with mud, except where the trickling sweat has made white channels down it. Besides his regulation kit, he has a German helmet strapped on his shoulder, three belts around his waist, and carries a German rifle as well as his own. How he manages it all is hard to see, for his left arm is bound up in a sling … Artillery Officer’s Report, 13 June 1915139

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 171 The Battle of Mount Sorrel (2–14 June 1916) or, The June Show, began as a surprise offensive and quickly developed into an enormous brawl incorporating a gamut of techniques from detonation of mines to a fire storm of artillery. It caught the Canadian Corps totally unaware and caused more casualties than Ypres. The battle initiated the 42nd into the holocaust of the Western Front and required the 13th to spearhead a dramatic counterattack to restore the line. The battlefield is just south-east of Ypres, about four miles south of the old trench lines held by McCuaig and Buchanan in April 1915. Over a year later the area remained a bulging salient, smaller but chock-full of British divisions and still a tempting target. Mount Sorrel is a bump by Canadian standards, at sixty odd metres no higher than the bandstand in Fletcher’s Field. The general area includes two slightly higher hills (“Tor Top” or Hill 62, and Hill 61) and is part of a lazy prominence that features Observatory Ridge, a 600-yard finger jutting away from Tor Top and pointing directly at Ypres. “Observatory” is a slight misnomer for the area was part of what seemed to be the last foliage in Flanders: Sanctuary Wood, a broadly treed sector that ran for 5,000 yards along the eastern boundary of the salient. It was dense in some places, but not continuous throughout, and included minor stands and spinneys like the friendly sounding Maple Copse which would figure in Black Watch battle lore. The area commanded Ypres, and any force that held it could pretty much wrap up the salient once and for all. The German Army decided to give Ypres another go, this time from the south-east and incorporated a devastating deluge of artillery. “The bombardment began shortly before eight o’clock on the morning of June 2nd and ended – for the 42nd – on the night of June 5th … within this time the shelling was continuous and during five distinct periods it rose in a crescendo of intensity each lasting from a half-hour to an hour or more.”140 This was very much a surprise attack, cunningly planned and dramatically executed. The battle began badly for the 3rd Division; its commander, Major General MS Mercer, was killed by the first barrage. After the artillery lifted, the Germans simply walked over all along the front, encountering organized resistance only at the extreme right (Hooge) where No. 1 and No. 2 Companies of the Patricias made a defiant stand. Much ground was lost; the Patricia CO, Lieutenant Colonel HC Butler, fell and Hamilton Gault lost a leg. The Black Watch battalions found their backs literally at the Menin Gate. This was the first action when Montreal’s two Highland units would do battle almost within sight of each other. The 13th, tasked to support the 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment), and the 15th (48th Highlanders), managed to reach Maple Copse under heavy shelling, dig in and shot-up advancing Germans.

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Concurrently, the 42nd was ordered forward in support of the Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR) and the PPCLI. It was not concentrated for battle, and its experience at Mount Sorrel would be a series of individual company actions. Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie deployed the battalion companies within short marching distance of Sanctuary Wood, but now they would be marching under artillery fire.141 The second in command, Major Bartlett McLennan, “personally guided companies and detachments of other units to their positions in the line, through heavy barrages of enemy’s fire.”142 The opening bombardment wounded Herbert Molson, the B Company commander. Despite a fractured skull, he refused to retire to a medical post and continued leading his company, determined to relieve the hard-pressed Patricias at Hooge. His two officers, Lieutenants Royal Ewing (leading Nos. 5 and 6 Platoons) and Beresford Topp (with Nos. 7 and 8 Platoons) set off in half sections, every man carrying extra bandoliers of ammunition. Moving via “the China Wall” (a sandbaggedlined approach) The Black Watch finally made contact with No. 4 Company of the Patricias. These remnants were under Major DFB Gray, by then the senior surviving officer. A few hundred yards south-east, a second company of the 42nd advanced into the steel torrent. Major Walkem’s A Company was ordered to support 2nd CMR. He quickly appreciated the situation had changed so instead, he pushed toward Hooge to make contact with the PPCLI. Hugh Crawford Walkem was considered a bit old for a company commander. He was a forty-two-year-old insurance broker and a member of the Royal Highlanders since 1906, who had fought well at Ypres but without recognition. He was destined to win the DSO while commanding another unit.143 Nearing Hooge, Walkem’s coup d’oeil convinced him he must not only consolidate a position at Zillebeke Trench, but manoeuvre north to assist the beleaguered Pats. In the process, his company was badly shot up. He lost Sergeant Major CRP Wolferstan, and his three platoons were reduced to barely 45 rifles, but he made personal contact with the PPCLI. He then dug in, filling a gap in the line and frustrating German attacks. At midnight, Henry Birks brought up the company headquarters. Repeatedly assaulted, Walkem’s depleted force held until relieved; by then A Company was reduced to less than thirty all ranks of its initial 165. The rescuing counterattack took a while to schedule; it was finally launched at around 9 pm, two hours late, and in staggered order due to signals being confused. Despite determined mêlée, it was checked and pushed back, although it did shore up part of the line. After the battle, Brigadier General Macdonell wrote: “I ordered two companies of the 42nd Highlanders to move from Zillebeke Bund to Zillebeke Switch and Maple Copse to reinforce the 8th Brigade which was hard pressed from Sanctuary

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 173 Wood … I believe these two companies turned the scale in our favour.”144 In fact, the 7th Brigade had been sorely beaten up. The PPCLI and 49th Battalions each lost about four hundred men; the Pat’s CO was dead, and the brigade counterattack was defeated. After a stubborn defence, Macdonell’s brigade was relieved – its battalions were quite spent. The 13th Battalion Captures Observatory Ridge The first Canadian deliberately planned attack in any force had resulted in an unqualified success. British Official History I, 241 How cunning and sly the Englishman is! In order to be able to work without danger, last night they sent up rockets with two green stars, a prearranged German signal that our artillery are firing short. German NCO 127th Infantry Regiment, 14 June 1916, Tara Hill145 Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan regrets to report the loss of 50 percent of his officers and many brave NCOs and men. Buchanan to 3rd Brigade HQ, 14 June 1916

The commander of the 2nd Army, General Plummer, ordered a second try. Lieutenant General Julian Byng, who took over the Canadian Corps on 29 May, decided to ignore Hooge and concentrate on Mount Sorrel itself. It was a two brigade effort carried out mainly by the 1st Division and scheduled for 13 June. It was Lieutenant Colonel Victor Buchanan’s first battalion battle. In concert with three battalions, the 13th launched a frontal attack following “one of the greatest arrays of guns yet employed on so narrow a front.”146 The battalion advanced in four lines supported by its MG dets. Battalion Bombers (Mills bomb grenadiers) and two Lewis gun sections followed the second line. Immediate tactical command was shared by two Ypres veterans: Major Kenneth Perry controlled the forward waves, and Major Eric McCuaig was in charge of the 3rd and 4th lines. Soldiers carried 270 rounds of small arms ammunition (SAA), two grenades and five sand-bags; every second man carried a shovel – all a reflection of “lessons learned” from Ypres. “Perry was hit before he reached the first German line; McCuaig took charge [of the forward wave].”147 The advance involved considerable hand-to-hand fighting. Stanton Mathewson, commanding B Company shattered his fist when he knocked cold a large Hun. A Company’s Sergeant Major, Frank Ableson, already injured, struggled with an

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unwounded German and dispatched him after suffering over thirty knife wounds. The 13th conducted a textbook operation, spearheading the assault onto the high ground. The 13th cleared Observatory Ridge, captured Tor Top, and, with 58th Battalion and the Canadian Scottish, recovered most of the old line through Sanctuary Wood, thus securing all the attack’s objectives. “The first Canadian deliberately planned attack in any force had resulted in an unqualified success.”148 When The June Show ended, both battalions had participated in a major battle, fighting no more than a mile from each other. Each, in its own way, merited kudos. Cantlie and Buchanan survived their first command experience. The cost was heavy; Captain Gordon Blackader with Lieutenants Paul Richardson and L DeK Stephens were killed; the 42nd suffered a total of 283 casualties of which fifty-three had died. But they were hardly morose: “When we came back we felt like old soldiers and Maggie fare Dundee rang out … and we were taken to the baths.”149 Herbert Molson’s regimental career was cut short by his head wound, and he soon found himself heading back aboard a hospital ship, sharing cabins with his brother Percy, who was wounded in the same battle. Eventually a Lieutenant Colonel, Molson returned to serve in 1917; he was posted to headquarters and held various divisional and corps staff positions until the end of the war. The 13th dead included the cherished Captain Melville Greenshields, an “original” who had survived the toughest fighting at Ypres. Almost all of the officers lost were platoon commanders: Lieutenant JD Selbie (wounded in the arm but continued attacking until he was killed); Lieutenant Butler Giveen led an assault against an enemy machine gun. When most of the attackers became casualties, he persisted in the attack himself and eventually silenced the gun. Lieutenants JG Walker, AD Prosser, Tom Saunders and Stanley Brittan, who had been commissioned after his courageous efforts at St Julien, were wounded. A total of three hundred other ranks were casualties; the battalion’s dead numbered 106. One of the great frustrations was the repeated failure of the Ross rifles which, over a year after the deplorable performance in Ypres, were still issued to Canadian infantry as their main weapon. A livid Herbert Molson wrote: “Ross rifles jammed badly in the attack when rapid fire was ordered and many rifles were discarded.” During the battle both battalions were quick to abandon their Canadian rifles for weapons used by the PPCLI. Walkem reported: “Our men picked up all the Lee Enfield rifles they could get, throwing away their Ross rifles.”150 It was a nasty reminder and the war was not half over. The corps was then ordered to the Somme.

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 175 Tactical Revolution: The Belgian Rattlesnake Although “fire and movement” had always been part of small unit tactics, The Great War introduced rapid tactical change inspired by technology. Even so, frontal attacks seemed designed to simply outlast the enemy fire through sheer numbers. This did not work against quick firing artillery and Maxims. Artillery removed most of the wire, but even the most prolonged bombardment often failed to knock out all enemy machine gun positions, and often one was enough to slow down or stop a battalion advance. The attack, as always, required infantry to capture and hold ground. The methodology (or “tactics”) changed as new weapons became available. In the summer of 1916, owing to the difficulty in obtaining spare parts, the Colt machine-gun was replaced by the Vickers, which British factories could now supply in sufficient quantities. The Black Watch battalions, in good Scottish style, hung on to as many extra Colts as they could manage to keep working.151 Besides the machine gun, three weapons dominated trench warfare: 1) the Lewis gun, 2) the grenade (the thrown “Mills bomb” as well as the fired rifle grenade), 3) the trench mortar. The Lewis gun was a Belgian invention and a nasty surprise to the German Army in the summer of 1914 – they called it “The Belgian Rattlesnake.” The British quickly adopted the weapon (in .303 calibre) in October 1915 and built it under license. The Americans also snapped up the Lewis but manufacture was hampered by internal opposition, much like the later Christie tank. The Lewis used two different drum magazines: one holding forty-seven rounds, the other ninety-seven.152 It offered the infantry platoon its own automatic supporting fire. Initially issued eight per battalion, or two per company, the Lewis was carefully distributed as a rare artefact – which it was. As it was a reasonably portable weapon, it subsequently inspired advanced platoon tactics. Their first appearance near Ypres in April 1916 prompted the Germans to shout across the wire “where in hell did you get all the machine guns?”153 The platoon became a dynamic four section manoeuvre group, augmented by Lewis guns and grenadiers. By the fall, the battalion was much like a holding company, grouping its elements for contracted tasks. Assault forces were bespoken and varied. The customized groupings were adapted as waves of an attack and substantially differed in size and composition. The assaulting wave was provided with trench clearing parties (later, “moppers up”) made available from the third battalion.154 Formal attacks and raids comprised specific components: scouts, snipers, bombing sections (divided into “throwers” and “carriers”); “crater rushing parties” (later used at Vimy), in concert with rifle grenade sections and trench clearing parties, dugout

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clearing parties, Lewis gun sections, machine gun dets (eventually from brigade sources, under brigade machine gun officer), Stokes gun (trench mortar) groups, and, the absolutely vital, battalion runners and stretcher bearers. The Canadians perfected what the Germans sometimes called “Indianer Taktik” – the Canucks liked to think they were masters of patrolling and owned the night. A romantic “Black Watch Indian” was Archibald Belaney, better known by his nom de plume, Grey Owl. Belaney assumed an aboriginal identity, and later, through writing and public appearances, considerable fame. Grey Owl joined the 13th Battalion RHC in 1915 and served as a sniper in France; his chums treated him as an Indian and praised his conduct. He was twice wounded before The June Show; he was determined not to be evacuated but, unfortunately, he developed gangrene and was finally honourably discharged.155 No more bizarre than Belaney was Private Kamal Khan, a Ghurkha, who by some strange turn of fate had enlisted in the Canadian Forces and ended up in the RHC. A bona fide Black Watch Highlander, Khan served as a scout with the 13th Battalion.156 The 42nd adapted to trench life; HQ officers’ spare time was spent playing “Chase the Ace” with Colonel Cantlie in the battalion orderly room dugout. It was his favourite and he often won. Time was the governing component. Adherence to prescribed slices of the clock meant life or death for it all was part of a symbiotic effort controlled by artillery timetables. The guns cut the wire, neutralized enemy fire and silenced enemy artillery. “Fire Plans” prescribed advancing artillery attacks, called a “creeping barrage” (or “walking barrage”) first used by the French Army. All were fired and lifted according to the chronometer’s tick. Being late often had fatal consequences. An infantry officer was required to carry a watch. By 1917, an issued wrist watch was available in limited distribution, but avoided by officers with taste who preferred to purchase their own because it resembled a gas mask cum dartboard. Between the fall of 1914 and winter 1917, the majority of officers adopted “trench watches”; only the most set-in-his-way-field officer carried a pocket watch. Trench watches were first popular during the Boer War. By Ypres, all sophisticated officers sported this type of chronometer styled as hunters or half hunters; Drummond, McCuaig or Molson may have preferred a Patek Philippe with the full hunter cover. Henry Birks of course sported his company’s watch. At any rate, by the fall of 1916, before an officer was about to blow his whistle and go over the top, he looked at his wrist. The 13th Battalion reached the Somme with a new commanding officer and many new faces. Clark-Kennedy returned to the trenches but with another unit; he was appointed commanding officer of the 24th Battalion, the Victoria Rifles of

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 177 Canada. Frederick Loomis was also awarded the DSO and given command of 2nd Brigade. Loomis handed over to Major, now Lieutenant Colonel, Victor Buchanan on 5 January 1916; Eric McCuaig was made second in command. Meanwhile, in the 42nd, Bartlett McLennan was hors de combat, recovering in hospital. Cantlie’s second in command, the consummate horseman, was seriously injured when his horse fell during a 7th Brigade jumping competition. He would miss the Somme but return in April for Vimy Ridge. The Somme Battles September–October 1916 Has anyone seen the battalion? I know where they are, I know where they are If you want to find the battalion, I know where they are, They’re hanging on the old barbed wire, I saw them, I saw them, hanging on the old barbed wire. First World War soldiers’ song

The Somme began badly. On 3 September, the 13th Battalion found itself under Australian command for a minor phase of a great engagement that sucked away two of its companies and caused the battalion to lose over a third of its strength. The battle for Mouquet Farm was riddled with confused contradictory instructions that compromised No. 1 Company (Major Lovett), and would have resulted in its complete elimination had not Major John Macpherson, commanding No. 2 Company, determined to personally investigate suspicious situation reports, reconnoitre ahead and finally discovered Lovett in a hot fire fight over a farm that was reportedly captured and secure. They established a hasty defensive line and tried to recapture the farm when their Australian headquarters advised Lovett “that aeroplane observation revealed what appeared to be Australian posts, isolated but still holding out, in the immediate vicinity of Mouquet Farm.”157 The ensuing action lasted another two days. No. 1 Company fought valiantly in a losing cause, and Lovett received his third wound of the war. John Macpherson, promoted from the ranks for valour after Ypres, brought out fifty men of his initial strength of 120. His grandfather had commanded the 5th Royal Scots, and he would soon win the MC near Courcelette. The total cost for Buchanan’s battalion was seventy-six killed and 247 wounded. A heavy price for what was regarded as a skirmish.158 It would get worse. There were four main Black Watch actions in the Somme Campaign: the 13th RHC at Mouquet Farm (3 September); the 42nd RHC attacking Fabeck Graben/Regina Trench twice (15–16 September); and finally, the 13th’s attack, again at Regina Trench on 8 October.

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The Somme offensives lasted from July to November 1916 and were not designed to capture a specific bit of geography. The main aim was twofold: to relieve pressure on the French armies at Verdun, and to inflict as heavy losses as possible on the German armies. Haig proposed to grind down General von Falkenhayn; as the British attacks in the Somme continued, it became obvious: “Day and night all through July and August the rise and fall of the battle could be followed by the rumble and flash of gun fire and the question on the lips of all was ‘When will we go to the Somme?’”159 The 42nd Attacks Fabeck Graben and Regina Trench, 15–17 September 1916 Enemy clearly seen standing breast high behind parapet. Within 100 yards 50 percent of the effective force became casualties. Men took cover in the numerous shell holes. Tried to get back to Fabeck Graben. Major Stanley Norsworthy, in a hasty note reporting the 42nd attack on Regina Trench160

The first Canadian Corps effort was against Courcelette, a dreary town just off the sprawling Thiepval Ridge, between the Ancre and Somme rivers. It was conducted by the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions. The 7th Brigade supported the latter and was tasked with the western sector of Courcelette, specifically a sunken road south of a main German trench line named “Fabeck Graben.” The approach was challenging; a forced march under intermittent shell fire in darkness through difficult country, devoid of all landmarks, to capture a partially obliterated German trench. For the 42nd, it was a two-phased operation. The first phase (15 September), designed to capture “Sunken Road” and “Fabeck Graben” Trench was a textbook attack; the second phase was unplanned and caught the 42nd by surprise, leaving little time for planning and battle procedure. The weather was consistently horrid, the ground wet and difficult to traverse hampered by the rain and mud. Wire was a particular obstacle and “though the wire was cut in many places during the day, by night the enemy would fill the gaps with loose concertina.”161 More important, the alerted Germans reinforced the Regina-Zollern sector with three regiments from a veteran marine infantry brigade. In the initial attack, Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie had time to send out an officer’s patrol under Stanton Mathewson to reconnoitre the first 400 yards to the objective. He then deployed the battalion two companies up: A (Captain Gafferty) right; B Company (Lieutenant SJ Mathewson) left; C Company (Captain Wilson) in support and D Company (Lieutenant JA Mathewson) in reserve. Despite enemy shelling, the advance continued without pause, with almost parade ground precision. Cantlie

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 179 was struck by a piece of shell casing but carried on, leading the headquarters group advancing behind D Company. The position was stormed. While A and C attacked Fabeck Graben, B and D Companies came forward with the utmost steadiness under heavy fire and occupied the Sunken Road. The debonair Blair Wilson was killed and Lieutenant Beresford Topp (“Toppo”) took command of the company. He was destined for distinction, military and literary. Topp would win the DSO, MC and Bar, and become a published historian after the war. The assault ended well, and both objectives were secured without heavy casualties. It was deceptively easy. However, the depth position, dubbed “Regina Trench,” still remained in German hands. It was a defence line over six miles long on the reverse slope of the ridge that dominated Courcelette. Regina Trench supported three lesser trench systems and two redoubts. Extended attacks by Canadian and British brigades failed to crack the system and any battalions that actually reached Regina Trench were defeated by counterattack. At 4 pm the next afternoon, the battalion received a warning order to join a second brigade assault within the hour. The 42nd and RCR were to storm Zollern Graben – the outer glacis of Regina Trench. There was little time; the companies were well forward and there were no telephone lines laid – pointless under the marauding artillery and machine gun fire. Captain WB Wedd, the brigade major, recalled briefing Captain Stanley Norsworthy, Cantlie’s second in command: “I was able to give him an hour’s warning of the attack. He accepted it very coolly.”162 Norsworthy then went forward to deliver the order personally. As he moved between the trenches, he was shot through both legs. Imperturbable, he doggedly continued with the mission. When offered evacuation, Norsworthy was nonchalant: “My wound is not serious – a graze on one hip and a clean hole through the other. No bones touched.” He crawled to each company position: “It was due to Captain Norsworthy that we did not lose our sense of direction … I found him with stretcher bearers working over wounds in his legs and suffering from loss of blood. He had crawled into the trench to deliver orders to me … he refused to be evacuated till he heard the result of the attack.”163 Actually the Major did require a little help. “The orders for the attack were in his pocket so Mr MacDonald took them out and Captain Norsworthy explained them in detail.”164 Hurriedly, the battalion regrouped its resources. Lewis guns were redistributed: six to attacking companies; three to supporting companies. The plan was uncomplicated; the first wave comprised A and C Companies moving behind a creeping barrage. D Company was in support, following at 50 yards. The 42nd Battalion advanced by waves in extended order:

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… here they were under clear observation of the enemy who opened on them severe MG fire … They were perfectly cool and steady even though some of our own shrapnel was ploughing the ground up around them … Then, after clearing no man’s land and having breasted the rising ground … machine gun and rifle fire cut the attacking waves to ribbons … By miracle we were able to get within 100 yards of the enemy trenches.165

The attacking companies lost heavily: “50 percent of the officers were casualties and we lost many splendid NCOs. Both sergeant majors from A and C Companies and ten sergeants were hit … The Lewis guns did some execution but were promptly put out of action. Several men did some individual shooting, but these were too few to be of any use.”166 Private Papps, a nineteen-year-old Lewis gunner, repeatedly attacked a trench finally taking twenty prisoners – but this was an exception. The attack was soon stymied. The German marines, in higher ground and not troubled by artillery, stood up to get better aim. The neighbouring RCR advance was savaged as well – less than 150 men remained. The attack was finally called off. In his after-action report, Colonel Cantlie was direct and unforgiving: “The artillery barrage utterly failed … When the second wave left our parapet the enemy was plainly seen standing almost shoulder to shoulder in his trench.”167 Norsworthy was equally critical of brigade control: “I consider our failure due to the entirely insufficient artillery barrage on our objective.” He was particularly miffed that: “information from our patrols the previous night … i.e. that their trench was a deep one with deep dugouts, was not passed along.”168 George Cantlie’s evaluation was terse: “An objective which normally would have been within our power to attain swiftly and decisively had been transformed to a critical if not impossible task … further progress would result in little short of the annihilation of the force.”169 The remaining men rallied and were directed back to Fabeck Graben trench; much of the guiding was by Norsworthy himself, who repeatedly went forward into the kill-zone to assume direct tactical control, demonstrating a Black Watch version of Auftragstaktik.170 The attack sputtered out and finally stopped. Stanton Mathewson, commanding C Company, recalled: “An hour later, about 25 percent of the attacking force had returned to Fabeck Graben … many individual acts of heroism were performed and it won’t hardly be fair to select special cases.” The assaults on Courcelette and Fabeck Graben were the only major offensive operations on the Somme in which the 42nd Battalion participated as an attacking unit. Despite the battering, their senior headquarters were chuffed. “In its first major operation at the Somme the Canadian Corps had acquitted itself with credit.”171 After the battle, both Cantlie and the regimental padre, Captain George Kilpatrick, offered commendation: “The success of the advance was in a large measure

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 181 due to the work of Captain SC Norsworthy, second in command, who was everywhere, directing and encouraging with the most remarkable coolness and resource.”172 A few months later, the London Gazette supplement announced MCs had been awarded to Captains Royal Lindsay Hamilton Ewing and Stanley Counter Norsworthy. Not all Highlanders were recognized. A poignant example of steadfast duty was the runner for battalion headquarters: “Private Anthony Robert Parry again and again has given evidence of his trustworthiness and courage … on 15th, mortally wounded after frequent reports. Just before he died, he raised himself on his elbow ‘Tell the adjutant I delivered the message but I could not get back.’”173 Perry was not put in for a decoration; after all, he was just doing his job. The 42nd’s cost was considerable: 430 casualties (almost as high as the 13th’s at Ypres), two officers, and 132 other ranks were killed. Brigadier General Cameron Macdonell was moved to write a personal note to Cantlie: To-day I visited the Zollern Graben. I found some of the glorious dead of the 42nd quite near the trench, the nearest within thirty yards, head toward the enemy … I proudly and reverently saluted these heroes Gillean na Feilebeag (Lads of the Kilt) … Your splendid battalion should know how near they were to the Zollern Graben. You may be rightly proud of such men.”174

South-west of Courcelette, Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan prepared the 13th for their anticipated test against Regina Trench. He had a week or so to tidy up and sent his second in command, Eric McCuaig, with his younger brother Clarence (the new adjutant) on a few days leave. Courcelette was a see-saw battle; gains achieved at bloody cost were eliminated by counterattack. Pauses between brigade attacks were dominated by sniping and increased enemy shelling as the battalions tried to rest. On 26 September, one stalking shell hit the battalion’s headquarters, ignited the gasoline supply and created a devastating flamed explosion. Thirty-eight Highlanders were horribly burned or wounded; eleven were killed, including the commanding officer. Victor Buchanan was an “original,” a long-serving 5th Royal Highlander and remaining senior officer who fought at Ypres; he was in command for ten months; the Somme was his last battle. The next day, Eric McCuaig returned and was appointed commanding officer of the 13th. 13th RHC at Regina Trench – 8 October 1916 Lieutenant General Byng decided to attack the Courcelette sector on 8 October with the 1st and 3rd Divisions; his objective was again, Regina Trench. As a precaution, to

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confirm any change in the enemy defences, the 13th RHC sent out a reconnaissance patrol. It returned just before dawn: Major McCuaig and the officers in battalion headquarters were startled by the arrival of a huge private, who, mistaking the entrance to the dugout, rolled down the ammunition chute and sprawled on the floor at their feet. He was covered with mud from head to toe, blood dripped from a shattered arm … Recovering his equilibrium, the private turned to Major McCuaig and delivered his report: “Sir, we’re buggered.”175

They exchanged glances. McCuaig ordered hot tea and rum for the patrol and went back to his maps. The attack went in promptly at H Hour, flares up, shells exploding, whistles blowing as the 7th, 9th, 3rd and 1st Brigades advanced behind a creeping barrage. McCuaig moved in two battalion waves across a rain-swept masticated landscape. The 13th RHC was on the left flank of 3rd Brigade, between the 58th Battalion (9th Brigade) and their comrades, the Canadian Scottish (16th Battalion) on their right. As the battalion reached the low crest for the last bound into the objective, the lead platoons ran into a great mass of uncut wire. The 13th was immediately subjected to observed fire from the Regina Trench. McCuaig later reported: “Heavy casualties sustained because wire was not cut in front of objective.”176 As the men determinedly struggled forward, their progress took them into a concave stand, swept by fire from front and both flanks. Elements of Nos. 1 and 4 Companies reached Regina Trench but could move no further. Air recce spotted them and erroneously reported the objective had been taken by 1st Division.177 Troops on the ground instead recalled “scores of the highland dead were seen hanging limply over the wires that had proved their undoing.”178 Twenty men returned from the leading wave. The 13th RHC lost thirteen of seventeen officers and 288 of the 360 men that attacked. Many lay out in wire all day and only returned after dark, while their mates stood to, giving covering fire: “Remnants of battalion manned the jumping-off trench during the whole of 9th [September] until relief at night.” About thirty wounded made their way back. At the morning roll call, “the appearance of the battalion brought a lump into the throats of those who recalled the splendid unit, up to full strength.”179 It was later written the Somme shattered the 13th but failed to subdue the regiment’s fighting spirit. It proved true.

From Mount Sorrel to the Somme | 183 Somme Epilogue To reject the inferiors and secure the right calibre the Colonel dared anything, little he cared for Red Tape or the ultimatums of Argyle House, London – so be it that he got men of the right stuff for the RHC. Major the Rev GDD Kilpatrick, Padre, 42nd Battalion RHC, writing of his CO, Lieutenant Colonel George Cantlie180 The battalion marched off in an indescribable condition of mud and physical exhaustion. After the Somme: War Diary, 42nd Battalion RNC, 18 September 1916

Of the battles fought by the CEF in The Great War, the Somme was the bloodiest. The corps lost over nine thousand killed out of twenty thousand total casualties. At the end of the campaign, General Haig noted, “we had broken through two of the enemy’s main defensive systems and advanced on a front of over six miles to an average depth of a mile.”181 The satisfaction over a corps success was dampened by bitterness of the actions, “we came out with a bad taste in our mouths.”182 The daily grind of the Somme completely deteriorated George Cantlie. At fortynine years of age, he was more Victorian than most. The average battalion commander was forty in 1916, and by 1918, thirty-seven. Cantlie was older than 88 percent of the colonels leading infantry battalions and what strength he had was sapped by the end of the campaign.183 He was given extended leave in December, never to return to the front lines. To his credit, he insisted on coming back to Europe and was finally given command of a reinforcement battalion in England, which he promptly developed into the 20th Reserve Battalion (RHC) – the fourth Black Watch battalion in the CEF. He remained in command until the end of the war, creating replacements for the corps as well as giving Regiment’s front line battalions a haven for its wounded cadres. The Somme savaged Lieutenant Colonel Peers Davidson as well. The forty-sixyear-old commander of the 73rd was medically boarded and succeeded by Herbert Sparling in early December.184 Stanley Norsworthy was appointed acting commanding officer of the 42nd until Bartlett McLennan was fit for war. Norsworthy would prepare the battalion for “the grandest day the Corps ever had.” General Currie’s words could equally apply to The Black Watch as a Regiment, for there would be three RHC battalions participating in the assault on Vimy Ridge.

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Vimy and Passchendaele

We are now wearing the balmoral with the Red Hackle, which makes us a bit swankier. Lieutenant Colonel Royal Ewing, 42nd Battalion RHC

The Black Watch battalions took two months to rebuild, and they were finally up to strength by Hogmanay 1917. The 42nd was topped up by augmentees who straight away modified its persona via spirited cadres from the east coast and Ontario. The Maritime author, Private William (Will) Bird, recalled: The first big draft was the 92nd from Toronto, they were a fine group of men, and a number from the 132nd, from New Brunswick and then we, the Nova Scotia Highland Brigade made up practically the rest of the battalion. There was very little representation from Montreal – although many of the officers did come from there.185

The common thread was that most of the reinforcement units had a Highland or Scottish connection. After February 1917, fewer reinforcements came from the Maritimes and more from Quebec and Ontario CEF battalions. The reinforcement policy changed following strenuous objection – Montrealers comprised about 54 percent of the 42nd Battalion until the end of the war.186

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Red Hackles and Balmorals – November 1916 and November 1917 The battalion had earned the distinction in its own right. The 13th Battalion, RHC, on deciding to wear the Red Hackle, November 1916

During their last night at the Passchendaele front, 18 November 1917, the 42nd was relieved by the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch RHR – the original 42nd Highlanders. The two outfits regarded each other in a taciturn but familial way. The Montrealers found they had lost their awe of the Imperials, and their own string of combats made them unflappable and confident. Perhaps arrogantly, but with hard evidence, they considered they themselves were now the proven standard of battle. The Imperials may have concurred for Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fortune wrote to Bartlett McLennan: “The Officers, NCOs and men of The Black Watch (42nd Royal Highlanders) regret very much that they just missed fighting side by side.”187 The 42nd chronicles hold it was pursuant to a request from the Imperials that the battalion decided to sport balmorals and Red Hackles beginning 30 November 1917. The Imperial Black Watch’s official history contains an aggrandizing reference to the November encounter: “Four days later, the Royal Highlanders of Canada were given the honour of the right to wear the Red Hackle in recognition of their gallantry in action when serving beside The Black Watch. All ranks were glad to see the Red Hackle worn by their comrades of the affiliated regiment.” There is no recorded formal invitation but after the RHC’s recent campaigns in Flanders and France, the matter defied any rite of confirmation.188 The 13th Battalion RHC was actually the first to adopt the Red Hackle, a year earlier. Directly after the Somme campaign, circa 11 November 1916 at Cambligneul, France, the battalion abandoned the glengarry for the balmoral with Red Hackle, via elegant reasoning: “Through affiliation with The Black Watch the 13th Battalion might have worn this red vulture feather from the beginning, but the officers decided that it was not fitting for a new and untried battalion.” The 13th finally determined that given Ypres, Sanctuary Wood, and the Regina Trench, the battalion had earned the distinction in its own right. This was a very Canadian resolution. Its first parade with Red Hackle and balmoral was on 13 November 1916 in the presence of the new corps commander, Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng.189

Vimy and Passchendaele | 187 The Lice That Live in the Folds of the Earth The sergeant spent the morning impressing Flynn with the fact that he was a “rifleman,” and made terrible threats as to what would happen should he answer differently. The inspection was on a Sunday, just after church parade, and a solemn retinue passed up and down, then paused in front of Flynn. “You,” barked the mighty one, “what is your religion?” Flynn rocked on his heels, his brain writhing. “I … I … I’m a Rifleman, yer Riverence,” came his horrible response. Private Will Bird, 42nd Battalion RHC190

The entire CEF was overhauled from the bottom up after the Somme. Hard-won experience permitted the corps to create a better fighting machine.191 As always, the brigade was the chainsaw and the battalion platoons the teeth that tore into an enemy defensive line and ripped out its heart. Canadians were accustomed to challenge and change since they were less mired in military tradition and martial institutions; technological and tactical innovation was quickly understood, adopted and applied. The number of Lewis guns issued per battalion was raised from eight to sixteen, permitting a distribution of one per platoon. The Lewis gun, coupled with thrown and rifle grenades, permitted platoon tactics to become sophisticated utilizing both manoeuvre and robust fire power.192 The Black Watch platoon now incorporated six elements: riflemen, Lewis gunners, grenadiers, bombers, scouts and snipers. Attacks were organized according to assigned mission.193 Assault groups included: bayonet men, moppers up, scouts and snipers. Bombers attacked with Mills and Stokes bombs carried in canvas bags or buckets. The Mills No.5 had replaced all other grenade types in the corps even though the German stick grenades seemed to be further thrown – by as much as 12 feet. Advanced battalion headquarters were set up and used as report centres as well as forward ammunition dumps. The Black Watch signalling officer and his accompanying three signallers, moved forward with telephone, flags and mirrors (as well as pigeons), “laying wires as they go.”194 If there is a Canadian way of war it began in Flanders and was centred on artillery. Arthur Currie was a gunner; he perfected “bite-and-hold” tactics. Currie consistently sought to pay the price of victory in shells, not in lives of men. He insisted on rigorous training: “thorough preparation must lead to success. Neglect nothing.”195 Currie’s doctrine, the Canadian warfighting technique, which would be perfected in time for Vimy and again demonstrated at Hill 70 and The 100 Days, was best at defence: the use of indirect fire power to destroy the enemy, or better, allow him to destroy himself via his own doctrine. Canadian artillery lay in wait for the inevitable

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German counterattack that followed every assault like clock-work. Each battalion had a dedicated battery and forward observation officer (FOO); each brigade had a slice of the artillery pie and access to grander celestial groupings of heavy and super heavy howitzers in corps and army organizations. All of these were controlled by telephone line.196 Directly after the Somme, in reaction to angry complaints from Lieutenant Colonel Cantlie and most other battalion commanders, the corps held an artillery conference and subsequently admitted that some of the tactical problems encountered were due to “lack of adequate liaison [and] ignorance of division arty liaison officers and FOOs of what heavy artillery batteries supported their front and how to get them quickly.”197 Their recommendations were closer cooperation between company officers and artillery officers (a version of Take the FOO out for a drink …) and tighter collaboration with intelligence officers in planning patrols and exchanging information. The Black Watch battalions organized courses for officers, senior NCOs and company scouts in map reading and detailed observation. Expert observers were then detached to work with snipers to record information and study terrain. Despite technological innovation, war remained the infantry man’s domain. They were “the lice that live in the folds of the earth” – an axiom attributed, at least in Highland messes, to Sir Archibald Wavell, a Black Watch general. It was unquestionably not meant to be impertinent; rather, it understood the relentless resilience of the foot soldier. The infantry seized and held ground. It was and remains the only arm capable of doing this. Yet even the most adamant Highlander would admit that the guns were the Canadian key that unbolted the enemy’s most guarded coffers. After Vimy, the corps ruminated, and then offered directives to its battalions. One of the lessons learnt from the Vimy attack was déjà vu: “In the open phase of warfare, the rifle once again becomes the principal arm of the infantry – superseding even the rifle grenade.” The recommended solution was to carry more small-arms ammunition and fewer grenades. Most officers were content to carry a pistol; battle savvy platoon leaders sometimes carried a rifle, but this was considered déclassé.198 Commanding the Infantry Battalion Few senior officers (Lieutenant Colonels and above) were in the front trenches or were really expected to be found forward. Because telephone communication between brigade and battalion HQ usually remained intact, the style of command changed. American General Omar Bradley, a veteran campaigner, opined: ‘“A piece of paper

Vimy and Passchendaele | 189 makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander.” COs were generally required to stay in a secure headquarters beside their telephones and maps, in contact with the battery commander and the brigadier. This frustrated some, soothed others. Eight CEF battalion commanders were killed in action during The Great War – out of 179 available infantry commands.199 The basic fighting and dying was done by junior officers and junior NCOs. Company commanders and sergeant majors were generally the next to go; but the most dangerous job at the front was platoon commander. “Left Out of Battle” (LOB) became the practised battle procedure by the end of 1916. At least a quarter of the battalion would now be left in rear areas during a heavy attack to prevent the complete destruction of a unit should the worse happen – as it almost did during both Ypres and the Somme. Stanley Norsworthy was discernibly frustrated as George Cantlie’s senior major: on 3 October he was left out of battle because the brigadier flatly refused to allow the CO and the acting second in command in the line at the same time. While the CO ran the show from battalion headquarters, his best available senior officer went forward to command the firing line or supervise the initial assault.200 From Courcelette to Amiens, Black Watch majors like Roy Ewing, Walter Macfarlane, Bill MacTier, Stanley Norsworthy, Kenneth Perry, and Ian Sinclair were the ones forward sorting out bogged down attacks and sending back hastily scribbled notes explaining what was happening midst the smoke and wire. What was unusual was to have the battalion commander in the thick of things, fighting the tactical battle from beyond the front lines. However, this did occur with the 42nd RHC, at Vimy Ridge. Vimy Ridge 9 April 1917 The most coveted Ridge on the Western Front. Sergeant, later Lieutenant Colonel Frank Stanton Mathewson, DSO201 Enemy infantry under cover of heavy artillery fire (Trommelfeuer) succeeded in penetrating front. Communiqué by Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria, 11 April 1917 As far as I could see, south, north along the miles of the ridge, there were the Canadians. And I experienced my first full sense of nationhood. Lieutenant Gregory Clark MC, standing near Major Stanley Norsworthy, Vimy Ridge April 1917

For The Black Watch, Ypres was an exceptional individual triumph, whereas Vimy constituted a collective success, a distinct milestone which brought shared renown to

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the Regiment: three RHC battalions storming up the most famous ridge in Canadian military history, in the battle that defined Canada as a nation. The attack was preceded with a programme of aggressive patrolling and dynamic raids to rattle the enemy and secure all information about his defences. The 42nd conducted three daylight raids in preparation for Vimy. The first raid was launched on New Year’s Day 1917 by Captain (Acting Major) Royal Ewing MC while temporarily in command of the battalion. It was a bit of derring-do, conducted in daylight, but with great stealth; prisoners were taken with no casualties, and without an alarm being given. Ewing seemed to find his forte. On 13 February, he conducted another daylight raid in which the battalion earned kudos from both Major General Lipsett the GOC 3rd Canadian Division, and the corps commander himself: “Please convey to the 42nd my heartiest congratulations on their successful raid this morning.”202 Eight days before the Vimy attack, Ewing, as battalion second in command, organized a third successful daylight raid which he supervised from an advanced position on a crater lip. The party penetrated to the enemy second line, bombed four large occupied dugouts, secured a prisoner and valuable intelligence, then returned with only one slight casualty. Ewing was again written up for immediate award of the DSO by Norsworthy. He was recommended for gallantry after Mount Sorrel, and finally received the MC for the Somme. He would have to wait until The Hundred Days for the next official recognition of his military skills which: “can scarcely be overestimated. His self-possession, coolness and courage under all circumstances are most marked.”203 Lieutenant Ralph Willcock MC, also took part in the 1 April raid. Like Ewing, he received his MC at Courcelette – a promising beginning for a subaltern just four months with his battalion. He lived up to expectations and would accumulate a Bar to his MC and the coveted DSO. The thirty-year-old Willcock was from Hamilton, a McMaster graduate and had been an administrator in the Directorate of Cadet Services. He was destined to be the superintendent of The Boys Farm and Training School at Shawbridge, Quebec. However, he particularly excelled at blowing things up and terminating Germans; he was by far the best leader of raids in the brigade. Willcock trained the raiding party for the 13 February sortie and volunteered to go over but was not allowed. He made up for it on 1 April, again training a party of thirty men, penetrated deep into German lines and “bombed four large occupied dugouts with No.5 Mills and Stokes … his fearless devotion to duty is marked on all occasions.”204

Vimy and Passchendaele | 191 73rd RHC in the Great Raid Shortly after arriving on the Vimy front, the 73rd Battalion RHC, the third Black Watch battalion at Vimy, participated in a great foray. The rather ambitious trench raid was to be launched on 1 March 1917 by the newly formed and woefully inexperienced 4th Canadian Division. It was a brigade-sized effort and Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Sparling’s first test for his pristine battalion. Sparling was a thirty-seven-year-old manufacturer from Ottawa, trained as a cavalry officer with the Mississauga Horse and joined the 5th Royal Highlanders in July 1915 as a major. He succeeded Peers Davidson in December and tried to fine-tune the 73rd. The Somme had toughened up the battalion but they had lost several good officers. One resolved not to fight with the infantry again. Gerald Alfred Sigourney Birks was a son of William Birks, the owner of the Canadian jewelers Henry Birks and Sons. He had just finished McGill and decided to join the 73rd; his cousin was already in the 42nd RHC. After recovering from his wounds, Birks transferred to the Royal Flying Corps: “he soloed during pilot’s training with only 2½ hours stick time.” He joined 66 Squadron and became a favoured wingman of famed fellow Canadian ace Billy Barker. Birks quickly became an Ace. His first victory was on 18 March 1918. By war’s end he had accounted for over a dozen aircraft – thirteen confirmed kills. For his deadly courage, Birks was awarded both the Military Cross and two bars.205 The March Raid was “on a great scale; for any other [conflict] but The Great War, it would have been a minor battle.” It included three battalions, the 54th (Kootenay), 72nd (the Seaforths), 75th (Mississauga) Battalion and the 73rd RHC – some 1700 all ranks. The aim was to reconnoitre and inflict damage on German defences on Hill 145. Preparation included several field studies and a rehearsal.206 The most elaborately planned Canadian raid of the winter was launched at 3 am preceded by White Star Gas, released by engineers from containers in the emptied front line – this was the first occasion that Canadians used gas against the Germans. It incited pandemonium, as the enemy opened up with artillery, trench mortars, rifles and machine guns, firing into the gas cloud and releasing hundreds of flares, making the raid a most surreal experience.207 The supporting artillery “box barrage” fell short and caused casualties in the 73rd; meanwhile, the barrage supporting the battalion on Sparling’s right failed to reach the enemy trenches, initiating severe flanking fire. Determined, the battalion pushed through. Platoon commanders were particularly valorous; Lieutenant HP McGregor penetrated deep into the enemy position: “when last seen he was still going on, calmly walking on top along a German trench and throwing a steady stream of bombs.”208

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The 73rd Battalion’s second in command, the very Scottish Major John Brown, won the DSO for his courageous leadership. He took charge of the remnants of the assaulting wave, reorganized them and tried to continue with the mission. Later, he held the forward trench line, personally supervising the evacuation of the 73rd’s wounded and dead. Brown, a forty-four-year-old decorated Boer War veteran, and an excellent officer who possessed tact and judgement and admirable executive ability, survived The Great War only to meet a particularly tragic end in New York – he was as much a victim of war as any of the men he tried to rescue.209 The one-hour operation cost the 73rd Battalion 161 men. The Great Raid did not accomplish much, and the venture was pretty much a complete failure. Total Canadian casualties numbered 687, including two battalion commanders and a number of company commanders killed. Regardless, the corps continued to raid enemy lines every night from 20 March to 9 April. “They were costly operations, resulting in some fourteen hundred casualties in two weeks. But this was offset to a great extent by the knowledge which they gained of the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.”210 Rehearsals and Tunnels at Vimy Regularly every morning / Just as the stars begin to tire Without the slightest warning / One of our MGs opens fire; A German machine gun answers back, / One or two rifles begin to crack, As the light creeps gradually into the sky / A couple of shells come whistling by, And all down the line you hear the rattle / As each trench starts its own little battle; The bullets are flying in every direction / By the time the lark begins its carol And all because the Machine-gun Section / Wanted to warm its hands on a barrel Captain Benjamin Henry Rust, 13rd Battalion RHC; killed 1916211

General Byng insisted there be repeated practices before the main assault. Careful rehearsals were conducted over great chunks of terrain, marked with tape. Every battalion rehearsed repeatedly until the sequence was second nature.212 “Every trench strong point, trench mortar position, machine gun emplacement and dug out which the Intelligence Service had been able to locate was clearly marked with a sign … In addition to the taped trenches, a large relief map was prepared at divisional headquarters.”213 Forty thousand topographical trench maps were distributed to ensure that even platoon sergeants and section commanders possessed a clear understanding of the battlefield. Security was rather tight.214 The approach was well protected. The lead battalions moved underground: there were twelve tunnels, called “subways,” under Vimy Ridge ranging from 500 to

Vimy and Passchendaele | 193 over 1000 metres – as sophisticated a piece of military engineering as 20th century technology would allow.215 The electrically lit subways, seven metres or more below ground, contained telephone cables and water mains – all safe from German artillery. One accommodation, the Zivy cave, had room for an entire battalion.216 The Vimy Assault 9 April 1917 At 4:00 am an issue of rum was made. Hot soup had been prepared for all troops, but the cook-house used by three companies was shelled, the cooks killed and consequently the soup was lost. War Diary, 13th Battalion RHC, 8/9 April 1917217 For a moment we could not make ourselves heard; then, gradually, the barrage became more broken … Someone touched me on the shoulder. I turned and there stood Eddie, from thirteen platoon. He reached for my hand and his face was deathly white. I gave him a hearty grip and shouted, “Good luck, old timer.” He shook his head. “This is my last trip,” he called. I made no reply. What could I say? We stood together, watching the flashes and then he moved away, slowly, down to his men. Corporal Will Bird, And We Go On

Vimy Ridge is a natural obstacle that offers the defender observation from dominating ground and considerable concealment. Two heights, Hill 135 in the north and Hill 145 in the centre, dominate. Vimy controls the Douai plain and opens the flood gates to the strategic coal mines of Belgium. It was about four miles in length divided amongst the four divisions of the corps, each responsible for a chunk of real estate. Three Black Watch battalions participated in the Easter Monday assault. The Canadian Corps aligned north to south beginning with 4th CID in which the 73rd RHC would fight as part of 12th Brigade; then the 3rd Division, which included 42nd RHC as part of 7th Brigade; 2nd Canadian Division, and finally, the 13th RHC at the southern end of the ridge with the venerable 1st Canadian Division. The ridge was covered with snow on 3 April, but by 9 April most of it had melted leaving the ground in a fearful condition of mud. The three Montreal Highland battalions were never in visual sight, but they could sense they were all there; this clan consciousness gave the battle a status out of all proportion to the battalions’ great combats through The Great War, and it would grow in legendary stature into the new millennium until it eclipsed classic achievements by Black Watch infantry. This is neither poignant nor regrettable, but given the regiment’s distinctive triumphs, it remains somewhat curious. The battalion actions varied in intensity with each divisional sector: 13th Battalion RHC The 13th had the least difficulty. It was to consolidate

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Zwölfer Weg (“the Black Line”) in a ragged part of the ridge. Owing to the terrible damage which had been done by the preparatory barrages, for miles nothing could be seen but shell holes; trenches were nearly all flooded with water and deep with mud. As the attack began “rain and snow were falling … No Man’s land was a mass of shell holes and turned up mud.”218 The 13th was in depth behind the 14th and 16th Battalions. The neighbouring 2nd Brigade was commanded by their former CO, now Brigadier General Frederick Loomis. The battalion was in support to the RMR; at Zero Hour (5:30 am) ten platoons closely followed the lead waves but: “the attacking troops met with practically no opposition and our supporting platoons were not called upon for assistance.”219 For once, the 13th had an easy time of it, moving through succeeding objects without a hitch, and suffering minimal casualties. 73rd Battalion RHC Just before the Vimy attack, a stalking shell hit the battalion orderly room, bursting with a double detonation, mortally wounding the assistant adjutant, Lieutenant Alfred J Norsworthy, and killing three clerks. Norsworthy was Stanley’s kid brother, the third Norsworthy to serve in battle. Edward died with the 13th Battalion at Ypres; Stanley was commanding the 42nd and Alfred, a McGill student, had just joined the 73rd Battalion. The family had more than proven its devotion to Canada.220 73rd RHC was allotted the Coburg Subway and provided two “crater rushing parties, [and] 2x Vickers teams”221 in addition to the assaulting companies. They watched as a great mine exploded to their front and promptly attacked, pursuing the shocked survivors. Securing the first German trench line, the 73rd consolidated to form a firm base. “The attacking troops in fact met with little opposition.”222 The battalion secured captured trenches and defeated a German counterattack near Kennedy Crater. Two major awards for valour were conferred on the 73rd for Vimy: Major Stanley received the DSO, and Sergeant Major W Fitzgerald got the DCM. 42nd Battalion RHC The 42nd, deployed behind the Grange Crater and, in terribly cold and wet weather, the men cleaned out the assembly trenches. Bartlett McLennan finally recovered from his equestrian crash and returned to take over the battalion – but he would act as an observer. Brigadier General Macdonell insisted the officer who planned the battalion’s assault on Vimy, actually lead. Thus, Stanley Norsworthy, still a major, though not chronicled as the officer commanding, did, in fact, command the 42nd at Vimy Ridge.223 The 42nd attacked along the seam of the 4th/3rd Division boundary toward high ground that had been prepared for two years by its defenders into a network of “concrete machine-gun emplacements woven about with barbed wire, the whole system linked by a maze of communication trenches and connecting tunnels.”224 Next

Vimy and Passchendaele | 195 to them were the PPCLI. The Black Watch, once described as a family compact, was unequivocally gracious in its mess but tended toward trenchant discern regarding its tactical associates. However, the 42nd had decided since Mount Sorrel that “the PPCLI were socially and professionally acceptable.”225 On the night of 7 April, the brigade moved to jump-off stations in the Grange and Goodman Tunnels. Saturday to midnight Easter Sunday was spent getting platoons properly deployed in assembly trenches and distributing the final issue of equipment to the attacking waves. The 42nd Battalion was allotted two extra machine guns, and two platoons from the Forty Niners attached as “moppers up.”226 Their brigade was to consolidate a defence line on the east slope of the ridge and capture two strong points on the final objective. Zero Hour was 5:30 am; the first objective (“The Black Line” or Zwischen Stellung) was to be captured by 6:45 am. The 42nd had to cover about 1000 yards. Norsworthy ordered two companies up, in two waves; each with a platoon frontage. A Company was led by Captain Eric Finley, a Montreal accountant and cousin to Hamilton Gault; C Company was on the left, commanded by Lieutenant John Lancelot Shum, a twenty-seven-year-old factory manager from London. Shum was a corporal in the 5th Glosters, and a member of the Bisley team. He joined the 13th Battalion as a private and fought at Ypres as a Lance Sergeant. The second-wave companies would capture the final objective, “The Red Line.” B Company, led by Lieutenant Roy Studd, a forty-four-year-old real estate broker from Halifax, was on the right. D Company with Major Edson Pease, a thirty-threeyear-old McGill engineer who would win a DSO in this battle, was on the left. Close behind followed Lieutenant MT Cohen commanding a special party of fifty soldiers carrying material for construction of a strong point in Blue Trench. Royal Ewing was the Battalion 2 i/c and Captain Beresford Topp, twenty-three, a journalist from Toronto, was dispatched to be the liaison officer with the 54th and 102nd Battalions (both from British Columbia), operating on the 42nd’s left flank. The 42nd objective was just six hundred yards south-east from the crest of Hill 145 (the eventual site of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial). At Zero Hour, the battalion advanced leaning into an “intense shrapnel barrage” which moved forward seventy-five yards every three to four minutes. The barrage would then “rest” on a point one hundred fifty yards beyond the intermediate objective, blasting down explosive and shrapnel to discourage enemy counterattack. By 7:15 am, A Company had secured their first objective and had taken prisoners. The medical officer, thirty-two-year-old Captain William Hale Jr, from Gananoque, Ontario, and the regimental padre, Captain the Reverend George

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Dinwoodie Kilpatrick, moved forward under sporadic fire and established an advanced regimental aid post. Kilpatrick was twenty-nine years old, although he sometimes seemed much older. He was born in Aberdeen and settled in Toronto. Kilpatrick was a noted university athlete and joined the 42nd only a few months before Vimy but “already won the warm admiration and respect of all ranks.”227 One of the great tactical stories of Vimy Ridge is the total dominance by Brigadier General Andrew McNaughton’s guns. He was a McGill professor lecturing in electrical engineering then quickly became the guru of counter battery fire, creating important innovations in “sound ranging” and surgical application of heavy artillery to excise enemy capability to react. Where he expected counterattack, McNaughton had entire batteries in waiting, ready to punish the Germans via their own doctrine.228 Closely following their own creeping barrage the 42nd scrambled across the muddy craters with great steadiness, just as though they were again rehearsing over the tapes at Bruay. Ewing recalled: “The Hun set off all sorts of signals – bursts of golden rockets, green flares, etc … the weather [changed] from rain to sleet …”229 The textbook attack had one uneasy segment. Hill 145 was not taken by the novice 4th Division; it quickly suffered serious casualties and stopped short of the objective leaving the left flank of 3rd Division exposed. The enemy soon engaged the 42nd’s flank: “heavy rifle fire and machine gun fire from the direction of Hill 145.”230 Major Norsworthy Protects the Division Flank: The 42nd at Hill 145 Situation on our left continued critical for some hours but was well taken in hand by Major SC Norsworthy. 7th Canadian Brigade After Action Report, Operations Vimy Ridge, April 1917231

Fire from Hill 145 increased; A Company began to take casualties, and its commander, twenty-four-year-old Eric Barrett Finley, was hit. As he lay there, Kilpatrick ambled by: “Well they got you at last, Eric … can you make it home?” That seemed to work, Finley forced himself up and went to catch up with his company. He then went on to win an MC.232 Meanwhile, the threat to the 3rd Division remained. The 42nd Battalion reported that the enemy were attempting to turn their flank by way of Blighty Trench. Brigadier General Macdonell was concerned, but reassured when he realized that Norsworthy had gone up to organize a firm guard: “Major Norsworthy went forward under very heavy fire … He continued in personal command for thirtysix hours … an inspiration to his battalion.”233 The battalion’s timely reaction to a potential predicament was training and dynamic leadership. He was subsequently awarded a DSO.

Vimy and Passchendaele | 197 Of the three battalions, the 42nd had the longest fight and took the heaviest casualties of its brigade: 302 all ranks or 42 percent. Three-quarters of the company officers were killed or wounded – all lieutenants. At battle’s end, all three RHC battalions, the 13th, 42nd and 73rd looked out over the Douai Plain. The Black Watch had become Pan-Canadian – over 50 percent of its soldiers were from Montreal or Quebec, the remainder mostly from Ontario and the Maritimes; just over half of the officers were from the City: fifteen out of twenty-eight.234 73rd Battalion is Let Go – Conscription’s Victim As we neared the outskirts of the village a very fine compliment was paid to the battalion by the 73rd who lined the road and cheered … fine appearance and gave promise of more than sustaining the record of the Royal Highlanders of Canada on active service. 235

Despite better technology and more of it, the better the Canadian Corps became, the higher were its losses – the price of being the “shock troops” of the Allied army. The casualty rates were not being matched by Canadian recruiting efforts. This would soon lead to Canada’s first conscription crisis. Meanwhile, the gaps in the fighting brigades had to be filled since Lieutenant General Currie insisted on maintaining his “square corps.” The staff solution was to break up battalions and use the bits and pieces as reinforcements. Lieutenant Colonel Sparling’s unit, despite its efforts and splendid showing at Vimy, was a doomed battalion and near the top of the list for disbandment. The 73rd was selected, not because it wasn’t a good outfit, but because it was a junior outfit. The truth was that Montreal could not maintain the battalions it raised. The 73rd had to go. The 5th RHC called up its friends and tried to convince the government to change its plans. The powerhouse members of the officers’ mess, including Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Athelstan and Lord Beaverbrook, made appeals. The Duke of Connaught and the Minister of Militia and Defence both lobbied Lieutenant General Sir EA Alderson, Inspector General of Canadian Forces in England, not to break up the 73rd, but the accumulation of casualties overtook their efforts. Cadres of the 73rd were placed in sister battalions, and a few groups went elsewhere.236 Currie Becomes Corps Commander – Hill 70 15–17 August After Vimy, The Black Watch participated in two major actions (Arleux and the Scarpe) but remained “in support” and did not assault. Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie took command of the Canadian Corps on 6 June 1917, the first Canadian to hold this

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high a rank. Currie’s first tactical project was to redraft the corps’ scheme for Hill 70 and then convince his commander to become a shareholder in the plan. Luckily, General the Baron Henry Horne was another gunner, the only one to command an army. They were perhaps kindred spirits; certainly, to some extent, Horne may have influenced Currie’s tactics. The strategy was a grand artillery trap that used infantry gains to compel Germans forward to be destroyed by Canadian gunners in two simple steps: capture enemy vital ground, then receive German counterattack with masses of artillery. The Hill 70 show was an archetypal Currie attack and cemented his tactical reputation. Hill 70 was a bare piece of chalk about ten miles north of Vimy; it offered a commanding view of the Douai plain – although it certainly was no Vimy Ridge. However, the preparation was the same: large coloured maps to memorize, lectures, training and complex rehearsals. Two divisions advanced, each with two brigades up.237 The attack went in at 4:25 am on 15 August; the 13th Battalion RHC was sandwiched between the 15th (the 48th Highlanders) and 16th Battalions. The 13th attacked with two companies leading. The approach march was at night, under intermittent fire; in the darkness, D Company drifted to the right but was redirected by the gallant efforts of Captain William Bennett, twenty-seven years old, an original 13th NCO commissioned from the ranks who “though mortally wounded, continued to direct his men until no longer able to speak.”238 Bennett was from Northern Ireland, and was a clerk in the CPR; he died determined the attack went off all right. Royal Engineers fired trench mortars throwing cylinders of burning oil to set alight a German strong point. “The red light from this blazing oil flashing and glittering on the long lines of bayonets was a sight to fire the imagination.”239 The attack gained its objectives; Lieutenant Colonel Eric McCuaig came forward to establish his HQ and fine-tune the battalion front as covering batteries adjusted fire, some of which fell short. There was much smoke. The surreal circumstances became bizarre when suddenly: A skirl of bagpipes was heard and along came a piper of the 16th Canadian Scottish. This inspired individual, eyes blazing with excitement and kilt proudly swinging to his measured tread, made his way along the line … Shell fire seemed to increase as the piper progressed and more than once it appeared that he was down and he disappeared, unharmed to the flank whence he came.240

The men’s blood was thoroughly up, and they stormed through Hugo Trench and the Bois Rasé, led by Major Mathewson. Then the brigade dug in and waited. The expected German counterattacks were as predicted and shattered by artillery, rifle and MG fire. The battle cost the 13th dearly, as sixty-eight were killed and 186 wounded – a fifth of their strength.

Vimy and Passchendaele | 199 Back to Ypres: Passchendaele October 1917 In March 1917, the Russian Front was rocked by the Communist revolution. In May, French troops, savaged by horrendous losses with little result, began to riot: “A bas la guerre, pas de boucheries.” Allied governments apprehensively looked into their armies for signs of Bolshevik agitation. The mutiny prompted Field Marshal Douglas Haig to attack in order to give the French time to recover. Another Flanders offensive was unpopular with everyone, but somehow it was ordered to proceed. Haig marshalled his best troops. After Vimy, Byng was promoted and given an army. Haig demonstrated shrewd operational sense by promoting Currie and not another British officer to command the Canadian Corps. By the fall, Currie, in his fourth month as corps commander, knew Byng was planning an attack in Flanders and asked for the Canadians. On 12 October, Currie was summoned by Haig. Colonel Wilfred Bovey, a Black Watch staff officer, was present at the conference: Haig “Currie, I am ordering the Canadian Corps to go north. I shall want you to take Passchendaele.” Currie

“Our casualties will be at least 250 per battalion, 12,000 for forty-eight battalions.

It will cost 3,000 more for roads, 1,000 for service … If we go we must fight under Plumer. We know him and we know Tom Harrington.” Haig “Currie, do you realize this is insubordination?” Currie

“Yes, sir, but I cannot help it. I am responsible for my men and I am not going to

see them killed for want of preparation.”241

Currie followed orders and attacked. The results were what he feared. It was a tough test for the new corps commander, attacking into the worst country on the Western Front: sodden, covered with craters, muddy bogs and barbed wire. The most careful tactics were marked by short gains that, despite extensive artillery support, were thwarted by pill boxes made of concrete and steel. October 1917 was especially wretched in an already wretched fall. The 42nd RHC: The Capture and Defence of Graf House – 3 November 1917 The 3rd and 4th Canadian Divisions were the first to enter the Passchendaele grinder, which was carried out in three stages, commencing 26 October and ending 10 November. Passchendaele was a wrecked town at the apex of a horseshoe ridge; the centre approach was along the middle of the valley which included Graf House

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farm. The course was dominated by enfilade fire from cleverly placed machine gun bunkers. The wettest fall in thirty years liquefied the low-lying, shell-torn clay into a succession of muddy pools. The ground was a long bog, impassable except by a few defined tracks, which were marked by enemy artillery. To leave these tracks was to risk death by drowning. The soldiers were miserable: … you couldn’t lie down, you couldn’t do anything – there was just eternal mud. It rained, it was bitterly cold and going through the trenches we got mud on the kilts which froze for about two inches up on the hem … and we all had raw legs – the skin practically rubbed off your knees – these frozen kilts … they took them from us … and we wore trews for the rest of the winter … I thought it was an awful state these trews in that mud of Passchendaele it should never have been … they never once thought of it …242

One of the worst memories was lice which infested the kilts and blankets: “seam squirrels we called them … when you got into your dugout, you took off the kilt and ran a candle up and down the seams … that’s the way you got clear of them.”243 Troops yearned for a new preparation called Zambuk, but it was not to be had. The 42nd was under a new brigadier; the popular Macdonell succeeded Currie in command of First Division. The final parade was at Château de la Haie. The four battalions, RCR, PPCLI, 42nd (RHC) and 49th Battalion (Edmonton Regiment), formed a great hollow square. In the distance appeared a small group of horsemen, led by General Macdonell on his familiar white charger. As they cantered towards the parade with the red divisional pennants fluttering from the shafts of the orderlies’ lances, a sharp command was given, and the brigade presented arms. Sitting on his horse in silence, the old brigadier looked upon his former command for a moment, then without a word wheeled abruptly and galloped away. The Reverend Dr GGD Kilpatrick DSO wrote: Not many of us will forget that day when our brigadier bade us farewell as he went to assume command of the First Division. In silence we waited for his coming, in silence we listened for words that somehow would not come; and then, as he put his horse to the gallop and left us, the brigade burst into cheers, and there was more love, more honour in those cheers than words could ever have told.244

Macdonell was replaced by Brigadier General Hugh Marshal Dyer, who quickly earned the professional approval of the brigade. Before the campaign started, Lieutenant Colonel McLennan took leave; Major Stanley Norsworthy would again command the battalion during the Passchendaele tour. His first operation was an independent effort on 2/3 November to capture an irritating pillbox at Furst Farm, and then straighten

Vimy and Passchendaele | 201 his line by capturing the vexing Graf House position, the centre of a three-sided killing zone. This mini salient had already cruelly chopped up the Patricias and the Forty Niners, leaving only remnants for the 42nd to replace. Norsworthy despatched an attacking force of seven parties: seven officers and two hundred other ranks, each with a specific mission. The last assault group, led by Lieutenant Myer Tutzer Cohen and twenty-four soldiers, was to capture Graf House itself. The jaunty twenty-three-year-old Cohen joined the battalion in September 1916 and after a cool start, became one of the boys.245 He was from a Toronto business family and sported a certain aristocratic style; in his Declaration Papers, he listed his profession as “Gentleman,” and wore a pince-nez, perhaps to the annoyance of fellow subalterns. Cohen was a transfer from Ontario’s 77th Wentworth Regiment. He was not an immediate success. Colonel CB Topp recalled: I can well remember the chaffing of him by his fellow officers for his wearing of the kilt. The Brigade Commander, Sir Archibald Macdonell, was greatly distressed at the way in which this young Jew wore his kilt and used to say to him, ‘I can never let you call yourself MacCohen until you learn to wear your kilt properly.’246

This changed after Cohen’s first raid. Cohen excelled in small unit action. On the night of 29 September 1917, Lieutenant Cohen, with a party of one NCO and seven men, conducted a fighting patrol near Méricourt and suddenly encountered two enemy patrols. Cohen attacked and destroyed both, capturing three prisoners from each. He was commended by his fellow officers and later, according to regimental saga, as the battalion marched past Macdonell, now the division commander, the general called out, “You can call yourself MacCohen now!” Thus the daring subaltern became Scot by acclamation. In fact, the authority appeared as a written directive from the division’s senior Highlander commander: “I hereby confer on him the brevet rank of ‘Mac’ to be used whenever he likes, but he must always be MacCohen in the kilt.”247 The Graf House attacks were launched at 2 am in a dark night. Any movement was immediately met by heavy machine gun fire. By 2:35 am, the 42nd soliders threw all their grenades. Lieutenant Robert McIntyre MM neared the pillbox but tragically, artillery fire fell short. McIntyre was mortally wounded. He joined the 42nd as a private, was wounded three times previously, won the Military Medal at the Somme as a sergeant, and enjoyed the admiration and respect of all ranks. He would be awarded the MC for this action. Lieutenant Cohen captured Graf House, a virtual ruin, and was immediately counterattacked by a series of German groups, who surrounded the position and rained

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down cylindrical and egg bombs. Cohen’s group dwindled, their ammunition all but expended; their remaining Lewis gun was down to half a pannier. It was worked by Lance Corporal William John Taylor, a twenty-five-year-old streetcar conductor from Toronto. Reinforcements were unable to reach the tiny garrison. Cohen was killed. The battalion’s regard for him was such that after the war, when the 42nd erected a splendid stained-glass window in the regimental church to commemorate Lieutenant Colonel McLennan, a Star of David was fitted into one of the panes in Cohen’s honour. The battalion again attacked on 13 November but in support of the Camerons, and when called, brought down heavy executing fire with its Lewis guns. “Please accept our best thanks,” wrote Lieutenant Colonel Erskine. He added a special note commending Captain William Hale MC, the 42nd’s medical officer for his zealous work with the Cameron wounded. The tour claimed 101 casualties in total and included acts of gallantry. Company Sergeant Major GW Kennedy died in the fighting and was awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the MM for repetitive acts of bravery. Company stretcher bearers Privates John Rintoul and AP Gater continually worked in the open, advancing through knee-deep mud to rescue the wounded. Private Rintoul died of his wounds. Sergeant Harry Clark, wounded repeatedly, continued to bring up ammunition. The battalion sniping section was entirely killed or wounded by the end of the Passchendaele battles. “The sacrifices made cannot be adequately cited in the official meagre record of personal gallantry” noted the 42nd’s historian. When they were marched into reserve, the regiment’s sentiment was echoed in the words of a Lewis gunner: “I hope to God that I never see the cursed place again.”

Chapter 11

The Black Watch and The Hundred Days August to November 1918

Raids But No Man’s Land is a goblin sight When patrols crawl over at dead o’night Boche or British, Belgian or French, You dice with death when you cross the trench … JH Knight-Adkin, No Man’s Land

The early part of 1918 was spent in anticipation of a German attack. The Russian Revolution ended war in the east and permitted the transfer of nearly fifty divisions for the spring offensive or Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser’s Battle). This was General Ludendorff’s last chance to end the war before half a million Americans under General Pershing arrived in France. The main attacks were against the British armies south of Arras. The Germans captured a thousand square miles and advanced nearly sixty kilometres, but they did not achieve any of their strategic objectives. The Allies held militarily, and politically. Canadians participated in delaying actions, most notably the counterattack by General Seely’s Canadian Cavalry Brigade at Moreuil Wood (1 April 1918). The remaining months were then spent training and preparing for the great Allied summer

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offensive. The Canadians would play a particularly important part. Meanwhile, to keep the Germans off balance, they raided. Raids were bespoken compositions, tailored to fit the job; creative mixes were the norm. The techniques evolved and calibrated constantly seeking a perfect balance. Canadians soon developed their own system. Major raids were heavily supported by artillery and usually launched in daylight, designed to take prisoners, destroy dugouts or simply confirm enemy dispositions. The 42nd acquired a reputation for audacious raiding; the daylight effort led by Ewing on 13 February 1917 impressed Brigadier General Macdonell. His personal note to Norsworthy was exuberant: Clanna nan Gàidheal ‘an guaillibh a chéile! (“Highlanders shoulder to shoulder!”) Once again the 42nd Battalion, 5th RH of C has done a gallant deed with honour to themselves and credit to Canada. Thanks to this plucky, well-conceived and better carried out raid, the brigade goes back to rest with all the honours of war. I desire that the 42nd Battalion RH of C shall, if possible, be even cleaner tomorrow on the march back and swing their kilts more proudly than ever, “victory follows in the wake of the kilt.”248

One raid, launched 1 November 1917, used the entire 42nd Battalion’s resources to capture a single pillbox. The Graf House raid used half the battalion, and eventually drew in the entire reserve without producing conclusive results. A raid ordered by Ewing on 11 March 1918 aimed at destroying a dugout comprised only twenty men under Lieutenant HB Trout, but was supported by a complete artillery fire plan and a barrage from 7th Brigade’s machine guns. A battalion raid on 8/9 June 1917 comprised a raiding party of nine officers and 420 ORs and brought back a dozen prisoners. Scouts were key in leading parties through gaps – often taping approach routes. Mortar and rifle grenade barrages provided cover and confused the enemy, whose artillery and pyrotechnics usually hit the wrong sectors. The Germans loved flares and “lit up” assaulted sectors. Every raid produced a kaleidoscope of green, orange, white and “golden chain rockets.”249 Twenty raids were initiated over a two-year period: sixteen successful and four unsuccessful. The foiled raids were always followed up by a second effort which got its mark. The key lesson learned was soon applied to set-piece formal attacks: “insure that there were sufficient moppers-up to look after every possible contingency [and] strong party of bombers and rifle grenadiers with some riflemen … in case of immediate counterattack.”250 The 13th participated in a raid with the 14th RMR on12 February 1918 to destroy dugouts and gun emplacements. The 42nd conducted three platoon or company-sized raids in 1918, the last just before The Hundred Days on 19 July.251

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By the summer of 1918, Currie had responded to the observation made during the second Somme which identified the “necessity for a suitable ‘offensive doctrine’ well understood by infantry, artillery and machine guns.”252 The engineers and infantry platoons were again reorganized; Lewis guns were increased to thirty-six per battalion, but most battalions held on to extra Lewis guns and Colt machine guns. Platoons now comprised thirty men: an officer, two sergeants, two corporals, two lance corporals and twenty-three privates. They could be manoeuvred as half platoons, commanded by a sergeant with two sections. Regimental Life I want to go home, I want to go home The bullets they whistle, the cannons they roar, I don’t want to go to the front anymore. Take me over the sea, where the Aleeyman [German] can’t get me, Oh my, I’m too young to die, I want to go home. Soldier’s dirge, 1918

In March, the impossibly brave Stanley Norsworthy left the 42nd, appointed as the brigade major to 8th Brigade. The negligence of the corps to have made him a colonel by the summer of 1918 is one of the great regimental mysteries of the war. Norsworthy, ever the professional, shrugged it off. They were all hard-bitten veterans by now. After the winter of 1917/18, the Highlanders were case-hardened, but not completely cynical. As spring finally swelled, they tried to relax, although pre-modern social behaviour was still de rigueur in the officers’ mess. During a particularly nasty March, Lieutenant Gavin Ogilvie found himself in support behind a front line battalion, standing-to with his platoon. It was raining cats and dogs; worse, the other platoon, from the Royal Canadian Regiment, permitted to stand-down, was now comfortable in their dry dugouts. Ogilvie, from a well-known Montreal mercantile family, a graduate of Cambridge, destined to become a colonel and commandant of The Black Watch after the war, appealed in vain for permission to stand down. The result was a ditty that was sung in the officers’ mess, and likely the men’s wet canteen, until well after the war: You made me stand-to – I didn’t want to do it – I didn’t want to do it, You made me stand- to – and all the time you knew it, I know you always knew it. You made me stand-to when the RCRs stood down, And all my men swore and wore a dirty frown. I tried to tell you – a little note I wrote you, A second note I wrote you,

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But you didn’t care a damn or a hooty-rooty-toot-rooty-toot, Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme what I cry for, You know you’ve got the kind of dugouts that I’d die for, You know you made me stand-to.253

The 42nd’s padre, Major George Kilpatrick, was invited to a May concert at the Patricia’s but found himself “subject to extreme embarrassment by being singled out as an object of attention by a young lady (!) in her song ‘Fancy you fancying me’ to a man of my almost morbid sensitiveness such publicity is an occasion of acute distress.”254 The subalterns were seasoned veterans, yet tended toward the eccentric things all young men enjoy, with a classic sang froid. A popular trench game in the 13th was Dodge the Hun Sausage. Lieutenant Rod Kennedy, a MacDonald College graduate, wrote instructions for the battalion newsletter: “Great New Games Played in the Forward trenches – suitable for children’s parties or for entertainment when Bridge is barred. It consists of two men, at each end of a trench and provided with whistles.” The “Sausage” was, in fact, one of the big shells thrown by a German trench mortar, which Black Watch subalterns baited, often calling out and mocking the firers, but keeping in mind “you have 10-20 seconds to get out of the way.”255 The Royal Highlanders died fulfilling orders in all operations, but some orders were just not obeyed. In July 1918, after a stint in the trenches, the 42nd were sent into rear areas to rest but once there they were ordered to repair roads. The men simply refused: “Sir, there is some mistake. The 42nd never do road repairs and there is a labour battalion in this area, as you saw.” No work for thoroughbreds. Will Bird recalled that there was hell to be paid, but when the senior officers heard about it, the officer was removed; the company commander apologized to the men, and nothing more was said.256 At the end of December 1917, Eric McCuaig was sent on an extended furlough, and Kenneth Perry took over as acting CO. His duties lasted four months. McCuaig returned in April; Perry was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of Montreal’s Canadian Grenadier Guards (87th Battalion). McCuaig led the 13th into the Amiens offensive, won a Bar to his DSO, and was promoted to brigadier general 14 September 1918. He would be succeeded by Ian Sinclair MC, an original who had served with The Black Watch from its first battle at Ypres to The Hundred Days. Just after Dominion Day, the remaining Black Watch battalions attended a “Highland gathering”; the featured “Retreat” was played by twenty-four massed pipe bands, with 284 pipers and 164 drummers on parade. At the head of the column, and never missing a beat, marched Flora MacDonald, the 13th Battalion’s goat.257 It was a delightful diversion and much appreciated. The corps would soon be tested in a

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series of battles in a grand offensive. The Hundred Days incorporated much planning and rehearsal by a corps at the peak of its game. The most emphasized was security. Every pay book was stamped “Keep Your Mouth Shut!” On 3 August, five days before the great offensive, Lieutenant Colonel Bartlett McLennan, DSO, was at the front conducting a reconnaissance; the 42nd was ordered to capture Hill 102 on the first day of Amiens. His party was spotted and artillery fire called in. McLennan was killed. A runner crashed into the battalion headquarters and said in a broken voice: “The colonel is dead.” McLennan was awarded the DSO on 1 January 1917 in recognition of The June Show; he was three times Mentioned in Despatches. General Currie, Major General LJ Lipsett, Brigadier General Hugh Dyer DSO, and many other distinguished officers from the corps attended his funeral regardless of the approaching zero hour for the great offensive – completely without precedent. “All ranks learned to love him as a friend and counsellor and to admire him as a brilliant and gallant soldier and gentleman.”258 The soldiers held that McLennan was all that an officer should strive to be: “His death was a calamity to us; we feared we would not get another of his kind.”259 The Hundred Days: 8 August – 11 November 1918 The Canadian Corps is cooperating with the French on the right and the Australian Corps on the left in an attack on the enemy’s positions to the East and South of Amiens with the objective of driving back and defeating the enemy and so freeing the main line of railway between Amiens and Paris. Corps Instruction for the Offensive No. 1, July 1918

The Canadian Corps played an important part in The Hundred Days Campaign which ended the war in the west. It not only verified General Currie’s command of the operational art but the extent to which the CEF had become the definitive modern army. Its demonstrable superiority caused both the Allied command and their enemy to consider them Sturmtruppen. One historian dubbed them the “Shock Army of the British Empire.”260 Currie’s corps offensive conformed to larger theatre offensives ordered by the new Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies, Generalissimo Ferdinand Foch, and the compliant tactics planned by Field Marshal Haig. The CEF was still part of Sir Henry Horne’s First British Army, his reputation built, to some extent, on the Corp’s continued accomplishments. As a major movement in the 1918 symphony of war, the CEF would spearhead three successive army offensives: Amiens, Arras and the Canal du Nord-Cambrai. It attacked in concert with General Sir John Monash’s

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Australian corps of five divisions, the other great dominion formation. The Black Watch battalions would fight in each part of the campaign, accomplishing much, suffering serious losses, wresting victory and garnering three Victoria Crosses. The first thrust was at Amiens and resulted in a historic triumph; it shattered the German front, penetrated twelve miles and convinced General Ludendorff, the de facto supreme commander, that Germany had lost the war. He described the 8 August attack as “the black day of the German Army.” For The Black Watch, the day held unprecedented achievements, including two supreme distinctions for valour, both for the 13th Battalion RHC. The 13th Battalion was tasked with capturing Hangard Wood and the Coates Trench. They were allotted seven British tanks in direct support. Lieutenant Colonel McCuaig attacked across the Luce River through thick ground mist on a four platoon frontage. The barrage helped drown out the roar of hundreds of armoured vehicles. The Highlanders had to guide their attached tanks across obstacles. Fighting broke into a series of local actions with small detachments: “Tanks are valuable as wire breakers and trench dominators or as the correct answer to machine gun nests.”261 Tank–infantry cooperation was a difficult on-job learning experience and dependent on initiative and inspired tactics; often a single tank and a Black Watch platoon would clear out resistance nests. At Hangard Wood West, there was considerable fighting overcome with the assistance of armour. “Excellent work which was done by Captain White’s section of tanks; I asked him to have his tanks circle the wood, which he did, resulting in our capturing a number of prisoners.”262 The battle demanded dynamic leadership. Private John Croak, despite wounds, led the remnants of his platoon through example and courage, clearing machine gun nests with bomb and bayonet. Croak was a twenty-six-year-old coal miner who was born in Newfoundland but settled in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. He was the 13th’s first Victoria Cross of the day. He did not survive. Later, as the battalion penetrated past German supporting trenches, Corporal Herman James Good from D Company came upon a battery of 5.9-inch guns pounding the Canadian advance. The thirty-one-year-old logger from Big River, New Brunswick, charged the guns with three privates, terrifying the gun crews and routing them in hand to hand melee. The 13th Battalion captured the objective and a hockeysockfull of German artillery as war prizes.263 Good survived the battle and the war and won the day’s second Victoria Cross. The padre of the 42nd, Major G Kilpatrick, won a DSO that same day: “exposed to heavy fire of all descriptions, he dressed and attended to the wounded and ministered to the dying without regard to his own safety.”264 The offensive made substantial

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gains; by the fifth day, the corps had penetrated the last defence line, and the 3rd Canadian Division troops were engaged in clearing a maze of enemy dugouts between the villages of Fouquescourt and Parvillers. On 12 August, Private Thomas Dinesen, a tall twenty-six-year-old Dane in the 42nd, was awarded the Victoria Cross after he led his platoon in the capture of more than a mile of enemy trenches north of Parvillers.265 An unbiased observer from the 44th (Manitoba) Battalion was moved to write: “Never was there greater dash nor perseverance shown by men than that by the company of the 42nd [who] fought steadily and at deadly close range for ten hours. The spirit was such that throughout the men continually cheered. Every man played his part.”266 The battalion’s history recorded the “act of intrepid heroism … his work with the bayonet was deadly and his carefree courage was the keynote spirit of the men.”267 Dinesen joined The Black Watch in the summer of 1917. He was larger than life and prompted trench blether; the most popular yarns held he was a blue blood, received mail with a family crest, owned a hotel in New York City, had a private yacht, and that he ate in the officers’ dugout. In fact, Dinesen was a civil engineer, from a distinguished but bourgeois military family; later, he was overshadowed by his sister, Baroness Karen Blixen, who was better known internationally as the novelist Isak Dinesen (“Out of Africa”). After the war, Dinesen went to Kenya and worked on her farm, supervising the coffee growing and shooting lions; he retired to Denmark.268 That night, the 42nd was relieved by its sister unit, the 13th RHC. McCuaig would conduct two subsequent actions and then finally rest the battalion near Beaufort. The offensive cost 275 all ranks, fifty-eight of whom were killed. Ewing fared better; the 42nd lost 148, of whom forty-two died.269 The advance rumbled on for three more days, but without the spectacular results of 8 August; the corps outran the supporting artillery and ran short of supplies. The Allies gained twelve miles, most on the first day, and defeated successive German counterattacks. Ewing wrote: “Tens of thousands, we got artillery on them, but still they came … All the machine guns were going like blazes and we just mowed them down. We have never done such killing in the whole year.”270 Major General Macdonell was euphoric; this was his first battle as divisional commander of the veteran 1st Canadian Division. Though he fondly remembered the 42nd from his days at 7th Brigade, he was clearly impressed with the 13th’s two VCs and their style both in the close assault and defeating determined counterattacks: “Not a battalion of The Black Watch could deserve better to wear the Red Hackle than this battalion.”271 In three days of intense fighting, Macdonell’s men captured more than 3,300 prisoners, 53 guns and 519 machine guns, and seized an important

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portion of the Germans’ strong Fresnes–Rouvroy defence system. Byng told his chuffed Canadian Corps commander that Amiens had been “the finest operation of the war.”272 Currie was emboldened enough to dabble in the Operational Art, and his creative tactics were innovative enough to convince Field Marshal Haig. It was unusual for a mere corps commander to compel an Army group commander to accept an interpretation of operational, indeed, strategic import, but then the CEF was not a normal corps and Currie’s record proved he was no average commander. His idea was this: as the Amiens attacks lost momentum, he proposed the unorthodox – to stop. He argued surprise was lost and the corps had outrun its logistics. His scheme was to withdraw the CEF, move it fifty miles north to Arras, and launch a surprise attack against the hinge of the line. He promised Haig he would crack the key to the system, the Drocourt–Quéant Line (DQ Line), and break through to the Canal Du Nord. The second phase would be to cross the canal, shatter the Marcoing Line and capture Cambrai. Exploitation would be north-east into Belgium, towards Mons and Brussels and, with luck, force the collapse of the German Army in the west. To Currie’s credit, it worked. The Battle of Arras – to the DQ Line 27–28 August 1918 A most gallant officer and a great gentleman if ever there was one. Governor General, Major General Georges P Vanier DSO, speaking of Lieutenant Colonel Clark-Kennedy VC “Good-morning; good-morning!” the General said … “He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both by his plan of attack. Captain Siegfried Sassoon MC, The General, 1918

The second act of The Hundred Days was the assault on the Drocourt–Quéant sector of the Hindenburg Line. The Black Watch looked on with familial concern as the 24th Victoria Rifles (5th Brigade) were roughly handled while they crossed the Sensée River. It could have been a disaster; instead, it resulted in victory and a Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Colonel Hew Clark-Kennedy commanded the Vics. CK was now thirtynine years old, and could have arguably held at least two Victoria Crosses; he had already been awarded the DSO and Bar. He was given command of the Victoria Rifles in December 1917. The VRC were an esteemed regiment and close neighbours of the Watch; Clark-Kennedy fit right in. On 27 August 1918, his battalion was the centre

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unit of 5th Brigade’s attack and taking heavy casualties. Without pause, the colonel heartened his men and led them forward; he then assumed control of neighbouring units, collecting stragglers and amalgamating the 22nd Battalion (The Van Doos) with the 24th. “Undismayed by annihilating fire, Lieutenant Colonel Clark-Kennedy, by sheer personality and initiative, inspired his men and led them forward. On several occasions he set an outstanding example by leading parties straight at the machinegun nests which were holding up the advance and overcame these obstacles.”273 The remaining Van Doos officer was a future governor general of Canada, who would lose his leg in this battle. Georges Vanier recalled the battle and described CK’s style: We were ordered to attack – CK, a most gallant officer and a great gentleman if ever there was one, and I looked at one another but didn’t say much. CK, my senior, I was still a major, said “Oh it will be all right …” But each knew what the other was thinking knowing how depleted our battalions were …274

Clark-Kennedy was severely wounded on the 28th, but ignoring intense pain and loss of blood, refused to be evacuated until his battalion secured terrain from which the brigade advance could be resumed. The citation for the Victoria Cross concluded: “It is impossible to overestimate the results achieved by the valour and leadership of this officer.”275 Clark-Kennedy’s entire Canadian military career was, but for the months with the 24th Battalion, as a Black Watch officer. He collected his first DSO with the 13th Battalion RHC after Ypres and returned to the RHC at the end of the war, eventually serving as honorary colonel. Thus, it was with clannish prior claim that The Black Watch cited his Victoria Cross amongst its collective of heroes after the war. Battle of the Drocourt–Quéant Line 2 September–4 September 1918 It is not surprising that we learn the Canadians were beginning to feel that their battlefield success and reputation was leading them to be ‘volunteered’ for difficult operations a bit too frequently. D Farr, biographer General Henry Horne, Commander First British Army276

The main objective, the hinge of the Hindenburg Line, was the DQ Line which consisted of a sophisticated series of trench lines, village strong points and machine gun bunkers deployed over vast open terrain and often utilizing reverse slope positions to bring down savage enfilade fire. Vast swaths of barbed wire connected all strong points and trench works. In late August, the corps pushed through La Chavatte, and then fought the Battle of the Scarpe River (27–30 August). It was very much part of

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a theatre level offensive. Haig commanded five armies; General Horne, as First Army GOC, tried not to exhaust his best corps. It should be kept in mind that this series of offensives, so much a part of Canadian military history, were directed by Haig. Elsewhere the period is sometimes recognized as The British Hundred Days. The central sector of the DQ Line, dubbed the Artois Switch, was attacked by the 13th Battalion, while the 42nd worked along the Scarpe with Brutinel’s armoured cars, leapfrogging the Patricias. Ewing cleared Jigsaw Wood with comparatively short losses: 109 all ranks, mostly wounded. The advance reached the Red Line just past the last defence zone, astride Drury.277 The 13th tore into the DQ with good artillery support, craftily using terrain. Major William Macfarlane MC and Bar led A and D Companies toward the enemy trenches. Just before the final advance, he formed up D Company in dead ground and led the bayonet charge himself, bayoneting three of the enemy. The ensuing dog fight attracted punishing artillery and enfilade fire. By day’s end, Lieutenant Colonel McCuaig lost 223 men, including Macfarlane, who was wounded. He went forward to reorganize but was suddenly ordered to exploit the situation via a second attack. The 13th went straight in; captured a long communication trench called Queer Street, and held until relieved at 3:00 am. By dawn, the hinge had been broken; the Hindenburg Line ruptured; and Canadian patrols stood on the banks of the Canal du Nord. This marked the end of Phase Two. On 14 August, Currie advised McCuaig he was the new brigadier for 4th Brigade, and Ian Sinclair assumed command. The Canal du Nord and Cambrai Breaking the Marcoing Line 27 September–2 October 1918 The last phase of The Hundred Days featured vigorous but costly attacks by each division in the corps. The enterprise would now splinter the last element of the Hindenburg system: the Marcoing Line, a two-tiered defence based on the Canal du Nord and the high ground around Cambrai. It was the last barrier before the Rhine. It was prepared by the Germans using all the skill gathered in the previous years of defensive fighting: “defended by great belts of wire and by many strong points, each with a garrison of trained machine-gunners and two or more guns … a barrier which could obviously be stormed only with an effort of supreme valour and determination.”278 Black Watch battalions participated in two major assaults: first, the crossing of the Canal du Nord by the 13th Battalion as part of the 3rd Brigade’s attack; and later, as part of a manoeuvring attack to outflank and envelope Cambrai. The latter

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brought relief to the sister battalion. The 42nd would be pinned down in a very costly part of 7th Brigade’s attack through the Marcoing system. The Canal du Nord operation was Currie’s brainchild; it was an audacious plan that risked all, counting on surprise and his corps’ professional expertise to score a coup de main. The crossing was conducted in an area where the canal was not completed; several areas were dry or passable, at least by infantry. The enterprise required yeoman work by the corps engineers but first, both banks had to be secured before the Germans counterattacked. It was a two-division effort, by the 1st Canadian Division with the 4th Canadian Division to its south. However, the initial crossings were only a few battalions wide. The corps’ flanks were covered by the 22nd and 17th British Corps. The key was speed and shock. The 13th was to cross behind the 14th RMR, then turn north, roll up the defences, and strike for the village of Sains-lèsMarquion lest it became a hard shoulder delaying the breakthrough. 13th Battalion Crosses the Canal Under the command of Major Ian Sinclair MC, the 13th Battalion bussed to the concentration area but had no opportunity for reconnaissance save for air photos. At 5:20 am the guns opened up, and the 13th advanced, following the 14th Battalion RMR. The canal water was about three to five feet deep: “with their kilts floating, the men waded through, encouraged by a lively tune played by piper GB Macpherson.”279 Under fire, they worked through a series of wire obstacles and cleared trenches. They were, however, soon bombarded; the enemy, appreciating the size and import of the crossing, unmasked its heavy batteries and soon 5.9-inch shells were tearing into the area with HE and shrapnel bursts. Given the corps’ precarious two-battalion front (an audacious risk that Currie gambled would work), the Germans stood a fair chance of throwing the assault back into the canal. Senior sergeants and platoon commanders were soon hit. Worse, the 13th could not keep up with their own barrage and as the battalion pushed toward the second objective, the small town of Sains-lès-Marquion, more machine guns opened up. Supporting tanks did not understand the companies’ “come to our help” signals and moved off in the wrong direction. Lieutenants Robert Young and Jameson Christie MC, ran after the tanks and tried personal appeals, but to no avail. The five-foot four-inch Christie had a particularly tough time attracting the tankers’ attention. Undeterred, the Royal Highlanders cut through the remaining wire by hand and dealt with the enemy machine guns. Both Young and Christie were cut down, and the remaining unwounded subaltern led the company. Just as things looked grim, the

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depth companies arrived, and the flanking British brigade crossed, providing most welcome fire against the enemy. This broke the back of the German defence. The RMR and The Black Watch took Marquion, with the help of The Manchester Regiment. The cost to the battalion was 219. Providentially, the majority of the wounded officers were able to return to duty.280 On the left, the British reached the Douai–Cambrai road but paused in the face of a reawakened German resistance. On the corps’ right, after an advance of roughly four miles, 4th Canadian Division took Bourlon Wood, the high ground, but were checked in any further advance. The CEF was poised to take Cambrai and rupture the last German defences of the Marcoing Line. There were indications the enemy was about to crack. A captured German intelligence report noted with concern: “The morale and discipline of our men has greatly decreased, on account of the elastic defence tactics, leading men to believe the ground is of no value.”281 Marcoing Line 29 September: Ewing vs. the Brigadier Another thing, Where is your kilt? Sergeant to Cpl Will Bird just after he tore through barbed wire near Tilloy, 29 September 1918

The new 7th Brigade commander, Brigadier General John Arthur Clark DSO, a barrister from Vancouver, took command at the same time that Major General Frederick Loomis succeeded General Lipsett as commander of 3rd Canadian Division. Clark, former CO of the Seaforths, was a strong company commander and a good battalion commander but proved to be an inadequate brigadier. He fought the 7th as if the units were companies: “We weren’t given the opportunity [to command] … we were told to do impossible things.”282 His style and inexperience soon made him unpopular and led to testy meetings with battalion commanding officers, including the usually cool and gentlemanly Ewing. The 3rd Canadian Division moved through the 4th ready to assault across the Douai–Cambrai highway and take the high ground at Tilloy. These were the last elements of the Marcoing Line defences and would leave the corps all but surrounding Cambrai. The 7th Brigade went in alongside 8th Brigade, and the 42nd was to follow the RCR. On the night of 26–27 September, Lieutenant Colonel Ewing’s battalion moved by bus, crowded, uncertain and arrived at the concentration area well after midnight. After an arduous three-hour march, they crossed Canal du Nord, marched past Bourlon Wood, reached a sunken road behind RCR and PPCLI positions, and

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tried to get some rest. It was a cold night, and the Highlanders lay in the open, regularly tormented by artillery, which mixed high explosive and shrapnel with gas. It began to rain; even though the men slept wearing box respirators, they were soaked, cold and hungry by Zero Hour. The brigade attacked at 6 am on the 28th. The Patricias and Forty Niners were both caught unprotected in concealed wire along Cambrai–Douai Road and suffered fearful losses. The RCR was stopped short. The day’s casualties shocked both Loomis and Clark – two commanding officers were down. The PPCLI’s beloved colonel, Charles James Stewart DSO, a soldier’s soldier, the last officer of the “Old Originals” to command the PPCLI during World War I, was killed. The RCR’s Charles Willets was wounded. The attack left the RCR and Patricias in near shock. Heavy machine guns stopped the advance cold; the wire made progress all but impossible in the face of enemy fire. Out of this most confused battle emerged distinction; Lieutenant Milton F Gregg MC, a platoon commander in The Royal Canadian Regiment was awarded the Victoria Cross. Gregg, a Maritimer, joined the 13th Battalion RHC as a private and was wounded at Ypres. The Black Watch selected him for commission, and he was sent to OTC where he graduated third out of two hundred. There was a mixup in documentation. Gregg was first posted to The King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), then, after four months, to the RCR. He won an MC at Vimy, Bar to MC at Arras and the VC at the Marcoing Line: Although wounded, Lieutenant Gregg returned alone under terrific fire and collected a further supply [of grenades] … [he] led with the greatest determination against the enemy trenches, which he finally cleared. He personally killed or wounded 11 of the enemy and took 25 prisoners. Remaining with his company in spite of wounds, he again on the 30th September led his men in attack until severely wounded.283

Given his martial origins and his action at Ypres, The Black Watch considered Gregg as one of their own. In 1947, he became a Liberal member of parliament and served in two cabinets, holding three different portfolios.284 During this battle, Gregg’s regiment was completely stripped of senior officers. The last blow was the artillery strike on the RCR headquarters’ dugout which killed the adjutant and severely wounded Lieutenant Colonel Willets. Major Beresford Topp, the 42nd’s second in command, was nearby on reconnaissance. He attempted first aid to Willets and McRae, and then reported the incident to brigade by phone. To his surprise, “General Clark ordered me to take command of the RCR forthwith.”285 The twenty-four-year-old Topp, originally a journalist from Ontario, quickly established a new battalion headquarters, then

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inspected the front line visiting each RCR Company and reorganized the defence; the most senior officers left were a captain and two lieutenants, one of whom was Milton Gregg. That night, Lieutenant Colonel Ewing received orders from Brigadier General Clark to attack. 7th Brigade would again advance at 6:00 am the next morning, 29 September. The 42nd was ordered to capture the Tilloy Hill obstacle, including the railway embankment and the high ground itself. The objective was 2000 yards distant, in difficult ground, and under enemy observation. Colonel Ewing at once appreciated the magnitude of the undertaking and sought out Captain GW Little, the acting commanding officer of the Pats. Little informed him of the heavy wire in front of the Douai–Cambrai Road. Ewing went to see the brigadier to request Zero Hour be delayed to give supporting batteries time to get ammunition up, and, more importantly, opportunity for reconnaissance, for he had not seen the ground. The meeting was brusque: Royal Ewing: “We don’t want to do it, the PPCLI couldn’t do it, we can’t do it.” “Why?” asked Clark. “Because there’s too much wire there.” “How do you know there’s too much wire there?” “The PPCLI told us.” [Clark]: “I have aerial photographs. There’s no wire there.” Royal said, “If the PPCLI tell us there’s wire there, we believe them sir. If we told them there was wire, they’d believe us too!”286

The brigadier was unmoved. Ewing agreed to attack, under protest. He set out in the very dark night, moving through wafts of mustard gas, to find RCR Headquarters and his out-sourced second in command. Ewing asked to speak to him outside the HQ. He voiced concern: “For God’s sake come along with us. We’re in a hell of a jam!” Topp did not hesitate: “I immediately picked up my equipment, instructed Captain Wood to take over command of the RCR, to report to the brigade that I had rejoined the 42nd and I immediately left.”287 Clark’s reaction is not recorded. Pressed to attack with no reconnaissance and a rushed fire plan, it was Fabeck Graben again. However, this was precisely two years after the Somme and a different corps. It was curious that General Loomis would permit his brigadiers to conduct this sort of hasty endeavour. Lieutenant Colonel Ewing gave battalion orders at 2:00 am; the 42nd moved to its assembly area under heavy shell fire, which caused initial casualties, including Lieutenant Walter Molson. At the start line, the battalion deployed two companies up: A Company (Captain Harry Trout, a twenty-eight-year-

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old school teacher from Camrose, Alberta) right; C Company (Captain Chas Stuart Martin MC, a broker) left. The “supports” were provided by B Company (Major Edson Pease DSO, a McGill engineer) and D Company (Lieutenant Matthew Craig, a surveyor from Kilmarnock, Scotland). This was to be their last battle. Just before Zero Hour, the sun broke through, burning off the mist. The barrage, comparatively weak in volume, opened on the stroke of 8:00 am. The 42nd advanced in parade ground movement for more than 1000 yards. Not a shot was fired, and all entertained the thought that the enemy had evacuated the position during the night. Then the leading Highlanders reached the wire laid across the front of the dump – two broad belts loosely strung and concealed in the grass: “The men were compelled to work their way through it, which seriously delayed the advance.”288 The second line closed up to the first, and the battalion gradually became a massed target. Suddenly, as by signal, dozens of German machine guns opened fire at point-blank range from the railway embankment and Tilloy Hill: “The leading ranks went down like nine pins, many, their clothing caught in the wire, hung there helpless under the stream of bullets.”289 Most of the senior non-commissioned officers were cut down; Topp and all four company commanders, as well as all four company seconds-in-command were hit. Half the battalion were casualties within ten minutes. The 42nd staggered. Regardless, they were checked but not beaten, and established a serrated line: “little groups of men gathered together by lance corporals or senior privates kept pressing forward through the grass, scrambling from shell hole to shell hole.”290 When the enemy launched a counterattack, it was smartly defeated by Lewis gun and rifle fire. The battalion remained pinned throughout the day, mainly from snipers or long range machine guns shooting in along both flanks. Ewing ordered two remaining officers, Lieutenants John Haydon and Wyamarus Cave, to reorganize the 42nd shattered companies into six platoons. No real modifications could be made until dusk, and LOB officers came forward. The field was a debacle of the critically injured, despairing of medical aid while “the slightest movement drew fire from all sides.”291 Magnificent surreal acts of bravery took place. Private MT Jackson, walked quietly about in the open from casualty to casualty for hours on end applying dressings and administering morphia. On one occasion, he salvaged a wheelbarrow from the dump, went out and brought in two other wounded men. Another stretcher-bearer, Private John Joseph Kiely MM (from Antigonish, a CPR trackman before the war), went out despite the protest of his own platoon: faced almost certain death in dressing the wounded and bringing them back … one occasion, seeing a man fall badly wounded, Private Kiely rushed out to dress his wound. While he

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was doing this the casualty was hit three times by machine gun bullets … the corporal who ran out to assist them was killed … In an operation in which all men displayed the greatest bravery, this man’s utter fearlessness and devotion to duty stood out pre-eminently.292

Private Albert Gibson, a rifleman in A Company, was left with no officers or NCOs; he remained forward in the heaviest fire, establishing a first aid post, “defending wounded Highlanders for 73 hours without rest. His efforts saved twenty-five seriously wounded men.”293 Clark ordered the attack to continue. The RCR and PPCLI pushed forward supported by a barrage of medium and heavy artillery, and trench mortars. They reached the embankment, but, like the 42nd Battalion, faltered under severe machine gun fire. The brigadier was disconsolate: “The Germans fought in a most determined fashion … it seemed impossible to break [their] morale and fighting spirit.’’294 Ewing was instructed to attack again and take the sunken road 200 yards beyond the railway. The battalion was incredulous: “it was impossible that we had been ordered to attack again; it was just suicide.”295 Two composite companies led by Captain Eric B Finley MC, and Lieutenant George Ryder moved forward, reached the cutting and made contact with elements of the RCR, PPCLI and the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles – all still checked by MG fire from Tilloy Hill. A second German counterattack was launched, but broken up, appropriately by fire from abandoned machine guns put to use by their Canadian captors. The brigade hung tough and finally received respite when General Currie sent in two divisions to attack on their left. 13th Battalion Crashes Through: Blécourt, 1 October 1918 The 4th Canadian Division promptly bogged down along the Marcoing support line, but the attack by the 1st Canadian Division had better luck. The effervescent Major General Macdonell launched a two-brigade assault, which included the 13th Battalion RHC, part of the battle-scarred 3rd Brigade, with the 14th Royal Montreal Regiment and the 16th Canadian Scottish. The Black Watch and the RMR crashed through for 5000 yards, overrunning their objectives, and outflanking the Tilloy position. As the 13th advanced, all the B Company officers became casualties and the regimental sergeant major, Frank Butler, took command, secured captured positions and prepared all platoons for the inevitable counterattack. The remaining three companies drove forward, and the battalion took Blécourt, nearly 1000 yards beyond the north Cambrai Road and about a mile north-east of the 42nd’s pinned down location.296

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The 3rd Brigade’s success created a sizeable breach through the Marcoing Line and rattled the Germans. However, the 4th Division was still pinned before the railroad, resulting in a 3000 yard open flank which now endangered both the 3rd and 7th Brigades. Ewing’s battalion, fixed on the division’s left, was in a hazardous position as the 4th Division’s battalions withdrew in platoon and company groups. Concurrently, the 1st Canadian Division was being harried: the 13th RHC and the RMR were subjected to severe enfilade fire, and the Germans launched three assaults against Blécourt (“the Canadians still taking the brunt of the almost ceaseless German counterattacks”297). Most Black Watch and RMR officers and sergeants became casualties, and 3rd Brigade was forced to fall back west of the Cambrai Road. About noon detachments from the 13th, 14th and 16th Battalions were seen retiring across our front on the left flank … a heavy counter-attack by the enemy was forcing them to withdraw across the battalion’s front … Lieut Col Ewing immediately took the matter in hand, turned them about and supplying them with officers from the 42nd Battalion sent them forward with orders to advance and to dig in if stopped …298

Royal Ewing reorganized remnants of companies and grouped them with the six Black Watch platoons to shore up the 3rd Division’s left. Stabilized, both the 1st and 4th Divisions dug in and held fast. The front stabilized. That night, both the 42nd and 13th RHC were withdrawn and placed in reserve. Post Mortems The next morning, at the 8th Canadian Field Ambulance, Captain Lowell Shields Foster, who had been the 73rd RHC medical officer, made a final check on the hopeless cases laid out in a big marquee tent, set away from other wounded men. As his eyes adjusted to the dimness, Foster walked past the rows of closely-packed stretchers, checking for signs of life. “I came to a man whose feet stuck out so far that he completely blocked the passage. I noticed he was an officer and moreover, had on the uniform of my old regiment (5th RHofC).” The fellow lay still, completely swathed in blood-soaked bandages. The doctor picked up the officer’s wrist but could feel no pulse. Foster spoke to him; the man’s eyes opened, and he answered through trembling lips: “Is that you Lowell Foster?” He gave a weak smile. It was Lieutenant Walter Molson, youngest brother to Herbert and Percival, and Foster’s college friend. Molson was a big strapping man who had been a first-rate athlete at McGill. He was now going into shock; his numerous wounds left him pale, covered with a cold clammy sweat.

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Foster acted quickly “Somehow I wangled a cot in the resuscitation tent.” Soon stimulants were administered by the nursing sisters, Molson was wrapped in blankets, and hot-water bottles were packed about him. “After a long time, he came back.” Foster assisted as the surgeon prepared to operate; he was horrified to see the extent of the wounds: “His right hand is badly mangled by a fragment of shell. The right elbow is completely shattered; a large hole is visible through the elbow joint. A very large wound has marked his leg; another hole in the muscle at the back of his thigh large enough to admit a closed fist.”299 Molson had his arm amputated. He survived the war and eventually became a head of the family firm, ever fortunate to have encountered an old friend. Directly after Brigadier General Clark’s abortive attack, Royal Ewing submitted an unusually strong after-action report. The document cited the importance of attacking with prepared troops, the time required to plan and the utter importance of conducting a thorough reconnaissance. Ewing condemned faulty information (“a belt of wire was run into which was not known to exist”), and he stressed proper coordination with the artillery. These were unconscionable lapses for an army as professional as Currie’s collective in the last year of the war. The report presented patent demonstrations of brigade failure. Ewing concluded with a mordant comment: “Troops are being used continuously without opportunity to properly organize, which is particularly a necessity with regard to the NCOs amongst whom the casualties have been heavy.”300 Arguably, Clark should have had the gumption to ask Loomis for more time. Conversely, Loomis might have supervised the mounting catastrophe in his best brigade. In the end, Ewing decided the fault was Clark’s.301 The Marcoing Line was the last major corps action. Field Marshal Haig continued to force the flanks and on 8 October, a joint three-army assault was made between Cambrai and St Quentin. General Horne’s First British Army put pressure on the Canal d’Escaut sector north of Cambrai; the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions established bridgeheads by 9 October. The Germans, who were even more exhausted than the Canadians, abandoned the city. There was one final action for the Canadian Corps after the Marcoing Line: the German defence of Valenciennes; but The Black Watch battalions were not involved. General Currie handed over his sector on 11 October and the CEF paused to catch its breath before joining the British in the final pursuit. The German Army was grudgingly, but steadily, stumbling east, toward the Rhine. The 13th RHC lost 462 men in the month of September; the attack on the 29th cost another 82 other ranks, and nine officers, including the battalion chaplain, Major Edwin Graham DSO MC, a Nova Scotian who joined the 13th just before Vimy Ridge.

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One jarring incident occurred in mid-October. A night patrol was surrounded by the enemy, and, after expending their ammunition, was forced to surrender. Two officers and thirty men became prisoners in the 13th’s last fighting patrol of the war.302 The 42nd’s casualties for the Marcoing attack were 293 all ranks, of whom sixty-one were killed and another two dozen succumbed to wounds in hospital. This pernicious battle was second only to the losses in the Somme actions near Courcelette. The campaign’s three offensives cost the 42nd Battalion RHC a total of 694 casualties – almost as many as the Somme and Mount Sorrel combined. The 13th RHC suffered 723, nearly twice that of Ypres. The Hundred Days were about over. Though they did not realize it, the battalions of The Black Watch had fought their last big battle of The Great War. It was a bitter end to an imposing array of achievements. As the pipes swelled and the mournful strain of the lament and the notes of the last post rang out the little company of survivors sorrowed not only for the gallant then being buried but also for the others of their comrades who had given up their lives during the preceding days. Major Beresford Topp DSO MC and Bar, The 42nd Battalion History

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Mons to Germany – The Black Watch Ends The Great War But neither [Clark-Kennedy] nor I had any complaints against the high command – it was a natural thing to do when the enemy is retreating and retreating fast – one should continue to attack until the units are well-nigh exhausted – a premature relief of troops might give the adversary a time to pull himself together and put up quite a defence for some time … those who by the hazard of war find themselves sacrificed must accept it in the interest of a common good and final victory Georges P Vanier, discussing corps attacks during The Hundred Days Warmest congratulations in having recaptured the historic battlefield of Mons before the cessation of hostilities. Lieutenant General Currie to Major General Loomis, GOC 3rd Canadian Division, 9:45 am, 11 November 1918

The grand finale to any battle is the pursuit. Currie determined that once he broke the enemy, he would keep him on the run. The corps fought a series of sharp actions, including the last mounted operation of the war by the Canadian Cavalry Brigade at Le Cateau. The Germans fell back into Belgium, and the corps harried them. Currie’s eyes were on Mons. For the Empire, The Great War began at Mons. The BEF’s retreat still smarted, and it would be not only a fitting end but also a feather in the Canadian cap to be the formation that took it back. The battalions reorganized after the Marcoing Line battles. Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Perry again led the 13th.

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When he was promoted to command the 87th Battalion Canadian Grenadier Guards, he stipulated he wished to return to the 13th if the position should become vacant. In October, after the fall of Cambrai, Ian Sinclair was finally given a long-overdue leave; Perry, an Ypres veteran, returned to lead the battalion across the Rhine. They would deal with a few minor actions against rear guards but in the main, October life was agreeable for the men of the 13th. By the beginning of November, Mons, the centre of the finest anthracite coal mines in the west, was within grasp. The closest division was the 3rd; the valiant 7th Brigade approached the suburbs and both the 42nd Battalion and the RCR were in the van. The last fatalities of the 42nd Battalion in The Great War started with an illfated artillery strike on 10 November: “A HE shell burst in the farrier’s shop killing two men and wounding ten others, four of whom afterwards died of wounds.”303 The 42nd probed Mons with the platoons cautiously moving from street to street. It was a disagreeable task, and everyone could sense the war was about to end. Lieutenant JCT Montgomerie MC MM, pushed forward a screen of scouts to reconnoitre the bridges south of the town, and met with considerable cross fire. D Company, under Captain WA Grafftey, moved east against stubborn resistance and by darkness were established astride the railway station.304 Another four other ranks were killed clearing out German machine-gunners and snipers. The 42nd decided to be prudent; two officer patrols entered the centre of Mons on the morning of 11 November and discovered the Germans had melted away. They reached Grand Place and entered the medieval Hotel de Ville. The citizens and burghers of Mons were jubilant. The Black Watch officers, Lieutenant LH Biggar MC, a twenty-yearold graduate of the McGill COTC, and Lieutenant Jordayne Wyamarus Cave MC, a clothing cutter in Ireland before the war, were accompanied by Lieutenant WM King, an officer from the RCR company attached to the 42nd. They were invited to sign the city’s Golden Book which was inscribed by King Albert of Belgium after he came to the throne. “His signature was the only one in it until it was opened for our officers to sign on the morning the city was taken.”305 Thousands of civilians lined the streets and cheered as the 7th Brigade battalions paraded up Boulevard Nimy to Grand Place, led by the pipe band of the 42nd who played through the streets of the city creating wild enthusiasm. Allied commanders converged on Mons; there was a grand ceremony hosted by the Burgomaster and attended by Generals Currie, Loomis, and General Sir Henry Horne, commander British First Army. Outside the city, Major Kilpatrick came up to organize funeral services for the soldiers killed during the taking of Mons. He had been awarded the DSO in late October, and was moved into division headquarters to become the senior chaplain.

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Ewing echoed the battalion’s comments: “We are sorry to lose him but he will not be exposed the way he is with us. He has probably stayed longer with the battalion than any other [padre] out here.”306 Shortly after, the brigade announced immediate decorations: a second Bar to the MM was awarded to Company Sergeant Major G Smith, and Private DJ McDonald received a Bar to the MM. Another twenty-six MMs were awarded to the 42nd soldiers. There was an incident in early December that cast a cloud over celebratory proceedings. It is sometimes termed a “mutiny” and its more sensational aspects emphasized. While there had been some political campaigning within the Allies, particularly the French Army, and the German Army was racked by Bolshevik agitation, the incident in Nivelles was mostly troops letting off steam. Post-war life became a misery of keeping busy, bureaucratic interference, and inconvenience. The French railroads went on strike, tobacco and sundries became short, base camps were uncomfortable, and leave was strictly limited in the very towns the troops just fought to liberate. After the 7th Brigade marched from Mons to Nivelles, a few hundred men met in a park across from brigade headquarters to discuss their grievances. A few soldiers from the 42nd may have participated but typically, The Black Watch remained aloof and disciplined despite exhortations by agitators to induce the men to join them in a disturbance. On 14 December, rioters forcibly entered the battalion guard room to free prisoners. However, the 42nd’s soldiers themselves helped the duty officer by saying they were members of the guard. The rioters left. The prisoners quietly returned to the guard room. A marked difference was in Arras, where Canadian troops held out for two days against their officers and the military police. Initially, brigade advocated the use of force, but cooler heads prevailed. Colonel Ewing wrote with quiet pride “I would like to report that the men of this battalion stood firm under trying circumstances.”307 Battalion Colours – Earned in Battle In short, you must continue to be and appear to be, that powerful hitting force which has won the fear and respect of your foes and the admiration of the world. General Currie, Special Order of the Day, 25 November 1918

The last act of the war, the march to the Rhine, was partly ceremonial. General Currie treated it as an operational manoeuvre: “I ordered commanders to pay the strictest attention to discipline and smartness and especially the well-being of their men.”308 The march to the Rhine became a splendid triumphant parade. On the morning of 4 December, as the 1st Canadian Division crossed into Germany, the 13th pipes

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and drums skirled “All the Blue Bonnets are over the Border” – The Black Watch could hardly have looked smarter. The only thing missing was Flora Macdonald, the battalion goat. She survived the campaigns, including the Marcoing Line. Later, as the 13th marched to billets: … she occupied her usual place at the head of the Regiment. She seemed in good spirits and swung into step as soon as her beloved pipes struck up one of the tunes she knew so well. But alas it was Flora’s final appearance! She sickened on the march and died within a few minutes. One wonders if she knew her task was finished.309

To prepare for the march into Germany, the 13th and 42nd Battalions requested the regiment’s 1862 and 1912 Colours be sent overseas. No Colours were carried by any of the CEF battalions during The Great War with the exception of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry. The cased Regimental Colours were carefully shipped across the Atlantic. Escorts were despatched to England, but upon close inspection, Lieutenant Colonels Sinclair and Cantlie determined that the 1862 Colours were too frail for the 13th to parade. Similarly, Royal Ewing decided that the 1912 Colours were not truly representative of the battalion as they bore badges which were not then used by the 42nd. New Colours were ordered for both units.310 It was propitious – the two sets of Colours would be presented in a victorious theatre of war. The 13th’s Colours were received on 4 January 1919 at Schloss Ereshoven, Germany from Major HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught, the son of the Duke of Connaught, who bestowed the 1912 Colours in Montreal: “The 13th Battalion shared with the 14th Battalion [Royal Montreal Regiment] the rare distinction of having been given colours by a Prince of the Royal House of Windsor on enemy soil.”311 The 42nd’s Colours were presented on 29 January 1919 at Nechin, France by Major General Sir Frederick Loomis, The Black Watch’s most senior officer in the CEF and commander of the 3rd Canadian Division. The 20th Reserve Battalion, RHC – a Unique Entity Sing me to sleep where camp fires blaze Full of French bread and café au lait Dreaming of home and of nights out west With somebody’s boots plonked right on my chest Hand written doggerel, circa 1917, Anon312

The nucleus of the regiment, the 5th Royal Highlanders in Montreal, was very much in the war while serving the home front. Duties varied from night sentries and

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piquets in the armoury to formal guards at the Montreal stockyards, as well as at the Soulange and Lachine Canals. The garrison duties included seeing to the sundry needs of the fighting battalions.313 The regiment also steadfastly recruited drawing from a Montreal well that was quickly being sucked dry. The commandant of “home station” was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Monsarrat, a forty-four-year-old civil engineer and ten-year veteran of the 5th Royals; he was assisted by Lieutenant Colonel William Birchall, a fifty-three-year-old merchant who had served the regiment before the armoury had been built. In 1916, the regiment was empowered to raise a company of five officers and 250 other ranks.314 The “1st Reinforcing Company RHC” moved to the Guy Street barracks, and within a few months was despatched to Shorncliffe Camp in England where it was attached to the 92nd Battalion (48th Highlanders). It was next redesignated, “20th Reserve Battalion, RHC”; its cadres would serve as drafts for the 13th and 42nd Battalions at the front. Lieutenant Colonel Alan Magee, a veteran 5th RHC officer, commanded until George Cantlie recovered and returned to England. He assumed command on 25 May 1917 and quickly brought the regiment to a state where it was gargantuan; at one point, the 20th Reserve held sixty-five officers and thirty-five hundred other ranks.315 These were soon relocated to appropriate depots for “Colonel Cantlie did not hesitate to use guile with the higher authorities in his efforts to maintain the Highland Scottish character of the regiment’s units in the field.”316 His second in command was Major James Lovett, a battle-scarred banker from Ayer, Ontario. He rose from the ranks and was wounded three times with the 13th RHC. Since the 20th Reserve Battalion was formally designated to supply reinforcements exclusively for the 13th and 42nd RHC at the front, The Black Watch became the only Canadian infantry unit to have its own reserve battalion-depot in the theatre of war. It was a familiar home for the recovering wounded and offered a familial welcome for nervous novice soldiers. Cantlie thrived in his last appointment and since he was more at home administering a battalion than orchestrating tactics, the 20th RHC was a project he could manage with executive skill. Over the next nineteen months, he took time to know his men and was reinforced with experienced sergeants and officers like Stanton Mathewson. Cantlie offered free advice to young soldiers; he once pointed out he never had lice in his kilt and credited it to the liberal use of Rimmel’s after-shave lotion on the seams.317 The former commanding officer of the 5th Royal Highlanders, Brigadier General John Ross, paymaster general of the Canadian Forces overseas, called on the unit in the fall of 1918: I paid a visit to the 20th Reserve Battalion last week and saw Colonel Cantlie and a number of officers … They were holding an At Home, which was got up in the usual good

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form such as Colonel Cantlie is, as you know, famous for … The Colonel has instilled quite a good degree of esprit de corps … and has produced quite a marked effect, which is very beneficial in keeping up the standard of these officers who compose the two units at the Front.318

A veteran of two campaigns, Cantlie took his responsibility at the regimental depot seriously. He once dressed down a senior officer, making him publicly apologize when it was intimated that the 20th RHC sent the better recruits to Black Watch battalions and the secondary cadres to other units. He later liked to say, “If you are asked for help, send your best.”319 Rococo War Diaries and Talented Men Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. George Bernard Shaw

Within the madness of the Western Front, The Black Watch produced beauty – well, at least art. The 13th Battalion RHC was unique in many ways, but particularly when its War Diaries are juxtaposed against a sea of officious military documents. Colonel Loomis may have been a bit of a stick in the mud, but he had an eye for creative history. If anything softened the sterile Loomis, it was the enlightened vision that permitted art within the fixed structure of military administration. The 13th Battalion’s Commanding Officer’s War Diary for 1915 and part of 1916 is like no other in the Canadian Corps and even, perhaps, the British Army. Where the reader expects to discover cryptic summations of battalion business, one discovers an artistic script, titles accented with a swirled flourish, yet filled with precise daily records to delight the stodgiest staff officer. The battalion War Diary made careful distinction noting the sacred exclusivity of combat: killed in action, or killed facing the enemy was carefully noted versus simply killed or wounded. Officers and, in some cases men, had their place of burial with cross marker recorded as map references. As late as November 1918, bizarrely, gas victims were not considered war casualties. However, the 13th’s war diary sated the creative soul; it is a collection of data augmented by carefully executed maps and field sketches, buttressed with incidental drawings, caricatures, landscapes and even cartoons, many in watercolour. These portray the mood and style of the 13th at the front, from the early days of Ypres to the dreariness of the Somme – salty Highlanders in dugouts or on fatigue duty in kilt and glengarry. It is pictorial history that brings a different insight into the grisliness that was trench warfare in ways that narrative or even photographs do not seem to catch.

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John McQueen Moyes ARCA, was a Montrealer and a professionally trained artist from the Royal College of Art, London. He joined the 13th RHC as a private in 1914, promoted to sergeant in January 1917 and commissioned as an officer the next month. The diaries suddenly stopped just as Moyes seemed to peak. His martial tour de force included a rococo frontispiece for a campaign report in the summer of 1916. Sadly, the horrid actions that were the regiment’s annus horribilis eventually drove the battalion headquarters into a businesslike compilation of mechanically produced reports that were more ledgers than history. The typed pages were more orderly but not much easier to read. They became a sobering reminder of the war’s daily grind but at once removed the facet that resonated humanism rather than technology. After the war, Moyes became a respected landscape painter and is today considered collectable. The Diaries and his works of art were bound in a leather portfolio and presented to General Loomis, who generously and wisely bequeathed it to the regiment. A few of Moyes’s caricatures may be viewed in a display cabinet in the Black Watch officers’ mess, propped against photographs and bits of regimental silver – artefacts of a brief aesthetic naissance in, of all places, an infantry battalion headquarters in The Great War.320 Adam Sherriff Scott ARCA was another distinguished Black Watch artist. He was born in Perth, Scotland and began his art education in 1903 at the Edinburgh School of Art. He continued his studies at the Slade School, the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. In 1912, he moved to Canada and began to paint large scenes of the Canadian West to sell to real estate agents. Scott moved to Montreal in 1915, where he remained for the rest of his life, grew in prominence and became a member of the Beaver Hall Hill Group. During the Great War, he was a platoon officer in the 42nd Battalion RHC. He led 12 Platoon, D Company. During The Hundred Days, one of his soldiers, Private Tom Dinesen, both won the Victoria Cross, and saved Scott’s life during the assault on Parvillers, 12 August 1918. Beresford Topp recorded: “Pte Thomas Dinesen once more held the enemy at bay until his comrades were able to carry Lieutenant Scott to safety.”321 The war art produced by Scott (which included a good sketch of Dinesen as a soldier of the 42nd) included excellent records of night patrols and trench raids by the platoon in 1918. Scott recovered from his wounds and returned to action as a captain. Later, he was elected ARCA in 1935 and a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1944. He specialized in Inuit portraits as well as landscapes, but is best-known for his series of historical paintings of Canada, which he executed for Canadian Pacific, The Royal Bank, and for the Public Archives of Canada.

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The Royal Highlanders were a cultivated regiment. Moyes was but the tip of an iceberg of highland panache. Beyond the battalion headquarters existed an eclectic collection of talent and experience. Dozens upon dozens of privates and noncommissioned officers were accomplished professionals, businessmen and university graduates. When Sergeant H Howard Chanter applied for a commission, the adjutant discovered his father was a colonel in the Indian Army commanding the 2nd Punjab Rifles. Chanter was a graduate of the best schools, a trained engineer and a master of languages and ciphers. He spoke fluent Urdu, was an accomplished ornithologist and oversaw the construction of a dozen bridges across India. The 13th was not aware that its transport officer, Lieutenant Charles Cantley, was an eminent metallurgist and an expert in armament production until well after the battle of Ypres. Its soldiers were travelled and often international. During the Somme Campaign, the medical officer of the 73rd, Captain LS Foster, stood observing German prisoners of war as they were marched to the rear. As he watched, a muddy, unshaven German officer stopped before him and said in perfect English: “Lowell, will you give me a cigarette?” Foster had done extensive post graduate medical work in Heidelberg before the war. It was a close friend from university days. University connections were powerful substrata in the Montreal Militia and certainly the 5th RHC. McGill’s Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity included an impressive collection of social and military personae: Hamilton Gault DSO, James Kemp DSO, Tom Morrisey DSO, Alan Magee DSO, Donald MacFarlane MC, GS McLennan MC, Percy Molson MC, Lee Strathy MC (Lieutenant Colonel James Strathy’s son), Stephen Leacock, John McCrae, and, of course, Fred Fisher VC.322 Before joining, Sergeant Stanton Mathewson was a broker, and his brother Sam taught at McGill. At one point in the Somme battles, Brigadier General Macdonell decided that 7th Brigade required a model dugout to instruct troops and develop assault tactics. Requests were sent out, and the OC of C Company, 42nd RHC, Major Samuel Mathewson, promptly volunteered: “As a McGill graduate in mining engineering with some experience in practical mining in the western states [Butte, Montana], I felt quite capable of handling this job.”323 The Black Watch became more exclusive in war than it had been in Montreal. When General Carson appealed to Loomis for positions within the 13th for officer candidates from a list of hopefuls in the CEF, he was flatly, though politely, refused: “Impossible to recommend subject officer for the 13th Battalion as we have so many NCOs on the waiting list who have priority.”324 The Black Watch list of sergeants was the envy, and often equal of most other battalions’ officers’ messes.

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The Esprit de Corps – From Beer to Red Hackle We are the Royal Highlanders, we come from Montreal, We come from good old Westmount – and some from Cote St Paul And when we get to Germany we’ll show them we are the best We’re the boys who stop the bullets with the Molsons on our chest. Soldier’s Song, The Black Watch RHC, 1916 Before we are dismissed we each get a bumper of the deep brown stinging stuff. It tastes disgusting but the effect is wonderful. Corporal Tom Dinesen VC, 42nd Battalion RHC

Perhaps the most famous Black Watch soldier’s song is The Royal Highlanders which seemed to pull the men together whether on the march or in the wet canteen. While it is reflective of at least two officers, particularly Herbert Molson who owned the brewery, it is more the mantra of a Montreal Regiment. Its author is unknown and it was first published in a collection of “Songs and Parodies” compiled by Major WA Grafftey MC. The regiment’s association with Montreal ale was nostalgic, since Canadian beer was impossible to get at the front where both French wine and British beer were the conventional beverages. Nevertheless, the common soldier’s parlance regularly included reference to “dinner and a pint of Molson’s brew.” The warrior’s real staple was, of course, rum. The regimental clay rum jar was prized and protected. The high proof liquor often required modification into grog with hot tea but despite all, an issue of rum was a welcome and necessary reward to a weary patrol soaked in mud or blood after hours of nerve tearing work in No Man’s Land: When the days shorten, and the rain never ceases; when the sky is ever grey, the nights chill, and trenches thigh deep in mud and water; when the front is altogether a beastly place, in fact, we have one consolation. It comes in gallon jars, marked simply SRD.325

Diversion was provided by the regimental theatre troupe, “The Red Hackles,” who offered humorous sketches and clever exhibitions during vaudeville entertainments. At one 13th Battalion concert, Lieutenant Colonel Eric McCuaig sacrificed his moustache and scored a tremendous hit in a charming female role, while Captain Arthur Wellesley Appleton, a banker from Brampton and the battalion paymaster, distinguished himself as Salome. The 13th managed to form a full battalion orchestra while at the front, which offered much-appreciated concerts and assisted at divine service. Naturally, there was fierce rivalry at piping, and all CEF Highland bands competed with each other or against the bands from the BEF’s 15th (Scottish) and

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51st (Highland) Divisions. At one Highland gathering, Retreat was played by twentyfour massed pipe bands, with 284 pipers and 164 drummers participating. “At the head of the centre column, bursting with pride and keeping in time to the fraction of a second, marched Flora Macdonald.”326 The style of the Canadian Black Watch was complex but most readily discerned by dress – the kilt, an interesting anachronism by 1918. The Great War is fascinating if only because of the inability of a technologically sophisticated 20th century army to break away from the grip of Napoleonic and Victorian traditions, which produced bizarre variations of dress from cuirasses to lances to the gear of highland battalions. The British Empire sent its Scottish regiments into battle wearing kilts to eulogize the clan’s warrior tradition, and then ordered the apparel covered with a canvas apron. The élan of facing Germans in kilts and soft glengarries became moot with the first crash of shrapnel and small arms. The Black Watch soon wore steel helmets, but continued to sport the kilt in the most trying of conditions. Although throughout the winter there was an indescribable inconvenience and physical discomfort with chafing and bitter cold, the rain and mud was borne with good humour and pride. The kilt set them apart: Am Freiceadan Dubh! The Black Watch! May our banner and our tartan be always victorious.327 In an industrial force of millions, it was important for a soldier to be recognized, and the Red Hackle was the crowning touch and the final distinction, even amongst fellow Highland regiments. The Red Hackle was a part of 5th Royal Highlander’s dress since the turn of the 20th century. Initially, it was only sported by the pipe band, more as a plume than Hackle on their feather bonnets; however, when Lieutenant Colonel Strathy acquired feather bonnets for the rank and file in 1895, everyone wore the Red Hackle328 on special parades. The standard dress was the glengarry. Following the 1905 affiliation with the Imperial Black Watch, Red Hackles appeared in the quartermaster stores, affixed to pith helmets, and worn at Militia summer camps, in both instances after official approval.329 Where the permission originated beyond the Montreal garrison is not recorded, and may have been liberal brigade interpretation. In the midst of The Great War, Lieutenant William Hobart Molson reported for training at Valcartier looking absolutely spiffy in kilt, pith helmet and Red Hackle. He was informed he could not wear a helmet with Hackle. Undeterred where others would have been cowed, Molson enquired up the chain of command until his letters reached Ottawa. For his persistence he got a rocket from the quartermaster general himself, Major General DA MacDonald: “There is no authority for the 5th Royal Highlanders to

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wear Red Hackles!”330 Evidently, what the 5th Royals could boldly get away with in their suzerainty of Montreal was not gladly suffered in the Department of Militia and Defence. His cousin’s (Hartland Molson) dry observation about The Black Watch may have been more on the money than any serving officer suspected.331 The Red Hackle adorned the heads of both RHC battalions by the end of November 1917. The only record regarding “permission” for wearing of the Red Hackle outside the regular Imperial regiment’s battalions was a “General permission for the Red Hackle” issued 28 June 1918 to “All Black Watch Members and Affiliates.”332 By then, the RHC had been sporting Red Hackles for twenty-three years and the CEF battalions for over eighteen months. The 13th Battalion RHC resolved it simply and elegantly when the officers decided in November 1916, with irrefutable evidence, that after a year of rigorous campaigning, they earned the distinction in their own right. The Canadian Corps and The Black Watch The gilded youth of the army, or in other words, the Staff Officers, seemingly able to travel in motor cars at any speed, pursued their favourite occupation by tearing by and drenching the “poor bloody infantry” with flying mud. Black Watch officer during a march, on being splashed by staff cars, The 13th Battalion333

The success of the Black Watch in battle was a combination of pluck and luck, leadership at the right time, and character. The officers of the battalions were perhaps no braver or more efficient than the rest of the Canadian Corps but the heady elitism that comprised the 5th Royal Highlanders made them believe they were. It is not bias but historical fact that the chariest examination of the nominal roll leads one to appreciate this was the upper echelon of Canadian society. The Black Watch matured as the Canadian Corps matured, into a complex weapon of war. It must be soberly noted that as the CEF grew sophisticated, and as it acquired greater expertise, it was to take its greatest casualties. The Somme, Passchendaele and certainly The Hundred Days were blood baths; the heady euphoria of victory masked the horrid truth that, at their zenith of professional acumen, the battalions paid a severe price for attacking a competent enemy. The Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in twelve key actions in terms of sacrifice, if not consequence:

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Canadian Expeditionary Force: Major Battles 1915–1918334 Year

Battle

KIA

Total Cas

2,000

6,104

Festubert

661

2,376

Givenchy

379

1,005

St Eloi

637

1,067

Ypres 1915

1916 1917

1918

Mount Sorrel

3,230

9,621

The Somme

9,202

20,000

Arras (Vimy Ridge)

1,871

5,008

Passchendaele

5,488

16,000

Amiens (100 Days)

4,563

*

DQ Line (100 Days

4,548

*

Canal du Nord (100 Days)

2,081

*

Pursuit to Mons (100 Days)

690

*

Battle Dead Year

Total Cas Year

3,040

9,485

13,069

30,688

7,359

21,008

11,882

*50,000

The Canadian Corps of four divisions and one hundred thousand men destroyed or defeated forty-seven German divisions. Black Watch battalions were prominent in most of the actions; in a few, they were significant and suffered correspondingly. The 42nd Battalion RHC participated in nine major battles and several raids.335 The 13th RHC collected twenty-two battle honours, eleven of which were considered major; the 73rd RHC had five, the Somme and Vimy being prominent.336 Six Victoria Crosses and 931 major decorations were awarded to the battalions of RHC. The hundreds of commendations for valour produced a fraternity of professionals that incorporated senior staff officers, division and brigade commanders, artillery barons, logistic moguls and, the Paymaster General of the army. Seven Black Watch Units: Statistics 1914–1919 The 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada created seven separate units during the war, including the parent regiment in Montreal: the 13th, 42nd and 73rd Battalions RHC, the 20th Reserve Battalion RHC, and finally, the 1st and 2nd RHC Reinforcing Companies. Three fought on the Western Front. The Black Watch is recorded as having received 8627 casualties from The Great War which includes 2613 killed in action and 6014 wounded in battle. The total includes the large contingent that was recruited for the 24th Battalion VRC.337 The majority of the Black Watch dead and wounded tended to be inexperienced replacements and the subalterns who commanded platoons. For

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example, the 42nd’s officer strength averaged at forty before Passchendaele in 1917; after replacements were incorporated, it peaked at fifty-eight before The Hundred Days, but towards the end of that campaign officer strength averaged at twentyfour.338 The 13th and 42nd were literally destroyed four times over – yet surprisingly, when the 42nd Battalion returned to Canada, 119 “Originals” came back with the battalion, not including those wounded and repatriated.339 When the 13th Battalion returned to Canada it comprised 540 all ranks (twenty-six officers and 514 other ranks), of whom fifty-two were “Originals” (thirteen officers and thirty-nine other ranks) who sailed from Quebec in 1914; this number did not include members wounded previously and repatriated. Of the returning personnel embarked, 325 were from Quebec. The 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada began The Great War as a manifest Montreal unit, commanded by pedigreed officers from the Square Mile. By the end of the war, the ethos of the fighting battalions was exclusively Black Watch. By Armistice, the 13th Battalion was a homogenous yet diverse mix: Quebecers comprised 60 percent, Western Canadians 14 percent, the Maritimes and Ontario accounted for 13 percent each. The 42nd Battalion included 22 percent of its soldiers from the Maritimes and another 19 percent from Ontario. Quebecers, mainly Montrealers, numbered 54 percent.340 The battalions born of battle had become Canadian entities. Goodbye to All That We are too much inclined to think of war as a matter of combats, demanding above all things, physical courage. It is really a matter of fasting and thirsting; of toiling and waking; of lacking and enduring; which demands above all things moral courage. Extract, Hand-book on Military History, 1914 A military interpretation of “tradition” is that if you have a certain understanding of yourself, you are more likely to achieve them. Maxim

The Great War has been called Canada’s War of Independence. It further defined Canadians for themselves and it definitely brought the dominion to the fore internationally. The CEF’s accomplishments far surpassed the sophomore participation in South Africa. The corps won its spurs and then bested the best. The war introduced what is sometimes called “the Canadian Way of War” instigated by Montreal gunners. But it also produced the nucleus of a highly developed general staff. Most of all, the

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Canadian fighting man exceeded hopes and became respected by both their Allied armies and German foes. A 1918 intelligence report in the Kriegstagebuch noted the presence of Currie’s Canadian Corps near Amiens and wrote: “the best British troops were identified in the front …” They left a rich legacy. Canada’s first Victoria Cross was won by Fred Fisher, a Montrealer by both lineage and choice. Most Montrealers, seemingly too many from The Black Watch, continued valiantly serving until stopped by bullet, shrapnel or armistice. The families of power gave up their sons to a determined cause that would be reviewed in 1939, and again at the turn of the new millennium. The “other ranks” were an interesting mélange. Many soldiers joined the 5th Royals because of friends and family traditions; Stanton Mathewson was delighted to be a lance corporal even though he was certain he would have been commissioned in any other regiment, particularly a non-Montreal unit. This was a regiment so unique that its likeness may not be seen again. It constituted a gathering of amateurs who became skilled professionals in the hardest of schools. The Royal Highlanders were perhaps typical of the period. The officers generally spoke and wrote as they were educated, some like upper-class Brits, others like natural Canucks. They used London idioms, dressed in New York styles, and generally circulated in the same society. Students, professors, brokers and contractors easily mixed in the mess even though many were pas comme les autres. Royal Ewing, in the space of a two week’s supplementary staff course in England, dined with George Cantlie, Lady Drummond and Lord Mount Stephen in their private homes. He relaxed in London clubs with school chums like Talbot Papineau, Scrimger, Molson, Birks and Norsworthy. Most officers did the same. The 42nd was a battalion where Colonel Cantlie’s social pedigree gave him entrance to the most exclusive of circles. He had no reservations in seeking and easily achieving a meeting with the Minister of Militia and Defence to discuss regimental business. This sort of intimacy was rare in any army but not unusual for certain regiments. The 5th Royal Highlanders’ progenies, the 13th, 42nd and 73rd, were these types of units. The Great War cost Montreal and The Royal Highlanders its next generation. The Regiment lost over 65 percent of its officers as casualties, although about half recovered and returned to fight again. The “other ranks” were just as determined to show their metal, but the first draft of Royal Highlanders seemed to almost vanish in Flanders. Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Loomis, like General Arthur Currie, survived this desperate test. Having proven himself, along with McCuaig, Dodds and Ross, he went on to command even greater parts of the Canadian Corps.

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The uniqueness of The Black Watch was partly economic – Montreal was a mercantile cauldron, and McGill was the great university of the dominion. Anyone who desired success came to the City to work or to study. The Black Watch comprised a delicate mix of academia and business, dwelling in an austere Presbyterian, yet carefully patrician, officers’ mess. They represented Canadian families to whom noblesse oblige was a way of life. Duty was expected. Service, sacrifice and perseverance were the standard. The officers may have not been more tactically proficient than those of other battalions, but the resourcefulness and resolve of their men saw them through. While the number of Victoria Crosses is sometimes debated, the overwhelming compilation of professional kudos, particularly DSOs, MCs, DCMs and MMs, give anyone pause to consider this regiment carefully and leave with a certain sense of awe. There simply was nothing comparable to the 1914–1919 Royal Highlanders and its battlefield offspring. Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow … I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die. Frye, 1932

Notes to Part II

1. RC Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada (Montreal, 1925), 6. 2. Ontario sent 13, 957; Manitoba contributed 4,710, the West sent 9,169; the Maritimes (not including NFLD) 2,221. Col A Fortescue Duguid, The Official History of The Canadian Forces in The Great War (Ottawa, 1938), 50, 51. 3. Technically, 13th and 14th Battalions CEF were mobilized at Valcartier. McGill provided 3059 grads, undergrads and past students: 1743 officers of 23,000 in CEF (over 7 percent). Units: No. 3 (McGill) General Hospital (first CEF unit in France), 7th (McGill) and 10th (McGill) Siege Batteries. McGill connected with the PPCLI via six McGill University companies that reinforced the Regt. Also, 148th Battalion CEF to which the McGill COTC contributed over one hundred officers and men. 4. BWA 005: Archival study. “Embarkation Analysis – 13th and 42nd Battalion CEF,” WO Mike Cher, O/Cdts S Plotkin, S Thornton. August 2010: 90 percent of the senior NCOs were British born; forty-seven of fifty-eight; seven of forty-one officers were not born in Canada. 5. RG24 Vol 1824 GHQ “Growth and Control of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada” MML 194, CFAA 175(4). 6. Brig Gen JG Ross Interview, 2 November 1935; BW005 GS Cantlie file. For photo of Inkstand, see pp. 430–31. 7. JG Ross: Lt in 5th RS 1898; Lt Col 1st Battalion 5th RS, 1910; previously, Ontario Field Battery 1879–83; officer in Victoria Rifles 1884–91; Paymaster General, Overseas Military Forces of Canada 1917–1919. 8. The 48th Highlanders were the other regiment to outfit locally. 9. Lt JG Ross, “The13th Canadian Battalion, in the Second Battle of Ypres” BW 008 13/7/15. Unpublished manuscript. Hereafter, Ross. 10. BWA 008 1-24-11 “24th Battalion (VRC) Detachment 1914”; Participants: Lt Cols JA Cantlie (brother, GS Cantlie) 79th Cameron Hof C, Winnipeg; JS Tait, Seaforth Highlanders, Vanc; JI McLaren, 91st Canadian Highlanders, Hamilton; Major D MacDonald 48th Highlanders, Toronto. BW 008 1-24-11 Ross to Minister of Militia and Defence. 11. Paul Hutchison: “the Regiment was ready to assist its comrades in the Vics in their recruiting. As a result, the Highlanders supplied four hundred and ten other ranks to the 24th VRC, as well as nine subalterns, namely, RHB Buchanan, WD Chambers, HD Davidson, KE Drinkwater, WR Hastings, ALS Mills, SW Watson, JW Yuile and IRR Macnaughton.” See: BWA file “24th Battalion (VRC) Detachment 1914 Special Svc Employment.” Of the nine subalterns identified by Colonel Hutchison, eight are named in the following letter (Macnaughton is excluded) and identified as “Provisional Lieutenants.” See correspondence: OC 5th RHC/AAG 4th Division, 22 October 1914. The Highlanders did not supply four hundred and ten of their other ranks to the 24th. See correspondence OC 5th RHC/OC 24th Provisional Battalion (VRC), 4 November 1914. “With respect to men enlisted at Regimental Headquarters, this unit, please note that they are not enlisted in, and are not members of, this Regiment.” 12. BWA 005 Col GS Cantlie. Correspondence Hughes December–February 1914–1915. See also, BW 008 1-24-15 “Proposed 4th Overseas Battalion 1916”; Cantlie–Hughes 12 December 1914.

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240 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40.

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130–140

Khaki aprons became available as Highland Field Dress after 1910; they were worn by the BW at Camp in 1912. Col PP Hutchison The 73rd Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada 1915–1917 (Montreal: RHC, 2011), 9. BWA: Hutchison Collection, 73rd Battalion, The Red Hackle; RMS Adriatic. Black Watch Archives (BWA), 13th Battalion series; Lionel Whitehead Collection. Captain Ward Whitehead letter to father WT Whitehead, 6 December 14; “Storm … blew down offrs mess tent.” Hereafter, Whitehead. BWA 008 Ross – Hughes, 20 August 1914. NAC RG24 Q5-22282 Vol 1824 “Notes on the Contribution of Montreal to the CEF,” 2. The First Contingent was heavy with Montreal contribution: 2177 all ranks. Besides the RHC’s four battalions: CGG contributed to 14th, 87th, 24th and 245th Battalions; VRC contributed to 14th and 24th Battalions; FMR sent 377 all ranks to 14th Battalion, contributed to 22nd, 69th and 150th Battalions; RdeMais contributed to 12th and 206th Battalions. Irish Canadian Rangers contributed to 60th and 199th Battalions. Lt Col CS Grafton The Canadian Emma Gees (London, Ontario, 1918). Colts were in use until July 1916 but the arriving Lewis guns took time and the battalions held on to their Colts. BWA 008 22 “Machine Guns” August–December 1915. Sam Hughes to Ross, 15 December 1915. Colt 303 British Auto Guns with tripods, mounts, four feed boxes, four feed belts, leather tool bag, set of spare parts and accessories. Final invoice December 1915 for 5x MGs total: $7282. Weight 16 Kg (gun); 25.4 kg (tripod). BWA 005 Clark-Kennedy. Wife, Miss Kate Redford, whose brother was Lt in RHC. CK had three serving brothers in UK; two were killed, including, Archibald Clark-Kennedy Captain, Royal Scots, KIA 1 October 1918. BWA 005 Buchanan. Also, see Rev R Bruce Taylor, sermon St Paul’s Church, 23 September 1917; cited in Hopkins, 114, 117, 119. The others include Garnet Hughes, Cameron and staff officers. BWA 005 Drummond. Lady Drummond established a department of information for the wounded and missing, funded primarily by herself. She received the Médaille de Reconnaissance, the British Red Cross medal, and the Serbian Red Cross Medal. She also helped to organize hostels for men and women in the name of the war effort. Lt Col HM Urquhart DSO MC, The History of the 16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish) CEF (Toronto: 1932), 62. The Battalion strength at Valcartier Camp was 1034 all ranks, including a Pipe Band. BW 008 File 13-1915-7 Ypres Report: “The 13th Canadian Battalion in the Second Battle of Ypres. Ross, 2. Reorganization followed and a 4xCoy Battalion was sent to France before Ypres. 13th Battalion CEF Effective Strength and Attestation Papers. Also, “Embarkation Analysis – 13th / 42nd Battalion CEF” (above). Completing his Attestation Paper in 1914 Loomis identified his Trade or Calling as “Contractor.” NAC, RG24. BWA. Correspondence Major (Lt Col) FS Mathewson, 13, 16, 34. Career: L/Cpl 23/9/14; lieutenant 28/4/15. Brother Captain H Mathewson; cousins Major SJ Mathewson MC and Captain JA Mathewson. Hereafter, FSM. FSM 13, 16. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., 18. Col GWL Nicholson, The Official History of the CEF, 1914–1919 (Ottawa: 1962), Hereafter, Nicholson. It was still there (c. 2010). British soldiers at the bar are sometimes joined by nostalgic Canadians. BWA. Whitehead correspondence to father, 23 March 1915. RC Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada (Montreal, 1925), 33. BWA 005, Captain JG Ross, “The 13th Canadian Battalion in the Second Battle of Ypres” 13/7/15, 4. Hereafter, Ross. BWA. 13 Battalion CEF Parade states for January, February, March and April 1915 averaged 969 ORs. Effective strength for 15 April: thirty officers (including QM/Med) + 946 ORs; 18 April: thirty + 980 ORs. “Fighting strength” at Ypres front line (less B Echelon) circa 22 April is accepted as 950. BW UPM, Box 3, “Field Returns Book, 13th Battalion CEF 1915.” Molsons in RHC. 13th Battalion RHC: Captain Francis Stuart Molson (brother to John Henry and Bert, cousin to Herbert Molson); Major John Henry Molson. 42nd Battalion RHC: Lt Col Herbert Molson MC; Major Walter Molson (brother to Percy and Herbert ); Captain William Hobart Molson MC. Captain Percival Molson MC was an officer in the PPCLI.

notes to pages

41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57.

58.

59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71.

72.

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Ross, 4. BWA 005 Pers. Captain JM Greenshields; Correspondence, May 1915.Hereafter, Greenshields. Ross, 4-5. Captain TC Irving, OC 2nd Field Engineer Company, CE for CRE 1st Canadian Division, 21 April 1915 “Report on Condition of Trenches”; Apx 354, Duguid. Hereafter, CRE Report. CRE Report. A row of chevaux de frise was recommended for the entire front “with the least possible delay.” Ross listed eleven MGs in his report but accounted for ten in his hand drawn deployment sketches. The last MG (likely RMR) was probably in St Julien. Ross, 6–7. BWA 005 Pers. Captain JM Greenshields; Correspondence, May 1915. Ross records it was merely “thirty yards” from the Battalion HQ to the German trenches. Ross, 6. BWA 005 Pers. Col DR McCuaig DSO (then Major) interview 22 April 1933. Col A Fortescue Duguid, Official History of the Canadian Forces in The Great War 1914–1915, Vol 1 (Ottawa, 1938) Appendix 342. Hereafter, Duguid. Ross, 6. RG 9 V 4772 Lt Col FOW Loomis to 3rd CIB. Recommendations for Honours, 9 July 1915. BWA 005 File Major HF Walker; extract letter dated 6 May 1915. Greenshields, 2. MO Humphries & J Maker (Eds) Germany’s Western Front – Translations from the German Official History of The Great War, Volume II – 1915 (Wilfrid Laurier: 2010), 161. Here after, Der Weltkrieg Translation. J Castell Hopkins, A Canadian Family in The Great War. Printed privately 1921, 63. Despite the rout, there were instances of Algerian troops standing firm: “the Turcos rendered valuable assistance.” Perhaps two hundred helped the 13th throughout 22.April. Montreal units, with French speaking officers, had more success. See Duguid, Nicholson, Fetherstonhaugh. BWA 005 Pitblado file; extract letter from Capt Drummond’s batman, circa June 1915. Tim Cook, At the Sharp End, Canadians fighting in The Great War 1914–1916 (Toronto, 2007), 117; Norsworthy and Drummond fell circa 7–7:30 pm; Beck’s Weekly “How Canadians Saved British Lines” (12 June 1915, 264n) reported Drummond “was shot through the throat and never spoke again”; this seems unlikely (see Horner letter). The account also states Major Norsworthy “stabbed treacherously” by Germans after being wounded. Cook, 117. Hughes to 1st Canadian Division HQ, 7:10 pm, 22 April: “We are forced back on GHQ line. Attack coming from west. No troops left …” Approximately 357, Duguid, 241. RC Fetherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 1914–1925 (Montreal: 1927), 38–39. Hereafter, RMR. BWA 005 Pers, Captain SB Lindsay. Greenshields, 2. Lt Greenshields led No. 4 Platoon; Captain Walker #1; Captain Whitehead #2; Lt Pitblado #3. DR McCuaig Interview 1933. Ross, 7 and MS 001, Rykert McCuaig, letter to WT Whitehead, June 1915. Ross, 6 [Cpl McFarlane]. Walker, 1. BWA 005 Pers. Captain HF Walker; Correspondence, 8 May 1915, 1; Beck’s Weekly, 264. RG 24 WD HQ, 3rd Canadian Artillery Bde. Intelligence summary. Ypres, 1915, 2. Major VW Odlum, cited in JL McWilliams and RJ Steel, Gas The Battle for Ypres, 1915 (St Catharines, 1985), 72; Hereafter, Williams/Steel. Also, BWA 005. Brig Gen GE McCuaig, Montreal Star, 22 April 1933. Lt Col WA Smy, For Valour, Lance Corporal Fred Fisher, VC. Printed privately (St Catharines, 2010), 2; hereafter, Smy. Fisher’s father and grandfather were born and raised in Montreal. His father, a bank manager, was transferred back to Montreal in 1905. Fisher was educated at Westmount Academy, now Westmount High School: “All ladies, young and old, well know his name” (Westmount Academy Bulletin, 1912). He abandoned his studies to join 5th RHC on 16 August 1914. Smy cites “an officer of the battalion” describing Fisher as “a quiet chap, who never drank, nor swore, nor played cards, and some of the fellows may have thought he was a prig.” Smy, 2 and interview, September 2010. See also, PP Hutchison, Five Strenuous Years – The McGill Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi during The Great War. Montreal: 1920, 35. LAC RG 9 III D3, V. 4966. WD 3rd Canadian Artillery Bde. “Report Operations 10th Battery 22 April–6 May 1915” Major WB King, OC. Hereafter, King. Also, “Report Operations 3rd Arty Bde Ammunition Column – 22

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73. 74. 75.

76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

82. 83. 84. 85. 86.

87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101.

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April–6 May 1915,” Captain WA McKee. The 10th Battery had four guns; 18 pounder horse drawn gun batteries were next reorganized at six guns, pulled by 165 horses in limbers and ammunition wagons. Effective range was 6200 yards. See Duguid, 235 and RG24 Vol 2680; file 2/HQC4950, correspondence WB King/Duguid. Approx 9:30 to 10 pm, although RMR group with Fisher’s det was in the area at least an hour before. Fisher to Ross; Ross, 8; When his ammunition wagon teams were killed, King received help from the 15th and 7th Battalions to carry rounds forward – 600 yards to his guns. Duguid, 236. King, 2. Surprisingly, Major King does not mention L/Cpl Fisher or RMR infantry covering fire in his report. See also Duguid, 234–235. By coincidence, 10th Battery was from St Catharines and Fisher’s older brother had served in it for two years before the war. A second brother, Lt William Henry Fisher, won an MC in 1918 with 6th Canadian Siege Battery and like Fred, throughout showed fearless initiative. Capt McCuaig, message to 3 CIB HQ 10:45 pm 22 April. This was initial probe to road junction. Duguid, apx 387. Pte Palin, 14th Battalion, RMR cited in, J Frank Willis, “In Flanders Fields”; CBC Digital Archives 1964. Also, Williams/ Steel, 53–54. This may have occurred earlier. Ross recalls Fisher saying he obtained four men, who were killed on the way to the 13th lines. Ross, 8. Duguid, 260. BWA MS 001 unprocessed 1915 Scrap Book, formerly, 13-1916-7. Loomis to WT Whitehead 13 July 1915. Ross, 8. E McCuaig interview; Giveen was commissioned Lt in the 13th; killed in action 13/6/1916. Campbell was awarded a Russian Decoration, the Cross of St George, 4th Class. No. 46799 Pte H Danson: London Gazette Supp. 29212, 30 June 1915. The PPCLI was awarded DCMs on 28 February and 1 April 1915 while serving with the BEF. Ross, 8; G24 WD 14th Battalion, Report Ypres, 3; and, Greenshields, 2. Walker, 1. Ross, 8. There are four WW1 Colts at the BW Museum in Montreal. Brawny sergeants, veterans of Afghanistan, were surprised and tested when they shifted one across the parade square one hundred years later. Walker, 2; Ross, 9. Captain HF Walker remembered it differently: “I buried our friend, poor Fred Fisher who was shot through the head.” Walker, 1. Walker and Fisher were fraternity brothers at McGill. Walker may have influenced Fisher’s joining the 5th Royal Scots. Also, Ross, 9; LAC Pers file Fisher 3105 states “Correct Date of Death is 24 April”; RHC witnesses record it as 23rd. Sinclair was destined to be CO of the 13th with DSO (1918), MC (1916) and MID. NAC RG24 WD 3rd Bde HQ 22 April 1915: Loomis to Bde HQ 23 April 10:45 pm (by hand). Duguid Apx 472. Ibid., Ross, Duguid and RG24 WD 3rd Bde HQ 22 April 1915. Loomis had already despatched Nos. 3 and 4 Companies 14th Battalion RMR toward McCuaig’s line. See RMR, 42-44. Der Weltkrieg Translation, 161–162. Macfarlane, born and educated in Scotland, was awarded an immediate commission in the field. Four times wounded; awarded Military Cross 3 October 1917; Bar to MC 6/10/1915. Captain Melville Greenshields, extract from letter, May 1915. Lieutenant CN McCuaig, Letter 1 May 1915. Ross, 10. Der Weltkrieg Translation, 163–164. Nicholson, 156. BW 005 Pers Lt. CN McCuaig, Letter 1 May 1915. RG 24 WD 14 Battalion Ypres Report, 2. Ross, 10. Ross, 11. See Duguid, 298, and Fetherstonhaugh, 49. McCuaig was matter of fact about his last battle: “Very heavy losses were incurred in the retirement, No. 1 Company being practically annihilated. At that stage I was wounded and captured.” BW Col DR McCuaig, 1933. Lord Beaverbrook offered a more histrionic account of McCuaig awaiting capture: “he lay alone in the trench, two loaded Colt revolvers to add to his own … ready in his hand for use … waited to sell his life, wounded,

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102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107.

108. 109.

110. 111.

112. 113.

114. 115. 116.

117. 118. 119. 120.

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racked with pain in an abandoned trench.” RG9 Vol 4772 “Deeds that Stir the Empire,” WM Aitken, 30 April 1915. Also, BWA Greenshields, Walker, Pitblado files. German Translations, 164. BWA 005 Pers. Captain HF Walker. Correspondence, 8 May 1915. On 24 April the 13thBn lost 283 all ranks; the 3rdBn 303; and the 7th Battalion 426. BWA. Private AL Brown, Machine Gunner 13th Battalion RHC, letter 5 May 1915. Ross, 10. Duguid, 439. 49.4 percent see fn page 2. Offrs killed: Major EC Norsworthy; Capts GM Drummond, GO Lees, LW Whitehead. POW: Major McCuaig, Lt Pitblado; seven officers wounded in action; POW total includes “Wounded and Missing” and, “Missing”: 27; Ross, 11. Captain Tomlinson of the Buffs, like McCuaig, survived the war as POW. See: Official History, Apx 851 “Battle Casualties Canadian Forces in the Field; April 21–30.” Duguid, 439; Total KIA: 131 (4 Offrs; 127 ORs); the 13th Battalion report cites 464 as total cas; Ross 11. The highest casualties in Canadian Division were: 15th Battalion, 662 (circa 67 percent); 7th Battalion, 598; 8th Battalion, 544, 2nd Battalion, 522. Major E Norsworthy was nominated for DSO but reduced to MID (Mentioned in Despatches). Battalion’s MGs included three guns from RMR with BW crews. Fisher first Canadian VC, the first officer’s VC was also won at Ypres and again by a member of the Machine Guns: Lt Edward Bellew, 7th Battalion, on 24 April. A splendid life-sized oil portrait of Fred Fisher VC was presented to Westmount Academy (now Westmount High School, on St Catherine Street west, Mtl) by his mother after the war. A copy was made at request of BW, provided by RHC officers, and hung at BW Memorial Home “VCs Room” in Dundee. BW 008 Pers. PPH Correspondence; and, Montreal Star 2 February 1926. Interview, M Cristofaro, Principal/RJJ, 15 July 2011. In 2012, the portrait was generously presented to the BW Museum and unveiled at its re-opening at the 150th Regtl Anniversary by Gov General David Johnston. At three miles from the cylinders the gas density was great enough to induce conjunctivitis, coryza and tachycardia, to hurt the eyes, make noses run and to make men vomit violently. Duguid, 229. See: “Remembering Lt Col Scrimger,” WB Howell, MD. Quebec Heritage News, Vol 3 No2 September–October 2006, 12–14; “The Nature of Chlorine Combination in Urine,” AT Cameron & MS Hollenberg, Dept of Biochemistry U Manitoba, Winnipeg, 13 September 1920. W Freeman and R Nielson, Far From Home: Canadians in the First World War (Toronto, 1999), 48–49; also, McWilliams/Steel, 54. Lt Col Loomis, Major Victor Buchanan, Major Eric McCuaig, Captain CL Cantley, Captain CH Crowdy, Captain SB Lindsay, Lt Clarence McCuaig, Captain KM Perry. Photo credited to the curé of Assare. Montreal Star, 17 July 1915. BWA MS 001. Whitehead. Mrs EH Ewing (letter extract via H Walker): “Last night, quite unexpectedly, Lt Clarence McCuaig arrived … He tells me that Major McCuaig, Ward Whitehead and young Pitblado were all together when Ward Whitehead fell. The Canadians were retiring at the time, but Pitblado rushed back and picked up Whitehead, and when last seen was struggling along with Whitehead on his back.” BWA. Whitehead, Jones correspondence. Letter, Pte Alf Cartwright 4 June 1915: “Men dropping by the scores. This is where Ward got it. He got half his face blown off and another officer was bandaging it up … I don’t know if Ward was made a prisoner or if they killed him.” BWA. MS Whitehead. Pitblado, 12 July 1916, 11th letter, POW Camp, Offizier-Kriegsgefangenenlager, Bruderhaus. RG 24 Vol 1828 “13th Battalion”; and BW Archival Study Great War Nominal Rolls, O/Cdts S Thornton and S Plotkin. June–August 2010. 13th Battalion CEF RHC; total initial draft 1233: 878 UK born, 267 Canadian and 88 USA. 42nd Battalion CEF RHC; total initial draft 1292 of which 722 were UK born, 309 Canadian, 22 USA remainder Europe, Empire or illegible attestation paper. Officers and ORs killed and wounded totalled 322 from Ypres alone. Captain Rust, OC No. 3 Company, was killed 19 July 1916 near Sanctuary Wood. He had been a bank clerk in Montreal, twenty-three years old; born Norfolk England. Joined as signaller (24681) on 23 September 1914. RG9 Vol 126 Carson Files. Lt Col Cantley 13th CEF, 26 June–July 1915; BWA Cantley, June 1915. 42nd Battalion CEF WD; Topp; 42nd took over a section of the British front during the first week of January 1916. BWA. Ewing Papers. Lt Col RHL Ewing, Belgium, 27 October 1915.

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121. RG 9 Vol 4158 Billeting. “Place/Date/: I, (Name, Address, Billet) certify that the billet occupied by the 42nd Can. Inf Battalion has been left in a condition satisfactory to me and that I have no claim against the said unit.” 122. RG24 Vol 1760 DHS 10-37 “Animals as Mascots.” 123. BWA File GS Cantlie; NAC RG 150 1992-93/16, F. 1473 Lt Col GS Cantlie; interviews Col Stephen Angus, Toronto, Montreal, Erin. 124. Stephen Angus “A Horse of a Different Colour,” The Red Hackle, v.2, Autumn 2001; interview Col S Angus, Montreal 2009; also, BWA Cantlie, Letter Division of Supplies (re Quarantined Horses) Cantlie-Clark 29 November 1919. 125. NY Times 4 July 1913. 126. Shirley E Woods, The Molson Saga, 1763–1983 (Toronto: 1983), 215, 218–19. 127. Montreal Star. Andy O’Brien, “Hartland MacDougall,” 1957. In 1919, MacDougall became the founding president of the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association. In 1976, he was made a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. 128. Montreal Star, 28 April 1947; Topp Collection, Box 2; 42nd Officers, 1915. 129. NAC RG 24 OC 4th Division to OC 5 RHofC 21–22 October 1915. There was an escape clause: “… each regiment however to have its own design and colours. The red, blue and green check used by the 42nd and 73rd Battalions is exclusively reserved for units from the Royal Highlanders of Canada.” RHC kilts and glengarries made by Hugh Paton – Paton Mills, manufactured in Sherbrooke Quebec. Paton was an honorary member of the Royal Scots officers’ mess. 130. BW 005 Topp Collection, Box #2 “42nd Battalion CEF. Letter Carson/5th RS re charges cost of freight and insurance. 131. 26 February 4th Division DAA QMG Re Design of Khaki tartan adopted by 42nd and 73rd Battalions CEF. Topp Box 2. 132. NAC RG24 Quartermaster General Canadian Militia, Maj Gen DA MacDonald, Dept Militia Ottawa 25 October 1915. 133. Karen Molson, The Molsons, Their Lives and times 1780–2000 (Altona, 2001), 384. 134. Topp, 12. 135. RG 9 Carson Correspondence Vol 126-183; April 1915; Nicholson, 114. 136. “Lestock” a coyote puppy was the unit’s mascot; the badge design (by Pte G Brown) contained four blades of a windmill to symbolize Flanders and a wolf ’s head for Lestock (a coyote not then heraldically acceptable). 137. PPCLI total of 1,098 all ranks, 95 percent had previous service in South Africa or British Army. Its first battle honour “Frezenberg” was fought a few miles south-east of the 13th’s lines at Ypres. 138. Ralph Hodder-Williams, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, 1914–1919 (Toronto: 1923) I, 83. The student volunteers preferred to be titled “University Companies Reinforcing PPCLI” rather than McGill Companies. H-Williams, 82. Also, Nicholson, 228. See: Desmond Morton, “McGill’s Contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps (COTC) 1912–1968,” Canadian Military Journal Vol 10 No. 3, Summer 2010, 40. Also: RC Fetherstonhaugh, McGill University at War 1914–1918, 1939–1945 (Montreal: 1947), 16–18. 139. Cited in Fetherstonhaugh, 106. 140. Topp, 37. 141. 42nd deployment: Zillebeke Bund (A Company, Captain HC Walkem and C Company Major SB Christie); Ypres Ramparts (B Company, Captain Herbert Molson – less one platoon plus HQ 7 CIB); Belgian Chateau (D Company, Captain Gordon Blackader). 142. BWA. 7th Bde WD, Commendation recommendation, 9 June 1916. 143. Walkem was made instructor then promoted Lt Col and CO of 107th Pioneer Battalion (November 1917 to May 1918). 144. RG24 WD 7 CIB, Brig Gen Macdonell, Summary of Battle, June 1916. 145. WD 42nd 10 October 1916. 146. 2nd, 4th and 16th Battalions attacked with 13th RHC. Nicholson, 151. 147. Topp Collection. Sorrel, June 1916. 148. British Official History I, 241, cited in Nicholson, 153. 149. Bird, Ghosts, 15. 150. RG9 III C3 Vol 4158 Folder 2 File 1 “A Report on Recent operations,” Captain H Molson re Ross rifles. Hereafter, Molson Report; and, V. 4158 F2 F1 “Major Walkem to OC 42nd”; also, Hutchison, 82. The Ross rifle was withdrawn 6 June 1916; RG24 Carson 4-5 2 May 1916; Nicholson, 158–159.

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151. See: Nicholson 25–26, 155; Ian Hogg, John Batcher, Weapons & War Machines. London: 1976; WD 13th Battalion RHC. 152. Rate of fire was appx 500-600 rounds per minute and it weighed 28 lb, much less than a Colt machine gun. 153. PPCLI History, 106. 154. RG9. Vol 4159 F5F8, “Attack Scheme,” in passim; Vol 4158F2, F2. 155. BWA 008. Belaney No. 415259 wounded in the wrist by a bullet in January 1916 and again on 24 April 1916, with a shot through the foot. SOS from CEF with a 20 percent disability pension. 156. Fetherstonhaugh, 259. 157. Fetherstonhaugh, 128. 158. WD 13th Battalion CEF, Casualty File, May 1915. 159. Topp, 61. 160. RG Vol 4158 F2 File 2, “Ops near Courcelette,” hereafter Ops Courcelette. “Regina Trench October 1916”; Hereafter, Regina Trench; and, Vol 4158 F2 Norsworthy after action comments to HQ 7th Bde, hereafter, Norsworthy Report. 161. RG Vol 4158 F2 File 4, Regina Trench; Nicholson, 183. 162. Regina, Ibid. 163. Mathewson, commanding C Company 42nd, Regina Trench, File 3 Report 20 September. 164. Ibid. 165. RG Vol 4158 Cantlie, “Ops near Courcelette” September 15/17, File 3, and, “Regina Trench,” File 4; and, Norsworthy Report, September 1916. Hereafter, Cantlie, and, Norsworthy Report. 166. Norsworthy Report. 167. Ops near Courcelette. 168. RG9 Vol 4158 F2 Norsworthy Report and, Regina, File 2; File 3 “42nd Battalion “Ops/Courcelette 2–9 October 1916.” 169. RG9 Vol 4158, F2 File3 Cantlie “42nd Battalion “Ops/Courcelette 2–9 October 1916,” 2–3. 170. “Undoubtedly reached 2nd Objective, no direct message from Battalion HQ had reached me. I am going up to Sunken Road.” Norsworthy Field Message, delivered by runner, 17 September. RG9 V. 4158 F3, 4. 171. Nicholson, 172. 172. Notes by Captain the Rev GGD Kilpatrick DSO: BWA Topp Collection, Box 4 Regina Trench see also, Topp, 85, 16, Mathewson, BWA, Topp Papers Box 3. 173. RG9 Vol 4158 F2 File3 Cantlie, “Ops-Courcelette,” 5; born in Yorkshire; an “original” 42nd recruit. 174. BWA Topp #1; “Notes on recent fighting, 1918” Handwritten note, Macdonell to Cantlie, 3/10/1916. 175. RG 9 Vol 4158 Folder 2 File 4 “Regina Trench” October 1916; Fetherstonhaugh, 140. 176. “Regina Trench” Ibid. 177. Nicholson, 185. 178. RG 9 III C3 v 4158 Folder 2 File 4 “Regina Trench” October 1916, 140. 179. Ibid., 142. 180. GDD Kilpatrick, Odds and Ends, 25 cited in IM McCulloch, The Fighting Seventh (RMC, unpublished MA thesis, 1997), 100. 181. Despatch General Haig re Somme, December 1916, cited in Topp, 90. 182. CBC Great War Interviews, 1965, Sergeant GR Stevens, PPCLI. 183. RG 150 1992-93/16, File 1473, “Lt Col GS Cantlie”; See Patrick H Brennan, “Good men for a hard job: Infantry Battalion Commanders in the CEF “, Canadian Army Journal Vol 9.1 (Spring 2006), Hereafter, Brennan. Only 12 of 354 total CEF Battalion Commanders were reposted after front command to UK Training Establishments ; “…physical debility and “strain of service” (neurasthenia) affected “close to half (twenty-four of fifty) of those serving in Britain or in Canada, or demobilized had suffered either or both of these conditions …,” 19. 184. BWA WD 73rd RHC 12 December 1916 “Colonel Davidson was unable to return to battalion, owing to nervous breakdown.” 185. CBC Archives. History of The Black Watch. Part 3. Interview MacTier, Bird. 1969. 186. Except for the twenty-nine soldiers provided by the 92nd in March of 1916, all reinforcements for 42nd arrived in France between August and December 1916. The “Nova Scotia Highland Brigade” comprised the 185th, 193rd and 219th battalions, all NS Highland units: The 92nd Battalion supplied twenty-nine reinforcements March 1916; a further 250 in August/September 1916; 132nd Battalion provided 147 soldiers November 1916;

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189. 190. 191.

192. 193.

194.

195. 196.

197. 198.

199. 200. 201. 202. 203.

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185th, 193rd and 219th Battalion’s supplied combined total of 365 reinforcements circa December 1916. BWA. WO M Cher, Study BW Nominal Rolls Great War, Data Base, August–November 2010. WD 20th Can Res Battalion. Lt Col Magee to 5th RHC, 7 February 1917: “from now on no reinforcements will be sent to Montreal Highland Units from elsewhere than the Province of Quebec [emphasis added]. Up to the present date Montreal regiments have been kept up to strength by men from other provinces and districts, to which there has been strenuous objection …” Topp Collection, 1917. BW WD; BWA 1-24-13 Vol3, Red Hackle. 42nd Battalion WD November 1917. The “permission” given to the 42nd appears to be an impromptu politeness when Imperials and 42nd exchanged trenches. There is no record at The Black Watch Archives in Balhousie Castle of an official invitation. See: MajGen AG Wauchope (Ed), A History of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) in The Great War, 1914–1918 Vol 3: The New Army, London: 1925, 70. Hereafter, Wauchope. Major Kilpatrick wrote a sermon: “On the occasion of permission being given to the 42nd Battalion RHoC to wear the Red Hackle in their balmoral”: BWA, Kilpatrick, Red Hackle Sermon, 1917. See: Topp, 176; Fetherstonhaugh, 147, Wauchope, 69. Also, BW Archival Report, Balhousie. Perrin 2008. Fetherstonhaugh, 147. BWA Dress F. 1-24-9 V.1, 2. Pte Will Bird, 42nd Battalion RHC, The Communications Trench, 50. RG24 Vol 1821. Byng tightened control. “Dominion troops were neither colonial nor imperial.” A direct channel of communications between the Govt of Canada and Canadian forces was established. Currie accelerated replacement of British by Canadian Staff Officers. RHC officers were posted to Brigade, Division, Corps or even Army HQ: Brig Gen William Dodds DSO, the CRA of 5th Canadian Divisional Artillery, Brig Gen J Ross, Pay Master General of the Canadian Forces overseas, Brig Gen E McCuaig DSO, 1st and 4th Brigades; Maj Gen F Loomis DSO 2nd, 7th and 11th Brigades, and the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. The Mills bomb No.5, the No. 3 Mk II or No. 24 rifle grenades and, on occasion, the cumbersome but deadly Stokes bomb, used as huge grenades against strong points. Securing prisoners and information, knocking out dugouts, pillboxes, or simply dominating No Man’s Land. Bombing parties were ad hoc creations: an NCO, two throwers, two carriers, two bayonet-men to defend team, and spares as available. The Scouts were held back until the capture of the Intermediate Objective. Snipers went forward after the capture of the final objective to seek targets of opportunity or engage machine gunners. RG9 III V. 4159 F3 F5 “42nd Canadian Battalion Disposition of Signallers.” Also “Disposition of Scouts and Snipers.” There were sixteen signallers attached to the battalion (including telephonists and linesmen) they manned both battalion HQ and the “Visual Station” near the forward battalion observation post (OP) where they spread ground panels and received messages dropped from aeroplanes. McNaughton to CP Stacey, Director Historical Section, 25 April 1961. Nicholson 315; AM Jack Hyatt, Sir Arthur Currie: A Military Biography. RG9 V. 4158 Artillery (11/1/16 – 18/2/17). Hereafter, V.4158 Artillery. Each Canadian Division had 3 Bdes x18 Pdr; 4x Bty per Bde plus 1 Bty x4.5 How. Fire was observed/reported via telephone. Requests for fire: 18 pdr by direct telephone; 4.5 How, 6” How via FOO’s Bty, HQ Inf Bde or Arty Bde CO Bigger guns via Arty CO to Arty Bde. V.4158 Artillery. Corps Artillery Conference 19 December 1916 Folder 1, File 7. BWA 7 CIB HQ. Brig Gen AC Macdonell 24/4/1917 “A few Lessons to be learnt from Vimy ridge Attack.” Ordered central ammunition reserve/dump established forward for Lewis guns; gun mags were found “ditched” because they were carried in buckets of six – too heavy. Stokes 3” TM Ammo was often ditched and became rusted because four rounds were allotted each man in two sandbags: too heavy. “Stokes should be carried fwd in its own boxes.” Battle Order” included bandoliers, 120-150 SMA rounds, fur coat but not great coat, waterproof cape, and sheet; two gas helms; iron rations; the balance of the day’s rations, water bottle, and “at least three pairs of socks.” Another twelve were wounded in action. Brennan, 21. WD 13th Battalion after Somme: “50 percent of the officers were casualties and we lost many splendid NCOs.” The campaign’s toll on the two RHC battalions was appalling – over 88 percent of Black Watch officers and senior NCOs had been wounded, almost half were killed. Major General Georges Vanier DSO, recounting Somme battles. CBC Great War Interviews, 1965. FSM, 47. WD 42nd March 1917; Vimy (January 1917) Raid by 7 CIB. RG9. 7th Can Inf Bde WD, 1 April 1917, Immediate Award. Recommended by Norsworthy. Hereafter, Award Citations. Ewing was MID 7/11/1917 and 28/12/1917.

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204. Bird, Ghosts, 56. See: 42nd Battalion WD, Captain R Willcock, Award Citations. By Norsworthy upon his return from hospital. To his credit he reviewed all actions and ensured that BW valour was reported to Bde HQ for action. 205. Jonathan Birks/RJJ 27 April 2014. 206. Hutchison, 95; BWA, WD 73rd Battalion RHC, 1 March 1917. 207. Hutchison, 97–99. 208. Hutchison Papers, 73rd March 1917; Hutchison, 98. 209. Brown, a penniless night-watchman, committed suicide 4 April 1927, ten years after Vimy. He had come to New York two years previously “to seek his fortune … Pride drove him … rather than ask relatives for aid.” The 5th RHC sent pallbearers and the US Army provided a firing party. Gazette, NY Times 5–7 April 1927. HG Armstrong, Consul General, in a letter to NY Times 5 April 1927 praised Brown and pleaded for veteran care. 210. Nicholson, 234. 211. BWA, PPH Papers. Collection Rust poems; this written, Fleuebaix, March 1915. 212. NAC WD 13th Battalion RHC 4 April. LOB totalled 17 Offrs and 264 ORs. “Specialists in the Battalion, Machine Gunners, etc … were served out distinctive arm-bands: Scouts Green. Runners Red. Signallers Blue. Bombers Red Grenades.” 213. BWA Topp, Box 8, File “Notes and Drafts.” 214. Prelude to Vimy. The only Black Watch soldier executed during Great War was Pte Harold G Carter – transferred to 73rd Bn, went AWOL during the September Battle of Flers-Courcelette, found guilty of desertion and sentenced to death (sentence was commuted to ten years’ imprisonment; after six months, sentence suspended). Re-attached to 73rd on 16 March 1917, Carter again deserted, just before the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Captured, court-martialled and found guilty of desertion; executed by firing squad 20 April 1917. 215. RG9 Vol 4158 and 4713 Folder 3, F4,5,6. “Vimy Ridge operations” Hereafter, Vimy Ops. “Blind ends to these underground passageways were run out under No Man’s Land to points under the German line … filled with high explosive, wired and sealed up, ready to be set off.” The subways included dressing stations, telephone exchange, latrines, a power station, headquarters, signals and temporary sleeping quarters. The average tunnel held most of an assault bn (ten offrs and five hundred men) amongst four to five carved out chambers. Also, Hutchison, 108. 216. Vimy Ops; also, Nicholson, 249–250. 217. NAC WD 13th Battalion RHC 8 & 9 April. 218. BWA WD 13th Battalion 10 April 1917; Fetherstonhaugh, 170. 219. WD 13th Battalion RHC 10 April; Op Order No. 203 13th. 220. WD 73rd RHC 29 March 1917. 221. RG 9 Vol 4236 73RD Canadian Inf Battalion, Folder 2, File 1. 222. Hutchison, 111. 223. The 1962 RHC history cites McLennan as CO but Norsworthy led until battle’s end. Hutchison, 95; WD 42nd 5 April “Major McLennan’s arrival did not interfere with personnel of officers arranged to take part in attack on the 9th inst.” 224. Nicholson, 246. 225. Captain Percy Ackerly, CBC Great War Interviews, 1965; McCulloch, 79–80. 226. RG9, Vol 4158 F3 File 3: Vimy Orders – Op Order 70, 7 April 1917; A Company right from the Grange Crater to Longfellow Trench; C Company left along Longfellow with B right rear of Duffield Trench to Observation Line; D Company along Duffield- Finley Trench / Observation line. 227. Topp, 69; also, Vol 4158 F3 File 3: Vimy Orders: B Company moved into the Grange Tunnel while D Company moved into the Empire Redoubt. A Company moved into the upper part of the tunnel. 228. Ibid., Arty Conf. “Recent Ops have shown that the German policy is now to deliver counterattacks over the open in great strength and with a short time of [our] troops having gained their obj.” 229. Ewing correspondence, April 1917. 230. 3 Canadian Division WD Apx 301 “Narrative of Operations in connection with the Attack and Capture of the Vimy Ridge – From 9–14 April 1917,” 2. Hereafter: 3 CID WD Vimy Op. 231. RG9 Vol 4158 F3 File 3 and F2, F5. 232. CBC Digital Archives; In Flanders Fields. J Frank Willis. 1964: http://archives.cbc.ca/programs/258-14167/ page/1/; also BWA 008 “Diaries”: Major the Revd GD Kilpatrick DSO ‘War Diary September 1916–April 1917.”

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233. BWA DSO citation, Major S Norsworthy, Vimy 1917. London Gazette #30204; 26/7/17. NAC. 3 CID WD Vimy Op, 7: “the 42nd had secured their part of the Red Line and built strong points, and their left flank was still refused.” 234. 42nd RHC before battle, 722 All Ranks. Casualties Vimy: 302 All Ranks. 5 Offrs and 49 ORs KIA (Lts Wattam, Small, Hilton, Tinling, Sheffield). Geographic Origins: 54 percent ORs Quebec; 26 percent Ontario; 18 percent Maritimes, 2 percent West. Re the 28 RHC Officers, fifteen Montrealers; of which, eight were born in Montreal or Quebec, remainder immigrants or resettled from other provinces or careers or study: six from Ontario, five from the Maritimes, two from Western Canada. 235. Topp Box 4, 43. 236. BWA WD 73rd RHC. April 1917. Transfers: six Offrs and 194 ORs to the 13th Battalion RHC; five Offrs and 265 ORs to the 42nd Battalion RHC; three Offrs and 107 ORs to the 85th Battalion; three Offrs and seven ORs to the 38th Battalion with two Offrs and four ORs temporarily attached to the 38th Battalion; two Offrs and four ORs to the 78th Battalion; one Offr and one OR to the 16th Canadian Machine Gun Company; two Offrs and ten ORs in corps depots. 237. 1st CID attacked with the 3rd and 2nd Brigades; the 4th CID with 5th and 4th Brigades. 238. Fetherstonhaugh, 194. 239. Ibid., 195. 240. Ibid., 196. 241. BWA 005 Lt Col W Bovey OBE, “A Staff Officer’s Revelations: The Tragedy of Passchendaele” Maclean’s 15 March 1936, 10. Bovey, from 42nd RHC, was senior staff officer in General Currie’s Corps HQ 1916–19. See also: Hugh Urquhart, Arthur Currie (Toronto: 1950), 174. 242. Bird, CBC Interview, 1965 and, The Communication Trench, 140. 243. Ibid. 244. Captain Rev Dr GGD Kilpatrick DSO. BWA. Highland Scrapbook Vol VIII, 1956–1960, 31. 245. Cohen received a package of holiday foods for Rosh Hashanah, and was made fun of by his fellow officers. He settled it with fists and that seemed to solve his acceptance. He arrived in France a thoroughly Highland officer. Desmond Morton/RJJ, April 2010; DM interviews Cohen Family, Toronto. 246. LAC, MG 30 C 181, Vol 5, file 5, Col CB Topp / R England, 14 October 1938. See also R England, MG 30 C 181, Vol. 4, file 1, “Contributions to Citizenship,” and England, CBC, 28 September–21 December 1938, “Ventures in Citizenship.” 247. 42nd WD, Topp Collection. Message, Macdonell to 42nd re Lt Cohen, 30 September 1917. 248. RG9 Vol. 4158 F2F7. 42nd RHC, Brig Gen Macdonell to Norsworthy, 14 February 1917. 249. RG9 Vol. 4159, F3, F6. Orders Pillbox at D5b83.and, V.4158. F2.F1 42nd Battalion RHC, February Raid. 250. RG9 Vol.4159, F3, F5 Raids. Op Order 106. Composite Parties A and D each: 1x Officer, 1xNCO, 3x Bayonet men, 5x Bombers, 2x Moppers-Up, 1x Scout; Parties B and C each: no Offrs, 1x NCO, 3x Bayonet men, 5x Bombers, 1-2 Moppers-Up, no Scouts. Group D had one extra Bayonet man. Total: forty-six. 251. WD 13th RHC: Raid 12 February. Lts J Young, DL Carstairs, 5 NCOs and 35 ORs. WD 42nd RHC: Raids 1918: 12 March, Lt HB Trout, Pl D Company; 24 April, Lts WJ Kavanagh, T Cowing, ORs fm C and D Companies; 19 July, Lt JM Morris, 9 ORs, D Company. BW 008 13th Battalion CEF DQ Operations Sect IV Lessons and Observations. Groups of Dugout Clearing teams (twenty men) were generally provided by the third battalion in the Brigade (not in reserve). Tactics were to enter enemy trenches on either flank and work towards the centre behind the assaulting platoons. Hereafter, DQ Lessons and Observations. See also, “A Typical Raid” Captain G Kilpatrick, Odds and Ends from a Regimental Diary, Montreal, 9. 252. DQ Lessons and Observations. 253. Unk. Sung to the tune of “You made me love you”; Topp, 391. “Parody,” Compiled by Major WA Grafftey MC. 254. BWA. Kilpatrick. Personal Diary. May 1918. 255. BWA Great War Scrap Book, Extract, Major HM Wallits DSO MC: “The object is to elude ‘the Sausage’; any player caught within ten yards of it when it bursts is ‘It’. He is then collected, and the game is resumed. Much additional gaiety may be obtained if the men with whistles (‘look outs’) are uneducated or nervous … Game becomes faster and more exciting if a discussion is initiated between the opposing parties … This even more exciting when played in the dark. When a player is ‘It’ he is said to have ‘gone to blighty’; or if a near burst, ‘gone aloft.’” 256. Bird, Ghosts, 186.

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257. Fetherstonhaugh, 243. Both Hutchison’s Canada’s Black Watch and Fetherstonhaugh’s 13th Battalion refer to the goat as “Flora Macdonald.” However, the War Diary of the 13th Battalion uses “Flora Stuart.” Historically, Flora Macdonald would be a better fit, but the war diarist was writing his entry on the day the goat died and would seem to be in a better position to know her name. It has been decided herein to use “Flora Macdonald.” 258. WD 42nd Battalion RHC, 3 August 1918. 259. Will Bird, And We Go On, 209; McLennan, handsome, debonair, brave, was “a perfect gentleman [and yet] He had no ‘command’, his voice was not fitted for it …” Though there were better COs, the battalion loved Bart. 260. Shane Schreiber, Shock Army of the British Empire: The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days of The Great War, Shane Schreiber (St Catharines: 2005). 261. RG24 Vol 1760 DHS 10-36. 1 Division DQ Arras Ops 28 August–4 September 1918 Sect IV “Lessons”; Hereafter, DQ Lessons. 262. DQ Lessons; BWA 13th Battalion Amiens Ops Hangard Wood West Sect II, 9; BWA 42nd WD. Lt Col RLH Ewing, correspondence. October– November 1918. Ewing to HQ Tank Bde 5th Tk Battalion, 13 September 1918. 263. BWA WD 42nd RHC, Amiens. Twelve field guns 3” and over; nineteen howitzers and trench mortars, and thirty-one machine guns. 264. BWA WD 42nd RHC; also, NAC, DSO citations. 265. Nicholson, fn, 418. 266. Major DB Martyn MC, 44th Battalion, cited by John Hundevad, Editor, Legionary “Canada’s VCs” series, 1968. 267. Topp, 232–234; see also T Dinesen, Merry Hell – A Dane with the Canadians (London: 1929), and Ghosts, 200. 268. The drawing (“a soldier of the 42nd) in Topp’s History is by Lt Adam Sherriff Scott, Dinesen’s platoon OC and is supposedly of Dinesen. See also John Hundevad, Editor Legionary August 1968 “Canada’s Viking VC – Thomas Dinesen.” Dinesen’s mother was a Scot; his cousin was Captain Blair Wilson who fell at the Somme. 269. WD 13th, 42nd Battalions CEF; also Fetherstonhaugh and Topp. 270. Ewing, WD 42nd RHC, 18 August 1917. 271. 13th Battalion RHC WD, Notes on Speech by Maj Gen AC Macdonell, 22 August 1918. 272. NAC WD Canadian Corps, Cas State 8 August–31 August: 254 officers and 5,547 other ranks. Currie Diary, 22 August 1918; Black Watch casualties for campaign: 13th 275 all ranks; 42nd: 312 all ranks. 273. NAC. Clark-Kennedy VC Citation: Fresnes–Rouvroy, 27–28 August 1918, the Second Battles of Arras. 274. Vanier, CBC Interview. “staffs in the headquarters and in the companies were so depleted that out of our [combined] staffs it was impossible to form a complete one.” 275. NAC, Clark-Kennedy VC Citation; nac 1ST Canadian Division Report “Amiens Operations” 1st Canadian Division 8 August–20 September 1918. 276. Don Farr, The Silent General, Horne of the First Army (London: 2007); also David Payne, “Sir Henry Horne” WFA, 13 February 2009, www.westernfrontassociation.com, hereafter Payne-Gen Horne. 277. NAC RG21 Vol 1824 GAQ 5-45 “Drocourt–Quéant Line GSOI 1 CID WD Canadian Corps Cas State: 297 officers, 5,325 other ranks between September 1 and 3. Brutinel’s Brigade was a composite group of the 1st Motor MG Brigade and the 101st MG Battalion – Canada’s first motorized armd unit, a brain child of exotic Montreal based entrepreneur, Brig Gen Raymond Brutinel DSO. 278. RCR History, 21. 279. Fetherstonhaugh, 276. 280. RG9 1824 File2, F6, Ops Canal du Nord; Op Order No. 203; WD 13th Battalion 27–28 September 1918. Also, Fetherstonhaugh, 277-280. 281. RG 9. 3 Canadian Inf Division WD. Intelligence – German Moral CIF 49 Secret; Report Cambrai Battle September–October 1918. 282. NAC. Micro. CBC Interviews: GW Little, PPCLI. Little added, in the 1965 interview: “My brigadier, the son of a bitch, is still alive – I’ll kill him if I see him.” Hereafter, Little, CBC. 283. NAC VC Citation Lt M F Gregg. 284. In 1944, Gregg was named chancellor of the University of New Brunswick. He also held a series of UN appointments including representative to Iraq and Indonesia. 285. NAC RCR WD, September 1918 addendum: Topp – Duguid correspondence, Ottawa, 22 February 1936, 1. Hereafter, Topp-Duguid. There is a version of this letter cited in McCulloch, Fighting Seventh, 227. It is reportedly undated and the text varies from above vis-à-vis stated time and more dramatic prose. The source is given as “Topp, MS 004” however this letter is no longer present in BWA.

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286. NAC Little, CBC. 287. Topp-Duguid, 2. BWA. Ewing makes no mention of the incident in WD or his private correspondence. 288. NAC RG9 Vol 4158 F2F6. 42nd Canadian Battalion WD 42nd Battalion, Report: “Narrative of operations 26– 30 September 1918,” 3; hereafter, NarrOps September 1918. 289. BWA, WD 42nd Battalion, 29 September 1918; NarrOps September 1918; and, Topp, 269. 290. NarrOps September 1918. 291. NarrOps September 1918. 292. BWA Topp, 42nd Report 30 September 18; cited Topp, 271. 293. Ibid., Topp, 271; NarrOps September 1918. 294. JA Clark; CBC transcripts. 295. Bird, And We Go On, 195. 296. BWA. WD 13th Battalion CEF. Trophies (with receipts); “49 Field Guns and Minenwerfer and Granatenwerfer; 101 machine guns all apx, may be duplications” This list may include earlier captures at DQ Line. 297. Ibid., Payne-Gen Horne. 298. BWA. 42nd RHC After action report: “42nd Battalion The Canal du Nord 27 September – 1 October 1918,” 2; also,” Narrative of Operations 25–30 September 1918.” Lt Col R Ewing, 5. 299. Dr LS Foster, letter to Herbert Molson, cited in Shirley E Woods, The Molson Saga 1763–1983 (Toronto: 1983), 226–227; also, Karen Molson, The Molsons (Willowdale: 2001), 338–339. 300. BWA WD 42nd Battalion RHC, 30 August 1918, Lt Col Ewing “Lessons Learnt from Recent Operations.” 301. Loomis conferred and visited Clark on three occasions: at 1305, 1655, 2130. BWA Loomis War Diary 29 September 1918. 302. Lts E Mather and JH Molson became POWs 10 October. All were repatriated in November, after Armistice. 13th Battalion WD October. 303. RG24 Vol 1760 DHS 10 36/37 hereafter DHS 10-36, WD 7 CIB; 42 CEF. The ORs killed 10 November: L/Cpl BR Jones, Pte JA Daigle, Pte T Mills, Pte B Brigden, Pte A Burnside, Pte AM Stanley. Total CAS 10 November: six ORs KIA, one Offr, eighteen ORs WIA; 11 November: six ORs WIA. The Farriers were Ptes Alexander Burnside, Arthur Stanley, Andrew Lowe and Allan McPhie. 304. DHS 10-36 “Extract Narrative 3rd Canadian Division War Diary “Mons” 1918. 305. BWA. Lt Col RLH Ewing, correspondence, “Mons” 18 November 1918. There was some debate between the RCR and the 42nd regarding “who was there first” as King’s name appears before Lts Biggar and Cave. Biggar, however, disputed this evidence, insisting that he signed well down on the page so that a suitable inscription could subsequently be inserted above. The 42nd WD notes King’s presence; Topp ignores him altogether. 306. BWA. Ewing Papers Lt Col RLH Ewing, 42nd Battalion, letter 29 October 1918. 307. Topp Box 4 and, 304–306. December 1918; for a more dramatic version of the December disturbances, see Charles Yale Harrison, Generals Die in Bed (Montreal: 1930). 308. RG24 V.1760 DHS 10-31 “Interim Report on the Operations of the Canadian Corps during the year 1918,” 186. 309. Fetherstonhaugh, 300. 310. BWA “Colours.” Cantlie to Birchall, 28 November 1918: “They are in a very tattered condition and would not stand much handling.” Both sets of Colours were “never used but carried unpacked on the march to Germany.” They returned to Canada cased in April 1919 and that same month were again laid up but without ceremony. See also: Major PP Hutchison article “The Colours of the Black Watch” Montreal, 1931; article for Red Hackle (UK), 3. 311. Fetherstonhaugh, 312. 312. BWA Pers, KM Perry file. 313. This included shipping over cases of Sweet Caporal and Old Chum Tobacco from the Montreal Gazette Tobacco Fund and the RHC Ladies Committee’s boxes of socks and scarves. BWA. Topp Collection Box 4. Memo 21 November 1918. 314. Officers included Lts IL Ibbotson and KG Blackader, both would become Commandants of the Regiment. BWA “Recruiting 1914–1917”; Hutchison Papers: 1916–1917; Hutchison, 103–104. The 2nd Reinforcing Company RHC was authorized 14 November 1916. 315. RG9 Vol 4951 WD 20th Res Battalion RHC January–November 1918. 316. Hutchison, 113; WD 20th. Officers included KG Blackader and HP Walker; many posted from Schools of Instruction.

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317. 318. 319. 320. 321. 322. 323. 324. 325. 326. 327. 328.

329. 330. 331. 332. 333. 334. 335. 336. 337.

338. 339.

340.

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Col Stephen Angus, interview, CFC Toronto, September 2008. Hereafter, S Angus Interview 2008. BW005 Brig Gen JG Ross, correspondence 24 February 1918. S Angus Interview 2008. BWA Pers J McQueen Moyes and, “13th Battalion Personnel Histories, Diaries WW1, 1915–1917” See also, BW Museum, “Journal of Moyes collection presented by Family of Sir FOW Loomis KCB CMG DSO RHC.” Topp, Ibid., 224, 233–234. PP Hutchison, Five Strenuous Years – The McGill Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi during The Great War (Montreal: 1920), 35 et in passim. Both Hutchisons, Morrow, Lindsay and other subalterns in 5th RHC were members. RG9 V. 4159. F5F9 SJ Mathewson to CO 42nd Battalion, 21 November 16. Mathewson was wounded three times and awarded the MC and Bar in the summer of 1917. His two brothers served with him in the 42nd; Kenneth joined fresh out of the McGill COTC, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in August 1916. RG9 Vol 183. Correspondence Carson / Loomis, 16 December 1915. Pte Ralph Bell, cited in Tim Cook, “Rum in the Trenches,” Legion Magazine, 1 September 2002. SRD was armyissued Services Rum Diluted or Special Red Demerara. Fetherstonhaugh, 243. BWA 1-24-19 V.1 Dress. Authority to wear the kilt “as an alternative to trousers” was not issued by the Min of Militia and Defence, Hon FB McCurdy until 24 August 1916. NAC RG9 IC 1-9 and, BWA Historical 1-17 Vol I, 1871–1916. Red Hackle authorized in Feather Bonnets: GO 7 April 1893; BWA Regimental Order Book 15 April 1895. “Brigade HQ: “Officers, NCOs and Men of the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada have been given permitted to wear the Red Hackle when in uniform in their feather bonnets.” BWA (Perth) BW RHR Record Book: “Sanction was given to the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada to be affiliated to the Regiment the former having applied for this honour.” 1 April 1905. BWA Pers WB Molson. MacDonald to Molson, July 1961. “We were probably the biggest nuisance the army ever created”; Chapter 9, 168. BWA (Perth) 13 Watch 0481. General Permission for the Red Hackle 28 June 1918. Also, Wauchope 69, 118; see Fetherstonhaugh, 147. Cited by Fetherstonhaugh. NAC RG21 1824 GHQ 5-44, Great War final statistics. Mount Sorrel 2–5 June 1916; Flers–Courcelette 15–18 September 1916; Vimy Ridge 9–11 April; Second Passchendaele 26 October–5 November 1917; Amiens 8–11 August 1918; Damery 15 August 1918; Monchy le Preux 26–29 August 1918; Canal du Nord 27 1 October – November 1918; Mons 11 November 1918. Raids: Courcelette September 1916; Vimy area 1 January 1917 April; June 1917 (Brigade); Passchendaele December 1917; Raids March and July 1918. DND Ottawa. A robust bronze plaque was presented to RHC by the Department of National Defence accounting the BW casualty numbers for The Great War. It is affixed over a parade square entrance and noted by all visitors, government, military and royal. Col PP Hutchison’s tally recorded 8,228 BW casualties (for three Battalions, not including 24th VRC) out of a total of 11,226 all ranks served: 2235 were KIA, including 102 officers. Hutchison, 142–143. BWA Topp Box 4 Record 42nd Battalion RHC Strength Returns. BWA. WO Mike Cher, “BW NOM ROLLs 1919”: 5th Royal Scots War losses in South Africa were two ORs: 7636 Pte C Goodfellow (RCR), 7708 Pte Frederick Wasdell (RCR). The Great War: 1010 Originals were listed in the 42nd when Battalion left Canada. Died on service 232; died serving with other units 11; transferred 160; invalided to Canada 209; returned to Canada 137; returned to Canada with 42nd Battalion in 1919: 119 were SOS to British Isles 28; remained in UK, 97; listed as Deserters two; Unknown fifteen. Therefore, 752 of the 42nd’s originals survived the war. Less than half of originals were casualties. BWA. Nom Rolls, Cher. Of the 325 from Quebec, 159, were not from 13th Battalion, but came from BW units: 13th, 42nd and 73rd Battalions and the 1st and 2nd RHC Reinforcing Companies. Also, Cher: “42nd Nominal Roll 1918”: the remaining 5 percent from western Canada. See: BWA, 13th Battalion, “Nominal Roll of all ranks sailing on SS Carmania from Liverpool 10 April 1919.”

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Great War Commanding Officers 13th Battalion CEF

Lt Col (MGen) GE McCuaig DSO 1916–1918

Lt Col (MGen) FOW Loomis DSO 1914–1915

Lt Col VC Buchanan DSO 1916

Lt Col IMR Sinclair DSO MC 1918 and 1919

Lt Col KM Perry DSO 1918

Lt Col GS Cantlie DSO 1914–1916

Maj (Lt Col) SC Norsworthy DSO, MC 1916–1917

Lt Col B McLennan DSO 1916–1918

Lt Col RLH Ewing DSO and Bar, MC 1918

42nd Battalion CEF

Photos: McCord, BWA

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Great War Commanding Officers 73rd Battalion CEF

Lt Col P Davidson 1915–1916

Lt Col HC Sparling DSO 1916–1917

Left: The original The Red Hackle magazine, originated by the 73rd Bn RHC and later adopted as the empire regimental journal by the global Black Watch in Great Britain. The 20th Reserve Bn had strong McGill University ties including the 148th Canadian Reserve Battalion organized in Nov 1915 under the command of Lt Col AA Magee. The battalion mobilized and recruited in Montreal. It was affiliated with the McGill University Contingent, Canadian Officers Training Corps. It arrived in UK with a strength of 32 officers and 951 other ranks. Its cadres were broken up as reinforcements for the 13th, 42nd, 24th, 57th, 14th and 60th Battalions. The 148th was absorbed by the 20th Canadian Reserve Battalion on 8 Jan 1917. Its Colours were donated and presented by Mrs Gavin Ogilvie on 7 March 1917 and deposited in the Redpath Library, McGill University. The 148th Canadian Reserve Battalion was perpetuated by the McGill University COTC.

20th Reserve Bn (RHC) CEF

Lt Col GS Cantlie DSO 1917–1918

Photos: McCord, BWA

Lt Col JH Lovett 1918–1919

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Officers of the 148th Overseas Bn circa 1916. Lt Col AA Magee, CO 20th Res Bn (RHC) is center. Magee commanded in 1917.

Left: Battalion lines, Valcartier. Note regimental horses; Right: “Canada’s Answer” – Sailing to France from Quebec City.

Salisbury Plain, England, February 1915, The 13th Bn CEF posing and ready for battle. The battalion’s B Echelon is comprised of wagons pulled by horses and includes blacksmiths, carpenters, cooks and storemen. Once in France, the officers’ horses will quickly disappear into rear area farms and be used for polo and the odd parade. Battalion horses will work near the lines and many will be wounded or killed by searching artillery. Photos: BWA, McCord

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Ewing

Beveridge

McLennan

Norsworthy

Birks

Molson

Mathewson

Above: The 42nd Battalion CEF, May 1916. Ready for The June Show, or, The Battle of Mount Sorrel (2–14 June 1916). Cantlie is in the centre, Bart McLennan on his right, Stanley Norsworthy on his left. Before Cantlie, cross-legged, is Mathewson, who, out of bullets, resorted to fists assaulting Germans at Sanctuary Wood. They are surrounded by a Montreal and Black Watch who’s-who. Most would be wounded or killed in battle before fall. Below: The 42nd Battalion CEF, November 1918, have captured Mons and ended the Great War – self satisfied but not smug. Lt Col Royal Ewing DSO and Bar, MC, Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, in the centre, with bamboo cane. The Battalion’s officers received a VC, 10 DSOs, and 40 MCs. They finished the Hundred Days alive and unwounded. The very model of professionalism and military aplomb. It is winter 1918 – the veterans are quite logically in trews. Note the head apparel, balmorals gigantic, the Red Hackles modest, almost tiny. Photos: BWA

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The Landing of the First Canadian Division at Saint Nazaire, 1915 – Edgar Bundy, ARA The painting in fact portrays the 13th Battalion CEF (Black Watch) arriving in France led by the Pipes and Drums behind Pipe Major (Major-QM) David Manson. The painting combines historical exactness in portraiture with a Turneresque vagueness – the smoke-clouds surrounding the steamship SS Novian. The group of officers in the right-centre of the painting’s foreground consists of the staff of the 3rd Cdn Brigade (1st Cdn Division) along with officers of the 13th Battalion. The officer shaking hands with the French officer is the brigade commander, Brig (Lt Gen Sir) Richard Turner VC, while the officer standing behind Turner’s left shoulder is the commander of the 13th Battalion, Lt Col (Maj Gen Sir) Frederick Loomis KCB. The officer to Turner’s right and leaning on an ashplant (while critically watching the debarkation proceedings) is Turner’s staff captain, Captain (Lt Col) Alexander Cameron DSO (the former assistant adjutant of the 13th Battalion). The officer immediately behind Cameron is Turner’s brigade major, Lt Col (Maj Gen) Garnet Hughes CB, son of Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia and Defence. Behind them are 13th Bn officers: Major (Lt Col) Victor Buchanan DSO, Major Edward Norsworthy, Major (Col) Douglas McCuaig DSO; Captain (Maj Gen) Eric McCuaig CMG (Adjutant); and Lieutenant (Brig Gen) Harold McDonald CMG. This great painting hangs on the east wall of the Canadian Senate and immortalizes the Black Watch. It vibrates with action and colour – and was so inspiring that the Imperial Black Watch had Bundy paint a second (smaller) version which currently hangs at Balhousie Castle (courtesy EJ Chapman).

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Top: Battlefield north of Ypres, typical of the terrain that greeted 13th Bn RHC when they took over abandoned trenches in April 1915. Left: Artillery horses. The sight that must have met L/Cpl Frederick Fisher and his No 2, Pte Henry Holdway the MG platoon’s cook, as they deployed their Colt Machine Gun to cover the withdrawal of 18 pounders of Maj W King’s No. 10 Battery. They had already lost 38 men and 70 horses. It was then that Cpl Fisher appeared and began the action that would earn him the VC. Below: example of a German defence line circa 1917–18. This was the depth of defences faced by both Black Watch battalions during the 100 Days. Photos: BWA

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Left: Portrait of Lance Corporal Frederick “Bud” Fisher VC. He was the first Canadian-born man to win the VC while serving in the Canadian Army. Fisher was “a McGill football star and a favourite with the gals.” Fisher found No. 10 Battery under attack and immediately went into action. His detachment was killed off one by one, until only Fisher and Pte Holdway were left. They did not cease firing until King’s battery had retired and the open flank was secure. Above: One of the Colt Machine-Guns acquired by the RHC before leaving for France.

Machine Gun Platoon, 13th Bn RHC, late September 1914, with one of their privately purchased Colt machine-guns posing on the stairs of the McGill Arts Building – half the men had just been students there. It would not be until 1916 that the battalion received Vickers and Lewis guns in sufficient numbers. An Emma Gee (MG) detachment comprised 5 men led by a Corporal. Photos: BWA

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Future Colonel Hew Clark-Kennedy VC as a lieutenant in the 5th Royal Scots, and a stand-out with African campaign ribbons, including the Boer War. Clark-Kennedy would be lent briefly to the 24th Bn Victoria Rifles and promptly win a VC.

Captain Guy Drummond, one of three Black Watch billionaires serving in France. At Ypres, April 1915, Drummond, who spoke fluent French, rallied a hundred routing French troops and steadied an ad hoc support line behind the exposed forward companies of the 13th Bn CEF.

Captain (Major) Edward Cuthbert Norsworthy, heir to the family firm; McGill knew him as the best mathematician of his time. He was a broker in his family’s firm, owned the first luxury car in Montreal. One of three brothers who fought at the front with the Black Watch, Norsworthy died bravely with Drummond, holding the depth position at Ypres – the only hope for the battalion (and brigade) flank. Their bodies were not recovered, they were never decorated. Photos: McCord

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Battlefield Art: The 13th Bn’s Commanding Officer’s War Diary is like no other in the Canadian Corps and even, perhaps, the British Army – a collection of data augmented by carefully executed maps and field sketches, buttressed with incidental drawings, caricatures, landscapes and even cartoons. The creator was Pte McQueen Moyes, ARCA, a Montrealer and a professionally trained artist.

Above: The 2nd Battle of Ypres is a jarring presentation of the Battalion fighting 20th century weapons, dressed in hose, puttees, kilt and glengarry. Within three weeks of Ypres, the 13th went into Battle at Festubert (19–23 May 1915). Fighting in support of the Canadian Scottish, it captured “the Orchard.” Right: He depicts an assault led by Capt KM Perry (a future colonel with DSO) on a German position in July 1915 near Givency. Royal Engineers exploded mines in front of the Canadian trenches and detachments from the 13th Bn RHC “occupied the resulting craters without difficulty.” Photos: BWA Museum

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Battlefield Art: McQueen Moyes’s sketches and carefully executed battlefield maps from 13th Bn RHC Commanding Officer’s War Diary.

Left: A detailed and rare record of the 13th Battalion in defence just before the Somme battles and attack on Regina Trench. Note locations of the still scarce Lewis Guns and machine-guns.

The Battalion marching toward Ypres.

Bn HQ after Ypres as Loomis rebuilt for “The June Show.”

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At West Down, Salisbury. “Several of the non-coms are new men, transferred from the Nova Scotia Highlanders and unknown to the regiment in Montreal”: First Row: Pipe Major Manson, Provost Sgt P Ford, Clr Sgt Wayman, Armr Sgt McMillan, Sgt Mjr McMillan, CQMS Harris, CSM Jeffries, QMS Tweedie, Unk, Sgt Chalmers, Sgt Wood, Clr Sgt G McDonell, CSM Logan, Pipe Sgt Burns. Second Row: CSM Adams, Sgt Hall, Unk, Sgt Brown, Sgt Taunton, CSM J Morrison, Sgt Blake, Sgt Craig, Sgt Metcalfe, Sgt W Venables, Bugler Sgt McGee. Third Row: Sgt W Anderson, Sgt Palmer, Sgt Coburn, Sgt D Crawford, Sgt D Anderson, Sgt Miller, Unk, Sgt WH Scott, Sgt AT Howard, Sgt Tilley, Sgt Imrie, Sgt Race, Sgt Glithros, Sgt Carrier. Back Row: Sgt Jolicoeur, Unk, Unk, Unk, Unk, Sgt Thompson, Sgt G Morrison, Sgt WC Morrison, Sgt Gibbon, Sgt C Black, Unk, Sgt Crighton.

Royal Ewing and his Company, 30 May 1916, before the battle of Mount Sorrel – note the Ross Rifles, destined to be cursed out of the army. During the battle, as rifles jammed, soldiers picked up Lee Enfields from the bodies of Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry soldiers who had been equipped as a British battalion. Photos: BWA

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Glengarry in “Cantlie Tartan.” In December 1914, Lt Col GS Cantlie met with Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia. The result was the new Bleury Street CEF battalion was designated the 42nd. It took until May 1915 to outfit the 42nd RHC. Regimental tartans were not available. Cantlie found inspiration in the Black Watch officer’s tweed – a sporting variation of the traditional government sett. He had it adapted to create a battlefield kilt and glengarry, which became popularly known within the Regiment as “The Cantlie Tartan.”

13th Bn RHC

42nd Bn RHC

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Top: Mk 1 Brodie Helmet, worn by all Black Watch battalions by 1916. Above: Tunic, Sgt Major John Valentine Robertson, 42nd Bn CEF. Manufactured from officer’s quality material, secured with leather covered buttons. CSM Robertson lost his right eye due to a shrapnel wound on 19 January 1916 near Messines. Photo credit: Tony Schnurr – Kaiser’s Bunker

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Private Herbert George Laight, 42nd Bn, with khaki Glengarry – not worn outside of Canada; discontinued in 1916. Photo credit: Tony Schnurr – Kaiser’s Bunker

Glengarry, 42nd Bn CEF badge. Photo credit: Tony Schnurr – Kaiser’s Bunker

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Right: The 42nd Battalion in England, 1915. Major (Lt Col) Bart McLennan DSO, (left) destined to be the most beloved of Black Watch COs, and at this moment, Second in Command to Lt Col GS Cantlie DSO (center); flanked by Maj (Lt Col) Stanley Norsworthy DSO, MC, (right) destined to be the bravest and tactically most aggressive of Black Watch field commanders, but somehow never made substantiated CO. Below left: Valcartier 1914, all natty and regimental. Note no balmorals until 1917; the Red Hackle only appears on pith helmets. The frugal 5th Royal Highlanders wore issued glengarries. Below right: Cantlie looking très cavalry, in France, on his favourite charger, “White Heather.” Photos: BWA

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Corporal J McQueen Moyes: In the Dugouts Near Ploegesteert Wood, Thinking of Loved Ones Far Away, August 1915, Water colour, 13 Bn RHC, Commander’s War Diary.

17 September 1916, southwest of Courcelette. The last known photo of 46-year-old Lt Col Victor Buchanan DSO (right), CO 13th Bn CEF. He would be killed when a German shell hit this HQ dugout on 26 September. Practically on the front line, he remains very much the cosmopolitan, relaxing in jodhpurs, hand-made Italian loafers, enjoying his Balkan Sobranie cigarette, and wearing a Patek Philippe (only one in four officers had a wrist watch in 1916). Beside him, basking in the last sunshine of the summer, sits Major Eric McCuaig DSO, his second in command, beneath a Black Watch glengarry. Both men still wear ties. Photos: BWA, Museum

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The Recapture of Sanctuary Wood by The Black Watch, 13 June 1916. Cdn Corps Commander, Lt Gen Julian Byng launched two brigades against Mount Sorrel and Observatory Ridge – the counterattack after Ypres and involved considerable hand-to-hand fighting. Maj Stanton Mathewson, commanding B Company “shattered his fist when he knocked cold a large Hun.” The 13th Battalion cleared Observatory Ridge, and, with 58th Battalion and the Canadian Scottish, recovered most of the old line through Sanctuary Wood, thus securing all the attack’s objectives. “The first Canadian deliberately planned attack in any force had resulted in an unqualified success.” The Recapture of Sanctuary Wood by The Black Watch was created by British war artist William Barnes Wollen RI, who had travelled to Mount Sorrel and made sketches of the ground. He presented it to the Imperial War Museum and it subsequently disappeared. The Canadian Watch was unaware of its existence until it was discovered 48 years later by Mr Harry Freestone. Intially presented to the Regiment’s second regular battalion in 1965, today it has a place of honour in the Officers’ Mess on Bleury Street. Right: The McLennan Celtic Cross, carved between battles during The Hundred Days by two 42nd Bn Sergeants – stone masons who volunteered their spare time. The stone was found, transported, and set in Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery. Photos: BWA

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Lt Colonel Bartlett McLennan DSO (middle row, second from right), CO 42nd Battalion CEF, 4 June 1918. He was a highly regarded horseman and huntsman; well known in business, sporting and philanthropic circles in Montreal and Toronto. He carries a riding crop and wears a bespoke officer’s tunic, delivered from his tailor in Saville Row. Back row: Maj Pease, Lt Scott, Capt Law, Capt McLeod, Lt Fleming (future post war CO), Capt Hale MO, the Battalion doctor. Middle row: Captain John Kay Beveridge MC, the Regimental Quartermaster; Major Royal Ewing DSO and Bar, MC, Second-in- Command; Lt Col McLennan; and, at far right, Major the Reverend, George Dinwoodie Kilpatrick DSO, the legendary Regimental Padre. Front row: Lt Sewall, Lt Howard (future post war CO), and, at right, Lt LH Biggar MC, an 18-year-old recently out of McGill – he would be one of the two Black Watch officers first into Mons, liberate the city hall and sign “the Golden Book.” The photograph shows them relaxed, well post Vimy Ridge and the horrors of Passchendaele, languishing in the pre-Hundred Days summer. McLennan will be killed in action on the eve of the great offensive. Photos: BWA

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One of the great photographs of the Great War, or any war: Private Donald Johnston MacKinnon, 7 Platoon, B Company, 73rd Battalion, CEF (RHC). This famous photo is sometimes mistakenly credited as “a BW soldier returning from the Somme”; in fact it was taken on 1 March 1917, after the ambitious “March Raid” which included four battalions, the 54th (Kootenay), 72nd (the Seaforths), 75th (Mississauga) Bn, and the 73rd Black Watch – all from the untested 4th Cdn Infantry Div. The aim was to reconnoitre and inflict damage on German defences. The most elaborately planned raid of the winter, preceded by White Star Gas – the first occasion that Canadians used gas against the Germans. The 73rd’s Major John Brown, won the DSO for his courageous leadership. The one-hour operation cost the 73rd Battalion 161 men. MacKinnon, clearly exhausted is shown returning from the battle. Photo: LAC

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42 Bn RHC moving toward the front, September 1918. Veterans in battle order, rifles wrapped with hessian to protect against dirt and dust; steel helmets and the kilt. Platoon officer at right with walking stick, savvy enough to carry a rifle into battle. Undaunted, they still wear kilts.

The 13th Battalion Pipe Band, Spring, 1918. Centre and looking quite regimental is the mascot, Flora MacDonald. Photos: BWA

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Left: 13th Battalion CEF at Valcartier, 1914; Below: July 1918, preparing for The 100 Days: soldiers from 13th RHC “cleaning a Lewis gun outside a funk-hole in the firing line.” The only difference is the balmoral and Red Hackle. Photos: LAC

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Above: Attack on Vimy Ridge, 9–12 April 1917. All four divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked abreast. The Black Watch battalions fought within their own brigades, separate but together. The photo shows the crowd attending unveiling by King Edward VIII and French President Albert Lebrun on 26 July 1936 – 50,000 or more Canadian and French veterans were present with their families. Below: The ridge on Easter Sunday, 8 April, just before the attack was launched.

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Left: Cease Fire order, 11/11/11,1918. Received at 0745. This copy from Field Message Pad of a 42nd Bn RHC officer: Lt LH Biggar MC, who with Lt Jordayne Wyamarus Cave MC,and accompanied by Lt WM King, from the RCR company attached to the 42nd, had just liberated Mons. Below: The three-dimensional topographical planning map used by the Canadian Corps staff to plan the attack on Vimy Ridge, 1917. (Presently in the Black Watch Museum) Photos: BWA, Merrettt

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General Currie predicted 16,000 casualties; 20,000 men of the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions advancing up the hills of the Passchendaele salient. By mid-November, having captured the ridge, 15,654 Canadian had fallen. Four-fifths of two Canadian divisions were lost. The 42nd Bn’s assault against Graf House is almost impossible to study from air photos taken during the battle NW of the centre of the town. Lieutenant Myer Tutzer Cohen MC (inset below), looking dapper and regimental. Note tiny BW badge fixing the Red Hackle. The Graf House strong point was ordered captured in early November 1916. He is remembered by a Star of David in the Black Watch window in the Church of St Andrew and St Paul. Photos: BWA Bottom: Canadian Stretcherbearers slog through mud and shell holes carrying wounded to aid posts close behind the front. (George Metcalf Archival Collection)

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Review of 4th Canadian Division by HM King George V, Ludshott Common, Bramshott Camp, July 1916. 73rd Battalion Black Watch of Canada passing the saluting point. King (extreme left), mounted. Lt Col Peers Davidson (extreme right), mounted. HM Queen Mary (center left in white dress), seated in open car. (BWA)

The crack 42nd moving up during the second phase of The Hundred Days, late September 1918. Fit, bronzed, kilted. The jocks put tins of bully beef or beans to keep dust out of their rifles, the action, trigger and magazines wrapped in hessian. Their gear, extra waterbottles and gas masks now familiar gear and expertly stowed for easy marches. The mark of veterans. (NAC, Ottawa)

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Part II – Illustrations John Bernard Croak VC 13th Bn RHC, killed in action. 8 August 1918 in the vicinity Hill 102, Hangard Wood. The Fighting Newfoundlander – born in Little Bay, NFLD, raised in Glace Bay, NS.

Left: Herman James Good VC 13th Bn RHC, survived the war. He received his VC for his actions on 8 August 1918 near Hangard Wood. Right: Sergeant Good’s gold watch, presented to him by the town of Bathurst, NB Below: His medals (and those of Croak) are held by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

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As the Hundred Days offensive was launched, the 13th stormed Hill 102, winning two Victoria Crosses on the first day of the attack: Pte JB Croak and Cpl HJ Good. This photograph shows the battery of German 5.9 inch guns captured by Cpl Good and three Black Watch privates who knocked out three machine-guns and captured the battery and all their crews. Here during a pause in the fighting, Good’s platoon poses around one of the guns. Tradition and manly boasts aside, the photo shows Scots pracmatism and Canadian common sense: the soldiers wear shorts under their kilts to survive the rigors of the campaign. Photo: BWA

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Left: Lt Col William Hew Clark-Kennedy VC. 5th RHC, 13th Bn RHC, 24th Bn Victoria Rifles , 27/28 Aug 1918 . Buried on Mount Royal. “… It is impossible to overestimate the results achieved by the valour and leadership of this officer.” Above centre: Lt [BGen] Milton Fowler Gregg VC, PC, OC, CBE, MC, ED, CD, MP 5th RHC; commissioned from ranks 13th RHC; won VC with RCR, 28 Sep 1918 near Cambrai during The Hundred Days. Above right: Pte Tom Dinesen VC, 42nd Bn RHC (portrait as lieutenant). Right: A robust group, looking fit despite the ravages of the Western Front. Pte Thomas Dinesen, destined to win the Victoria Cross and his mates in the 42nd Battalion. Top row L to R: Chriss Neilson, Mac McLean, Sam MacDonald. Bottom row L to R: Jack Andrews, Thomas Dinesen. Photo taken 21 May 1918.

Photos: NAC, BWA

Left: Dinesen’s Victoria Cross.

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Above: The 13th Bn RHC , led by the Pipes and Drums and preceded by the famous battalion mascot, the goat Flora MacDonald, rescued from the ravages of war. Some suggest it was a gift from the Ghurkhas; another version is a complaint from the 3rd Indian Division that suggests the goat may have been expropriated from their lines. Flora survived almost every campaign, including the Marcoing Line in Nov 1918.

Photos: BWA

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Liaison with the 3rd Indian Division shown here. Jocks from the 13th Battalion pose with an Imperial chum who is clearly not Canadian. Photos: BWA, Museum

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Trench survival – Top: Lee Enfield & Mills grenade fitted for rifle; Left: Lewis Gun. The Belgian invention revolutionized section tactics; Bottom left: Meal in a support trench, 13th Bn RHC, circa spring 1917. Below centre: Rifle grenade; Below right: Rifle grenades – demonstrations and types.

Photos: BWA, Museum

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Above: Lt Col GS Cantlie with his second-in-command, Major James Lovett (left), a scarred banker from Ayer, Ontario, and the football team of his 20th Reserve Battalion (RHC) after winning the Bramshott Cup, 1918. The battalion was intended as a reinforcement unit 1915–1919 but (unofficially) served as the “Depot” of the RHC battalions in France, as well as a Black Watch recuperation centre. Below: Wounded of the 73rd Bn boarding a hospital train circa April 1917 on their way to rear area hospitals and recovery centres.

Photos: BWA

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In late 1918 cased Regimental Colours were carefully shipped to France, but it was determined the 1862 Colours and 1912 Colours were either too frail or not truly representative. New Colours were ordered for both units – to be presented in a victorious theatre of war. The 13th’s Colours were received on 4 January 1919 at Schloss Ereshoven, Germany from Major HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught, the son of the Duke of Connaught, who had bestowed the 1912 Colours in Montreal. The 42nd’s Colours were presented on 29 January 1919 at Nechin, France by Major General Sir Frederick Loomis (above), the senior Black Watch officer in the CEF and commander of the 3rd Canadian Division. Right: Bundy’s portrait of Loomis, painted in December 1919 as GOC 3rd CID, note he elected to wear his regimental glengarry and RHC badge for the occasion. Photos: BWA

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Above: The 42nd Bn RHC, led by the Pipes and Drums, march from the Grand Place de Mons after the Armistice ceremony on 11 November 1918. Below: The Regiment returns to Montreal in 1919 as the City turns out to greet the heroes of the Great War. Photos: BWA, Museum

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Commandants of the Regiment 1915–1930

Lt Col CN Monsarrat 5th Regiment RHC 1915–1919

Lt Col WD Birchall 5th Regiment RHC 1919–1920

Col GE McCuaig, CMS, DSO The Royal Highlanders of Canada 1920–1923

Lt Col RLH Ewing DSO MC The Royal Highlanders of Canada 1923–1924

Col DR McCuaig, DSO VD The Royal Highlanders of Canada 1925–1926

Lt Col FS Mathewson, DSO The Royal Highlanders of Canada 1926–1927

Lt Col GL Ogilvie The Royal Highlanders of Canada 1927–1928

Col JD Macpherson MC The Royal Highlanders Canada 1928–1930

Photos: McCord, BWA

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COs, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada cont’d 1930–1939

Col HM Wallis OBE DSO MC 1930–1931

Col ALS Mills 1931–1932

Col WSM MacTier MC 1932–1934

Col Andrew Fleming 1934–1936

Col AT Howard OBE 1936–1938

Col KG Blackader MC 1938–1939

The last of the warriors: Officers 42nd Bn Royal Highlanders of Canada, near Lille France, Feb 1919, proudly displaying their new Colours. Photos: BWA

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A Company, 1st Battalion RHC, 1923 in the Bleury Street Armoury. Center HM Wallis, DSO, MC, KG Blackader MC. The Regiment is no longer the “5th Royal Scots” or the “5th Regiment Royal Highlanders” but since 1920, entitled “The Royal Highlanders of Canada. There will be two more title changes before it becomes “The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada” in 1935. The men are seated against east wall, below the Sergeants’ Mess. The rail balcony will soon be replaced and the upper wall reworked to hold magnificent carved plaques emblazoned with The Great War battle honours of the three CEFbattalions. The men continue to wear floppy balmorals and Red Hackles – from war issue stores. These will run out by 1929 and the Regiment will revert to glengarries until 1939. Free government issue will be preferred by the shrewd Scots. Red Hackles will appear on feather bonnets during key parades. Of the 50 officers and men shown, 24 wear ribbons and decorations marking them as veterans of The Great War. Photo: BWA

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The Royal Visit, King George VI inspects the Black Watch upon arrival, 1939.

The Colonel-in-Chief, circa 1939.

American corporate lawyer Wendell Wilkie former Republican presidential nominee and now appointed by President Roosevelt as his personal representative in the Lend Lease and “unlimited aid to Britain,” program visits Montreal, 25 March 1941. The Black Watch forms an honour guard at Windsor Station. Lt Col IL Ibbotson leads Wilkie past the ranks. Photos: BWA

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73rd Bn RHC Officers’ Reunions

Annual dinner (Nov 1936) of Surviving Officers of the 73rd Battalion The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch) – (l. to r.): sitting – Maj HM Scott, Maj HW Morgan, MC, Maj JG Carsley, Capt F Webber, Maj FT St. George, Maj KO Hutchison, ED. Standing – Mr. WL Davis, Maj JJ Walker, Mr. GT Shirres, Mr. GM Birks, MC, Mr G Hiam, Capt VW McLean, MC, Maj GH Eadie, Capt J Orr, Maj IL Ibbotson, Maj P Hutchison.

73rd Bn Officers gathering, Nov 1950. (back row, l. to r.) Hiam, Ibbotson, Walker, Paul Hutchison, Mather, Orr. Front: Eadie, Davis, Morgan (who still ran his store), Webber, Birks, and Scott (who declined to be a jeweler, preferring to blaze northern trails with Jackrabbit Johannsen). November 1967. Photos: BWA

Col Paul Hutchison (top left) with the last hurrah of the 73rd Bn RHC circa Nov 1977: Officers Morgan, Scott and Gerald Birks (top right). Birks, after being wounded with the 73rd changed over to the Royal Flying Corps where he became an Ace with 13 confirmed kills, awarded the Military Cross and Bar. All still very regimental in the Black Watch tie.

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After the depression the Armoury neighbourhood began to look a bit seedy. The Black Watch was squeezed by small shops and apartments. The area did not change appreciably until 1963 when Mayor Jean Drapeau initiated the construction of a massive cultural complex, the Place des Arts, with esplanade and large theatres. The area is now known as the Quartier des Spectacles and surrounded by new hotels and a park which hosts part of the Jazz Festival. Photos: BWA, B Bolton

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Right: Young Montrealer admires smart sentry in front of the Armoury doors.

Left: Colour Party of the Bishop’s College School Cadet Corps which became affiliated with the Black Watch on 22 April 1936: “The oldest Canadian Cadet body now linked with oldest Highland Regiment.” The occasion was marked by a formal parade on the Champ de Mars. The Corps received “new colours” in 1928 from a BCS old boy and veteran member of the Black Watch family, Major (later Colonel) AE Ogilvie. Photos: BWA

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Above: Trooping the Colour by the 2nd Battalion RHC during the Regimental Military Display at the Molson Stadium on 12 May 1929. Below: Pipe Band, The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, 1938. Posed on the front quadrangle, McGill University campus. The Redpath Museum at left. Photos: BWA

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Depositing the Regimental Colours of 1862 and the Colours of the 13th, 42nd and 73rd RHC at the new Church of St Andrew and St Paul on 2 October, 1932. The north wall had been designed to accommodate the McLennan Window. The great organ (above), added to the unique bearing of the Church. Photos: Merrettt, BWA

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Above left: H/Lt Col GS Cantlie with Lt Col KG Blackader, CO Black Watch, months before he will take 1 RHC to Europe, pose on Fletchers Field in early spring, 1939. Seen between them, the Regiment’s Honourary Colonel, Sir Montagu Allan. They stand before the cross on Mount Royal, at the same spot that the 1912 Colours were presented and, where the Black Watch Trooped the Colour before the Governor General in September on the 2012 Anniversary. Above right: HCol Cantlie DSO, April 1956 – a special regimental parade: 200 former officers, NCOs and junior ranks marshalled to salute Cantlie aged 90. He had completed 70 years of continuous service with the Regiment, a commonwealth record. Photos: BWA

Left: Black Watch in New York, 30 May, 1925, Park Avenue. The Regiment was invited to visit New York and participate in the Memorial Day Parade. The contingent was led by Lt Colonel Macpherson MC, supported by two future regimental colonels: Major Hugh Wallis DSO and Captain Paul Hutchison. They totaled 125 officers and men, including the pipe band. Photos: BWA, Museum

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Maps

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The Global Black Watch RHC, 1900–2022.

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The Ypres Front, 1915.

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The First German Gas Attack, Ypres, 22 April 1915.

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The Second German Gas Attack, Ypres, 24 April 1915.

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The June Show, Mount Sorrel, 2 June 1916.

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The June Show, Mount Sorrel, 3 June 1916.

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The June Show, Sanctuary Wood, Mount Sorrel, 13 June 1916.

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The Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9–12 April 1917.

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The Hundred Days: Allied Operational Art, August to November 1918.

The Hundred Days: Canadian Operational Art, August to November 1918.

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The Battle of Amiens, 8–18 August 1918.

Attack the Hindenburg and Drocourt–Quéant Lines, 26 August to 5 September 1918.

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Canal du Nord and Cambrai, 27 September to 11 October 1918.

13 RHC Crossing Canal du Nord, 27 September 1918.

Part III

The Black Watch between the Wars 1919–1939

Chapter 13

After The Great War 1919–1939

A complete Highland Brigade … Colonel Paul P Hutchison, describing inspection of RHC by the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII), October 1919

Motivated by a burning pride in their recent accomplishments and a fierce determination that the sacrifices of the fallen should never be forgotten, the 5th RHC were loath to return to a pre-war status they considered staid and out-of-touch. These were difficult times. Defence budgets were being cut savagely. Uniforms were in plentiful supply, but, except for summer camps, there were fewer paid training parades to tempt men into regular drills. Besides, after four years of war in Europe, the “tactical exercises” at brigade camps were regarded as a joke by veterans, and even for the rawest recruit, contrived. Confronted by the realities of civilian life, battalion strength waned as did the bittersweet memories of service in Flanders. Meantime, the men’s canteen and the second-floor messes were open most nights, bursting at the seams. The working Regiment slipped back into the becalmed military life of peacetime as quickly as it had risen to become a professional unit in time of war. It was re-discovering itself – a process that covered a number of years. In the interim, the armoury hovered between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The last hurrah of The Great War came in the fall of 1919 with the visit to Montreal of the dashing Edward, Prince of Wales. The royal visit included a grand inspection of all veterans. The men formed up in their wartime battalions with the

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regimental Pipes and Drums. When Lieutenant Colonel George Cantlie marched out to take over the parade, he witnessed the enormous accomplishment of the wartime Regiment: four battalions of highland soldiers – a virtual Highland Brigade comprised entirely of The Black Watch. Nothing like it had been seen before, or since! “The Royal Highlanders of Canada” 1920 Post War Regimental Reorganization In April 1920, the 5th Royal Highlanders changed their regimental name to The Royal Highlanders of Canada1 – a change heartily approved by the war-hardened veterans who returned to Bleury Street. It was a fitting title for the senior dominion unit of its type, and one dearly paid for. In 1921, four battalions were formed: two active, two reserve. Active essentially meant Militia. Until the creation of the Canadian Army in 1940, all dominion forces (including the regular units) were referred to as Militia: Permanent and Non-Permanent. Each battalion perpetuated a Great War unit: the 1st Battalion RHC (13th CEF); 2nd Battalion RHC (42nd CEF); 3rd Battalion RHC (73rd CEF) and the 4th Reserve Battalion (20th Res CEF). This may have seemed excessive but then the RHC ended the war with more soldiers and decorations than most provinces, and it seemed proper to reward them.2 The new title was adopted partly in imitation of the Imperials, though technically it was a misnomer. An alliance with “the parent regiment” had been agreed upon by the 5th Royal Scots as early as 1905 – a half-century after the last Imperial Black Watch Battalion left the city and 145 years since the blue bonnets first camped on the slopes of Mount Royal. It was enthusiastically pursued in 1912, directly after the Duke of Connaught presented the new Colours to George Cantlie. At the reunion dinner in London, the health of the Imperial Regiment as well as, for the first time, “The 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada” was proposed by General Sir John Ineswell and duly honoured: “the toast being received with great applause.”3 The RHC’s distinguished war record and recurring liaison on the battlefield would further cement the relationship. Brigadier General Eric McCuaig reverted to the title of colonel and took command of the Regiment. His battalion commanders were a who’s-who of the western front: his brother Rykert, Royal Ewing, Bill Graffety and Hew Clark-Kennedy VC. Sir Montagu Allan was confirmed as honorary colonel, buttressed by George Cantlie and Herbert Molson as honorary lieutenant colonels of the 1st and 2nd Battalions. Regimental Sergeant Major W Chalmers led another brace of highland warriors: Battalion Sergeants Major N Osborne and JR Jessop. The officers’ mess, a daunting collage of

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DSOs, MCs and MMs, was gradually transfused with younger blood with “preference being given to graduates of the Royal Military College and to sons, nephews and younger brothers of regimental officers.”4 The 1925 camp for field officers and captains was held at Longueuil; it was ambitious in length (fifteen days), if not breadth. Mornings alternated Bayonet Drills with Physical Training, and each day comprised a drill period, field training and two afternoon lectures. Field training included items such as judging distance & description of targets. Lectures often included demonstrations, although the only subject designed to develop captains and majors seemed to have been the company in the attack. Sunday was church parade, and the final two days included practical and written examinations for certificates – a less challenging syllabus surely for an Army that had set tactical and operational standards during The Hundred Days.5 The armoury was near bursting as two battalions trained concurrently; there were sixty-five officers and almost two hundred other ranks in the active battalions alone – most of them veterans. Initially, the 1st Battalion RHC trained on Tuesdays, while the 2nd Battalion paraded on Thursdays, but by the end of the decade, training was conducted through the week, Monday to Thursday. The remaining battalions’ training was squeezed in. Garrison tuition was limited to qualifying courses held at designated district schools. These were seldom sufficient and the RHC soon conducted its own programmes for officers and NCOs. Regimental training consisted mainly of foot drill and weekly shooting at Pointe-aux-Trembles Ranges by alternate companies, or formal battalion competitions. The indoor range, deep in the armoury basement, was shared by all companies for introductory musketry training. There was little opportunity to learn or practise the sophisticated techniques forged on the western front. The militia, which once conducted operational manoeuvre across the Canal du Nord, had now to be content with the humdrum of minor tactics, drill and shooting. The Regiment still shone on parade. Garrison displays were well-attended and drew large crowds. In the spring of 1921, the RHC conducted a gala military tournament at Mount Royal Arena. The participants included the cadets from the Royal Military College, brought up by their rector, Major General Archibald Macdonell. They were joined by A Squadron from the Royal Canadian Dragoons and D Company from the Royal Canadian Regiment. The Royal Highlanders seemed to have regained their prewar panache. There is something to be said for a militia unit that can organize and dominate a tournament when it is the sole amateur formation competing. This is especially true when the competition includes a pride of professional permanent force regiments and the well-drilled RMC cadets. Colonel (Brigadier General) Eric McCuaig took the salute before an exaltation of notables: The Right Honourable William Lyon

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Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, Lieutenant Governor Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Minister of Militia and Defence George Graham, General Sir Arthur Currie, and Médéric Martin, the mayor of Montreal. The programme included pipers, highland dances, lance and sword exercises and infantry drill. Cavalry horsemanship was featured, including a Balaclava Melee by the Dragoons, who concluded the event with a well-executed Musical Ride. In April 1925, Colonel DR McCuaig redesignated the battalions, perpetuating the unit’s extended war service: “the 1st Battalion will be designated as the 13th Battalion and the 2nd Battalion as the 42nd Battalion” – this nostalgic organization continued until mobilization in 1939.6 McCuaig retired in 1923, and was succeeded by Royal Ewing, who was followed in turn by Eric’s brother Rykert, the paladin of Ypres. Both McCuaigs, soldiers from Ypres to Armistice, retired as brigadier generals. Rykert was followed by yet another war hero, Stanton Mathewson, who managed to affect some kind of equilibrium despite juggling training, golf and camp dinners. He was supported by Gavin Ogilvie, who led the second battalion (the 42nd CEF) while balancing business, culture (the St Andrew’s Society), and equestrian pursuits (the Montreal Polo Club). The Regiment continued to dominate the Montreal scene. Of prominent men sitting on key Scottish committees, ten of the thirteen were RHC officers. Ogilvie became Colonel in 1927, followed by a corporal’s guard of CEF warriors: Mcpherson, Wallis, Mills, MacTier, Fleming, Howard, and finally Ken Blackader who was regimental colonel as the Second World War broke out.7 They were good stewards and commanders, striving to maintain tradition as well as build the Regiment. When the training year concluded in June 1927 with a regimental church parade, both battalions marched along Dorchester Street, eight hundred strong, preceded by the Pipes and Drums and the Brass Band. Bandmaster WO HG Jones created a formidable orchestra, and the Brass Band regularly was asked to perform at openair concerts and the Blue Bonnets race track. Armoury dances were also popular. Invitations often contained the words “fancy dress optional … although it is not by any means to be looked upon as a ‘masquerade’ dance.” Garrison socials were aided by sports competitions followed by soirees. Those were the days when men’s gettogethers were called smokers. The Military Indoor Baseball League included twelve units and was divided into an officers’ section (dominated by 1st RHC) and a OR’s section where the Grenadier Guards and Victoria Rifles prevailed.8

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Remembrance: The 42nd Window and War Memorials in Verdun and Montreal 1921 and 1924 … The real glory of the day was when the highlanders came. Editorial describing unveiling of Verdun Memorial, October 1924

On Sunday, 13 November 1921, the veterans and serving cadres of the 42nd Battalion CEF witnessed the unveiling of a great window in The Church of St Andrew and St Paul on Dorchester Street. The window was in memory of the battalion’s late commander, Bartlett McLennan DSO, and the officers and men of the 42nd Battalion, RHC killed in action.9 The event was attended by nearly a thousand people, including Corps Commander Sir Arthur Currie, and former 7th CIB Brigadiers, Major General Sir Archibald Macdonell and Brigadier General HM Dyer. Appropriately, the sermon was given by the most prominent of the Regiment’s war padres, Major, the Reverend George Kilpatrick DSO. The programme of remembrance included a partial list10 of the 42nd officers and men who fell in battle. It filled seven pages, in row after row of tightly packed type: thirty-six officers, five company sergeants major, twenty-seven sergeants, sixty-four corporals and 708 privates – a daunting tally and it was but one of the three battalions provided by The Royal Highlanders. The McLennan Window was designed by James Ballantine of Edinburgh, who created a casement divided into three lights, or fenestræ; flanked on either side by single apertures: The central feature is a Celtic figure of the youthful Christ … grouped round him are the Scriptural figures of David, who is holding the head of Goliath, typifying our young new Army … and St Andrew, with the emblematic Cross of Scotland … In the left hand light is a figure of a Crusader in medieval armour … In the right hand light is a figure of a modern Crusader – a private of the 42nd Battalion, RHC, in complete battle array; beneath is the regimental badge.11

Bartlett McLennan was much-loved. Directly after he was killed, two skilled stone masons, members of the battalion, asked leave to prepare a headstone for the grave. This was granted and after some difficulty Captain JK Beveridge MC, battalion quartermaster, secured a suitable block of granite, but only after the battle of Amiens, 8 August 1918 had begun. The masons, both sergeants, carved during The Hundred Days, “between engagements, in brief halts through weeks of hurried marches.”12 They forged the great rock into a Celtic cross. It was finished on Belgian soil, and then erected at Longeau. Subsequently, it was ordered replaced by an official gravestone to

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conform with the Imperial War Graves Commission. Nevertheless, it was strongly felt that the original stone which “represented so much work ungrudgingly given amid the strain and toil of that great advance, should not be left discarded and forgotten.”13 It was rescued and transported to Montreal, where it rests in the family plot within Mount Royal cemetery. The Verdun and Montreal Memorials The ceremony to dedicate the 42nd CEF memorial window was almost intimate compared to the unveiling of the Verdun Memorial three years later. “The little community sent four thousand of her sons to war … Verdun had supplied more men for Services during the First World War than any other community of its population in the Empire; for many years it was the main source of recruits for the Regiment.”14 The ceremony attracted over twenty-five thousand Montrealers; veterans from every battalion paraded, joined by widows and mothers: “Woman after woman dropped fainting to the ground … one man in mufti, his breast covered with medals dropped, burying his face in his arms, sobbing out his grief as the remembrance of Flanders was brought back …”15 The RHC was joined by the Montreal garrison and veterans’ associations, led by the Regiment’s George Wakeling MM. The event was followed a month later by the unveiling of the war cenotaph in Dominion Square on Remembrance Day. The city completely came to a standstill at 11 o’clock for two minutes of silence. The shock of war was a long time in ebbing.

Chapter 14

Training the Post War Militia Budgets and Summer Camps

The efficiency of the Militia is being restricted by inability, through insufficient funds, to give unit training on a comprehensive scale … No concentration of units for combined training has been possible since the war. Captain the Hon Ian Mackenzie, report for the Minister of Defence, 1928

Organizing effective training became a challenge. Militia budgets continued to be reduced – from 11 million in 1921–22 to 9.7 million in 1922–23. “Practically nothing has been spent since the War [for] Ordnance, Ammunition, Equipment, Saddlery and Harness, Rifles, Armament, Rifle Ranges and reserve Stocks of Clothing.”16 The Militia lived on its war stocks, which were being rapidly depleted. Pay for Drill was cut almost in half; NCOs and specialists averaged nine days per year. The soldiers were mostly apolitical, although both McCuaig and Sir Montagu Allan would have been flabbergasted to discover that in the Black Watch Pipe Band Association meetings, members addressed each other as “Comrade” and a spirited debate took place on 2 September 1919 regarding who should be called “veteran.” The bandsmen sought “independence as a band but agreed membership had to be drawn from members of the reserve.”17 Their demeanour mellowed as the twenties and The Charleston took off. It should be appreciated that while the Royal Highlanders continued an active social life in the armoury, the officers simply turned their pay over to the regimental fund and worked for free. Senior sergeants often paraded gratis; however, 319

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it was difficult to request the ranks to do so, although they sometimes did. Major occasions were limited to church parade, range qualifications, and a weekend camp. One encouraging sign was the completion of the Connaught Rifle Range near Ottawa, which was started in 1912. It attracted Militia regimental shooting teams as “one of the largest and finest ranges in existence.”18 The first post-war exercises conducted at Pointe-aux-Trembles were essentially shooting contests. Later, garrison concentrations were organized by districts and brigades and designated “Militia Camps.” These included musketry and manoeuvre exercises, as well as military soirees. The first major RHC exercise was held in June 1922 and included rifle practice, Lewis Gun competition, a tactical scheme; bonfire and sing song. Sunday was reserved for church parade and sports.19 The Regiment continued to collect rifle prizes. In 1924, Major JTL Shum, the adjutant and a crack shot, dominated Highland shooting; but there were plenty of trophies to go around: the Lewis Gun competition was won by Private TB Eldred from the 2nd Battalion; Major HM Wallis, a future commanding officer, led the field in the Stirling Cup Tyro; and Captain JH Molson won the officers’ cup. In September, the Regiment competed at the fortieth annual shoot of the Rifle Association. The Lewis Gun and Machine Gun competitions were made more challenging, conducted at three hundred and six hundred yards. By the end of the year, the RHC raked in an impressive haul: eleven shooting trophies, ten silver cups and one ram’s head with shield of crossed rifles.20 Popular events were manoeuvres conducted on Mount Royal. In one elaborate scheme, the Regiment was divided into Blue and Red forces; the tactical objective was the riding ring by the park ranger’s house near Beaver Lake, now the Montreal Mounted Police stables. The exercise was reported by the city media with the gusto of a major sports event and sizable crowds collected. Rykert McCuaig and Stanton Mathewson commanded the opposing forces. The defenders left the armoury at 8:30 pm, marched up the mountain and deployed; the attackers left a half-hour later. There was no specific manoeuvre scheme. In fine Black Watch tradition, the attack was a frontal. The Gazette remarked: “The rest of the battle will have to work itself out, just as in active service.” The officers, veterans of a dozen bloody battles on the western front, might have agreed with this hypothetical but historically reasonable speculation. The night sky was soon filled with flares and star shells. Veterans confessed it brought back uneasy memories. The regimental summer camps were little improvement, although organized by hardened battle professionals. The RHC contingent featured more DSOs and MCs than most brigades could muster, yet the training was almost casual. Soldiers wore floppy balmorals with hackles, kilts and spats over their boots, and looked rather like

Training the Post War Militia | 321 recruits in 1914. Wool was uncomfortable in winter or summer. Old hands, with preBoer War experience, liked to chide recruits that they had it easy and did not have to work in the old “hard tartan” for they now wore the far-more-forgiving “soft tartan” introduced in 1875. It was all in good fun, except for the soldiers training in the hot sun or rain: “[it was] absolutely rotten – for it is no joke to sit down for a lengthy programme in kilts with the prevailing temperatures.”21 Sham battles were more like historical seminars; ten years after the start of the First World War, the Militia still attacked wearing kilts: No training manuals lay down the procedure for getting from one side of a barbed wire fence to the other while wearing the kilt and individual research in this direction resulted in many cut knees and bits of tartan floating in the breeze.22

A popular gag was to turn out the Quarter Guard dressed in nothing but sporran and pith helmet, then present arms. Shooting, short schemes and sports filled the schedule. The Pipes and Drums generally played retreat for the garrison followed by a sing-song around the fire. Visitors from the city often dropped in via rail to watch the Sunday competitions. The officers arrived equipped with a complex wardrobe that included kilts, patrols, tartan trews, white spats, white sling belts, sports gear, lounging apparel and various headgear: pith helmet with Red Hackle during the day, glengarry after field work. Cricket sweaters and summer whites were worn after six. The de rigueur mess dinner in the field was well-attended, protracted and at times rowdy. The morning-after found officers in shorts and great coats, braving the dew while trying to shave in the early chill. The archives scrapbook shows a weary Captain Erskine Brock Buchanan, barrister and veteran, standing barefoot outside his tent, being served a Tom Collins at 8 am by a well-turned-out mess steward. Senior officers recovered with style. Photographs display Colonels Ewing and Mathewson enjoying an early-morning vanilla ice cream cone at the ranges. Meantime, the debonair Gavin Lang Ogilvie lingers beside Lieutenant Colonel the Rev Alexander Gordon DSO MC,23 looking steely and no-nonsense while working a straight razor in front of their tent. On Sunday, final matches were shot, which required some concentration in order to focus with a clear eye and steady hand. The summer camps resembled a class reunion more than training. But it was more complex than that. The older Highlanders, while always cheerful, were wary. They could not bring themselves to recreate any sort of training that would recall the reality of actual war.24 The 1927 Camp, held at Lauzon, was a throwback to pre-Great War styles: troops and officers in practical summer shorts, topped by pith helmets, accented with Red Hackles. The war-issue balmorals were by now quite worn and no longer on

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Government Issue. By the spring of 1929, the Regiment had changed dress regulations, and restored the glengarry bonnet as regular headdress gear.25 Still, militia vogue remained unpredictable, and styles varied according to the CO’s tastes. Good weather permitted a creative choice of localities. Militia camps signified the official end of the training year and alternated between Dominion Day and Labour Day weekends. Those conducted at the Cavalry School in “St Johns” (St-Jean-surRichelieu) were popular – an hour from Montreal by train and well supported by the permanent force. The English population habitually referred to St-Jean as “St Johns”; this continued until after the Korean War. Good climate permitted creative choice of localities; in fall and spring, RHC companies often trained on the McGill campus. All militia events were regularly reported by The Montreal Star in a weekly feature entitled “Local Garrison News.” Besides tactical exercises on Mount Royal or Fletcher’s Field, there was really little to do except drill and shoot. A confidential cabinet report noted the “the efficiency of the Militia is being restricted by inability, through insufficient funds, to give unit training on a comprehensive scale … No concentration of units for combined training has been possible since the war.”26 The end of the “roaring twenties” was marked with ambitious parades. A memorable effort took place at a trooping the Colour at McGill stadium on 12 May 1929. The salute was taken by Brigadier William King DSO, who, by happy coincidence, commanded the battery that Corporal Frederick Fisher fought to protect, subsequently winning a Victoria Cross. That fall, General Sir FO Loomis unveiled the three imposing wooden plaques which record the battle honours of The Great War battalions. Affixed to the east wall above the doors to the sergeants’ mess, these commanding testimonials loom over the parade square. They are the first items seen when one enters the armoury. Appropriately, they stare across at the officers’ mess balcony dominating completely every parade and every drill conducted by the Regiment. The International Highlanders: American Excursions Black Watch Thrills Memorial Day Crowds New York Daily Mirror, 30 May 1927

By means of visits to Portland, Maine, in the previous century, the 5th Royal Scots earned for themselves a solid reputation as martial ambassadors. Their reputation in battle, as well as the memorable recruiting tour across the USA in 1917, made them recognized and admired in major American cities. There was no militia camp

Training the Post War Militia | 323 scheduled in 1925, but the Regiment was presented with a far better excursion – an invitation to visit New York and participate in the Memorial Day Parade. It was the first of three visits.27 The initifal contingent was led by Lieutenant Colonel Macpherson MC, supported by two future regimental colonels: Major Hugh Wallis DSO and Captain Paul Hutchison. They totalled 125 officers and men, including the Pipe Band. The RHC paraded down Park Avenue cheered by New Yorkers. That evening, the Canadian Minister to the United States, Vincent Massey, and the British Consul hosted a gala ball at the Plaza Hotel.28 This success was followed by an excursion to Fort Ticonderoga for the dedication of a memorial to the Imperial Black Watch. The contingent rushed back to Montreal where they provided the Guard of Honour for Field Marshal Earl Haig. The New York success was repeated two years later, and again, it was a splendid show with thousands participating; the Regiment was favoured by the American press. Gotham newspapers heralded “Black Watch Coming! … Canada’s Famous Black Watch.”29 As the men marched through enthusiastic crowds, the RSM, Warrant Officer 1, James Crichton, noticed an elderly lady holding two flags, Canadian and American: He managed to hear her say faintly: “My two grandsons were in that regiment.” He stepped away from the ranks and hurried to the woman. He clasped her hands in his and said, “God bless you, mother,” and he kissed her on the cheek.30

New York loved it: “Black Watch halts, Sergeant Kisses Old lady Who Had Two Grandsons in the Regiment”; “Black Watch Thrills Memorial Day Crowds” were spread across the morning papers.31 American excursions became a habit. In 1929, the Regiment’s Pipe Band visited Baltimore in January and returned to Fort Ticonderoga for Memorial Day. In July 1930, the Royal Highlanders were invited to Boston to assist in the celebration of the city’s tercentenary. Just promoted, Colonel Hugh Macdonell Wallis led the contingent, which was very appropriate, as Wallis originated in the United States. He was born in San Francisco, educated at the University of Toronto before being commissioned in the 13th CEF Battalion RHC. Wallis was twice Mentioned in Despatches and ended the war with both a DSO and the MC. The Highlanders, two hundred strong, with thirty pipers and drummers were described as a “Crack Canadian Regiment … Made up of volunteers … Half of them served in the World War.”32 The troops were feted and invited to take in a Cubs game, where their kilts made them a hit. They completely captivated Boston by playing Yankee Doodle on the pipes as they marched off to the trains. Two years later, accompanied by the Cameron Highlanders, the RHC returned to New York for a benefit concert. This time the weather did not cooperate, and the

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Pipes and Drums paraded down Park Avenue in pouring rain. The Great Depression put an end to further American holidays. The Silver Inkstand: A Mysterious Legacy I doubt there is an officer at the present time who has ever heard of the matter. GS Cantlie to the adjutant, RHC, November 1928

In the fall of 1928 , Captain Alexander Knox, the adjutant of the Royal Highlanders, opened an innocent-looking letter from a London jeweller, Elkington & Co Ltd, Regent Street: “With ref to the silver inkstand deposited by Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie … owing to forthcoming alterations … kindly let us know how you would wish us to deal with this inkstand.”33 Knox was at a loss, as was his commanding officer, Colonel John Macpherson. Despite considerable wartime service, neither he nor the senior officers had any idea what the enquiry was about. Knox wrote to George Cantlie and delivered a bolt from the past. The tale’s genesis was pre-war, originating after the presentation of the new Regimental Colours. The intent was to respond to the Imperials’ support and grand gift of a ram’s head snuff mull with an appropriate token of thanks. Colonel Cantlie sailed to England with his family in July 1914 intending to call on the Allied Regiment and present a gift from his Montreal officers. He visited Elkington’s, who was then the regimental jeweller. Cantlie had considered a large chalice as a memento but Elkington’s recommended an inkstand: “They thought it would be much better than a cup or bowl.”34 The proposed object was solid silver and featured two containers each crowned by a snarling boar’s head – the regimental device of the Royal Highlanders of Canada. It would be engraved with the RHC and BW imperial crests. Ever the practical Scot, Cantlie asked for a discount and requested it be made ready before September. No one could have guessed that by 4 August, Britain would be at war and by September, the Imperial Black Watch and the BEF would be in a fighting retreat from Mons. When Cantlie arrived at Aldershot in early August, he found a whirlwind of activity. Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Grant Duff, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, informed him they were on stand-by, ready to move to France: “quarters dismantled of all furnishings … all Mess silver and plate, trophies, etc. had been stored at Elkington Co., for safekeeping.” As for the inkstand, Grant Duff advised it was “not possible then to present it and equally inconvenient for the Black Watch battalion to receive it.”35 Later, immediately after Cantlie had deposited the inkstand with Elkington’s, he was tasked by Sam Hughes to act as his personal representative

Training the Post War Militia | 325 in the UK. He was promptly flooded with government documents, and less than a year later, on his way to the front, commanding the 42nd RHC. Grant Duff and most of his officers had been killed within a few weeks of arriving in France and all knowledge of the gift was lost to the Imperial Watch. The inkstand disappeared from memory.36 Cantlie confided to Knox, “I doubt there is an officer at the present time who has ever heard of the matter … We had been under the impression that the inkstand had been handed over to The Black Watch with its Mess plate after the war … ” Intrigued, Cantlie visited Elkington’s the next time he was in London, intending to end his silver saga once and for all. He discovered the 1st Battalion Black Watch had just sailed for India, a six-year tour.37 After meeting with senior Black Watch officers, Cantlie decided to leave the Inkstand in the safekeeping of Mr JH Pangman, manager of the Bank of Montreal in London. The palaver concluded when the CO of the 1st Battalion returned to London for the theatre season and finally picked it up in the fall of 1930. It is now part of the Imperial Black Watch silver collection – mystery solved. Mystery Unsolved – Major William Gordon Peterson It was curious, moreover, to see how the personal peculiarities of some came more and more to the front under conditions of active service …38

Major William Gordon Peterson was spontaneous, romantic, and lived for the moment. He presented an insouciant attitude toward administrative details. Born in Scotland, raised in Montreal, Peterson came from a comfortable academic family. His father, Sir William Peterson, had been principal of McGill. Handsome, dashing, but above all, charming, Peterson was popular and well-known for his numerous activities at McGill University. He graduated in 1906 in Arts, with first class honours. By the fall of 1910, aged twenty-four, he also graduated from Oxford and was accepted into the 5th Royal Highlanders as a lieutenant. Five months later, Peterson applied to join The Royal Canadian Regiment of the Permanent Force. He sent off beguiling letters from various locales: resorts, ocean liners, universities and Piccadilly, where he stayed at his father’s club. He was genial, and regardless of the paper work and administrative chaos he generated, everything was forgiven him. Peterson was accepted into the RCR (The Royal School of Infantry, in Halifax) in August 1911. A year later, he again wrote to George Cantlie expressing a desire to return to the Regiment. Cantlie agreed, and his transfer was approved. Peterson was informed that, before joining the Royal Highlanders, he must first resign from the RCR. He complied but before the ink dried, he requested a brief attachment to the

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14th Battalion, London Regiment (The London Scottish), a fashionable City unit, at no public expense. He wanted to attend their July 1912 summer camp. The Regiment sent letters to the commanding officer 14th Battalion, Colonel Malcolm, requesting the attachment. Directly this was approved, Peterson applied for a leave of absence to travel abroad. He further advised the adjutant, the now exasperated Peers Davidson, that he was unable to go to camp with the London Scottish after all. He concurrently wrote to George Cantlie informing him he now decided to request a reappointment back to the RCR (“I did not know my own mind,” he confessed), and advised he had already cabled his intent, and was tentatively accepted. Peers Davidson confided to George Cantlie: “He is an extraordinary fellow. It is quite evident that he would never have been of great use to us.”39 Nevertheless, he arranged the transfer. Peterson’s martial trek to war included two years with the RCR, initially deployed to Bermuda. This prompted yet another plaintive letter to Colonel Cantlie enquiring if there was “a chance of vacancy with the 42nd Batt.”40 Peterson’s bravado had to be admired. But, the canny Cantlie would not have him. Instead, he ended up with the third Bleury Street formation: the 73rd Battalion CEF, which, as luck would have it, was now commanded by Peers Davidson. Peterson could be dismissed as classically quixotic, except he demonstrated competence in both command and staff work. Colonel Davidson was eventually proven wrong, for Peterson did prove an asset to The Black Watch, if only en passant. He was charismatic; his reputation with the 73rd soared when, stuck cold and hungry at a railway siding near Rugby, Peterson convinced a local café to provide sandwiches for his entire company and send the bill to Whitehall. Once he got to the front, he settled down and started killing Germans. By the spring of 1917, he was promoted to major, having been Mentioned in Despatches and later, awarded a DSO. He was wounded in June 1917, and spent the remainder of the war in various staff appointments.41 Peterson stayed in England after the war and began postgraduate studies at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He again wrote requesting sanction to wear his Canadian uniform with the Cambridge OTC. Again, NDHQ was nothing if not understanding, although the Minister’s staff officer, Colonel L Leduc, attempted a modicum of discipline: “I am also directed by Militia Headquarters to draw your attention to the fact that you are on the Reserve of officers, and absent from Canada without permission.”42 This was a minor detail to Peterson. He ended up as a lecturer at St Andrew’s University, Scotland, the third oldest university after Oxford and Cambridge. It seemed appropriate. He successfully published a series of articles and a substantial book of literary sketches (Silhouettes of Mars) about The Great War, and kept in contact with Paul

Training the Post War Militia | 327 Hutchison. Peterson continued wearing The 5th Royal Highlanders dress as a “seconded officer” with the 4th/5th Battalion Black Watch (Territorials). He advised Hutchison he was second-in-command and about to be promoted to lieutenant colonel in command of the battalion. The last entry in Peterson’s file is a stark clipping dated 4 October 1930 announcing he was dead.43 Peterson was “found shot with both rifle and revolver” in the gun-room of the St Andrew’s OTC Mess.44 The crime was never solved. Hutchison included Peterson’s first published chapter, The Lost Legion, evoking memories of the 73rd RHC, as the epilogue to his own battalion history. Regimental Writings Highland battalions are not expected to be loquacious but The Black Watch proved the exception. The post-war produced an impressive collection of regimental memorabilia – from Peterson’s Silhouettes of Mars to Tom Dinesen’s specific memoires, Merry Hell. Corporal Will Bird wrote a powerful series of books, beginning with And We Go On. Corporal William Breckinridge followed with From Vimy to Mons – all were cathartic records of war from within a highland battalion. The Reverend GDD Kilpatrick published a slim volume of anecdotes entitled Odds and Ends from a Regimental Diary. The major efforts were the two official histories written by RC Fetherstonhaugh and Lieutenant Colonel CB Topp. One was an experienced military historian, the second an experienced soldier; together they offer a striking account of two analogous, yet diverse, entities within a regimental family. Completing the regimental trinity was a history written (but not immediately published) by the grand historian of The Black Watch, Colonel Paul Hutchison: The History of the 73rd Battalion CEF. Happily, it was produced privately in 1944 but remained unpublished. In 2011, with the support of the Montreal Branch of the Black Watch Association, it was published by The Royal Highlanders of Canada.

Chapter 15

The Canadian Black Watch New Titles and New Colours – 1931–1935

In the public mind of the two countries, our Canadian Regiment in Montreal has become the heir of that history and those traditions. Our regimental record to date has been made under and with those distinctive marks, and we, as the active regiment today in Canada, are naturally jealous of that record. Lieutenant Colonel Macpherson to General Cameron45

The differences between the Imperials and Montreal’s 5th Royal Highlanders were a thorn in the side to regimental seniors, particularly Great War campaigners whose memories were of bona fide Canadian Black Watch battalions in the trenches of France and Flanders. On 1 April 1920, Colonel Eric McCuaig initiated a significant break with the past. The regimental title was officially changed from the 5th Royal Highlanders to “The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch)” or, “RHC.” The numerical link to the 5th Royal Light Infantry disappeared but the older connection to the Montreal Highland Company was still in evidence. This was cause for both pride and sadness. Senior members who recalled the evolution from 5th Scot Fusiliers to 5th Royal Scots (Highlanders) feared that the boar’s head device, which adorned the armoury’s great fireplace, and all regimental symbols would also be abandoned. Was not the regimental motto Ne Obliviscaris – “Never Forget”? Conversely, veterans applauded the formal adoption of a title earned through hard fighting. The only thing missing was conversion to the most essential title:

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Black Watch. Nevertheless, in the next decade, the Regiment evolved from being “affiliated with” to, in fact, being, The Black Watch. This process incorporated both an adjustment to parallel the Imperial Regiment as well as a determined rearguard to protect their exclusive right to Black Watch trappings, particularly tartan, badge and hackle. Most Canadian highland regiments developed strong affiliations with their “parent regiments.” These associations were generally, like the 5th Royal Highlanders, at the “behest of the colonial unit”; The Winnipeg and Ottawa Camerons were affiliated with the imperial Camerons; the 48th Highlanders in Toronto with the Gordons; the Seaforth Highlanders on the Pacific coast (as well as the Pictou Highlanders on the east coast) with the imperial Seaforths; the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Hamilton and the Calgary Highlanders both with the imperial Argylls. The Montreal Highlanders were decidedly proud of their connection with the senior highland regiment of the Empire, and, particularly after their record in The Great War, considered themselves unique – sui generis. All this seemed threatened when, on 1 December 1924, King George V cancelled “the regulation of restriction whereby only one unit of the Forces of each Self Governing Dominion can be allied to a unit of the Home Forces.”46 To the RHC it seemed like open season on their exclusive and much coveted affiliation. Stanton Mathewson, as commanding officer, made the first move by deciding to replace the RHC boar’s head insignia. In 1926, he wrote to The Black Watch Regimental Colonel, General Sir John Maxwell, asking for permission to wear the Imperial Black Watch badge “without change, in spite of the fact that it has your full name (Black Watch) to which we are not entitled.” Sir John replied he had absolutely no objection from a regimental point of view, but it was “up to the defence minister of your government to sanction it.”47 The Canadian Black Watch, 1930 We have recently had the name of the Regiment officially changed. Colonel JD Macpherson to General Cameron, 13 January 1930

Careful adjustment to regimental titles became a fixation. Each imperial alteration was promptly mirrored by Bleury Street. In 1930, the Montreal Regiment formally adopted the title “The Black Watch.”48 This historic adaptation was prompted by the latest imperial adjustment, and hastened perhaps by attempts from two Canadian regiments to “become Black Watch” – at least in garb and accoutrements. The Prince Edward Island Highlanders (PEIH) and the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment made cautious inquiries regarding confederacy with the imperials. When the PEIH

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finally asked official permission for alliance with The Black Watch in April 1931, it created grave concern, prompting a long letter from Colonel JD Macpherson to General Sir Archibald Cameron, who succeeded Sir John Maxwell as Regimental Colonel: We have recently had the name of the Regiment officially changed to “The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada” in order to conform with the change made in the parent Regiment following The Great War … in the public mind of the two countries our Canadian Regiment in Montreal has become the heir of that history and those traditions … two hundred Black Watch officers and former officers live in Montreal alone … all are agreed in the respectful hope that the authorities of the Regt in Great Britain will not grant the privilege and honour to use the uniform, badges, Red Hackle, and the name of The Black Watch in Canada to others than ourselves …49

In reference to other dominion regiments seeking to affiliate with the Royal Highland Regiment, Macpherson stressed, “Our regimental record to date has been made under and with those distinctive marks, and we, as the active regiment today in Canada, are naturally jealous of that record.”50 Macpherson’s communiqué initiated correspondence between Cameron and the King’s secretary, Lord Stamfordham, who discussed the matter with King George V, the Colonel-in-Chief of The Black Watch. A cordial, if careful, correspondence between Macpherson and Lieutenant Colonel AG Dawson (commanding the PEI Highlanders), then later with Lieutenant Colonel EH Strong, resulted in a gentleman’s agreement.51 Privately, the RHC felt that, given the size and remoteness of the east coast battalion, they could accommodate another Canadian unit sporting Black Watch tartan. However, Macpherson was careful to add the hope that “the number of allied regiments would not be further increased after this alliance as too large a number of alliances tends to decrease the value of the tie.” Cameron concurred.52 In the end, the King approved the PEIH request, but also supported a unique Montreal affiliation: “at the same time HM quite agrees with the views set forth in your letter that no further requests for Cdn Alliances should be allowed in consideration.”53 That fall, General Cameron advised Hugh Wallis DSO MC, (who succeeded Macpherson as regimental colonel), that the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish were asking permission from the British War Office, via DND in Canada, to wear the Black Watch uniform and asked Wallis for his views “as the Senior Allied Regiment in Canada.” Wallis was wary (“we are opposed to such permission being granted”) and reminded Cameron that:

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As the 5th Royal Scots of Canada, and later as the 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada we did not wear the headdress, badges, or sporrans of The Black Watch although we were allied at that time, and we feel that this policy should not be different in the case of the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment … Possibly our views may seem somewhat rigid, but they are inspired by the keen desire that the honour of alliance or wearing the same uniform be not depreciated in any way by granting it too freely.54

By the end of the decade, the Imperial Black Watch would settle into an extended family of ten regiment-battalions: the 1st and 2nd Battalions; The Regimental Depot in Perth; the 4/5th and 6/7th Territorial Battalions; The Lanark and Renfrew Regiment in Perth, Ontario; The Prince Edward Island Highlanders, in Charlottetown; The New South Wales Scottish Regiment in Australia; The Transvaal Scottish in Johannesburg, South Africa. Perhaps the jewel in the crown (which was the considered opinion of Bleury Street) was The Black Watch of Canada. After a quick review of the clientele and battle honours, it was hard to argue with that! The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, 1935 His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the alteration of the designation of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada to The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada.55 Within a year or two, the BW will be celebrating the centenary of the regiment, the organization of the Montreal Light Infantry in 1837. General James George Ross, 2 November 193556

The remaining act of designation occurred in 1935 when the Imperials made the final adjustment to their resurrected historic title. Since 1758, The Black Watch had been designated as the “the 42nd” and later, “The Royal Highland Regiment of Foot.” It was expanded into two battalions, which became in turn, The 42nd and The 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment. In 1881, the Perthshire Regiment was redesignated as the 2nd Battalion of the 42nd – kilts of the Black Watch tartan were again worn after an interval of 72 years. A General Order retitled the 42nd Regiment “The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)” which allowed the unit’s popular name, used for two centuries, to become official at last: this prompted communication by the regimental commandant, Colonel Andrew Fleming to Sir Archibald Cameron: We have observed that the title of the parent Regiment has been changed from The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) to The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). It has been

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the custom in the Regiment under my command to follow such changes. I respectfully ask, therefore if you will graciously grant permission authorizing me to take the necessary steps so that this Regiment may be known as The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada.57

After approval by the King, the War Office and DND, a General Order was published in August 1935.58 The amendment refined the external and titled bonds between the two regiments. Although the Empire incorporated over 250 regimental alliances at the time, including thirty-five kilted regiments, the Montreal/Imperial connection would remain unchallenged and unchanged until the new millennium, despite, surprisingly, future evolutions within the British Army. The Red Hackle and the Pre War RHC Since 1916, the CEF battalions of the Royal Highlanders referred to themselves as “The Black Watch.” This was more trench tradition than official designation. It is one of those fuzzy aspects of Montreal Black Watch history. The Red Hackle was affixed to pith helmets after the 1905 affiliation and officially worn by the 13th and 42nd CEF Battalions with the balmoral circa 1916–1919. The balmoral faded from view by 1929, and with it, public demonstration of the Red Hackle. The regiment paraded in glengarries throughout the thirties and directly into the Second World War when government purse strings were finally loosened, and all battalions were again issued balmorals, although many Bleury Street alumni seemed to prefer the glengarry. The Regimental Church The Church of St Andrew and St Paul was not just another neighbourhood church but a true “cathedral,” built on the best street in town. Rev JSS Armour, Minister Emeritus, Church of St Andrew and St Paul

It is no exaggeration that The Black Watch relationship with The Church of St Andrew and St Paul is unique amongst militia regiments. When a soldier or officer casually mentions a function at “the Regimental Church” or “the A &P” he is instantly understood. The annual church parade is the Regiment’s honoured praxis. Every May, The Black Watch marches along Sherbrooke for services. It is a part of city life. Through sleet, snow or brilliant sunshine, the parade continues as a demonstrative part of its regimental heritage. The origins were decidedly Scot. The Presbyterian community of the city long embraced its “own” Regiment – a vibrant symbol of

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culture and Highland martial tradition.59 After The Great War, this grew to a general embracing of all faiths, for The Black Watch was both pan Canadian and multifaceted. The regimental association with St Andrew’s Church began when Captain the Rev J Edgar Hill became their chaplain. On Dr Hill’s death in 1912, the Regiment then transferred to St Paul’s when Captain the Rev R Bruce Taylor was appointed. Dr Taylor served with the Regiment overseas, before being appointed principal of Queen’s University in 1917. Major the Rev George H Donald, minister of St Andrew and St Paul 1925–1945 previously served in the chaplaincy of the British Army in India as well as the 51st Highland Division during The Great War. When Dr George Donald was named chaplain of the Royal Highlanders, the union of regiment and church was complete. In 1924, General JG Ross retired as chairman of the board of trustees; Colonel GS Cantlie took his place. Presiding over the church as they awaited a new minister was Lieutenant Colonel The Reverend Alexander M Gordon DSO MC. Noting that Colonels Ewing, Leggat and Starke were also on the board, Presbyterian wags wondered if the governance of St Andrew and St Paul was “emblematic of the Church militant?” In 1927, when the old St Andrew’s Church was torn down to make place for the Bell Telephone Building on Beaver Hall Hill, the biblical passage “the moving of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” was quoted, which could have applied just as well to the Regiment. The regimental church is often referred to as “the A&P” (a well-known grocery chain at the time). “It is widely believed that the church dislikes this abbreviation. What is not appreciated is to be called “St Andrew’s and St Paul’s Church” which is both incorrect and inelegant.”60 The new church was designed by the prominent Montreal architect, Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh; coincidently, his brother, RC Fetherstonhaugh was equally prominent, but as an author, having just published the history of the 13th Battalion in The Great War. The style selected was English Gothic Revival, as it was widely believed that only Gothic had spiritual resonance. In contrast, are the feudal aspects of The Black Watch Armoury. Lord Atholstan, publisher of The Montreal Star and member of the Royal Highlanders Regimental Advisory Board laid the cornerstone. Set at the leafy end of the square mile, the new church predominated Sherbrooke, the best street in town. Most of the stained-glass windows from the old St Andrew and St Paul on Dorchester Street were reduced in size to fit the new sanctuary, but The Black Watch Window was untouched; it was reinstalled in the chancel above the communion table, where it commanded every eye. The neo-gothic structure, with its square tower topped by four turrets (one of which is slightly higher and said to represent a finger

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pointing to heaven), has many unique features. Despite the Depression, no expense was spared and many of Montreal’s finest masons and craftsmen contributed to make St Andrew and St Paul one of the city’s great churches.61 In 1930, the commanding officer of the Royal Highlanders of Canada was instructed to move the regimental Colours into storage for safekeeping until the new church was built. This was done at a large church parade, the last in the old church, on 19 May, where the “spectacular arrival of troops [was] witnessed by a large crowd.”62 Besides the Colours of 1862, the Regiment took the three wartime battalions’ Colours into custody. Colours for the 2nd Battalion RHC At The Great War’s end, both front line Black Watch battalions had exclusive Regimental Colours created; the third Black Watch CEF unit, the 73rd, had been broken up for reinforcements after the Vimy battle in 1917. The presentation ceremonies, held in Germany and France in 1919, were significant but ephemeral. The CEF returned home destined (at least for the Royal Highlanders) to never carry their new Colours to war. In 1921, a King’s Colour was issued to all Canadian regiments for each battalion that served overseas. When The Great War Colours were laid up at the Regimental Church in 1922, “The King’s Colour representing the 73rd Battalion was consecrated by the Regimental Padre and laid up at the same time as the ‘1919’ Colours.”63 Except for a brief period at the end of the war when they were still part of the CEF, the two Montreal battalions had but one set of Colours, those presented in 1912, which had replaced the original “1862 Colours.” In 1927, Captain Howard Murray OBE, a former officer of the Regiment and a prominent Montreal industrialist, offered to present a new regimental Colour to the 2nd (42nd CEF) Battalion. Concurrently, Colonel George Cantlie, Honorary Colonel of the 1st (13th CEF) Battalion donated a King’s Colour to match Captain Murray’s gift.64 The new Colours were presented to the 2nd Battalion on 28 May 1931, at Molson Stadium, by the Governor General, Lord Bessborough, in presence of the Regimental Honorary Colonel, Sir Montagu Allan, Sir Arthur Currie and a pride of eminent Canadians. Both battalions, in glengarries, supported by The Black Watch Pipes and Drums under the legendary Pipe Major W Johnson, smartly executed every intricate command before an audience of twentyfive thousand. Bessborough’s aide-de-camp was another Black Watch officer, Colonel Hugh Wallis DSO MC. The “1912 Colours” reverted exclusively to the 1st Battalion RHC, and both were kept in the Officers’ Mess of The Black Watch armoury.

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Lord Bessborough dined at Ravenscrag with regimental officers before presenting the new Colours. Particularly happy regimental parties occurred at Colonel Montagu Allan’s stately home. The magnificent neo-gothic mansion, built for his father Sir Hugh Allan, atop Mount Royal, overlooked the harbour long associated with the commercial interests of the family. The stately home was a source of pride to the regiment, for like their armoury, it quietly dominated the city – a constant reminder of its history and strength. An Order of Divine Service: Laying Up the Old Colours, 1932 Every facility will be afforded him in executing his most laudable purpose. Reverend Major GH Donald VD to the Black Watch adjutant, 2 October 1932

When the new Regimental Church was completed, the old Colours of the war battalions and the original 1862 Colours were removed from the armoury and laid up in the sanctuary to provide “a memorial to the men of all ranks who served under these Colours and afford an inspiration for patriotic service and sacrifice.” On 2 October 1932, in a solemn ceremony, the Regiment, commanded by the stalwart Ypres veteran, William MacTier, paraded 550 all ranks through splendid autumnal weather, marching from the armoury to the church. Motorcycle police cleared all traffic and tried to control the exuberant throng gathered to witness the occasion: Impressive and colourful are but poor adjectives to describe the brilliant ceremonies attending the depositing of the colors of The Black Watch in the new and cathedral-like Church of St Andrew and St Paul … Necks were craned, men straightened their shoulders, little lads implored their fathers to hoist them up so that they might get a better view …65

The Regiment’s pipes echoed along Sherbrooke Street, delighting the crowds with martial airs and the always inspiring Highland Laddie. The parade halted as one before the church. The adjutant knocked three times on the great door with his sword hilt. When opened, he declared: “Sir, I have been commanded by Colonel WSM MacTier MC, commanding The Black Watch RHC to inform the authorities of this church that he has repaired here today with the old Colours of the Regiment and desires admission to prefer a request that they be deposited herein.” Major the Rev GH Donald VD answered: “Sir, Inform Lieutenant Colonel WSM MacTier MC commanding The Black Watch RHC that every facility will be afforded him in executing his most laudable purpose.”66

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The processional hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers … Forward into battle, See, His banners go” resounded as the Colours were laid upon the communion table. Dr Donald urged: “Let these Colours speak to you of men who stayed the course to finish, without faltering … these bits of coloured bunting fastened to a pole [which] stood for past traditions and honour.” After the readings, a stirring lament was played by the best piper, who began near the back, then slow marched through the congregation and finally disappeared through the western passage, his poignant notes a fading echo, leaving a chill in the ruminant assembly. The Benediction ended the service, and The Black Watch marched home. General Sir Arthur Currie took the salute in front of Colonel Cantlie’s residence at the corner of Sherbrooke and Peel Streets.67 The following year, on 23 June 1933, approval was granted for an emblazonable Regimental Battle Honour: “South Africa 1899–1900.” This was added by the Montreal military tailors, William Scully and Sons, with considerable care, particularly given the state of the 1862 Colour which had been laid up for some years and which still carried the oldest Regimental Motto: Quis Separabit [“Who will separate us?”].68 Interestingly, twenty-six units of the Non-Permanent Active Militia of Canada were permitted this distinction, but not all regiments carried the same dates; some only carried “1900” while The Saint John Fusiliers carried “1899–1900, 1902.”69

Chapter 16

Regimental Cadet Corps 1890–1936

The Corps was supported with enthusiasm by three successive commanding officers of the 5th Royal Scots: Lieutenant Colonels F Caverhill, John Hood and JA Strathy,… always accorded their warmest support … and by Lord Strathcona, Sir WC McDonald and Mr Colin McArthur … Montreal Scottish merchant princes. Captain EJ Chambers70

The Montreal Highland Cadet Corps The Highland Cadet Battalion of Montreal holds … the premier position among kilted cadet corps of the Empire.71

The Montreal Highland Cadet Corps was regarded as the premier model of its type in the Empire. Cadet corps became extremely popular in the late century, and, like rifle clubs, interprovincial musketry competitions and branches of the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA), multiplied across the country. They seemed to fill a niche in the government defence scheme: trained enthusiasts, not requiring extensive support but a ready source of manpower. The cadet companies were initially centred in private or well-established city schools and comprised a solid block of middle class alert young men who enjoyed emulating the martial styles of the military. “Cadets” had a long and complex history dating back to the middle ages: “Squires of old feudal days were cadets, with disappearance of feudal system [there followed] the establishment of cadet schools … at first private institutions, in time giving away to

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public colleges maintained by the state.”72 Louis XIII formed a corps of cadets for the younger sons of the gentry, and this was soon imitated by Frederick Wilhelm and the Russian czars. Like squires, the term cadet came to mean officer in training, and still does, but the class exclusivity vanished during the second industrial revolution. The Queen’s (Westminster) Cadet Corps was the parent body from which all British and Canadian cadet companies originated. Canada had trained its schoolboys via “Drill Associations” since 1862 – “Cadet Corps” replaced the older term in 1898.73 Montreal’s first cadet corps began in 1864 at Montreal High School. During the 1866 and 1870 Fenian raids, they provided guards at Montreal armouries. Circa 1879, there were seventy-four cadet companies in Canada; Snider rifles were provided for boys over fourteen. Within a decade, there were six major corps of cadets in eastern Canada, two in Montreal. Most were supervised by officers from the Militia regiments. The cadets were intended to be model citizens; upon joining they pledged to “… totally abstain from all intoxicating liquors [and] … Not to enter any saloon or place where intoxicants are sold.”74 The Highland Cadets began with the Regiment’s support and were soon sponsored by Montreal’s Scottish merchant princes. By the fall of 1890, they were a resplendent sight – a smartly turned-out, well-drilled group of young men, mostly high school students. The uniform was decidedly highland. Glengarries were an old issue of the Royal Scots; knickerbockers, kilts and sporrans of grey wolf were supplied by munificent Montrealers. The garters were of tartan ribbons, and black cock’s tail feathers adorned the glengarries above a badge depicting the St Andrew’s Cross, a Scottish lion rampant, and a wreath of thistles and maple leaves with the designation Highland Cadets, Montreal. They were a cadre commanded, trained and generally equipped by the 5th Royal Scots. The credit for this must go to Lieutenant Colonel Frank Caverhill, who encouraged the corps and permitted officers from his regiment to be attached. Major Fred S Lydon, Adjutant of the 5th Royal Scots, was the drill instructor in 1889. They became a stalwart well-spring of trained soldiers and NCOs for the regiment. Captain Ernest Chambers, perhaps the definitive Montreal military historian and former cadet, praised the Royal Scots, particularly Colonels Caverhill and Strathy for raising and sustaining the corps. Lydon expanded his command to include a Pipe and Bugle Band. Soon they were invited to join formal parades in and out of the City and strut their stuff. There were seven out-of-town excursions between 1890 and 1900 including Brockville, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Ogdensburg, Alexandria and Boston. The Americans were quite taken with them. The Boston Journal reported:

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They were a tall straight-limbed soldierly looking crowd of young men, these kilted Canadians. If they had come direct from the highlands of old Scotland itself, they could hardly have made a better impression than they did in Boston.75

The Montreal Highland Cadets attended the Toronto Exhibition in 1899, where they so impressed Lord Strathcona that he equipped a complete cadet company and sponsored a further fifteen ex-members of Highland cadets, who volunteered for the South African War. By 1900, they were officially gazetted as a Highland cadet battalion of four companies.76 The corps was invited to tour Portland, Maine, in 1900 and 1901. These visits inspired enthusiastic testimonials from the Minister of Defence, Dr Borden: “the most creditable organizations and excellent feeders … recruited under the auspices of the Militia battalions from working boys.” Modern rifles were purchased to replace the fifty muzzle loading Enfield rifles for senior cadets; (Nos.1 and 2 Companies were supplied with wooded guns and bayonets).77 The British Empire included only eight kilted cadet corps. The City’s battalion was acknowledged as the standard: “The Highland Cadet Battalion in Montreal holds facile princeps, the premier position in point of equipment and organization among kilted cadet corps of the Empire.”78 Probably one of the most significant factors in the growth of the Canadian Army Cadet movement was again attributed to Lord Strathcona, who as High Commissioner, created a trust fund in 1910. It was intended to “encourage the development of citizenship and patriotism in school cadets through physical training, rifle shooting, and military drill.”79 During the First World War, over forty thousand former army cadets voluntarily enlisted in the Canadian forces, and by the end of the war, over sixty-four thousand boys were enrolled in Army cadet corps across the country. In 1920, it was decided to create a cadet corps for machine gun battalions. The adjutant general added, “also considered advisable that collegiate and school cadet corps should be induced to become attached to city corps.”80 On 7 February 1920, the Government published a militia defence order regarding cadets. The aim was to expand cadet corps affiliation with militia units, but imposed an additional liability on these units: “arms and equipment for these cadet corps will be issued on the Indent of the officer commanding.” This was eased somewhat by the promise of “annual money grant towards cost of uniforms will be paid to the CO Militia Unit.”81 The cadet corps and the RHC’s 2nd reinforcing company trained together on the McGill campus. The Highland cadets marching with the regiment that October comprised five officers and one hundred young men. In 1929, the cadets participated in Trooping the Colour and a special martial arts display at McGill Stadium, that

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proved to be the high point. In the twenty years between the wars, cadet training declined under the combined effect of the Depression and a lack of public interest; but as the Second World War approached, things changed. Bishop’s College School – Almost a Regimental Depot The night was still and cool, the street lamps shed a half light which emphasized only the spats and gaiters of The Black Watch and the bayonets and white gloves of the Cadet Corps.82

The affiliation with Bishop’s College School Cadet Corps is often considered a benchmark for regimental growth, both a spreading of roots and a canny future investment, despite the fact that the union was preceded and, to some extent, overshadowed by Montreal’s premier cadet corps, the Highland cadets. Bishop’s College School has maintained a unique affiliation with Montreal, despite its distance and, at the time, remote location. Its motto, Recti Cultus Pectora Roborant (“Righteous ways make strong the heart”), has a proper martial ring to it; and the No.2 Cadet Corps is the oldest continually serving cadet corps in Canada.83 Further, the school not only educated a substantial portion of Montreal’s elite, but provided the majority of officers for the Royal Highlanders. It would be difficult to imagine The Black Watch at war if the officers trained at Bishop’s were removed from the list. The Bleury Street officers’ mess dinners at times seemed like a school reunion. The post-war alumni included Sir Hugh Montagu Allan, the Honorary Colonel, General Fred Loomis, and a list of families from le mille carré: the Birks, Ibbotsons, Macdougalls, Macphersons, Molsons, Mathewsons, Ogilvies and Prices, to name but a few. This tradition continued to the latter portion of the twentieth century. The school was built in bucolic pastures on the St Francis River near Lennoxville, south of Sherbrooke, about one hundred miles from Montreal just north of the American border. Its military history began in the spring of 1866, when the Fenians threatened to invade Canada. When the enemy were reported coming towards Island Pond and Stanstead, the 1st and 2nd Sherbrooke Rifle Companies, together with the Sherbrooke Volunteer Cavalry and the Bishop’s College Volunteer Rifle Company, guarded the approaches and searched trains. Although the school was founded in 1836, the Bishop’s College Drill Association was not formed until 6 December 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. Subsequently, another fourteen cadet corps called “Drill Associations” or “Rifle Companies” were set up in Ontario and Quebec. Nevertheless, Canada’s oldest continually serving cadet corps remains No. 2 Bishop’s College School Cadet Corps, firmly rooted as it is in the previous drill association.84 Of

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note, in the euphoria that gripped the Militia after the defeat of the Fenians, Bishop’s was accorded a Battle Honour on their Corps Colour, which they have continued to carry on parade into the millennium. The Corps received “new Colours” in 1928 from a BCS old boy and veteran member of The Black Watch family, Major (later Colonel) AE Ogilvie. On 22 April 1936, the corps became affiliated with The Black Watch. The Montreal Gazette reported on 15 May 1936: “Oldest Canadian Cadet body now linked with oldest Highland Regiment.” The occasion was marked by a formal parade on the Champ de Mars. On this occasion, the Regiment turned out the two battalions as well as the Pipes and Drums. The Bishop’s College School contingent appeared more like gentlemen cadets from the Royal Military College than Highlanders. The BCS’s uniform was dark blue and comprised a pill box cap and patrol jackets. But for this occasion “wearing sprigs of heather and the colours of The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada, the Bishop’s College School presented a smart appearance as they turned out for inspection.”85 The corps appeared with its drum and bugles and impressed the large crowd and the most exacting audience, The Black Watch itself. The Gazette reported: “The smart bearing and superb handling of their weapons by the cadets made a distinct impression on the officers and men of the 13th and 42nd Battalions.” Colonel Andrew Fleming inspected and took the salute; the cadets then led the parade back to the Black Watch armoury.86 The Other “Regimental” Schools Besides Bishop’s College School, a large number of The Black Watch officers of this period were graduates of two Montreal Schools: Lower Canada College and Selwyn House. Ridley College and Ashbury School also contributed a number of subalterns. However, in the shadows, lie two other formidable institutions: The High School of Montreal, ensconced in its imposing building opposite McGill, and Westmount Academy, initially housed in neo-gothic buildings beside Westmount City Hall. Surprisingly, it is Westmount Academy which challenges others for highland honours. As Montreal’s oldest public school it was a bastion of the middle class, and has provided an impressive number of recruits and future officers of The Black Watch. Its most famous graduate was Corporal Frederick Fisher, 13th Battalion RHC, the first serving Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in The Great War.

Chapter 17

A Social and City Regiment Inter–War Activities

With limbs unchained and footsteps free The pleated kilt just shows the knee In hose or brogues we’ll roam at will O’er purple moor and heather hill. Duncan Ban MacIntyre A hieland batman’s lot is not a happy one Marginal editorial by the Adjutant after completing the latest dress regulations, 193287

The life of a Montreal regiment mandated social as well as military duties. Surprisingly, despite the no-nonsense regimen of the trenches, Edwardian panache and exaggeration returned to the garrison. Officer aspirants, upon presenting themselves for consideration, now reverted to describe their status as “gentleman” on their attestation documents. In The Black Watch this was, of course, generally accurate. The Regiment still featured the powerful, the popular and the famous. At the apex was the Honorary Colonel, Sir Montagu Allan, who dwarfed city society from Ravenscrag atop Mount Royal. He was attended by blue blood members of the officers’ mess, alumni since the turn of the century, and representatives of the empire builders of Canada. This select circle included Colonel George Cantlie’s uncle, Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona, Richard Bladworth Angus, and Hugh Paton, who together 345

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seemed to control major portions of Canada’s railroads, steamships, textiles and real estate. RB Angus was Lord Mount Stephen’s best friend and business associate, both of the same vintage, born in the 1830s and both part of the Bank of Montreal – an original partnership that became the CPR. His son, Forbes Angus, was also a director of the Bank of Montreal and Dominion Bridge. They were well-matched by their friends and business associates Sir George Drummond, and Sir Herbert Samuel Holt who owned Montreal Gas Company and was later a co-director of Montreal Light, Heat and Power (the predecessor of Hydro Quebec). He also directed The Montreal Trust, and was subsequently president of the Royal Bank of Canada. George Caverhill, Colonel Frank Caverhill’s younger brother, controlled Canada Steamship Lines. Lord Atholstan owned Canada’s most powerful newspaper, The Montreal Star, while the Hon Seaton White was chairman of The Gazette. Their colleagues were politicians, prominent surgeons and chancellors of McGill. This upper stratum was buttressed by a praetorian cohort of Birks, Gaults, Molsons, Macdougalls, Mathewsons, McCuaigs, Norsworthys, and Ogilvies, all millionaires. The Regiment’s friends controlled the City and most of the nation’s newspapers and industry. They radiated influence at luncheons and dinners; a raised eyebrow could destroy an impudent officer’s career. There was little relief from the pressure of serving before these lions of society. Should a subaltern turn in an opposite direction, he was promptly faced by a formidable forest of DSOs, MCs and a VC worn by a convocation of too-splendid veterans.88 Luckily, most of them were “decent chaps” and generally relatives, old boys from a familiar school, or neighbours. Exotic Guests: Prince Takamatsu and Montagu Allan This military bastion attracted good company and exotic guests. One such was the younger brother of Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan. Prince Takamatsu was on his honeymoon with Princess Kikuko in April 1931. The Black Watch provided a Guard of Honour at Windsor Station; the regimental band played the appropriate hymn “Kimigayo.” Colonel Montagu Allan invited the Prince to a dinner at the Regiment. They got along famously, and George Cantlie recalled a previous evening in 1907, when Montagu Allan entertained General (later Field Marshal) Prince Fushimi Sadanaru at Ravenscrag. The future advisor to the Emperor and Allan played cards into the early morning. Regimental tradition has it that after a particularly stimulating rubber, the Prince presented the Honorary Colonel with The Order of The Rising Sun, 3rd Class.89 The decoration remains on display in the mess amongst Sir Allan’s mementos.90 There is no indication of cards during the Crown Prince’s visit.

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When Takamatsu departed four days later, the Regiment paraded a guard of 155, including the Pipes and Drums, which the Prince particularly enjoyed. Sir Montagu Allan was an intriguing Canadian. Born in Montreal, he was referred to as Montagu Allan to avoid confusion with his cousin. The colonel was educated at Bishop’s College School and in Paris. Montagu Allan, roughly the same age as Forbes Angus and George Cantlie, inherited his father’s business interests at a very young age. His enterprises included Canada Steamship Lines, Ogilvie Flour Mills, The Royal Trust and eight other major companies. He was the richest man in Canada. His legacy continues via The Allan Cup, which he presented for competition to determine Canadian senior amateur hockey supremacy. An honorary officer in the Regiment since 1911, Montagu Allan provided complete highland uniforms for the 5th Royal Highlanders Regimental Brass Band to prepare for the presentation of Colours in 1912.91 Colonel Allan hosted prime ministers and nobles at Ravenscrag, including the Duke of Connaught and King Edward VIII. During The Great War, he served as president of the Overseas Canadian Pension Board, from September 1915 to March 1918. Tragically, his two daughters, Gwendolyn and Anna, were drowned when the SS Lusitania was torpedoed. His son, Hugh Allan, joined the Regiment in August 1914, but transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service and was killed while flying in 1918. In 1920, when hockey was first introduced to the Olympic Games, the reigning Allan Cup champion was chosen to represent Canada; this continued until 1964. In his later years, Colonel Allan spent his time in Montreal, London and California.92 Exotic Highland Guests: The Duke of Montrose In June 1932, James Graham, sixth Duke of Montrose, visited the Regiment and attended a summer party where he delighted the crowd by leading the eightsome reel. Touring the officers’ mess, he examined Great War souvenirs from medals to Colt machine guns. Montrose was elated with the collection of older artefacts, particularly the 1747 order regarding Highland dress: The Act of 1747 forbade wearing of the kilt by “no man or boy within that part of Britain called Scotland.” Montrose recalled his ancestor had the act repealed in 1782, and then quoted Scottish bard Duncan Ban MacIntyre: Indulgent laws at last restore The noble dress our fathers wore Exulting let us then resume The bonnet blue and eagle plume The tartan coat and jaunty vest With limbs unchained and footsteps free

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He was received with enthusiastic applause. Despite its totally modern North American style, the Royal Highlanders continued to be besotted by all things Scottish. Adding to Deserved Glory: Black Watch VCs The Black Watch has, at times, been reproached for the daunting number of Victoria Crosses collected in The Great War. This was shown to be unjustified when, in 1927, the Regiment posted its collegium of VCs and later, placed their commemorative plaques on the parade square. Concurrently, the Imperials requested photographs of RHC Victoria Cross winners to display in their headquarters in Scotland, where they created a room honouring all members of The Black Watch awarded the VC. To do this, the Regiment entered into correspondence with each recipient, including Brigadier Milton Fowler Gregg VC who was working in Montreal. Gregg promptly sent his photo. Interestingly, the initial request from BW HQ in Perth listed only four RHC VCs: Fisher, Dinesen, Croak, and Good. Bleury Street was adamant about including Gregg and Hew Clark-Kennedy, and neither objected to being added to the list. The latter completely identified himself as a Black Watch officer and became honorary colonel of the 3rd Battalion in 1940.”Greggy” Gregg divided his time between his regiments, to some extent, favouring the RCR, with whom he had earned his VC plus his Military Cross and Bar.93 Colonel Arthur Lennox Mills, a Brief Tour 1931–32 Colonel Arthur Lennox Mills was a son of the Bishop of Ontario, a graduate of Queen’s, Oxford and McGill. He joined the 5th Royal Highlanders but became part of the group despatched to the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) and served with them throughout the war. He was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded a DSO at Vimy Ridge. Mills was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General NDHQ Ottawa by the end of the war. He rejoined the RHC in 1920, commanded the 1st Battalion and succeeded Wallis as Regimental Colonel in 1931. Mills was a lawyer and partner in a brokerage firm but alas, business concerns forced him to resign after one year. Mills was singled out by the commander of 12th Brigade, Brigadier CB Price, for “splendid results … [handing] over his unit in better shape than he took it over.” Mills immediately acknowledged the service of his two outstanding battalion commanders – this was not an exaggeration as Bill MacTier and Andrew Fleming were experienced field officers.94

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Victoria Cross Tablets and Lieutenant Colonel WS MacTier On 30 May 1932, General Sir Arthur Currie unveiled hefty brass tablets commemorating the Regiment’s six Victoria Cross winners. They were fixed to the buttresses that stood around the armoury parade floor as a constant reminder of previous valour. Four of the bearers were alive and invited to the ceremony: Dinesen, Good, Gregg and Clark-Kennedy. The ceremony occurred as Lieutenant Colonel Mills handed over to Lieutenant Colonel WS MacTier. Colonel MacTier encouraged creative training and organized the magnificent laying up of the war Colours. He was followed, in 1934, by Fleming, who approached the Regiment’s transition to being “Black Watch RHR” with evangelical zeal. Fleming and the Imperials The 1856 Highland Rifle Company: it was through this Company that the regiment became identified with the Highland tradition. Fleming acknowledging Black Watch Montreal origins, 1934 Anything the Montreal Black Watch does is fine, provided it originates legitimately, from within and not copied from other units simply because of current vogue.95

Colonel Andrew Fleming, an old country Scot, was raised within the 5th Royal Highlanders, but inherited The Black Watch. In 1934, he was considered young and certainly receptive. Perhaps because he was from the highlands and still carried a hint of a melodious brogue, he was more determined than most to get it right. Fleming resorted to intern status as he corresponded with the Imperials to learn the specifics of becoming doppelganger to the senior highland regiment in the Empire. Even by 1934, the Royal Highland Regiment seemed distant, and, to Fleming, somewhat unfamiliar. Fleming dutifully visited the Imperials in February 1932. He wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Gawain Basil Rowan Hamilton DSO MC, Commanding 2nd Battalion RHR in Colchester, advising he would be in London and would very much like to visit as it “would be most advantageous to the Regiment in Montreal, as well as to myself.” He was acknowledged, invited, and made a guest at Rowan-Hamilton’s house: Dear Fleming: will expect you on Thursday 11 February … I will meet you at the Station. On Friday morning you can look around at anything you like, but there is not much to see. I myself will probably be hunting. I will give you a bed. If you have a tail coat and white waistcoat with you wear it as this is the proper dress for Guest Night, but a dinner jacket will do if you have not got it with you.96

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Appropriately, it was snowing as he got off the train. The playing of retreat was postponed for Fleming’s benefit to Thursday afternoon. Fleming was enraptured: “I do not remember when I heard piping equal to that produced by the Pipe Band of the 2nd Battalion. I was taken around by Chalmers DSO the 2ic, and met Mrs RH for tea.” Fleming attentively recorded every detail (“for the guidance of the Mess Committee …”) of his first dinner, where all guests were in full evening dress. Haggis was served after the fish course, Fleming noted: … a different attitude to the much maligned Scottish dish. As haggis is served, the waiter passes with tray bearing a bottle of Drambuie and a bottle of Scotch Whisky together with Quaich Cups … having filled the Quaich Cup and followed by consumption of haggis. The Health of King is proposed … then pipers take over from the band; there were six pipers present …97

Fleming praised the delicious dish, wondering if it could be duplicated; he recommended haggis be served at RHC Regimental guest nights. Though Haggis was familiar to the Montreal Scottish community, it was clearly not served in the 5th Royal Highlanders officers’ mess. Perhaps it was dismissed as too plebeian. The pipe banners were much admired by Fleming, who carefully noted the custom that as soon as an officer is promoted to command a company, he presents a banner to be carried by the company piper, on one side the regimental crest and on the other his own crest. Dancing followed: “I think it would be an inspiration for the officers of our regiment to see the grade of the dancing efficiency … considerable gusto and proficiency.” Fleming later acquired music sheets for his own Director of Music and the RHC Pipe Major, JS Williamson. He came home determined to fine-tune the unit, promptly writing to Rowan Hamilton with more questions. RH found Fleming an eager sponge. He was advised: “as regards drinking the King’s Health … we as a Regiment, merely say ‘The King’ and do not add the words ‘God Bless Him.’ I do not think, however, this is a matter of great importance and I should strongly recommend you to retain whatever custom has been in existence in your own battalion.” Fleming concurred and noted: “it would appear that there is no uniformity of customs common to the regular battalions, Depot or Territorial Battalions …” The final solution regarding customs and traits seemed to be a maxim inscribed within the adjutant’s memoranda regarding tradition: “anything the Montreal Black Watch does is fine, provided it originated legitimately, from within and not copied from other units simply because of current vogue.” Fleming concluded the Regiment “adopt our own customs, being sure first that they are truly Highland …”98 Fleming produced an eight-page report for Colonel Mills, recommending several adjustments to style and when he was made

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CO, ensured they were adopted. It is likely that many Black Watch traditions can be traced to Fleming and his Imperial mentor, Rowan Hamilton. Colonel Fleming’s ardour was reined in by his own seniors when he proposed to invite Imperial Black Watch officers to evaluate and assess Canadian militia training. They wondered if instead “we should not stress the value to us personally as members of the same family of The Black Watch.”99 Fleming’s efforts were an attempt, only marginally successful, to continue the cordial relationship engineered by George Cantlie and Lieutenant Colonel Rose, which blossomed into a genuine friendship between the two. That was to prove the only intimate liaison between the Imperial and the Montreal Black Watch commanders throughout their history. The Imperials were always friendly, but in an antiseptic diplomatic way. Fleming remained anxious to conform to every scintilla of imperial style: “I am very keen to realize this ambition … there is a profound appreciation of the honour of belonging to The Black Watch …” It was a curious almost effusive concession from a regiment whose list of accomplishments from the recent war, at the very least, measured up to that of the “parent Regiment.”100 The Cantlie Dinner 1935 – A Half Century and A Regimental Centennial I cannot speak too highly of the services of this officer.101

Of the social occasions held at the armoury, the most memorable was the dinner held for Colonel Cantlie in the fall of 1935. It remains unique, in that it produced an inimitable assembly of militia crème de la crème: pre-affiliation officers, some of whom could recall the first Highland transitions of the Regiment in the 19th century, joined by the war horses of The Great War. It was an exceptional gathering that would never be repeated. The occasion was to celebrate George Cantlie’s fifty years of active service: “a record of service unequalled anywhere in the empire.”102 The head table groaned with the greats of regimental and CEF histoire militaire: Generals Sir Richard Turner VC; Sir Archibald Macdonell; Sir Montagu Allan, the Honorary Colonel; Hew Clark-Kennedy VC; Eric McCuaig; and, General James George Ross, former CO, Paymaster to the Corps, crack shot and sportif (“the best man in Canada who ever strapped on a racing shoe”). Before the general introduced George Cantlie, he cautioned the assembly against being too focused on Routh and 1862, recalling their lineage went back to The Highland Rifle Company and The Light Infantry: “within a year or two, The Black Watch will be celebrating the centenary of the regiment, the organization of the Montreal Light Infantry in 1837.”103

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Ross then recounted Cantlie’s career, and noted the inspired organization of an “Honorary Mess – composed of many of the best citizens of Montreal [which had] provided a background whose value was inestimable when the Regiment was called upon for active service.”104 Ross reflected on Cantlie’s tremendous drive and steadfast loyalty to the Regiment. Several senior officers extolled the feted colonel: Herbert Molson’s speech was replete with humorous incidents; Montagu Allan presented an engraved piece of plate, and while recounting the fifty years of service, he particularly recalled the presentation of Colours in 1912. Colonel Cantlie spoke with emotion about his years with the regiment, displaying both his passion and his strong personality. His toast was given with “Highland Honours.”

Chapter 18

Sports and Military Diversions Dealing with the Great Depression

Scalp wounds, sunstroke, and sprained ankles suffered in Battle of St Johns, Headline, The Montreal Gazette 5 September 1933

Black Watch training and administration was buttressed by an extensive social life which included a wide variety of events – from the St Andrew’s Ball to earnest sporting contests. The sergeants’ and men’s messes hosted regular socials and competed in garrison sports. They did well, generally dominating shooting competitions. These activities were matched by reoccurring requests to provide guards of honour for dignitaries and to appear at special garrison parades. These commitments, aggravated by a dearth of training funds, were particularly arduous during The Great Depression (1929–1939). Formal paid training seldom exceeded fifteen days a year. However, given the stature of the Regiment, special “call out” opportunities were plentiful and seldom dull. Being a Black Watch officer was always expensive, often prohibitive. Before The Great War, Charles Armstrong, who was to win a DSO, was threatened with being ousted from the Regiment for non-payment of mess dues. The adjutant proposed termination to the colonel: “a good idea to send him the usual registered letter and if he fails to respond, have his name removed from the list of officers … I think this is an excellent opportunity to get rid of him.”105 Armstrong decided instead to leave and

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join the Royal Canadian Engineers. By the end of The Great War, he was a Major General and Chief Engineer of the Canadian Corps. The RHC was the sort of club where even getting thrown out brought a modicum of social deference. The calibre of the guests was always of a high order. The Watch had more to offer than bagpipes and haggis. Discussions around the mess often turned to golf and polo. Each October, the officers’ mess hosted Toronto’s 48th Highlanders for the annual highland A & A Golf Match, held at The Royal Montreal Golf Club, then located at Dixie, in the West Island.106 The jovial crowd looked particularly natty in plus fours and knickerbockers with a regimental piper usually hovering near the back links. The convention held to its moniker by tastefully combining the Athletic aspect of the meet with the Alcoholic addendums provided. Boating was popular. Most Black Watch officers sailed out of the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club in Dorval. Herbert Molson, with regimental fealty, christened his sailboat The Red Hackle. The winter months featured curling and competition for the “Sandy McHaggis” trophy. The Regiment and Montreal’s equestrian set would not forget Colonel McLennan, and members attended the memorial race held yearly in his honour. The clerk of scales for the North American Turf Association wrote: “In all my experience on the turf I have never met one that was in his class.” The first McLennan Steeplechase was run on 9 September 1920.107 The Social Whirl: Polo at Saraguay Let other people play at other things The King of Games is still the Game of Kings108

The Black Watch’s prowess at mounted sports must have been annoying to their crosstown rivals, The 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars. As bagpipes are to music, so polo is to sport – intrinsically a military endeavour but, unlike rugby, one stays above the hoi polloi. There was no denying the fact that, in riding, The Black Watch reigned supreme in Montreal. This was because the families who were the traditional backbone of the Montreal Cavalry, were now members of a Highland Regiment. Montreal’s horsey set and their glamorous friends motored out to the Back River (Rivière des Prairies) for regular polo matches at Saraguay (now Cartierville). The area boasted a couple of decent polo fields and of course, ponies. The MacDougalls and Ogilvies as well as Hugh Paton had horse farms near Gouin Boulevard. Handicaps were employed to balance dominating dynasties: the MacDougalls for example, were simply too expert and more often than not reverted to Third Man (referee) status.

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The pony’s wraps were rarely in regimental Colours as there were no other regiments that could field a team. Polo players, who did not join The Black Watch, were soon recruited as associate members of the mess. In 1933, Paton contributed “The Paton Cup” for open competition, and a spirited match was played at the Bois Franc grounds. The Black Watch team defeated the Saraguay team 4–2.109 Matches featured limited chukkers and unlimited social mixing. The warrior-padre, George Dinwoodie Kilpatrick, showed up at the 1937 match against the Royal Naval Association. The veteran of Vimy looked every inch the Great Gatsby in white double-breasted summer suit with regimental tie, matching fedora with a blue silk band, languidly holding a pipe. Polo, as always, attracted the beautiful, the clever and the ambitious. Matches were ideal places to be seen. Black Watch Associations – Toronto and Montreal The Black Watch was always more beer than polo. The armoury messes were constantly filled with veterans and serving soldiers. Soirees and comrades’ evenings were common, then required, as Canada suddenly became a victim of a worldwide Great Depression that started in the United States before the decade ended. Economic disaster hit hard: between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40 percent; unemployment soon reached 27 percent. The Depression did not completely end until 1939, when the Second World War began. Messes and Black Watch clubs brought some relief, both in fellowship and assistance, to soldiers down on their luck. The Toronto Black Watch Association (TBWA) was established in 1928 by veterans of the Imperial Black Watch for themselves only. Canadian or Commonwealth Black Watch were not accepted. Its primary allegiance is made clear on the cover of its first menu: “Black Watch Association (Toronto Branch) Headquarters: Queen’s Barracks, Perth, Scotland.” The “Canadian” Chapter of TBWA started as a small group of retired Imperial Black Watch types meeting around the table in the kitchen of Alex McCarthy (who went on to be Toronto’s deputy chief of detectives). Their first annual dinner was held in 1929 and it was incorporated on 26 December 1934. It flourished then and throughout the war. Eventually Canadians outnumbered Imperials. Dress Regulations: Red Hackle and Stewart Tartan The Stewart tartan for pipers was approved in 1932: “The pipers wore the bright-red dress Stewart sett, so,” wrote General Stewart of Garth, “that they could be more clearly seen at a distance.”110 This coincided with yet another dress regulation –

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again approving the Red Hackle for the Montreal battalions and the bands.111 The regimental bands had grown: the Pipe Band and Brass Band each paraded twentyseven musicians. On 8 April, The Black Watch, instructed to provide a guard for the governor general, presented a contingent of four officers and 107 other ranks, accompanied by its own massed bands numbering fifty-five players; the drum-major was Sergeant George Ritchie.112 Camps and Militia Duty The work, I know at times, is monotonous and tiresome but I think the older members will tell the younger that this feeling wears off in time and we come to love the Regiment and feel very proud of the work accomplished. Colonel Albert Howard OBE, 2 October 1938

Complementing the social whirl, there was, somehow, time for field exercises and duty. In 1933, Edward, the Prince of Wales visited, and was met by a Black Watch guard. As he inspected, chatting with the veterans, the Prince suddenly recognized that diligent war-horse, Captain JK Beveridge MC, the former Quartermaster of the 42nd Battalion CEF. He extended greetings, for they met previously in the trenches of France. That year’s annual camp was held on the Labour Day weekend and was touted as the largest Militia Camp since The Great War. It was organized at St Johns and the combined Districts marshalled over twelve hundred soldiers under canvas. The Royal Highlanders won the tug-of-war competition, and the regimental band played massed retreat. On sports day, a cricket match was held between scratch teams. It seemed misplaced at a time when The Montreal Royals were delighting city crowds with professional baseball at Delormier Stadium and indicated the quiet gap between the officers’ mess and the other ranks. The culminating tactical scheme was a mock attack on Iberville by the Montreal Militia, while A Squadron, The Royal Canadian Dragoons and D Company, The Royal Canadian Regiment, two permanent force units stationed at St Johns, defended the east bank of the Richelieu River. It was a hotly contested struggle with cross-country manoeuvre, testing the keenest soldier: “scalp wounds, sunstroke, and sprained ankles suffered in Battle of St Johns” were headlines in the Tuesday Gazette. Relations with the Permanent Force became less comfortable as more Great War veterans retired. Militia officers on training courses were at times treated as nuisances rather than colleagues. Captain WE Dunbar, sent to St Johns to complete his equitation, complained to MacTier: “[we] attend these schools [at] considerable expense to ourselves. We were not permitted to use mess glass or crockery, the

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telephone had been replaced by a pay phone … plus extra messing billed.”113 The RCD apparently had no awe of the RHC. This abrasive attitude was not normal but became more common as the army grew and the gap between the Permanent Active Militia (PAM) and the Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM: the part-time volunteer force), widened. Post war-game thanksgiving for survival was offered on 28 September at the fall church parade, which drew large crowds to witness a noteworthy RHC turnout: eight hundred all ranks led by Colonel Fleming and joined by veterans of the war, including the legendary commander at Vimy, Major Stanley Norsworthy DSO MC, who commanded the assembled veterans of the 13th, 42nd and 73rd Battalions. Norsworthy continued to support The Black Watch throughout but in an officers’ mess effulgent with VCs, DSOs, generals and millionaires, he regrettably was not appointed honorary colonel of one of the battalions. The Black Watch continued champions in garrison competition, winning the Canadian Infantry Association Efficiency Trophy for 1934. Both battalions took part: 1st Battalion won first place with a score of forty-nine out of fifty. Fleming speculated: “I attribute this result largely to training on the sand table. Each of the eight companies has equipped itself with one.” The Fall Reunion Dinner held on Saturday, 10 November, featured a popular guest of honour, Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Macdonell, the former commander of 7th Brigade and 1st Canadian Infantry Division. He was much appreciated as “a highlander of the highlanders.”114 The Mess was filled with 142 officers and members; the illustrious gathering included twelve DSOs and another fifteen MCs and MMs – enough gongs for an infantry division. Had ClarkKennedy, Dinesen and Gregg been in town that weekend, three Victoria Crosses would have completed the regimental jewels. Fittingly, the event was followed by a well-attended Remembrance Day parade at the cenotaph. The Regimental appointments of 1935 included extending Herbert Molson and GS Cantlie as Honoraries, in addition to Sir Montagu Allan. Molson promised after Vimy: “I will return to Canada to fight an enemy which is as tyrannical as the Kaiser [prohibition] … Having resisted the tyranny of Wilhelm, we do not propose to submit to the meanest of all tyrannies, the tyranny of petticoat government and its embrace of the dry regime.”115 He was true to his word. Molson’s became Montreal’s and The Black Watch’s brewery. There was no other beer to be found in the messes. Once, when a guest from the cavalry requested an Eker’s Ale the bar steward looked perplexed, then leaning forward he entreated: “Sir … this is The Black Watch.” Besides the Cantlie commemorative dinner, 1935 featured a silver jubilee parade acknowledging King George V’s twenty-five years on the throne. In November, The

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Black Watch was asked to supply a Guard of Honour for the new Governor General, John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, the Scottish novelist, historian and politician. A prolific author, Buchan wrote two or three books a year. A suspense novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, later became famous when Alfred Hitchcock made it into a movie. Lord Tweedsmuir was a Royal Scot Fusilier and worked as an Intelligence Officer during The Great War. He was duly impressed by the deportment and bearing of the Regiment during this first visit.116 Regimental training extended into the winter and featured “Canadian” exercises. In March 1935, they appeared at St Sauveur in the Laurentian Mountains for garrison competitions – fielding the “Black Watch Ski Patrol” and looking somewhat nordique with long skis, poles, rucksacks and rifles, yet casually wearing glengarries. It was a sunny weekend and well-attended because the area was a popular winter resort. The Summer Camp was again held at St Johns, with two thousand Militiamen in attendance over the Dominion Day weekend. The Watch won the Lewis gun competition. Competitive successes were repeated at the following year’s Camp, where the regiment swept the rifle meet’s prizes, taking the “grand aggregate” and unit matches. Private T Woodbridge won high individual honours: “The rifle team scores averaged 99.05 – which beat their previous record against Toronto regiments.” In the summer of 1936, Colonel Fleming sent representatives to France to participate in the unveiling of the majestic Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge. On 16 July 1936, five trans-Atlantic liners left Montreal filled with what the government described as pilgrims. The past remained a significant part of the present.

Chapter 19

The Last Days Before the Second World War

So far as war is concerned, you need have no fear of war at the instance of Germany. We have no desire for war; our people don’t want war, and we don’t want war. Adolf Hitler to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King117

Between the wars, it was both gratifying and demanding to be a member of The Black Watch. The Regiment was now renowned, having covered itself in glory in the trenches. But, this fame was to prove a daunting, well-nigh insurmountable bequest to soldiers destined to fight the next war. The Thirties were years of Depression. While turnout at the Regiment was robust, there was little substantial training offered to the Militia in general. Officers, in particular, were dealt short. Modern doctrinal instruction or brigade level exercises were simply too expensive for the Permanent Force, let alone reserve cadres. The Black Watch sauntered through the interwar years exuding style but with little tactical acumen. This may have been recognized by the senior members, but even after two decades, they had quite enough of war and battle drills. Nevertheless, reform began via increased budgets: in 1935, and again in 1936, forty thousand men were trained. Militia District returns indicate The Black Watch paraded nearly eight hundred men in the midst of the Depression; the next closest units in the City garrison were Le Régiment de Maisonneuve with 337, The Royal Montreal Regiment, and The Grenadier Guards with 322 each.118 The Regiment, still equipped with weapons from The Great War, put on a well-received drill display on the Champ de Mars, and again won the Pointe-aux-Trembles shooting competition. 359

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Andrew Fleming retired on 5 October 1936 and was followed by forty-four-yearold Albert “Bert” Turner Howard. The new colonel was tall and tough; he came up through the ranks, first joining the regimental band as a boy drummer at the age of nine. His father was a sergeant-major in the 5th Royal Scots, and by 1915, Howard was also a sergeant at Ypres with the 13th Battalion.119 He was commissioned in the field in 1917, just after the Somme; by 1932, he commanded the 2nd Battalion. Postwar, he became the manager of the McCuaig brokerage company and later, a senior government administrator. Colonel Howard would guide the Regiment through its last years of peacetime training. Howard’s first major parade was decidedly bitter. On 16 February 1937, the Regiment was shocked by the sudden death of its greatest wartime soldier, the much respected warrior, Major General Frederick Loomis. He was sixty-seven years old. The City turned out in vast numbers; the newspapers lamented: “A great soldier passes.”120 The burgomeister of Mons, Belgium, cabled condolences; six generals acted as pall bearers. Shortly thereafter, the Empire was rocked by a royal abdication and the succession of a new king. Major Kenneth Blackader led the Montreal Garrison Coronation Contingent to London, sailing on 28 April accompanied by Regimental Sergeant Major L Powell. George Cantlie sailed to England privately and was received by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.121 The Contingent returned for Camp and November’s St Andrew’s Ball. The occasion was made special by the attendance of Lord and Lady Tweedsmuir. The Governor General admitted he felt “very much at home with The Black Watch.” Militia Patchwork 1936–1938 The Canadian Government was stirred into some kind of action when the Civil War in Spain turned into an international arms laboratory. Even after the prime minister’s personal inspection of the growing might of Germany, the government’s reaction was slow and uncertain. As early as 1936, the Department of National Defence was ordered to reassess Canada’s readiness for a possible war. Ian Mackenzie, Minister of National Defence, promptly confessed: “the Militia lacks equipment, lacking in mechanized equipment, few antiaircraft guns.” That December, the Militia was reorganized. Initially, Mackenzie King decided to convert some infantry units to artillery, amalgamate others, and, with an eye on Europe, raise a few tank battalions.122 It was long over-due, but essentially a patchwork solution. The infantry

The Last Days Before the Second World War | 361 was ordered to convert the basic company into two platoons, each of three sections. The RHC “reserve battalions” were disbanded and replaced by a “Reserve Regimental Depot and a Corps Reserve of Officers.”123 Meanwhile, the artillery had yet to receive rubber tires for their guns; the RCAF had no bombs, and tank battalions were strictly notional. Since there was no money for actual armour, a few armoured cars would have to do. These were given to the RCD in St-Jean. That the army obtained any sort of tanks was entirely due to the efforts of a former Black Watch officer, Colonel (later Major General) Frederic “Fighting Frank” Worthington, who had served as corporal and later lieutenant with the 73rd Battalion RHC. He was commandant of the Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in 1938. Thanks to Worthington’s determination, the Permanent Force acquired its first armour in 1938: two Vickers light tanks; fourteen more arrived in the summer of 1939. To underline the surreal state of the military, the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars, a posh horsey unit, received a brand new “cavalry armoury” atop Mount Royal, including modern stables and a superb riding school with public stands and a box office. The regiment was also provided with forty horses. These were acquired from a British cavalry unit which was ordered to mechanize – in concert with the rest of Europe. As the continent created tank brigades and panzer divisions, the Canadian Militia was being equipped to fight another Boer War. In 1938, Warrant Officer 1 JH Packham was appointed RSM and Lieutenant Colonel KG Blackader was gazetted as CO 1st Battalion BW. Lieutenant Colonel IL Ibbotson took over the 2nd Battalion. In March, came another shock: the untimely death of the honorary colonel of the 2nd Battalion, Herbert Molson, renowned politician, entrepreneur and philanthropist. The occasion inspired another large funeral attended by dignitaries from the nation, city and garrison: “Mourners stood six deep.”124 With the loss of two important officers, both models for all ranks, the Regiment felt briefly vulnerable. They shook it off and went back to work. At Militia Camp that summer, The Black Watch again won the efficiency trophy and took first and second place in musketry and signals. Particularly satisfying was the fact that while the 2nd Battalion took the prize, the 1st Battalion RHC placed second. The next Militia Camp was held at the much expanded Valcartier, and it too was labelled as the “greatest Militia Camp since 1914.” They were visited by Lord Tweedsmuir, who presented the top prizes. The winner of the “Grand Aggregate” award was Black Watch Company Sergeant Major Victor L Foam; he would later distinguish himself on the Normandy battlefield in 1944. The perceptible war spirit, new armoury and horses spurred the 17th Hussars to compete against the Watch in garrison riding trials. In 1938, the competition for the Riley Shield was fierce. The course wound through the fields of the Town of Mount

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Royal and Snowdon. Once again, The Black Watch frustrated the cavalry, as Captain Tom Moore edged out Captain Ky Bjorn of the 17th. This must have been somewhat vexing to the RCH commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harwood Steele MC, whose father practically founded the RCMP. The event was a harmonious gathering. Several of the Duke of York’s Hussars were old friends, like Colonel Harry Wyatt Johnson, the definitive cavalier and commander, 3rd Cavalry Brigade. Others were Black Watch kin: Captain Erskine Buchanan was the nephew of Lieutenant Colonel VC Buchanan DSO who died in France commanding the 13th Battalion. Buchanan followed a fellow officer into the 17th, Major Bruce Hutchison, Paul Hutchison’s cousin. However, the improvement in riding skills by the Montreal military was in vain. Equestrian sports were snuffed out with the declaration of the war. Competitive trials and steeplechases were discontinued, and polo stopped. The last game was played on 3 September 1939, when members of The Black Watch competed for the Grenfell Cup. Polo would not reappear in the province for another forty-six years. Blackader Hosts a Last Reunion Dinner Pressed by business obligations, Bert Howard, now an OBE, asked to be relieved of command and transferred to the reserve of officers, effective 15 October 1938. Fortyyear-old Ken Blackader was appointed regimental commander; Lieutenant Colonels PP Hutchison and AC Evans took over the 1st and 2nd Battalions. The adjutant was Major Stephen D Cantlie, son of the honorary colonel of the 1st Battalion. That fall, on 29 October 1938, the Regiment unknowingly held its last peacetime reunion dinner. The next full reunion would not take place for seven years. On that occasion, Sir Montagu Allan presented a splendid silver monteith bowl for unit competition; it would have a far more distinguished future after the war. Of those attending, Blackader was destined to become a future brigadier and division commander, while over a dozen of the officers present would command The Black Watch and other renowned battalions during the coming war. The King and the Colonel-in-Chief Visit The looming war clouds were made less ominous by the visit of the new king, George VI, in May 1939. He was the first reigning monarch to visit North America, although he came to Canada previously as the Duke of York. He was accompanied by his consort, Queen Elizabeth, who, as Colonel-in-Chief of The Black Watch, was destined to have a long and harmonious relationship with the Regiment. The Royal Couple

The Last Days Before the Second World War | 363 were met at Montreal’s new Jean Talon Station; the Guard of Honour was a composite of two Regiments: The Black Watch, under Captain Stuart Cantlie, Colonel Cantlie’s nephew; and the Fusiliers Mont Royal commanded by Captain JA Leclaire. As the Royal Couple approached The Black Watch contingent, the King is purported to have said to the Queen: “This is your regiment – you inspect it.”125 The Highlanders were busy throughout the day lining the streets in front of the Windsor Hotel and Dominion Square. The grand Civic Banquet hosted by Montreal Mayor, Camillien Houde, was attended by the three regimental commanding officers and the commander of the Guard of Honour. The Regiment’s Organization and Structure circa 1939 The Black Watch regimental structure was simple, but only to those within. It was a judicious weave of Empire and Dominion personnel: a symbiotic union of Imperial and Canadian appointments. At the apex was The Colonel-in-Chief, a member of the British Royal Family. The first Colonel-in-Chief was King George V (1912–1936). The senior Black Watch officer was “The Colonel of the Regiment” – usually a British general, inevitably a Scot. The Canadian Black Watch would not have its own Colonel of the Regiment until 1958. The senior Canadian Black Watch officer was the honorary colonel of the Regiment. While an honorary position carried no official authority, the person selected usually carried considerable political and de facto military clout – for example, Sir Montagu Allan. Each militia battalion also had its own appointed honorary, a lieutenant colonel. The Regiment was led by the regimental commandant, a colonel. The rank of full colonel was not authorized until 1920. It was the finale to the infamous row between then Lieutenant Colonel John Carson and the Minister of Militia, Dr Borden, which ended in a fistful of resignations in 1910.126 Carson, fuming because the CO of the Queen’s Own Rifles in Toronto was promoted to colonel, demanded that he, commanding a two battalion regiment, be given the same consideration. As a 5th Royal Highlander and Montrealer, Carson felt a certain preeminence over any Ontario unit. During The Great War, the RHC raised four battalions, sending three to the front. After the Armistice, The Black Watch was again authorized two battalions, presented with a full colonelcy, and subsequently attained bona fide regimental status. In the British and Canadian military, a regiment is a familial as well as a tactical designation. Traditionally, a regiment is a formation of two or more battalions. The tactical grouping was not used by Empire armies, and the regiment became a parental

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and an administrative organization which could spawn a number of battalions. They rarely served together, although Vimy Ridge in 1917 is the example that breaks the rule. Each Black Watch Great War battalion, despite the numerical designations assigned, was the product of the home regiment, initially 5th RHC. The RHC regimental commandant was responsible to the brigadier in his military district, and eventually to the Department of National Defence in Ottawa. He led a two battalion unit, each with its own commanding officer, a Lieutenant Colonel. The British connection, though respected, was, in fact, symbolic. Notwithstanding that the King was commander in chief of the Canadian military, Parliament controlled the forces. Any allied regimental arrangement or prospective change, even if approved by the King, was subject to the Canadian Cabinet’s imprimatur. Before the Second World War, The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada had the following hierarchy: The Colonel-in-Chief: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Colonel of the Regiment (Imperial and, in Canada – symbolic): General Sir Archibald Cameron GBE KCB CMG Honorary Colonel of the Regiment: Colonel Sir H Montagu Allan CVO ED Honorary Lieutenant Colonel 1st Battalion RHC: Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie DSO VD Honorary Lieutenant Colonel 2nd Battalion RHC: Major General GE McCuaig CMG DSO VD Regimental Commandant: Colonel KG Blackader MC VD Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion RHC: Lieutenant Colonel PP Hutchison Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion RHC: Lieutenant Colonel IL Ibbotson

Immediately following the royal visit, a determined three-week summer camp was held at St Bruno: “Nos miliciens passant trois semaines d’entrainement,” reported La Presse.127 The site featured newly constructed ranges, which replaced the much dated Pointe-aux-Trembles ranges. The schedule included night-long tactical schemes and concentrated on shooting and demonstrations of “modern” techniques, such as a gun battery ranging on target. The 12th Brigade grouped four units: The Victoria Rifles, The Royal Montreal Regiment, and the two battalions of The Black Watch. The Regiment wore pith helmets (but without Red Hackles), kilts, canvas aprons, puttees, and full battle order. Camp was the culmination of the fall to summer training and completed the average militiaman’s yearly allotted pay of fifteen days. St Bruno marked the last Militia camp of a difficult decade. In exactly three months, Canada would be at war. Coda – The Black Watch Between Two Wars … Initially, Bleury Street’s deferential pertinacity to join an imperial club was met only with politeness. Despite affluence and noteworthy military accomplishments, to

The Last Days Before the Second World War | 365 some, the Canadian militia remained colonial. The post-war Regiment was a product composed of two strands. The first, a reservist unit which reached the pinnacle of Canadian militarism with a regimental name respected across North America; the second, a tested group whose exclusive memories were refined in the fire of trench warfare and whose only military lineage was “Black Watch.” It may seem that The Black Watch gambolled through the post-war decades. But it only seems so. The thirties were a demanding, often frustrating decade. While the Regiment was trained to be part of the militia, it is debatable whether it was trained for war. Clearly, by 1939, the officers and senior NCOs were no more ready to fight Germans than they were in 1914. But this time with less excuse; for experienced professionals, veterans of the Canadian Corps were very much in place in garrison and as staff officers in brigade and federal Militia Headquarters. The preparation for another war was perhaps best expressed by General Charles Foulkes, at a later date as casual training. The Militia was kept in a state of poor repair by debilitating budgets. Parliament’s declaration of war found the Regiment socially significant, but politically far less influential. There was no Sam Hughes for George Cantlie to telephone; indeed, there was no serving equivalent for George Cantlie. The old warhorses aged; most had been put out to pasture. Within the Bleury Street armoury, the quintessential officer and sergeant candidate was still as carefully selected and bred as his predecessor. Each mess boasted as exemplary a group of soldiers as were mobilized in 1914; but, the battalions bore a greater burden than the cadres that hurriedly arrived in Valcartier during that now distant summer. The RHC entered The Great War determined to prove itself, anxious to meet the standards of their Imperial kin. They emerged exalted as an elite fighting force. When the Second World War began, pre-eminence and triumph were now expected. This would prove a considerable burden on the Regiment and its battalions. The Regiment awoke as if from a great sleep but, to their credit, began immediately to apply past lessons learned. As Canadian mobilization went into effect, this would make The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada a better than average unit. Regrettably, it would win them no friends.

[See Part II – Illustrations (starting on p. 289)] for images related to Part III – The Black Watch between the Wars 1919–1939.]

Notes to Part III

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Montreal Militia General Order, 1 April 20. Six VCs; 30 DSOs; 103 MCs; 81 DCMs; 487 MMs; 34 MSMs; 136 MIDs and 40 Foreign Decorations. BW008 Pers. GS Cantlie. Col Berkeley/GSC, 6 June 1912. Hutchison, 149. LAC. RG 24 Royal and Permanent Schools of Instruction – Courses 1925-1926. And, BW008 Training. Syllabus of Training, NPAM Training Camp Longueuil PQ, 1925. BW008 Regimental Order 23 April 1925. Cols HM Wallis 1930–31; ALS Mills DSO 1931–32; WSM MacTier 1932–34; Andrew Fleming 1934–36; AT Howard 1936–38; KG Blackader 1938–39. Military Indoor Baseball League; RHC in 1st Place (Officers); ORs placed 5th out of 10 Regtl teams. In 1925, RHC won the baseball championship; Active Boxing programme was conducted by RHC staging bouts in Armoury. “… the window was once referred to as the McLennan Window which the family would indeed have preferred, but in the course of time it has become, and is now, known as The Black Watch window.” Stavert McLennan, correspondence March 2011. The Honour Roll was “compiled from the Regimental Records of the 42nd Battalion RHC and may not include the names of all men who died in England.” Director of Records, Ottawa would not furnish a full casualty list until 1923. Addendum to Programme “Memorial Window in Proud Remembrance of Lt Col Bartlett McLennan DSO,” 1921. Cited in JS McLennan, Hugh McLennan 1825–1899; privately printed 1936, 99. From an account given to the family by Major George Kilpatrick DSO, then chaplain of the Regiment; and, interviews Bart MacDougall, S Ogilvie, Toronto, Montreal; April–May 2011. Ibid., Hugh McLennan 1825–1899, 99. Hutchison, 151. Montreal Star 6 October 1924. RG24 vol 1760. Militia Report ; Min Nat Defence, Capt Hon Ian Mackenzie, 1928; hereafter, Mackenzie Report. BW008-9. File 1-18-14 Vol 1. BW Pipe Band Association. Minutes September 1919. Mackenzie Report, 29. Connaught Rifle Range opened Spring 1921. BWA MS 001-3; 13-1922: 6–8 June 1922; Pte JH McMillan won the Garrison musketry competition 18 March 1922. BWA MS 001-3; Shooting, 21; Garrison Sports League: Officers Section: 1st RHC, RMR, CGG, Carabiniers MR, Maisonneuve Regt; CFA; DYRCH; 1st MMG Bde; Other Ranks Section: CGG 1st; CFA; VRC; 1st MM Bde; RMR; RHC, Hev Arty, RCH; Carabiniers; DYRCH. BW008 RHC Summer Camps; 1921–1930; 6–8 June 1924 Camp at Pt Aux Trembles. BW JB 15983. Adjutant’s file. September 1933. Report 1933 Camp at St John (St Jean).

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23. Gordon dob 26 May 1873; Chaplain 1914–1919; Attached RHC 1914–1915; 1st CIB 1915–1916; Senior chaplain 4th Cdn Div 1916–1918; lived in Kingston but turned out for regimental camps. 24. BW008 Archival Scrap Books 1921–1930. 25. BW008 Regimental Orders, also Hutchison, 166. 26. Mackenzie Report, 32. 27. Excursions in 1925, 1927 and 1928. 28. BW 008 Regimental Scrap Book 125–127 and, Excursions Files. The contingent had seven officers including Maj HA Johnston DSO MC; Maj Stanley DSO; Lt JC Routledge; Lt DM Loomis; Lt JR Bogert. 29. The New York Times 24 May 1927. 30. 29 May 1927; The New York Times 29, 31 May 1927 and The New York Evening Telegram 31 May 1927. 31. New York Daily Mirror, 30 May 1927. 32. Boston Traveler, 5 July 1930. 33. BW008 5B Correspondence Adj/Elkington October–December 1928. 34. BW008 5B GSC to Adj BW 28 November 1928. 35. Ibid. MS001-3 P274–275 Inkstand Engravings included an explanation: “This memento was to have been presented to the 42nd Battalion, The Black Watch, by the OC Royal Highlanders of Canada during a visit in 1914. Owing to the outbreak of The Great War, and the departure of the 42nd Battalion for France, it was deposited in London, where it has remained in safe keeping until this date, 1 July 1929.” 36. BW008-5B 29 June 1915 fm GSC to Lt Col JG Ross RHC; Correspondence in 1915 from Cantlie to Lt Col JG Ross, regarding the inkstand at Elkington’s was buried in the voluminous RHC records and forgotten. 37. BW008-5B Knox/GSC 25 November 1931; GSC met Col Cameron and Major Chalmers in London; both felt “the circumstances of the delay added much to the interest and sentiment.” 38. Major WG Peterson DSO, Silhouettes of Mars (London 1920), 1–8; Used as an Epilogue by Col PP Hutchison, History of the 73rd Battalion RHC (1915–1917) (privately, Montreal 1944); BW 008 Pers, Maj WG Peterson, hereafter, Peterson. 39. Peterson: Commission RCR No. 10825 (1911); and, No. 11412 (1913); Correspondence Davidson/GSC August 1912. 40. Peterson/Cantlie 22 April 1915. 41. Peterson’s career: 5th Royal Scots 1910–1912; RCR 1912–1915; 73rd CEF 1915–1916; 42nd CEF April–July 1917; 85th Battalion CEF (temp attachment) July–November 1917; attached General Staff (August 1918 – June 1919); Demobilized; 5th Royal Scots 1920–1930 (in absentia) listed as seconded and second-in-command, 4/5th Battalion BW (Territorials). 42. BW008 Pers. Lt Col WG Peterson DSO. Correspondence Col L Leduc AA&QMG, MD4 / Maj WG Peterson 9 March 1920. There is no record of Peterson substantiated as Lt Col. 43. BW008 Peterson Pers files, Correspondence; and, Hutchison, History 73rd CEF, Epilogue introduction. When the 73rd Battalion was disbanded, Peterson transferred to the 42nd Battalion; served with it until 26 July 1917 Transferred to the 85th Battalion until 14 August 1918; then transferred to HQ 9th Brigade. His DSO was published in June 1918. 44. The Montreal Star, 4 October 1930. 45. Said while discussing the requests of Prince Edward Island Highlanders and Lanark & Renfrew Scottish for permission to adopt Black Watch regalia. 46. LAC RG24 vol 1760 Regulations Affiliations: 31/Gen. No. /26 82 (AG8b) War Office 1 December 1924. 47. BW008-513 Affiliations 1904–1936. Hereafter, BW Aff 1904–36. Correspondence, Mathewson/Sir John Maxwell, BW Depot Perth 6 December 1926; and, Maxwell/CO BW, 4 January 1927. 48. BW 008 Titles and Affiliations: The General Order was published 1 January 1930 “The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada.” The first appearance of “Black Watch” in Regtl title; Official approval was finally given 15 May 1931. 49. BW Aff 1904–36. Correspondence Col JD Macpherson / General Cameron, 13 January 1930; Comparisons made: “… UK 50 mil and 5 BW Bns: 1st and 2nd; 3rd Militia and 4th and 5th Territorials; Canada ten million and two active battalions plus two Black Watch reserve battalions, and the Lanark and Renfrew Regiment …” Correspondence: Cameron / Lord Stamfordham re meeting with HM, BW Colonel in Chief. January and April 1931.

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50. Ibid. 51. BW Aff 1904–36: Lt Col AG Dawson CO PEIH/Macpherson re proposed affiliation, 18 March 1930. Extended comms end with a letter of thanks fm PEI re RHC affiliation support: Macpherson/Dawson/ Cameron. 1930– 1931. 52. BWA. Aff 1904–36, passim: Macpherson/EH Strong, January–April 1931; Correspondence October/November 1931. Cameron/Stamfordham:“The CO the BW RH of Cda considered that in view of the wide distance separating PEIH fm other allied Canadian regiments and of the reputation of the regiment, an application for Alliance might be favourably considered.” Re the RHC request: “that the number of allied regiments would not be further increased after this alliance as too large a number of alliances tends to decrease the value of the tie.” Cameron and Stamfordham concurred. Lord Stamfordham (speaking for the King): “I am in agreement … I think that it would probably be better after that to admit no more Canadian alliances to The Black Watch.” 53. BW Aff 1904–36. Correspondence: Stamfordham/Cameron 14 May 1931; also, January, February, March 1931; Lt Col ALS Wallis / Cameron; Cameron / Macpherson April 1931. In 1946 The PEIH amalgamated with The Prince Edward Island Light Horse to become The Prince Edward Island Regiment, 17th Reconnaissance Regt (RCAC) and eventually, The Prince Edward Island Regiment (RCAC). 54. LAC. War Office. 31/Gen. No. /26 82 (AG8b) War Office 5b; also, BW Aff. Cameron/Wallis 1 October 1931. Also, BW Aff 1904–36. Cameron /Wallis, October 1931; Mills/Cameron 3 November 1931; Cameron: “subject still under consideration” 6 December 1931. Affiliation was eventually granted. In 1941, The Lanark and Renfrew Scottish was redesignated as an Artillery unit and continues as such. 55. BW Aff 1904–36. “To be published in General Orders. The War Office 8 August 1935 058/5069 (AG4d) Dated 4 March 1935”; also, Lt Colonel Brown DND Ottawa / CO BW Mtl 22 July 1935. 56. Also, BW008-24. Robertson/Monsarrat 1 February 1916, citing Turnell, Smith re 1837 MLI origins. 57. BW Aff 1904–36. BW008-5B Lt Col A Fleming / Cameron, 28 January 1935. See also: The Red Hackle, January 1935 and, The Gazette 2 February 1935: “Revives Former Title of The Black Watch”; Fleming also wrote to CO BW Depot in Perth inquiring if changes to badges and crests would be required. Formal request 25 April 1935 to HQ Militia District 4 Montreal: “in order to bring name and title of the regiment into conformity with that of the parent Regiment,” Fleming/Mil Dist 4. LAC Ref War Office 058/5069 (AG4d) 4 March 1935; “Army Council have no objection to your Regiment being redesignated.” Col AEW Widdows, Asst Under-Secretary of State / Cameron, 21 August 1935. For Imperial title revisions see: AG Wauchope, A short history of The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders); 42nd, 73rd, 1725–1907 (London: 1908). 58. By 1936, there were 124 regimental alliances between UK and Canadian units; Australia had seventy; New Zealand thirty-five and South Africa twenty-three, remainder of the Empire including ten Regiments of the Line; two militia; seventeen Volunteer; six “Colonial Regiments” and two cadet battalions. 59. In 1918, the congregations united as The Church of St Andrew and St Paul on Dorchester Street. When the site was expropriated by the CNR the congregation spent nearly two years worshipping at Moyse Hall at McGill. Cornerstone laid 10 October 1931, on Sherbrooke Street, where once stood Kildonan Hall, the residence of the Mackay family. See: Rev Dr JSS Armour, Saints, Sinners and Scots, A History of the Church of St Andrew and St Paul 1803–2003 (Montreal:2003) 166; hereafter, Armour; also BWA, Regimental Scrap Book, 1920–1940. 60. Hebrews 12:27; Armour, 141. 61. Correspondence, Rev JSS Armour, 22 August 2011; see also, BWA, Regimental Scrap book, 1920–1940, 315; and, Armour. The church seats “over one thousand”; it consists of a Chancel, Nave (body of the kirk) Narthex (vestibule) and Gallery. In addition, there is a chapel and a memorial tower. 62. The old St Andrew and St Paul was taken down stone by stone and rebuilt to serve as the chapel for le collège de Saint-Laurent which later became a CEGEP (junior college). The task was conducted by the CNR, who now owned the property. 63. BW008 Colours 1-20. Files 1912–1935. Regimental Colours. Col JW Knox “Regimental Colours The Black Watch RHR Deposited for Safe Custody in The Church of St Andrew and St Paul, Montreal, Canada.” Internal memorandum, 30 November 1974, p.4. Also, Major PP Hutchison, “The Colours of The Black Watch RHR of Canada,” The Red Hackle, 1937. “… Church Parade on 28 May 1922. Its special purpose was to deposit the Colours of the three overseas battalions.” Hutchison, 150; The 73rd Colour was consecrated by Regimental Chaplain on 22 May 1922; laid up on October 1932 when the new Church was completed. The Sepoy Regiment Colour from the Mutiny, captured in 1887 By Sgt Maj WF MacTier of Indian Army, presented to the Regiment by the CO, Lt Col WSM MacTier in November 1932.

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64. BW008 Colours 1931–1935. 1928 New Colour refused NDHQ; correspondence, approval April 1930. Cantlie correspondence plus submitted designs. 65. Rev Maj G Donald, Regimental chaplain, assisted by Dr David Scott; The Reverend Thomas Helm, conducted the service. Colonels Robert Starke, William Leggat and Gavin Ogilvie, together with WD McLennan and DA Murray, the session clerk, received the Regimental and King’s Colours of the 13th, 42nd and 73rd Battalions, as well as the original Colours of 1862 on behalf of the church. Armour, 183. 66. BW008 Colours File; RHQ Script for Colours Ceremony, 2 October 1932. 67. BW008 Colours File 1–20. Also, Montreal Star, 4 October 1932 and, Armour. 68. The 1862 and 1912 Colours were then “re-deposited without ceremony respectively at the Church and at the Armoury.” Cost: $201 or about $4,000 today (2012). 69. BW008 Colours File. 5th Montreal Royal Lt Inf – the 1862 Regimental Colour. South Africa would prove, in 2012, to be the second Regimental battle honour. 70. LAC RG 9 IC8.3. Cadet Corps Montreal; and, Capt Ernest J Chambers, The Montreal Highland Cadets (Montreal: 1901), 82. Hereafter Cadets, Chambers; also, article, “Montreal’s First Cadet Corps,” The Militia, October 1932, 41–44. Hereafter Militia article. 71. Frank Adam, The Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands (London: 1908), 276. 72. Cadets, Chambers, 15. 73. LAC. Regulations and Orders for Militia , cadets (over twelve years old) 1887 Regs; Min of Militia undertook cadet training 1908. Circa 1914–1918 over sixty-four thousand cadets enrolled. 74. Ibid. 75. BW 008. BW Cadets. Boston Journal 2 June 1898. 76. LAC. Militia General Orders; Montreal Highland Cadet Battalion, January 1900. 77. LAC. RG24 vol 1760 Development of Defence Forces of Canada; RG 9 IC8.3; and, Militia General Orders January 1900, Montreal Highland Cadets. 1909 Corps of School Cadet instructors, fifteen thousand cadets provided with Ross rifle; in 1913 the number of cadet corps reached 739, comprising thirty thousand cadets; article, “Highland Cadets, Montreal” Gazette, 2 June 1890, Capt EJ Chambers. In 1908, DND formed a cadre of commissioned officers, the Cadet Services of Canada, school teachers trained and paid to conduct drill in their schools – as a component of the Canadian Army and the forerunner of the present cadet instructor cadre. 78. Adam, 276. See also, LAC RG24 v 1760 Development of Defence Forces of Canada. In 1909 fifteen thousand cadets were provided with Ross Rifle. 79. The trust was deposited with the Dominion Government and was considered a huge sum for the time; $500,000.00 (the same buying power of $10,958,950.00 in 2011) and earning interest of 4 percent per year. 80. Inspector cadets, MD4: Birchall 12 April 1919; Ashton, Adj Gen DND/MD4 7 February 1920. 81. LAC. RG24 vol 1760 Development of Defence Forces of Canada. 82. BCS Magazine, 1936, p 55–56. Description of a combined parade, 1936, BCS Magazine. See also, AM Grant (Editor), A Portrait of Bishop’s University 1843–1993 (Lennoxville:1994). 83. BCS Archives; interview Ms Merrylou Smith, Chief Archivist, Lennoxville, 12 November 2008. Alternative to motto translation: “Sound learning strengthens the spirit”; BCS initially part of Bishops University (Charter 1943) and maintains the affiliation. 84. LAC. RG9 IC2 Vol 64. Bishops College Rifle Company, 1 July 1865: one Capt, one Lt, one 2/Lt, five Sgts, one Trumpeter, four Cpls, fifty-five privates. Apparently pupils of the school were again involved against the Fenian Raids in 1870. Bishop’s College School Drill Company was gazetted 28 November 1879, and allocated the number 2 in 1904. Formed November 1861; authorized 6 December 1861: Bishop’s College Rifle Company. 85. Ibid. 86. BWA. Regimental Scrap Book 1930–1939, 381; Gazette 13–21 May 1936; Evening Standard; Montreal Star; Sherbrooke Daily Telegraph 15 May 1936. Also, BCS Magazine, 1936, 56. BCS seniors were Cadet Maj FG Lord and Cadet Lt SI Lyman. BW: Lt Col Ken Blackader MC, OC 1st Battalion RHC; Maj JH Molson; Maj Gen IL Ibbotson 2ic 2nd Battalion RHC. At the same time, the 1936 Bishop’s COTC was formerly affiliated with Black Watch as well. 87. These included ten orders of normal dress and four orders of day dress, besides mess kit and special parade dress. 88. Other 1930 Members of the BW Offrs Mess included General Loomis, Colonels McCuaig, Ewing, Clark-Kennedy VC, Perry, Sinclair and, at a distance Tom Dinesen VC. George Cantlie married Eleonora Simpson Stephen, sister of Lord Mount Stephen. Correspondence, Col SF Angus, 19 August 2011.

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89. Regimental tradition also suggests that the medal was presented after the Japanese guest lost at poker. 90. Knighted 24 June 1904; Japanese Order of the Rising Sun (3rd Class) 1907. Takamatsu’s visit lasted 30 April to 2 May 1931. 91. BW008. Colours 1912/Pers. Cantlie: letter to Cantlie/Sam Hughes 14 February 1912. Allan paid $655.71 for outfitting band (equivalent to apx 170,000 in 2012 dollars). 92. Ravenscrag is now known as the Allan Memorial Institute. Allan kept two summer houses, at Cacouna on the St Lawrence, and “Allancroft” at Beaconsfield, QC, where he reared his horses. 93. BWA Correspondence, Adj/ MF Gregg 24 March 1927 re and Request from Perth 23 September 1926. Gregg’s Victoria Cross was donated to the RCR Regimental Museum in London, Ont. The medal was stolen in 1980. 94. BW008 Pers. Col ALS Mills, correspondence 23 September 1932; Interview, Col SF Angus, September, July, August 2009–11. 95. Lt Col Rowan-Hamilton (Imperial Black Watch) to then Maj A Fleming (Canadian Black Watch) February 1932. 96. BW008-5B Pers. Fleming correspondence 1932–1934; memorandum Col Mills. 97. Ibid., Fleming; correspondence Rowan Hamilton, January–March 1932. Quaich from Gaelic Cuach (“shallow cup”; Quaich cup – pronounced “quake”). Origins West Highlands, originally wood with sometimes three ears or handles. 98. Ibid; subsequently Lt Col WSM MacTier visited 2nd BW at Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow on December 1933. MacTier had written RH (November 1932) without success … RH wrote back “I remember you, admittedly rather vaguely …” referring to a meeting during the war. 99. BW008. Correspondence; GSC/MA to Fleming, 4 February 1936. 100. Fleming held the parade in September 1934 when LtGen Sir AC Macdonell unveiled The Great War Service Tablet that noted the efforts of four RHC units: 959 gallantry awards, 6,014 wounded and, 2,613 “laid down their lives.” 101. Last line to Colonel George Cantlie’s DSO commendation, 19 September 1916. 102. Montreal Gazette 2, 4 November 1935. In fact, Cantlie resigned for about a year in 1907, and then rejoined: “service in present instance is reckoned only from 6 August 1907.” Col ALS Mills, 21 March 1932. 103. Also, BW008-24. Robertson/Monsarrat 1 February 1916, citing Turnell, Smith re 1837 MLI origins. 104. The Montreal Star 4 November 1936. Cols Macpherson, MacTier, Ewing, Monsarrat spoke; Brig Carson did not attend. Whether Ross would approve of the 1812 and 1813 Battle Honours awarded in 2012 to the millennium Black Watch in recognition of the 5th Battalion Montreal Militia and Chateauguay is moot. He would have certainly approved formal recognition of the Regiment well before 1862 as a bona fide infantry unit. 105. BW008. Adjutant. Capt EC Norsworthy to Lt Col GS Cantlie. 14 December 1911. Armstrong owed $51.27. He paid $36.27 in 1901 with a balance of $15.00; “we have always considered this $15 a bad debt.” Armstrong was not charged dues while he served in South Africa 1901 to 1905. A “usual” debt was $5. 106. The Royal Montreal Golf Club originated in Fletcher’s Field, in front of Mount Royal. It moved to Dixie in 1896, and in 1959, to Île Bizard, its present location. The old clubhouse at Dixie became the Queen of Angels Academy for young women. 107. Hugh McLennan 1825–1899, 86. 108. Attributed to Guy u Chawgan, 1920. 109. Iris Clendenning, The History of the Montreal Polo Club 1900–1940, Privately printed, Les Cèdres, Quebec, 1987. Interview, Bart MacDougall, March, 2011. BW 008; MS001-3; and Regimental Scrap Book, 331. 1 July 1933: Black Watch players: RR MacDougall; GL Ogilvie; TA Moore; WW Ogilvie; Saraguay: Peter L MacDougall; CH Gordon; H Fair; DS McMaster. 110. Adam, 279. 111. LAC/BWA Dress Regulations for RHC/BW: GO26, 1895 (Hackle/red plume for feather bonnets); MOD Mtl Dress Regs 1898; 1907; and, DND/MOD Regs for BW (RHR) of C 1932: BWA, MS 001-3 RHC 8 April 1932. Highland Dress for the CEF was authorized 24 August 1916 (Hon FB McCurdy, Min Militia): jacket or doublet; “trousers as issued”; balmoral or glengarry. A universal khaki kilt was strongly considered. Red Hackles at unit expense. 112. The Montreal Gazette, 5 September 1933. 113. BW008-42. Royal Schools of Instruction, RCD St Johns (St Jean). Letter, Capt WE Dunbar 19 July 1938.

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114. Attendance included Sir Montagu Allan, Eric and Rykert McCuaig, George Cantlie, Hamilton Gault and prominent of war veterans: Mathewson, GL Ogilvie, H Molson, K Blackader, Perry, Ewing, MacTier, S Norsworthy. 115. At The Great War Veterans Association circa 1920. See Shirley E Woods, The Molson Saga, and 1763–1983 and, Matthew Bellamy, “For Beer and Country,” Legion Magazine, 28 March 2010. 116. BW008. Honorary Apts; Guards of Honour. Correspondence Brig RC Alexander/Col A Fleming 25 November 1935. 117. LAC. The Diary of William Lyon Mackenzie King: PM Mackenzie King recounting his meeting with Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 29 June 1937.”I said to him that … I was a man who hated expenditures for military purposes; that the Liberal Government in Canada all shared my view in that particular, that I had the longest majority a Prime Minister had had in Canada … Hitler nodded his head as much as to say that he understood.” See also: Allan Levine, William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny (Toronto: 2011). 118. LAC. RG 24 Vol 1760. Report: The Canadian Militia, Hon Ian Mackenzie, 1936. The Victoria Rifles paraded 293, Les Fus Mont-Royal 277. Black Watch returns were RHQ, 6; 1st Battalion, 359; 2nd Battalion, 381. Total effective strength: 746. 119. BWA Pers File Col AT Howard. 120. The Montreal Gazette, 17 February 1937. 121. BWA. Part 2: MS 001 – 4 13-1937-1 122. The “new” 1936 Militia comprised: twenty cavalry regts; four armd car regts (decrease of sixteen); ninety-one inf regts (includes fifty-nine rifle bns; twenty-six MG bns and six Tank Bns); the Artillery medium batteries were increased. 123. Hutchison, 179. 124. Montreal Herald, 28 March 1938. 125. Bernard Fergusson, The Black Watch and the King’s Enemies (London: 1950), 19; There are several versions of this. The Black Watch has had only three Colonels-in-Chief during its history: HM King George V (1912– 1936); HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1937–2002); HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay (2003 to present). Charles is Prince of Wales in Great Britain, but the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland. 126. See above, Part 1. The Origins of the Montreal Highland Regiment 1759–1914, Carson chapter, 57–59. 127. La Presse, 10 June 1939.

APPENDIX A

THE BATTLE HONOURS OF THE REGIMENT1

Châteauguay

CANAL DU NORD

Defence of Canada 1812–1815

PURSUIT TO MONS

SOUTH AFRICA 1899–1900

FRANCE AND FLANDERS 1915–1918

Ypres 1915, 1917

BOURGUÉBUS RIDGE

Gravenstafel

FAUBOURG DE VAUCELLES

ST. JULIEN

VERRIÈRES RIDGE–TILLY-LA-CAMPAGNE

Festubert 1915 MOUNT SORREL SOMME 1916 Pozières Flers–Courcelette Thiepval Ancre Heights Ancre 1916 ARRAS 1917, 1918

Falaise Clair Tizon FORET DE LA LONDE Dunkirk 1944 Antwerp–Turnhout Canal THE SCHELDT Woensdrecht South Beveland WALCHEREN CAUSEWAY

VIMY 1917

THE RHINELAND

Arleux

THE HOCHWALD

Scarpe 1917, 1918

Xanten

Hill 70

The Rhine

PASSCHENDAELE

Groningen

AMIENS

OLDENBURG

Drocourt–Quéant

NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944–1945

Hindenburg Line

Afghanistan 2001–2011

BOLDFACE honours are emblazoned on the Regimental Colours.

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APPENDIX B

HONORARY COLONELS OF THE REGIMENT

THE COLONEL-IN-CHIEF Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother 1947 His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Duke of Rothesay2 2003 THE COLONEL-OF-THE-REGIMENT Brigadier KG Blackader CBE DSO MC ED CD 1958–1963 Colonel JW Knox MBE ED CD 1963–1968 Colonel JG Bourne CVO ED CD 1968–1970 (1973)3 HONORARY COLONEL OF THE REGIMENT Colonel, the Honourable Robert MacKay 1900–1918 Colonel Sir H Montagu Allan CVO ED 1920–1951 Colonel GS Cantlie DSO VD CD 1951–1956 Brigadier KG Blackader CBE DSO MC ED CD 1956–1958 Colonel JG Bourne CVO ED CD 1970–1987 Colonel Thomas E Price CD 1987–1996 Colonel Stephen F Angus CD 1996–2000 Lieutenant General Duncan McAlpine CMM CD 2000–2009 Colonel Daniel F O’Connor CD 2009–2020 Colonel Bruce D Bolton MMM, CD 2020–present HONORARY LIEUTENANT COLONEL 1ST BATTALION, RHC4 Lieutenant Colonel Sir H Montagu Allan CVO 1911–1918 Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie DSO VD 1920–1951 Brigadier KG Blackader CBE DSO MC ED CD 1951–1953

374

Appendix B HONORARY LIEUTENANT COLONEL 2ND BATTALION, RHC Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Molson CMG MC 1920–1938 Major General GE McCuaig CMG DSO VD 1940–1946 HONORARY LIEUTENANT COLONEL 3RD BATTALION, RHC Lieutenant Colonel WH Clark-Kennedy VC CMG DSO ED 1940–1946 Brigadier KG Blackader CBE DSO MC ED CD 1953–1956 Colonel WSM MacTier MC VD CD 1956–1965 Colonel HM Wallis DSO OBE MC VD 1965–1968 Lieutenant Colonel JW Sharp CD 1968–1970 Lieutenant Colonel TE Price CD 1970–1987 HONORARY LIEUTENANT COLONEL 4TH BATTALION, RHC Brigadier KM Perry DSO 1943 HONORARY LIEUTENANT COLONEL THE BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLAND REGIMENT) OF CANDA Lieutenant Colonel TE Price CD 1970–1987 Lieutenant Colonel SF Angus CD 1987–1996 Lieutenant General DA McAlpine CMM CD 1996–2000 Lieutenant Colonel VG Chartier OMM CD AdeC 2000–2009 Lieutenant Colonel DF O’Connor CD 2009–2011 Lieutenant Colonel CN McCabe OMM CD 2011–2017 Lieutenant Colonel BD Bolton MMM CD 2017–2020 Lieutenant Colonel HJ Birks 2020–present

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375

APPENDIX C

LINEAGE OF THE BLACK WATCH (RHR) OF CANADA 1812–2022

1812

Highland Rifle Companies, Glengarry Fencibles Montreal and region, 1812–18165

1812

5th Battalion Embodied Montreal Militia6 – 28 May 1812 – first Battle Honour: “Chateauguay” to 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers, perpetuated by the Black Watch

1823

The Highland Rifle Company re-formed 1823

1827

Montreal Highland Rifle Company gazetted

1837

The Montreal Light Infantry7 gazetted, incorporating Montreal Highland Rifle Company8 Montreal Highland Rifle Company seconded to The Montreal Light Infantry

1855

Militia Act of 1855: evolution Act of Union (1840): “National Force” created: new companies established / older companies re-formed, re-gazetted

1856

The Montreal Light Infantry incorporating, The Highland Rifle Company – gazetted 30 October 18569

1859

1st Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles (VMR) of Canada formed; Highland Rifle Company joins 1st Battalion VMR

1860

Highland Rifle Company seeks new regiment as 1st VMR becomes 1st Battalion Prince of Wales’s Rifles

1862

Six militia rifle companies raised in Montreal, 22 Jan 1862, amalgamated into one battalion (Routh)

1862

5th Battalion VMR, (gazetted Gen Order No. 1, 22 January 1862) formed 31 January 1862 (Lt Col HL Routh) – renamed: 5th Battalion, “The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal” (MGO 7 November 1862)10

376

Appendix C

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377

1863

Highland Rifle Company joins 5th Battalion “Royals”: RHC Scottish lineage to 181211

1866

Montreal Light Infantry (remaining Company) joins Routh’s 5th Battalion Royals

1871

5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry (Routh) gazetted out of service

1872

5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry reorganized / reinstated Militia General Order (MGO) 12 April 1872 (limited to 2 companies)

1875

5th Battalion Fusileers Montreal, MGO 19 November 1875 [Redesignated, 5th Royals reorganized]

1876

5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers Montreal, MGO 14 January 1876 [Designation Amended]

1880

5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers [Re-designated], MGO 27 February 80; first official regimental recognition of Scottish factor12

1884

5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada, MGO 29 February 1884 [Re-designated]

1900

5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, MGO 8 May 1900; Regimental status; RHQ; 2x full battalions, new expanded TOE

1904

5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders, MGO 2 May 1904 – first official “Highland” designation

1905

Official affiliation with Imperial Black Watch The 5th Royal Highlanders wore Red Hackles with summer pith helmets directly after the 1906 affiliation. The Regiment first sported Red Hackles in feather bonnets under Colonel Strathy in 1895

1906

5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada or, “RHC”, MGO 1 Oct 06.13 The Regiment remained RHC through to 1931: enlarged to Regiment two-battalion basis with RHQ and 1st and 2nd Battalion. Senior regimental officer became regimental commandant but not as full colonel

1907

5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch): first unofficial appearance of BW in regimental title

1914–1919

5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch) and The Great War.14 Three fighting battalions despatched; considered themselves “Black Watch” by affiliation and tradition and adopted the title unofficially in the trenches. RHC units did not wear the Red Hackle in 1914; however, their gallant actions in a series of battles resulted in the CEF battalions electing to wear the Hackle and balmoral in 1916. First the 13th Battalion CEF, followed almost a year later by the 42nd Battalion CEF in 1917. The tradition was later officially sanctioned by the Crown 13th Battalion CEF (mobilized 1914–1919) 42nd Battalion CEF (mobilized 1914–1919) 73rd Battalion CEF (mobilized 1915–1917) 20th Reserve Battalion (RHC) CEF (UK Reinforcement Unit 1917–1919)

1920

The Royal Highlanders of Canada, MGO 20 Marcg 1920 (Numerical “5th” dropped); 4x militia battalions, each perpetuating 13th, 42nd and 73rd Battalions, and 20th Res CEF – 29 March 1920

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1930

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada, MGO 1 January 1930

1935

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, MGO 1 July 1935

1939–1945

The Black Watch (RHR) and The Second World War Black Watch mobilizes 2 Active Force battalions; 2 RHC disbanded in 1943 1st Battalion RHC 1939–1945 (UK and NW Europe) 2nd Battalion RHC 1942–1943 (Canada) Regimental Headquarters was maintained in Montreal, while counterparts of the two mobilized units were raised for the Non-Permanent Active Militia, later, The Reserve Army: 2nd Battalion RHC 1939–1942; and 1943–1946 3rd Battalion RHC 1940–1946 4th Battalion RHC 1942–1943 42nd Infantry Reserve Company RHC 1940–1943

1945

Regimental Headquarters RHC was disbanded and the two Reserve battalions of the regiment were re-designated as a single battalion (though the battalion commanding officer, a lieutenant colonel, continued to be designated as regimental commandant).

1946–1953

The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada

1951–1953

The Canadian NATO Brigade was organized. It included the 1st Canadian Highland Battalion which had regional Canadian representation by incorporating companies from five Highland Reserve Regiments, including The Black Watch. In 1952, a second Highland Battalion was raised: 2nd Canadian Highland Battalion

1953

On 16 October, The Black Watch was selected for service in the Regular Army of Canada – CHBs re-designated and augmented: 1st Battalion The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada 2nd Battalion The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada Regimental Depot The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada On 16 October, on the redesignation of the regular battalions, the Militia battalion in Montreal became the 3rd Battalion The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada

1954

On October 16, Highland military band for service in the regular Army was authorized (not carried on the strength of any unit of the regiment); subject to jurisdiction of general officer commanding the command where based

1970

Regular force Black Watch components disbanded. 3rd Battalion RHC reverted to The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada

APPENDIX D

COMMANDING OFFICERS 1812–2022

The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada traces its Scottish heritage to settlers and veterans, specifically: 42nd Royal Highlanders; 78th Fraser Highlanders; 84th Foot, Royal Highland Emigrants. First unit battle honour:

1812: 5th Select Embodied Militia (5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers / Cinquième Bataillon de la Milice d’Élite et Incorporée) First battle honour: The Battle of Chateauguay15

Oldest City Scot Military connection:

Independent Highland rifle company (1812), re-gazetted (1827); Highland rifle company (1830s) subsequently attached to The Montreal Light Infantry (1837); The Montreal Highland Rifle Company (1856) subsequently attached to the 1st Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles (VMR) (1859) and later to the 5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry (1863)

Most senior Regimental status:

The Montreal Light Infantry (1837)

First Regimental Colours:

5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry of Montreal (1862)

First Scottish ref in Regimental title:

5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers 1880

Official ref to Black Watch in title:

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada (1930)

379

380

| Appendix D

Commander

Title; Amalgamation and Evolution of Scottish Dress based on Montreal Scottish Genesis

Lt Col Patrick Murray 1812

5th Battalion embodied Volunteer Militia (1812) first battle honour: Chateauguay (1812) – disbanded 181316

Capt Norman Bethune and Capt Eustace 1812

Scottish “Highland” rifle companies (Fencibles)17 and Montreal “Highland” rifle company (HRC) participants, War 1812 (defence of Montreal); re-formed (1823)

Capt Norman Bethune 1827; 1837

HRC gazetted as The Highland Rifle Company (1827); HRC gazetted as the Highland Rifle Company (c. 1830), brigaded with The Montreal Light Infantry (1837), commanded by Lt Col Henry Griffin for the duration of 1837 Rebellion.18 While attached to The Montreal Light Infantry, the Highland Company wore TARTAN STRIPES on trousers

Capt John MacPherson 1856

The Montreal Highland Rifle Company (1856); brigaded with Lt Col J Dyde’s Montreal Volunteer Rifle Companies (1859), registered as “7th Company (Highland)”; formed part of 1st Battalion VMR (1859); TREWS19

Major HL Routh 1862

Six independent rifle companies gazetted in Montreal (22 Jan 1862); Major Routh senior company commander

Commander

Title; Amalgamation and Evolution of Scottish Dress based on Official Lineage

Lt Col HL Routh 1862–1875

5th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles authorized (31 Jan 1862); formed from the six independent rifle companies (22 Jan 1862); re-designated 5th Battalion, “The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal” (7 Nov 1862) Regimental Motto: “Quis Separabit (Who Shall Part Us) Amalgamations: 1863 Capt P Moir, Highland Rifle Company (from 1st Prince of Wales’ Regiment); TREWS20 1866 Capt K Campbell, last company of The Montreal Light Infantry

Appendix D

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Lt Col JD Crawford 1875–1882

5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (19 Nov 1875) Regimental Motto: “I Beare in Minde” Both flank companies in TREWS (1875); Regiment in TREWS (1879) 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers (27 Feb 1880)

Lt Col EAC Campbell 1882–1884

5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada (29 Feb 1884) Lorne Tartan approved (1878): Regt KILTED (1883) New Regimental Motto 1885: “Ne Obliviscaris” (Forget Not)

Lt Col Frank Caverhill 1884–1891

5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada Glengarry standard headdress

Lt Col John Hood 1891–1893

5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada

Lt Col JAL Strathy 1893–1897

5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada Feather bonnets acquired worn with red plume (Hackle)

*Retired 27 Dec 1897 Lt Col EB Ibbotson 1897–1901

5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada / 5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada (8 May 1900)

Lt Col GW Cameron 1901–1902

5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada

Lt Col JW Carson 1902–1909

5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders Lorne Tartan (1899) abandoned in favour of Government Sett (Black Watch Tartan) Affiliation with The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) (1905) Red Hackle worn with Pith Helmets, Glengarry remained as standard headdress until 1916

*Resigns 18 January 191021

Lt Col JW Carson

5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (1 Oct 1906): 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion

Lt Col GS Cantlie 1910–1915

5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada, mobilized for First World War: 13th Battalion CEF, 42nd Battalion CEF, 73rd Battalion CEF, 20th Reserve Battalion CEF Balmorals issued to Battalions with CEF by 1917

382

| Appendix D

Lt Col FOW Loomis DSO Lt Col VC Buchanan DSO Lt Col GE McCuaig DSO Lt Col KM Perry DSO Lt Col IMR Sinclair DSO

First to adopt the Red Hackle with balmoral in The Great War, directly after the Somme campaign, 16 November 1916 at Cambligneul, France. 1914–1915 1916 KIA 1916–1918 1918 (6 months) 1918–1919

42nd Battalion CEF (mobilized 1914–1919) Lt Col GS Cantlie DSO Maj SC Norsworthy DSO MC22 Lt Col B McLennan DSO Lt Col RLH Ewing DSO, MC

The 42nd Battalion decided to wear balmorals and Red Hackles 30 Nov 1917. 1914–1916 1917 (5 months) 1917–1918 KIA 1918–1919

73rd Battalion CEF (mobilized 1915–1917) Lt Col P Davidson Lt Col HC Sparling DSO

1915–1916 1916–1917 (6 months)

13th Battalion CEF (mobilized 1914–1919)

20th Reserve Battalion (RHC) CEF (UK Reinforcement Unit 1917–1919) Lt Col AA Magee 1917 Lt Col GS Cantlie DSO 1917–1918 Lt Col JH Lovett 1918–1919 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Montreal) Lt Col CN Monsarrat 1915–1919 Lt Col WD Birchall 1919–1920 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada; reorganization into 4 battalions perpetuating CEF units in the Great War: The Royal Highlanders of Canada (29 Mar 1920) 1st Battalion (13th Battalion CEF) 2nd Battalion (42nd Battalion CEF) 3rd Battalion (73rd Battalion CEF) 4th Battalion (20th Reserve Battalion CEF) Colonel GE McCuaig 1920–1923 The Royal Highlanders of Canada [as regimental commander of reorganized Regiment: 2x Battalions 1st RHC (13th CEF) and 2nd RHC (42nd CEF); this configuration was to last until the end of the Second World War when RHC was reduced to one Militia Battalion] Colonel RLH Ewing 1923–1924 The Royal Highlanders of Canada

Appendix D Colonel DR McCuaig 1925–1926 Lt Col FS Mathewson 1926–1927 Lt Col GL Ogilvie 1927–1928 Colonel JD Macpherson 1928–1930 Colonel HM Wallis 1930–1931

Colonel ALS Mills (1931–1932) Colonel WSM MacTier (1932–1934) Colonel Andrew Fleming 1934–1936

Colonel AT Howard 1936–1939 Colonel KG Blackader 1938–1939 Colonel PP Hutchison 1939–1945

| 383

The Royal Highlanders of Canada The Royal Highlanders of Canada The Royal Highlanders of Canada The Royal Highlanders of Canada Glengarry resurgence 1929–1940 The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada (1 January 1930) New Motto: “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” (“No one provokes me with impunity”) The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada (1 July 1935) Adopted when the Imperial Black Watch changed its name from The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) to The Black Watch (The Royal Highland Regiment) in 1935, prompting Canadian change. The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Reverts to rank Lt Col to command 1 RHC as mobilized regular force (active) battalion The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada also referred to during war as RHC, which included: 1st, 2nd, 3rd RHC and 42nd Infantry Company of Veterans circa 1940–1945.

1st Battalion RHC (mobilized 1940–1945) Lt Col KG Blackader 1939–1942 (36 months) Lt Col SD Cantlie 1942–1943 (15 months) Lt Col SST Cantlie 1943 (8 months)23 Lt Col EH Henderson 1943 (3 months) Lt Col SST Cantlie 1944 (7 months) KIA Lt Col FM Mitchell 1944 (2 months) Lt Col BR Ritchie 1944 (5 months) Lt Col E Motzfeldt 1945 (2 months) WIA Colonel SW Thomson 1945 (1 month) Lt Col VE Traversy 1945 (7 months) 2nd Battalion RHC (mobilized 1942–1943) Lt Col HM Jaquays 1942–1943 (12 months) 1946 RHC loses Regimental status; reduced to one Reserve battalion and re-designated RHC. Title remains The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada.

384

| Appendix D

The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada24 Lt Col IL Ibbotson 1945–1946 Lt Col FM Mitchell 1946–1947 Lt Col VE Traversy 1947–1949 Lt Col JW Knox OBE 1949–1952 Lt Col JG Bourne 1952–1953 Regular Battalions: Formed from 1st and 2nd Canadian Highland Battalions [CHB] redesignated Black Watch in 1953: 1 RHC Lt Col RL Rutherford OBE25 Lt Col HHA Parker OBE Lt Col WH Seamark CD Lt Col JME Clarkson, MC CD Lt Col DS MacLennan CD Lt Col WA Teed CD Lt Col GH Sellar CD Lt Col WJ Newlands CD Lt Col GS Morrison CD

1951–1952 1952–1954 1954–1956 1956–1959 1959–1960 1960–1963 1963–1966 1966–1968 1968–1970

2 RHC Lt Col RM Ross OBE CD26 Lt Col WdeN Watson DSO MC Lt Col CHE Askwith CD Lt Col WC Leonard MBE CD Lt Col DA McAlpine CD Lt Col HJ Harkes, MC CD Lt Col WB MacLeod CD

1952–1955 1955–1959 1959–1960 1960–1963 1963–1966 1966–1968 1968–1970

3 RHC Lt Col JG Bourne ED CD27 Lt Col D’Arcy McDougall CD Lt Col WA Wood CD Lt Col DJ McGovern CD Lt Col WB Redpath CD Lt Col TE Price CD Lt Col JIB MacFarlane CD Lt Col SF Angus CD28

1952–1955 1955–1958 1958–1960 1959–1962 1962–1965 1965–1967 1967–1970 1970–1972

Regular Battalions disbanded in 1970; Black Watch reduced to one Militia battalion; re-designated RHC in 1970.

Appendix D The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Lt Col LN Ferdon CD 1972–1974 Lt Col WR Sewell CD 1974–1977 Lt Col GD Robertson CD 1977–1980 Lt Col HP Klepak CD 1980–1983 Lt Col JC Stothers CD 1983–1986 Lt Col VG Chartier CD 1986–1989 Lt Col DF O’Connor CD 1989–1993 Lt Col IM McCulloch CD 1993–1996 Lt Col GT Lusk CD 1996–2000 Lt Col BD Bolton MMM CD 2000–2003 Lt Col J Potter MC 2003 Lt Col BD Bolton MMM CD Lt Col TEC MacKay CD Lt Col B Plourde CD AdeC Lt Col C Phare CD Lt Col TEC MacKay CD Lt Col B Plourde CD AdeC

2003–2005 2005–2009 2009–2013 2013–2016 2016–2017 2017–2020

Lt Col F Roy CD

2020–present

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APPENDIX E29

REGIMENTAL SERGEANTS MAJOR 1875–1953

RSM RG Foster 1875–1877 RSM J Fraser 1877–1884 RSM RP Niven 1884–1886 RSM H Snelling 1886–1887 RSM R Allan 1887–1889 RSM RP Niven 1889–1894 RSM J Currie 1894–1898 RSM TA Gardiner 1898–1905 RSM DA Bethune 1905–1915 RSM RJ Hillier 1915–1921 RSM W Chalmers 1921–1923 RSM N Osborne 1923–1926 RSM J Crichton 1926–1928 RSM G Smith 1928–1932 RSM P Mein 1932–1936 RSM AE Ovenden 1936–1938 RSM L Powell 1938–1942 RSM GP Morrison 1942–1945 RSM D Bleasdale 1945–1946 RSM RNC Diplock 1946–1947 RSM AF Turnbull 1947–1949 RSM RA Dynes 1949–1952 RSM RA Ablett 1952–1953

386

Appendix E

REGIMENTAL PIPE MAJORS 1876–1953 Pipe Major D Weir 1876–1879 Pipe Major J Duncan 1879–1880 Pipe Major J Matheson 1881–1897 Pipe Major D Manson 1897–1907 Pipe Major W Johnson 1907–1913 Pipe Major J Aikman 1913–1914 Pipe Major A Grey 1915–1919 Pipe Major JW Dyce 1919–1920 Pipe Major N Sinclair 1920–1923 Pipe Major W Johnson 1923–1932 Pipe Major JS Williamson 1932–1939 Pipe Major R Hannah 1939–1947 Pipe Major FG Hinton 1947–1951 Pipe Major WJ Hannah 1951–1953

SERGEANTS MAJORS 1864–1915 Name James W Muirhead James Fraser Robert G Foster H Snelling RP Niven (1st term) Robert Allan RP Niven (2nd term) John Currie Thomas A Gardiner Donald A Bethune

Date of Appointment c.1864 to c.1870 8 February 1876 10 April 1880 (left hand battalion) 17 June 1881 8 May 1884 (temporary) 13 June 1884 (permanent) 25 September 1884 9 May 1887 19 December 1889 19 November 1894 14 July 1898 1 February 1905

Dates of Service 1862–1871 1876–1881 1881–1884 1884 1884–1887 1887–1889 1889–1894 1894–1899 1898–1905 1905–1915

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387

APPENDIX F

THE BLACK WATCH REGIMENTAL COLOURS: 1862–2009

The presentation of new Colours to The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in November 2009 by the Colonel-in-Chief, HRH Charles, Prince of Wales, marked the seventh occasion when the Regiment has received stands of colours. The Regiment traces its origins to the Montreal Highland Rifle Company (1827) and the Montreal Light Infantry (1837); both units amalgamated with the 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal (1862, Lt Col HL Routh). The 5th “Royals” is the first formation in the Watch’s long history to receive a stand of colours. The Regimental Colours include presentations in Europe to two Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) battalions immediately after the First World War and the two regular battalions in 1962. This is a brief chronological review of the Regimental occasions when colours were presented, beginning with the 19th century.

The 1862 Colours ●

The first Regimental Colours were presented to the 5th Battalion, The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal on 11 October 1862 by Lady Monck, the wife of Canada’s Governor General. The parade was held at Logan’s Farm.30

●

The regiment became the 5th Battalion Royal Scots of Canada in 1884; when the 5th Royal Scots were upgraded to Regimental status (a two battalion unit) in 1906, the colours were shared by both battalions.31

●

Dispatched to 13th Battalion in Europe, 1918; never uncased.

●

The 1862 colours were carried by the Regiment for fifty years.

●

They were laid up in 1912 and now hang in the chancel of the regimental church, The Church of St Andrew and St Paul.32

388

Appendix F

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The 1862 Colours, “The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal” The 1912 Colours – Destroyed in Armoury Fire ●

The Colours were presented to the 5th Regiment, Royal Highlanders of Canada (or RHC, the new title for the 5th Royal Scots) on 1 June 1912 at Fletcher’s Field by the Governor General, Field Marshal HRH the Duke of Connaught.33

●

These colours were dispatched to 42nd Battalion in 1918; but never uncased.

●

The 1912 Colours returned to Montreal but were tragically destroyed in a fire at the Bleury Street Armoury on 4 March 1950.

The 1912 Colours, “5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch)”

390

|

Appendix F

The 1919 Colours ●

At the end of The Great War, the 13th and 42nd Battalions requested the 1862 and 1912 Colours be sent overseas.34

●

Lt Col Cantlie and the commanding officer of the 13th Battalion (Lt Col Sinclair) determined that the 1862 Colours were too frail to parade. Concurrently, Lt Col Ewing of the 42nd Battalion CEF decided that the 1912 Colours were not truly representative, and as a result, new Colours were ordered for both units.35

●

The 13th’s Colours were presented on 4 January 1919 at Schloss Ereshoven, Germany by Major HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught (son of the Duke of Connaught who bestowed the 1912 Colours).

●

The 42nd’s Colours were presented on 29 January 1919 at Nechin, France by Major General Sir Frederick Loomis, a Black Watch officer and commander of the 3rd Canadian Division.

●

Initially, there were three Black Watch combat battalions in the Canadian Expeditionary Force: the 13th the 42nd and the 73rd. The latter was reduced to nil strength and used as much needed Corps reinforcements shortly after the Battle of Vimy Ridge. A fourth overseas battalion, The 20th Reserve Battalion, RHC was stationed in England throughout.36

●

After the war, Colonel GS Cantlie (Honorary Colonel of the 1st Battalion RHC) donated a King’s Colour to 2nd Battalion.37 The 1919 Colours were laid up at the Regimental Church in 1922.38

●

In 1921, a King’s Colour was issued to all Canadian regiments for each battalion that served overseas.

The 1919 Colours, “13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) CEF”

390

Appendix F

| 391

The 1919 Colours, “42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) CEF”

The 1919 King’s Colour, “73rd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) CEF” The 1931 Colours ●

Presented on 28 May 1931 by Governor General Lord Bessborough at Molson Stadium, McGill University, in Montreal.39

●

The regiment’s name had been changed in 1930 to The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada.40

●

When the Second World War broke out, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were mobilized and the 1st served overseas as part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division.41

●

The 1912 and 1931 Colours remained at the Regimental Armoury in Montreal throughout the war.

392

| Appendix F

●

In 1946, the Black Watch establishment was reduced to one battalion and the 1931 Colour of the 2nd Battalion were laid up at the regimental church.

●

When the armoury fire destroyed the 1912 Colours, the 1931 Colours were removed from custody of the church and paraded until 1962 when they were again laid up.

The 1931 Colours, “2nd Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada”

The two Montreal battalions had but one set of Colours — those presented in 1912, which had replaced the original “1862 Colours”. The new Colours were presented to the 2nd Battalion on 28 May 1931. The “1912 Colours” reverted exclusively to the 1st Battalion RHC; both were kept in the Officers’ Mess.

The 1962 Colours ●

The 1st and 2nd Canadian Highland Battalions (a composite of companies from various Militia highland regiments) were raised in 1951 and 1952. In 1953, these units were re-designated as 1st and 2nd Battalions of The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada; the Militia Battalion in Montreal was re-designated the 3rd Battalion.

●

Initially, the 1st and 2nd Battalions had no Colours and the 3rd Battalion continued to use the 1931 Colours.

●

On 9 June 1962, HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, presented three sets of Colours to: 1st Battalion RHC; a detachment of the 2nd Battalion RHC (in Germany, on NATO duty) and the 3rd Battalion RHC, at Molson Stadium.42

●

In 1970, the 1st and 2nd Regular Force Battalions were reduced to nil strength and their Colours were laid up in the Regimental Church.

●

In 2010 the 3rd Battalion’s 1962 Regimental Colour was laid up in the Regimental Church.

Appendix F

| 393

The 1962 Colours, “1st Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada”

The 1962 Colours, “2nd Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada”

The 1962 Colours, “3rd Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada”

394

| Appendix F

The 1974 Queen’s Colour ●

In 1972, the Army Council decreed that the Canadian flag would replace the Great Union flag as the Monarch’s Colour.

●

Consequently, HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, presented the new Queen’s Colour at CFB St Hubert, Montreal on 25 June 1974.

●

The 1962 Queen’s Colour was laid up in the Regimental Church.

The 1974 Queen’s Colour, “The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada” The 1987 Trooping the Colours ●

6 June 1987: The Regiment Trooped the Colours before HM The Queen Mother at Molson Stadium, Montreal.

The 2009 Colours ●

On 10 November 2009, new Regimental Colours were presented by the Colonel-in-Chief, His Royal Highness Prince Charles, at the Black Watch Armoury.

●

This marked a long-awaited and historic occasion for the Regiment. The Black Watch had not hosted its Colonel-in-Chief for 22 years.

Appendix F

| 395

The 2009 Colours, “The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada” Regimental Church – The Laid Up Colours The Black Watch Colours are deposited for safe custody in the Regimental Church Sanctuary:43 ●

The Monarch’s Colours on the East wall

●

The Regimental Colours on the West wall

Order of Colours (North to South) a. The Chancel: ●

The 1862 Regimental Colour

5th Battalion Royal Light infantry

●

The 1919 Regimental Colour

13th Battalion CEF

●

The 1919 Regimental Colour

42nd Battalion CEF

●

The 1931 Regimental Colour

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada

●

The 1962 Regimental Colour

1st (Regular) RHR Battalion

●

The 1962 Regimental Colour

2nd (Regular) RHR Battalion

●

The 1962 Regimental Colour

3rd (Militia) RHR Battalion

b. The Nave: ●

The 1862 Monarch’s Colour

5th Battalion Royal Light infantry

●

The 1919 Monarch’s Colour

13th Battalion CEF

●

The 1919 Monarch’s Colour

42nd Battalion CEF

●

The 1919 Monarch’s Colour

73rd Battalion CEF (King’s Colour Only)

●

The 1931 Monarch’s Colour

The Black Watch (RHR) of Canada

396

| Appendix F

●

The 1962 Queen’s Colour

1st (Regular) RHR Battalion

●

The 1962 Queen’s Colour

2nd (Regular) RHR Battalion

●

The 1962 Queen’s Colour

3rd (Militia) RHR Battalion

●

The 1974 Queen’s Colour

The Black Watch RHR of Canada

Notes re Correct position of Laid Up Colours: In a Church the King’s Colour should be placed on the right side of the Altar as you face the congregation [emphasis added]; similarly, in a hall, on the right side of the speaker or chairman, as he faces the audience, i.e., you must regard it not from the point of view of the audience, but from the point of view of a person facing the audience. The King’s Colour should rest on the right shoulder of the person carrying it. Sir Gerald W Wollaston KCB KCVO, King of Arms and Inspector General of Regimental Colours I am informed that the position is reversed in the Church of St Andrew and St Paul.44 Marginal note re the above, addressed to PPH from MM.

Appendix Varia ●

Colours are always carried by lieutenants and escorted by a warrant officer class II and two sergeants.

●

Prior to 1931, the two Militia battalions in Montreal were represented by one set of Colours (The King’s or Queen’s Colour and the Regimental Colour) in common – thereafter in principle, each battalion of the Regiment has had its own set of Colours.

APPENDIX G

HONOURS AND AWARDS

THE GREAT WAR, 1914–1918

13th Battalion, The Royal Highlanders of Canada VICTORIA CROSS Lance Corporal Frederick Fisher Lance Sergeant Herman J Good Private John B Croak Lieutenant Colonel WH Clark-Kennedy Lieutenant Milton F Gregg KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE BATH Major General Sir FOW Loomis COMPANION OF THE ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE Major General Sir FOW Loomis Brigadier General GE McCuaig Lieutenant Colonel WH Clark-Kennedy COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Lieutenant Colonel ER Brown DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER AND BAR Major General Sir FOW Loomis Lieutenant Colonel WH Clark-Kennedy

397

Brigadier General GE McCuaig Lieutenant Colonel KM Perry

398

| Appendix G DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER Lieutenant Colonel VC Buchanan Lieutenant Colonel TS Morrisey Major FS Mathewson Major EE Graham Captain HM Wallis

Lieutenant Colonel AG Cameron Lieutenant Colonel IMR Sinclair Major DR McCuaig Captain HA Johnston Lieutenant WDC Christie

OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Major J Jeffery Major WJ Taylor MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Captain GWR Simpson MILITARY CROSS AND BAR Major WE Macfarlane Lieutenant WF McGovern

Lieutenant JE Christie Lieutenant MF Gregg

MILITARY CROSS Lieutenant Colonel JH Lovett Lieutenant Colonel IMR Sinclair Major EE Graham Major J Jeffery Major JD Macpherson Captain E Appleby Captain JB Beddome Captain GW Brown Captain RL Calder Captain HH Chanter Captain HA Cochrane Captain RM Hebden Captain RE Heaslip Captain HA Johnston Captain CD Llwyd Captain W S M MacTier Captain CB Pitblado Captain AJ Plant Captain FS Stowell Captain HM Wallis Lieutenant AW Aitchison Lieutenant KG Blackader Lieutenant ML Brady Lieutenant DL Carstairs Lieutenant PE Corbett Lieutenant LC Drummond Lieutenant WE Dunning Lieutenant JR Ferguson Lieutenant WE Foxen Lieutenant WG Hamilton Lieutenant WT Hornby Lieutenant OB Krenchel Lieutenant J Lothian Lieutenant AN Sclater RSM F Butler DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL AND BAR Lieutenant W M Jones Sergeant FWD Sorby

RSM F Butler

Appendix G DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL Lieutenant RC Bigland Lieutenant JF MacLean CSM F Ableson CSM CA Bulloch CSM CFE Hall CSM FV Spencer Sergeant WS Blyth Sergeant WA Cooper Sergeant C Doolittle Sergeant FT Fraser Sergeant R Hooton Sergeant VT Keough Sergeant E Latour Sergeant EJ Moore Sergeant D Simard Sergeant SEB Young Lance Sergeant A Fernie Corporal SB Edwards Private J Boutilier Private JB Burnett Private C Hopton

Private C Raine

Lieutenant OB Krenchel RSM T Sim CSM EC Brown CSM E Evans CSM N Osborne CSM G Watson Sergeant P Bowman Sergeant H Davis Sergeant H Fox Sergeant W Hannaford Sergeant T Imrie Sergeant D Larmour Sergeant A McLeod Sergeant WC Morrison Sergeant L Woodward Lance Sergeant JG Dickie Lance Sergeant P Way Corporal A McWade Private JM Buick Private H Danson Private J Junor

MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL RQMS C Millward CQMS AH McGeagh CSM DH Strutt Sergeant JA Ayling Sergeant DS Fraser Sergeant W Ganson Sergeant F Jennings Sergeant AG Ovenden Sergeant GE Wright Acting Sergeant W MacArthur Lance Corporal JC Sanders Private WR Burden Private FW Pyke MILITARY MEDAL AND BAR Lieutenant JS Buchanan Lieutenant W Hamilton Lieutenant FL Hayden Sergeant CH Camm Sergeant G Dunmore Sergeant JA Glazebrook Sergeant W Hannaford Sergeant WPC Kelly Sergeant MH Mills Corporal JM Forbes Corporal CC Smith Private P Costello Private WE Trumper

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| Appendix G MILITARY MEDAL Captain E Appleby Lieutenant TG Crosley Lieutenant WT Hornby Lieutenant WI Ibbot Lieutenant D Stevenson CSM CFE Hall CSM R Sandford Sergeant LFP Bell Sergeant OG Burtt Sergeant J Davey Sergeant JO Davis Sergeant A French Sergeant AA Harper Sergeant JA Houston Sergeant WW Ireland Sergeant W McDonald Sergeant AL McKenzie Sergeant G Millar Sergeant WA Parsons Sergeant FG Petrie Sergeant J Robertson Sergeant J Ross Sergeant D Simard Sergeant BK Sweeney Sergeant R Wale Sergeant HR Wall Sergeant JE Westerman Sergeant L Woodward Lance Sergeant J Craig Lance Sergeant W Hogarth Lance Sergeant T Saunders Corporal W Best Corporal FG Caldicott Corporal J Given Corporal WS Hampson Corporal WH Hill Corporal M Lincoln Corporal JN Montgomerie Corporal C Morrison Corporal WJ Paul Corporal H Rearden

Lieutenant J Bonner Lieutenant MR DeLaurier Lieutenant PD Hoskins Lieutenant HG Lawton CSM H Gardner CSM CA Legros Sergeant K Armstrong Sergeant WS Blyth Sergeant A Cartwright Sergeant H Davis Sergeant A Dunlop Sergeant T Graham Sergeant DJ Hingley Sergeant E Hughes Sergeant V Jenkins Sergeant JT McGuire Sergeant JF McLean Sergeant TC Newnham Sergeant A Petrie Sergeant AJ Potter Sergeant H Robson Sergeant NA Shields Sergeant GC Stronge Sergeant AD Traill Sergeant FJ Walker Sergeant W Ward Sergeant HW Williamson Sergeant EG Wright Lance Sergeant R Haxton Lance Sergeant WHA Preddy Corporal RO Atkins Corporal RE Breckon Corporal GT Cowan Corporal CA Goodwillie Corporal MW Heckbert Corporal FA Jowett Corporal JH Mcintrye Corporal C Morison Corporal J Nicholson Corporal CA Randell Corporal DW Ross

Appendix G Corporal CT Tranter Corporal RN Watts Lance Corporal R Bell Lance Corporal E Cunningham Lance Corporal PB Gamble Lance Corporal E Gyde Lance Corporal WD Love Lance Corporal C Oakley Lance Corporal JR Watts Private A Addison Private A Anderson Private JH Barbour Private W Beauparlant Private F Bridcott Private GA Brown Private JM Buick Private B Collett Private T Cowhey Private J Crawford Private TJ Crowley Private AW Davis Private SR Duffy Private E Elston Private A Gibbon Private J Grant Private A Grossart Private LA Higgs Private FH Hutchinson Private DF Jamie Private RJ Jones Private E Keefe Private ME Kettredge Private J Land Private C Lewis Private H Linton Private M MacDonald Private JG McArthur Private JS McLeod Private L Miron Private S Nelles Private S Peacock Private W Phillips

Corporal J Tupper Lance Corporal CR Bampton Lance Corporal E Colpitts Lance Corporal A Florence Lance Corporal D Guyer Lance Corporal W LeBlanc Lance Corporal D McKerrow Lance Corporal WF Somerville Lance Corporal ZM Wynn Private JWL Allen Private R Anderson Private AE Barnes Private F Borden Private F Brogan Private R Brown Private A Clarendon Private A Cook Private AW Crawford Private T Crawford Private JC Davies Private JE Dettmann Private JO Eddie Private L Ferguson Private G Gill Private HC Gray Private E Hest Private C Hornor Private R Jack Private RB Jamieson Private J Junor Private GM Kelly Private DA Kyle Private FW Lee Private CG Lewis Private AJ MacDonald Private J MacKenzie Private JB McKay Private GB McPherson Private A Muise Private FT Olsen Private WM Peterkin Private CA Pockock

| 401

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| Appendix G Private J Ryan Private JJ Seagram Private J Stafford Private C Thompson Private J Thornton Private CW Wheaton Private HG Wills Private D Woods

Private R Young

Private GR Sage Private H Seivewright Private WJ Stonard Private L Thompson Private JD Tough Private JJ Williams Private L Wood Private CMB Wright

OFFICER OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR (FRANCE) Major General Sir FOW Loomis CROIX DE GUERRE (FRANCE) Major General Sir FOW Loomis Lieutenant Colonel WH Clark-Kennedy CSM F Ableson MEDAILLE MILITAIRE (FRANCE) Lieutenant WC Pearce COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF LEOPOLD (BELGIUM) Major General Sir FOW Loomis CROIX DE GUERRE (BELGIUM) CSM E Evans Sergeant H Copeman

CSM GP Morrison Sergeant DK Miller

SILVER MEDAL FOR MILITARY VALOUR (ITALY) Sergeant S Chandler ORDER OF THE RISING SUN (JAPAN) Lieutenant Colonel TS Morrisey WAR CROSS (CZECHOSLOVAKIA) Lieutenant Colonel TS Morrisey MEDAL OF ST, GEORGE, 1ST CLASS (RUSSIA) Corporal JJ Campbell MEDAL OF ST GEORGE, 2ND CLASS (RUSSIA) Lieutenant J Johnston MEDAL OF ST GEORGE, 3RD CLASS (RUSSIA) Sergeant A McLeod

Appendix G MEDAL OF ST GEORGE, 4M CLASS (RUSSIA) Sergeant R Key

Private FJ Reid

MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES Officers Other Ranks

56 24

NAMES BROUGHT TO NOTICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR Officers Other Ranks

2 24

42nd Battalion, The Royal Highlanders of Canada VICTORIA CROSS Lieutenant T Dinesen COMPANION OF THE ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE Lieutenant Colonel H Molson COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Lieutenant Colonel SM Bosworth DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER AND BAR Lieutenant Colonel RLH Ewing DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER Lieutenant Colonel GS Cantlie Lieutenant Colonel B McLennan Lieutenant Colonel SC Norsworthy Lieutenant Colonel HC Walkem Major GGD Kilpatrick Major ER Pease Major WG Peterson Major CB Topp Major R Willcock OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Lieutenant Colonel W Bovey Lieutenant Colonel EC Weyman Major GL MacGillivray MILITARY CROSS AND BAR Major SJ Mathewson Major CB Topp Major R Willcock Captain WA Grafftey Captain W Hale Captain JBT Montgomerie Captain HB Trout Lieutenant JW Cave Lieutenant JM Morris

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| Appendix G MILITARY CROSS Lieutenant Colonel RLH Ewing Lieutenant Colonel SC Norsworthy Captain SG Baldwin Captain OB Jones Captain CS Martin Captain LC Montgomery Captain JC Stewart Lieutenant AE Andrews Lieutenant LG Black Lieutenant T Cowing Lieutenant FC Gillingwater Lieutenant WJM Kavanagh Lieutenant JK Matheson Lieutenant M McLaren Lieutenant EA Robinson Lieutenant JTL Shum

Lieutenant Colonel H Molson Major EB Finley Captain JK Beveridge Captain JD MacLeod Captain J McNaughton Captain HM Scott Captain RF Studd Lieutenant LH Biggar Lieutenant MT Cohen Lieutenant JT Downey Lieutenant JAP Haydon Lieutenant DB Macaskill Lieutenant R McIntyre Lieutenant WH Molson Lieutenant WG Scott RSM J Page

DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL AND BAR Captain OB Jones DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL Lieutenant P Ackerley RSM PW MacFarlane RSM J Page CSM JL Davies CSM W Fitzgerald CSM J Jessop CSM GW Kennedy CSM GT Riddell Sergeant HVA Bealer Sergeant J Bullock Sergeant E Greaves Sergeant CA Owston Sergeant C Trowse Sergeant J Wardleworth Sergeant J Williamson Sergeant RE Young Corporal J Dow Corporal GJ Franklin Corporal W Thompson Lance Corporal AJ Hodge Lance Corporal WJ Taylor Private J Kiely Private CL Myles Private KA Ritchie Private WJ Russell MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL RSM K Matheson CQMS J Bain Sergeant A Cooper Sergeant J Grier Sergeant EG Hill

CSM JT Jones CQMS LF Carter Sergeant CF Foster Sergeant G Hay Sergeant JJ Hugg

Appendix G Sergeant RC McPhail Sergeant HE Trafford Corporal JJ Dolan Lance Corporal GF Flack

Sergeant P Smith Sergeant TJ White Corporal WG Gallow Private A Orr

MILITARY MEDAL AND TWO BARS CSM G Smith

Private LP Smardon

MILITARY MEDAL AND BAR Lieutenant T Cowing Lieutenant JT Lush Lieutenant L Morrison CSM EW Hopkins Sergeant W Beswetherick Corporal G Smith Lance Corporal MR Comba Lance Corporal FRR Lambier Lance Corporal S MacDonald Lance Corporal CA Myles Lance Corporal JA Vogel Lance Corporal JA Ward Private DJ MacDonald Private A MacSwain Private A Maquard MILITARY MEDAL Captain JBT Montgomerie Lieutenant JRF Aldridge Lieutenant H Hamer Lieutenant AB Proven RSM K Matheson CSM GW Kennedy CSM P Mein CQSM G Wakeling Sergeant WP Adams Sergeant HVA Bealer Sergeant J Brown Sergeant FO Chatham Sergeant H Conlan Sergeant A Ferguson Sergeant OJ Fetterly Sergeant JJ Gibson Sergeant E Greaves Sergeant J Grier Sergeant JL Herron Sergeant W Jamieson Sergeant N MacTavish Sergeant AR McEwen Sergeant CA Owston

Captain W Webb Lieutenant HE Cook Lieutenant R McIntyre Lieutenant EA Robinson CSM JL Davies CSM R Kennedy CSM W Westwood Sergeant D Adamson Sergeant D Allan Sergeant WA Brewer Sergeant AE Chase Sergeant H Clark Sergeant EL Cuvelier Sergeant J Ferguson Sergeant AG Fordham Sergeant J Gray Sergeant J Grevy Sergeant EA Hammond Sergeant J Hunter Sergeant WJ Kingman Sergeant H Matthews Sergeant WR Morton Sergeant WE Reed

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| Appendix G Sergeant JH Roscoe Sergeant AE Smith Sergeant R Tank Sergeant H Wager Lance Sergeant A Ferguson Lance Sergeant A King Lance Sergeant C Moore Corporal WR Baird Corporal WR Bird Corporal HF Fraser Corporal A Gibson Corporal A Grimond Corporal EL Hosking Corporal R Lewison Corporal W Loughleen Corporal W Manley Corporal KL MacMillan Corporal T Odell Lance Corporal JJ Andrews Lance Corporal A Brown Lance Corporal MJ Duggan Lance Corporal AJ Hodge Lance Corporal AD Kennedy Lance Corporal AS MacKay Lance Corporal C Oakes Lance Corporal RC Zinck Private JVH Bellers Private F Burgess Private WH Condren Private J Docherty Private PW Ducharme Private W Elliott Private D Ferguson Private AP Gater Private A Glen Private WD Gould Private SM Greenlaw Private GF Hatherill Private FH Hopley Private MT Jackson Private J Kiely Private AE Lainson

Sergeant H Rowland Sergeant FR Studholme Sergeant GW Thompson Sergeant WW Wilson Lance Sergeant EG Jupe Lance Sergeant GD Little Lance Sergeant A Sutton Corporal WH Barron Corporal MH Drury Corporal J Freeman Corporal RA Giles Corporal J Hicks Corporal WD Leithead Corporal MG Lippingwell Corporal J Maddison Corporal NB MacKinnon Corporal F McKeown Corporal AW Plowe Lance Corporal JB Aspin Lance Corporal W Brown Lance Corporal FH Emo Lance Corporal RR Johnson Lance Corporal F Lambert Lance Corporal WJ McPhee Lance Corporal WJ Taylor Private W Baker Private JV Brandon Private WS Cassidy Private JE Craig Private G Doig Private AB Dunsmore Private E Fairbairn Private J Forrester Private JF Gates Private MLE Gordon Private GH Gray Private JB Hamilton Private W Hobbs Private BS Jackes Private WT Jackson Private G King Private HC Lavis

Appendix G Private R Lebuffe Private EA Loveridge Private AW Mason Private J McClymont Private E M McKenzie Private JS Murphy Private JD Neafsey Private V Papps Private A Reynolds Private EE Robinson Private WJ Russell Private H Stapley Private A Stillie Private J Urquhart Private EC Walters Private WD Whitehead

Private A Yeudall

Private AW Leslie Private A MacLean Private JH Mavor Private D McDonald Private A McNeill Private T Murphy Private E O’Brien Private RC Reid Private J Rintoul Private G Rose Private FC Stapley Private F Symmonds Private AW Taylor Private J Waldvogel Private C White Private JE Williams

CHEVALIER OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR (FRANCE) Lieutenant Colonel RLH Ewing CROIX DE GUERRE (FRANCE) Lieutenant MK Craig Sergeant C Trowse

Lieutenant T Dinesen Sergeant J Williamson Sergeant FL Wilson

MEDAILLE MILITAIRE (FRANCE) Private CL Myles MEDAILLE DE LA RECONNAISSANCE, 3RD CLASS (FRANCE) Lieutenant Colonel W Bovey MEDAILLE D’HONNEUR AVEC GLAIVES (FRANCE) Captain AJ DeLotbiniere CROIX DE GUERRE (BELGIUM) RSM J Page

Sergeant JU Haslett

ORDER OF ST ANNE, 2ND CLASS, WITH SWORDS (RUSSIA) Lieutenant Colonel EC Weyman CROSS OF ST GEORGE (RUSSIA) Private J Cameron

Private J Waldvogel

Private SW Johnson

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| Appendix G MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES Officers Other Ranks

22 12

NAMES BROUGHT TO NOTICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR Officers Other Ranks

7 2

73rd Battalion, The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Some names listed below also appear in either the 13th RHC or the 42nd RHC list if the 73rd RHC recipient later served with the other battalion) DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER Lieutenant Colonel JHI Brown Lieutenant Colonel ND Perry Lieutenant Colonel HC Sparling Major A Grant Major JA McEwan Major WG Peterson Major HP Stanley OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Major JM Bell MILITARY CROSS AND BAR Captain FF Worthington

Lieutenant GA Birks

MILITARY CROSS Major HW Morgan Captain HH Chanter Captain GS McLennan Captain HS Pedley Captain B Simpson Lieutenant T Cowing Lieutenant J Griffiths Lieutenant HP MacGregor

Captain FR Alford Captain JH Christie Captain AH Morphy Captain HM Scott Lieutenant PE Corbett Lieutenant WE Dunning Lieutenant JAP Haydon Lieutenant VW MacLean

DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL CSM W Fitzgerald Sergeant GG Webster Sergeant SEB Young Corporal CA Patriquin Private D Marrs Private C Raine

Sergeant W Hannaford Sergeant RE Young Corporal R MacLachlan Private J Junor Private RJ Newton Private WJ Russell

Appendix G MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL Lieutenant LN Conran-Smith Sergeant F Carter Sergeant A Chalmers Sergeant F Jennings Sergeant JD Kennedy Sergeant GH Moule Sergeant AG Ovenden Lance Corporal JC Sanders Private GM McKie MILITARY MEDAL AND TWO BARS CSM G Smith MILITARY MEDAL AND BAR Captain FF Worthington Lieutenant T Cowing Lieutenant FL Hayden CSM EW Hopkins Sergeant W Hannaford Corporal CC Smith Lance Corporal DJ Finlayson Private A McCaughey

Lieutenant JS Buchanan Lieutenant W Hamilton Lieutenant JT Lush Sergeant CH Camm Corporal J Munnoch Lance Corporal MR Comba Lance Corporal F Lambier Private DA McDonald

MILITARY MEDAL Captain W Webb Lieutenant HG Lawton RQMS R Wayne CSM J Reid CQMS HM Pope Sergeant K Armstrong Sergeant AE Chase Sergeant HJ Chenier Sergeant RS Dening Sergeant J Grevy Sergeant JL Herron Sergeant J Houston Sergeant G Millar Sergeant GJ McCarthy Sergeant GW Ormandy Sergeant WE Reed Sergeant A Stewart Sergeant H Wager Sergeant HF Walker Corporal JP Craven Corporal JR Duncan

Lieutenant MR Delaurier Lieutenant RF Sampson CSM AE Green CQMS RJ Hamilton Sergeant AM Anderson Sergeant F Brogan Sergeant FO Chatham Sergeant J Davey Sergeant A Ferguson Sergeant R Haxton Sergeant W Hogarth Sergeant CH Jack Sergeant J MacDonell Sergeant J Oliver Sergeant WHA Preddy Sergeant CS Savage Sergeant T Stewart Sergeant RS Wale Sergeant HR Wall Corporal E Cunningham Corporal CA Goodwillie

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| Appendix G Corporal A Grimond Corporal NB MacKinnon Corporal JH McIntyre Corporal E O’Brien Corporal CA Patriquin Lance Corporal AH Clifford Lance Corporal C Jackson Lance Corporal D MacDonald Lance Corporal RD McLachlan Lance Corporal WD Love Private W Baker Private AA Chapman Private J Conway Private HR Cummings Private J Docherty Private D Ferguson Private AP Gater Private CT Horner Private DF Jamie Private HA Johnson Private J Junor Private J Kellett Private TH McElroy Private HG Mercer Private WN Peterkin Private WF Puttick Private WJ Russell Private J Stafford Private T Thomson Private JD Tough Private CW Wheaton Private HG Wills

Corporal J Hicks Corporal W McInnes Corporal C Morrison Corporal P O’Dell Corporal H Rearden Lance Corporal AM Florence Lance Corporal OL James Lance Corporal AS MacKay Lance Corporal WJ McPhee Private GN Argue Private GA Brown Private GG Condie Private T Cowhey Private S Di-Gregoris Private G Doig Private J Forrester Private A Glen Private JD Humble Private RB Jamieson Private RJ Jones Private E Keefe Private F Manchip Private H McNeil Private S Peacock Private W Pollard Private G Rose Private H Seivewright Private FC Stapley Private J Thornton Private EC Walters Private JJ Williams Private A Yeudall

CROIX DE GUERRE (FRANCE) Lieutenant MK Craig CROIX DE GUERRE (BELGIUM) Sergeant DK Miller BRONZE MEDAL FOR VALOUR (ITALY) Private GR Huxtable

Appendix G CROSS OF ST GEORGE (RUSSIA) Private V Chranofsky Private SW Johnson Private N Kolomecha Private H McDonald Private JT Miron MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES Officers, Other Ranks,

8 4

NAMES BROUGHT TO NOTICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR Officers, Other Ranks,

2 1

Regimental Personnel with 24th Battalion, Victoria Rifles of Canada (Partial list in Regimental records) COMPANION OF THE ORDER OF ST MICHAEL AND ST GEORGE Colonel SW Watson DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER Colonel SW Watson Lieutenant Colonel RO Alexander Major ALS Mills MILITARY CROSS AND BAR Lieutenant W McMurray MILITARY CROSS Captain AM Dewar

Captain RH Lamb

MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL Sergeant JT Lawrence

| 411

APPENDIX H

THE GREAT WAR

Battalions raised by 5th Royal Highlanders circa 1914–1917 13th Bn RHC 3rd Cdn Inf Bde 1st Cdn Div CEF 1914–1919

42nd Bn RHC 7th Cdn Inf Bde 3rd Cdn Div CEF 1914–1919

73rd Bn RHC 12th Cdn Inf Bde 4th Cdn Div CEF 1915–1917

24th Bn CEF* 5th Cdn Inf Bde 2nd Cdn Div CEF 1914–1919

20th Res Bn RHC UK 1917–1919

* The Victoria Volunteer Rifles of Montreal (1862); designated the 3rd Regiment Victoria Rifles of Canada (1900); The 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), CEF, was authorized on 7 Nov 1914. Due to the success in recruiting the 13th Battalion, the 5th RHC was tasked to assist the newly authorized unit in recruiting 410 other ranks. Nine junior 5th RHC officers volunteered to serve in the “Vics” – initially the 2nd (Service) Battalion 3rd VRC and finally, the 24th Provisional Battalion (VRC). Clark-Kennedy commanded in 1918, winning a VC.

412

Appendix H

Black Watch Battles in The Great War

13th Bn RHC 3rd Cdn Inf Bde 1st Cdn Div CEF 1914–1919

42nd Bn RHC 7th Cdn Inf Bde 3rd Cdn Div CEF 1915–1919

73rd Bn RHC 12th Cdn Inf Bde 4th Cdn Div CEF 1915–1917

1915

Ypres Festubert

1916

Mt Sorrel Courcelette

Mt Sorrel Courcelette

Somme Ancre Heights

1917

Vimy Ridge Passchendaele

Vimy Ridge Passchendaele

Vimy Ridge45

1918

Amiens Damery Monchy le Preux Canal du Nord Mons

Amiens Damery Monchy le Preux Canal du Nord Mons46

Black Watch Battles, 1915–1918.

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APPENDIX I

BLACK WATCH RIFLE COMPANY AND PLATOON FORMATIONS

414

Appendix I

| 415

416

| Appendix I

APPENDIX J

REGIMENTAL HOMES 1862 to Present Day [Adapted from Earl John Chapman, Not Every One a Castle: Regimental Homes of Canada’s Black Watch, 1862–1906 (RHC: Montreal, 2008).]

The Bonsecours Market 1862–1869; 1872–1888 The two-story, domed public market opened in January 1847, with the City Concert Hall and an adjacent banquet hall added two years later. The Concert Hall, located on an “upper flat,” was an ideal location for holding large military drills as it was within easy marching distance to the parade ground on Craig Street – the Champ de Mars. The use of the Concert Hall was given free of charge to the Montreal volunteers, however they had to pay, out of their own pockets, to have special wood cupboards built to secure rifles and ammunition. Obtaining permission to use this hall was no small accomplishment as the market building was then being used as Montreal’s City Hall, and space was at a premium; it quickly became known as the “City Hall Armoury.” On 30 December 1861, the new-raising 5th Battalion VMR held its first drill parade in the Concert Hall, with a local newspaper reporting “a large number of men have already enlisted in this regiment, which promises to be amongst the strongest and most effective raised in the city.” At this time, they were simply a group of independent companies, without arms or uniforms, as the MGO regimenting these companies into a battalion would not be issued until 31 January 1862. Drilling in the Concert Hall was not altogether a happy experience, however, it would take another invasion threat from the United States, the 1866 Fenian Raid, to finally move the City Corporation (the old name for the Montreal City Council) to action by agreeing to build a large drill hall on Craig Street, opposite the Champ de Mars, large enough to house all of Montreal’s volunteer militia in one building.

417

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| Appendix J

Above: Bonsecours Market, Christmas Eve, 1870. Below: Bonsecours Market in 1922. Photos: McCord/ Canadian Illustrated News; City of Montreal Archives.

Appendix J

| 419

The First Craig Street Drill Hall 1869–1872 The first drill hall on Craig Street was opened in 1869. The property alone cost the city $55,000, a considerable sum in those days, with the federal government agreeing to pay for the building’s construction. The city would be responsible for the building’s lighting, heating, and maintenance costs, but the federal government agreed to offset these expenses by paying an annual rental fee back to the City Corporation. While the land was a former swamp (which would later complicate construction), it was in other respects an ideal site as the troops could march out of the drill hall, cross Craig Street, and be drilled outdoors on the Champ de Mars, weather permitting. The large structure, taking up an entire city block, featured one-story “wings” on either side of a central drill hall, with each wing sub-divided into separate apartments, one for each of Montreal’s volunteer artillery, cavalry and infantry regiments; a regiment’s location in the wing apartments was determined by its precedence on the Army List. The more senior 5th Military District regiments occupied the west wing apartments, the 6th District taking the east wing. Within each wing, the senior regiment occupied the apartment closest to Craig Street, with the next senior corps taking the adjacent apartment, and so on. Thus, in the west wing, the 1st Prince of Wales’ Rifles occupied the first apartment, followed by the 3rd Victoria Rifles, and then the 5th Royal Light Infantry. The large apartments served as both orderly room and armoury. On a bitter cold evening in January 1872, with only the fife and drum band of the 1st Prince of Wales’ Regiment practicing in their west wing apartment, the roof of the building came crashing down to the ground. Fortunately, the wing apartments escaped serious injury and “no damage was done to the immense number of rifles, accoutrements, and other Government property stowed in them.” Montreal’s volunteers were “literally out in the street,” and the City Corporation had no choice but to allow them back into the Bonsecours Market, once again setting up a potential conflict between the Market’s military and civilian tenants.

Craig Street Drill Hall shortly after the roof collapse, 1872. Canadian Illustrated News, 1872.

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| Appendix J

This interior view shows that the walls of the wing apartments have been shored up to prevent further damage. Canadian Illustrated News, 1872. The New Craig Street Drill Hall, 1888–1906 After some years, the City Corporation finally agreed to construct a brand-new drill hall at the same location on Craig Street. Its cornerstone was laid in May 1885, but it would take another three years for the building to be ready for occupancy. The new and improved drill hall would, not surprisingly, feature a stronger roof, with two-story “wings” replacing the former single-story versions. As per the previous arrangement, regimental precedence determined a regiment’s location in the wing apartments. Each regiment would have its orderly room on the upper level (with enough space to also serve as a recreation room), with its armoury located immediately below on the lower level. However, the upper and lower levels “did not communicate with one another” so that when going from armoury to recreation room, the men had to use a common staircase placed at each end of the building. By Spring 1888, the Montreal volunteers were finally able to move into their new quarters, once again happy to leave their less-than-desirable quarters in the Bonsecours Market, and the on-going squabbles with the civilian tenants and the Market Committee. The 5th Royals occupied their west wing apartments in the new Craig Street Drill Hall for eighteen years, from 1888 to 1906. As late as 1965, the building was still in use as a drill hall and gun shed for the Montreal Artillery. The following year, it was transformed into a provincial jail, thus ending the site’s 98-year association with the Montreal militia force. In 1971, the venerable Drill Hall was torn down to make room for the Ville Marie Expressway. However, its massive stone Canadian Coat of Arms (from a 1938 facelift) can now be seen in the park next to the Museum at the Longue-Pointe Garrison, off Hochelaga Street.

Appendix J

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Craig Street Drill Hall, 1895, clearly showing the two-story wing apartments. Photo: McCord A colour postcard of the Craig Street Drill Hall, ca. 1910. Photo: McCord

422

| Appendix J The “Castle on Bleury Street” 1906 to Present day

As the city grew, the Craig Street Drill Hall became too remote and in other ways had become inadequate. In June 1887, the 3rd Victoria Rifles opened their new armoury on Cathcart Street while other Montreal regiments, including the 5th Royal Scots, watched its successful completion with considerable interest, and perhaps envy. Finally, in 1905 the 5th petitioned the Department of Militia and Defence for permission to erect its own armoury (the more common name given to drill halls or sheds built at this time). The driving force behind the new project, Lieutenant Colonel John Carson, was eventually successful in obtaining a government grant of $58,430, the rest to be privately funded, in part, by the regiment’s wealthy friends. In keeping with the regiment’s Scottish heritage, the building’s distinctive stone Gothic Revival façade was designed to suggest a medieval “Scottish Baronial” castle, complete with imitation portcullis, and two semicircular towers (known as bartizans), all topped by the early heraldic crest of the 5th Royal Scots of Canada – a fitting new home for Montreal’s only Scottish regiment, and the senior Highland regiment in the Dominion of Canada. The cornerstone was laid on 22 December 1905 and construction progressed rapidly. A Regimental Order dated 27 September 1906 shows that the first drill parade was held on 4 October “at 8:15 p.m. sharp.” Its prominent location on a busy downtown street, coupled with its distinctive façade, quickly transformed the new building into a well-known local landmark, fondly known to Montrealer’s as “the castle on Bleury Street.” In the early hours of 4 March 1950, during a Montreal deep-freeze, a heartbreaking fire gutted the armoury, its cause never determined. Two senior officers, Lieutenant Colonels JW Knox and VE Traversy, rushed to the building in an effort to save the regimental colours, but found them still in their casing “lying smashed on the floor … the colours themselves a burning mass.” On 11 April, exactly 39 days after the fire, the regiment, 300 strong, marched back into its soot-blackened armoury; while much damage needed to be repaired, hopes were high that the building would be “as good as new” by the Fall of that year.

Black Watch Armoury, c.1910. Photo: BWA

422

Appendix J

Firemen cleaning up the gutted armoury, 1950. Photo: Montreal Gazette

| 423

APPENDIX K

INSIDE THE BLACK WATCH ARMOURY TODAY

The 1974 Queen’s Colour on the left, the 1962 3RHC Battalion Colours on the right, with stacked drums in front of the Officers’ Mess fireplace. These Colours were replaced in November 2009 when HRH Prince Charles presented new Colours. Photo: BWA, Museum 424

Appendix K

| 425

Above left: The Queen Mother’s portrait, now on the west wall, adorned the fireplace wall, always accompanied by two dozen red roses set in a monteith bowl, as shown; Above right: The fireplace, Officers’ Mess, enhanced by a portrait of RHR Prince Charles, Colonel-in-Chief of the Black Watch, appointed 2003; Below: north wall showing fireplace, Charles’s portrait flanked by honorary colonels of the Black Watch RHC.

Photos: BWA, Museum

426

| Appendix K

Above left: Officers’ Mess, looking SW, the “Presbyterian bar” in corner, added after Great War; Above right: CSM Gary Young, Steward and icon; Below: Quaich Cup. A standard symbol of RHC appreciation. This presented to LCol Plourde from Toronto BW Association.

Photos: BWA, Museum

Appendix K

Above: East Wall – Colours cabinet constructed by LCol Sewell. Norsworthy family donated portraits of two sons lost in Great War: Maj Edward Norsworthy, killed at Ypres and the youngest brother, Lt Alfred Norsworthy (left) – killed at Vimy. Four Norsworthy brothers went to war; Right: LCol Stanley Norsworthy, led 42nd at Vimy; arguably the best of RHC commanding officers.

| 427

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| Appendix K

Pipe Banners, mounted on the East wall of the Officers’ Mess, above the cabinet built by Lt Col WR Sewell to house the Regimental Colours. They are ordered by the CO (sometimes by Company Commanders), and affixed to the drones of the CO’s Piper when he visits. Traditionally, the banners are presented to the Mess upon retirement.

Painting of the 5th Royal Highlanders as the recently mobilized 13th Bn CEF, marching through the newly acquired Camp Valcartier, circa 1 September 1914. Led by a section of the Pipes and Drums, with CO, Lt Col Frederick Loomis, second-in-command, Maj Victor Buchanan, and the adjutant, Captain Eric McCuaig, whose older brother, Major Rykert McCuaig, is marching behind him, leading No1 Company. The portrait hangs on the East wall of the Officers’ Mess. By 2000, there was some debate if the painting portrayed Lt Col James Ross as CO, and Loomis, about to be appointed to command the 13th by Sam Hughes, marching behind. (Artist: Ben Taplin (1855–1925), 1915; Commissioned by the Regiment).

Appendix K

Cabinet near bar, Officers’ Mess, contains the treasured carvings of Regimental Sergeant Major Ivor Watkins.

A Centennial gift presented to the Officers’ Mess, depicting the New Colours Guard, inspired by the June 1962 Parade at Molson Stadium. It was sculpted by Ivor Watkins – a talented Second World War veteran who became RSM and commanded our Cadet Corps No. 2497.

The library / ante room – generally a refuge for the regiment’s subalterns. The road sign from the Ypres salient hangs on the wall, a souvenir brought back by the 13th Battalion RHC.

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Opposite top: The lost Inkstand. A gift to Imperial Black Watch by 5th Royal Scots, August 1914. The 1st Battalion Black Watch went to France but was overrun during retreat from Mons. Elkington’s Bank made enquiries in 1928. Col GS Cantlie, the only man left to explain the story, sorted it all out. The solid silver inkstand (two wells each with the 5th Royal Scots Boar’s Head symbol) now rests in The Black Watch Castle & Museum, Perth, Scotland. The photo was made by Elkingtons, the inscriptions read: To The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from its affiliated Regiment, The Royal Highlanders of Canada to commemorate the visit of the Officer Commanding The 42nd. Battalion of the Black Watch to Canada, on the occasion of The Presentation of New Colours to The Royal Highlanders of Canada, 1st June, 1912, the gift of the St. Andrew’s Society and Scottish Citizens of Montreal, and presented to The Regiment by H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, KG, KT, KP. [between the wells]

Post Scriptum added by the Regiment fifteen years later explaining the happy reunion, bottom front: This memento was to have been presented to The 42nd Battalion, The Black Watch, by The OC Royal Highlanders of Canada, during a visit to England in 1914. Owing to the outbreak of The Great War, and the departure of The 42nd Battalion for France, it was deposited in London, where it has remained in safe keeping until this date, 1st July, 1929.

Some of the Regimental silver in the Officer’s Mess. Top left to right: 1. Silver statute of a Waterloo Black Watch soldier – “Presented by the Royal Highland Regiment to the Royal Highlanders of Canada on its Centenary, 1962.” 2. “Montreal Field Battery, Camp Sports, Bayonet Exercises Competition, Open to City Corps, won by The 5th Royal Scots, June 30th, 1888.” 3. Silver statuette of the Aberfeldy monument in Perth, Scotland – “Presented to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Neil Methuen Ritchie, DSO, MC on his marriage, by his brother Officers in the Black Watch, Past and Present, 4th December, 1937.” 4. “1894, Green Cup, 5th Royal Scots of Canada, presented by the Gazette Printing Company. Winner J.E. Elliott.” 5. 5th Royal Scots “Rifle Association Challenge Cup to be competed for by Company” . First presented in 1887 won by “A” Company. Bottom left to right: 1. “Battalion Challenge Cup, Presented by, Lt. Colonel J.A.L. Strathy, A.D.C., For Annual Competition to be won by the Company passing the Best Annual Inspection” i.e. “The Strathy Cup.” 2. “The Jubilee Trophy, 1837-1887, subscribed for and shot for from the Montreal Garrison Artillery, 1st Prince of Wales Regiment, 3rd Victoria Rifles, 5th Royal Scots, 6th Fusiliers, 85th Battalion, Province of Quebec Rifle Association and the Montreal Rifle Association. Won by the 5th Bn Royal Scots of Canada with the total aggregate score of 2031 Points.” The team members are listed. 3. “1938, The Black Watch of Canada Regimental Inter Company Efficiency Cup for Perpetual Competition, Presented by Sir H Montagu Allan, CVO, ED, Honorary Colonel.”

Appendix K

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Above: The Order of The Rising Sun, 3rd Class. Colonel Montagu Allan entertained General Prince Fushimi Sadanaru at Ravenscrag. The future advisor to the Emperor they played cards into the early morning. Regimental tradition has it that after a particularly stimulating rubber, the Prince presented the Honorary Colonel with The Order of The Rising Sun. The decoration remains on display in the Mess amongst Sir Allan’s mementos.

The Vimy Cross, originally erected at Nine Elms, Vimy Ridge to commemorate the Officers and NCOs of the 13th Battalion RHC who were killed in action at the conquest of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 and buried near the vicinity of the cross.

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Appendix K

Selection of Regimental silver.

Left: Presentation to Black Watch RHC on occasion of 100 anniversary of 1862 colours from the parent regiment in Scotland.

The Aberfeldy Statuette, 1937 - gift to Gen Neil Ritchie on the occasion of his wedding.

Above: Plate presented to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by The Montreal battalion on the occasion of her 50th Anniversary as Colonelin-Chief of the Black Watch in 1987.

Appendix K

General Ritchie’s Tiger, presented to the regiment c. 1955 after Sir Neil Ritchie had retired to Canada and joined as a member of the BW Advisory Board.

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The Waterloo Bagpipes, 1815. Played by a piper of the 42nd Bn Royal Highlanders at that famous battle and presented to the Regiment by James M. Fraser in memory of his son, Major George C. Fraser, killed in action on 21 July 1944. Major Fraser’s swagger stick was presented by his son, Captain James Fraser, in 2004.

Ram’s Head Snuff Mull, 1875, one of four in the Officers’ Mess. The silver cup, set in the skull, contains snuff – served after the regimental dinner by an appointed subaltern; Utensils attached were used for serving, raking and, it is alleged to clean moustaches.

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The Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess, The Black Watch. Above: Lounge, facing north. Robbie Burns trophy at window. Below: Bar area, the RSM’s great chair in foreground. Right: Fraser cabinet. Photos: LCmdr P Ferst

Appendix K

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Band Room, a sacred area in the lower dungeons below the parade square. The bar area is bedecked with mementos and trophies and includes the horns of Flora MacDonald, the 13th Battalion’s goat from the Great War.

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The Junior Ranks’ Mess is also located in the armoury basement. The photos at the top show the Mess prior to renovations. The Mess, now known as the Red Hackle Club, was recently renovated (left and below), paid in large part by the mess itself.

Appendix K

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The Commanding Officer’s office is visited by Royalty and soldiers in trouble and few others. The Commanding Officer is reminded whenever he sits at the desk of the trust he holds for the wellbeing of the Regiment, as his predecessors from over 160 years peer down to pass judgement.

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On either side of square: Boards listing senior Regimental NCOs and Officers of the three battalions; the six metal plaques to RHC Victoria Cross recipients, and the city flags from the municipalities that awarded the Black Watch “the Freedom of the City”.

Looking East from the Officers’ Mess across parade square to the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess and balcony. Above the great door, the magnificent wooden plaques commemorating the Regimental Battle Honours from both world wars.

Facing SW from the balcony of the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess, showing front wall of the Armoury, Officers’ Mess balcony, the new front doors, and the boards, plaques and city flags that frame the parade square.

Appendix K

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In May 2012, the Regiment unveiled an enhanced collection of Regimental Boards. The oak tablets decorated three walls enhancing both the old bronze memorials and city banners beside the great gothic windows. Additional Plaques included the names of municipalities where RHC had been granted “Freedom of the City”. Photos: Merrettt, BWA

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These three boards are part of the Regimental Board collection. They are mounted on the West wall of the Armoury, to the left of the great doors. These boards list the Sergeants-Major and Regimental Commanding Officers, 1862–2015. The remainder are found to the right of the doors.

Appendix K

On 30 May 1932, General Sir Arthur Currie unveiled hefty brass tablets commemorating the Regiment’s six Victoria Cross winners. Four of the bearers were alive and invited to the ceremony: Dinesen, Good, Gregg and Clark-Kennedy.

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The Black Watch of Canada Regimental Museum. Pictured here in December 2012 after its reopening following extensive renovations and an overhaul of the exhibits – a project that was largely sponsored by DND’s Directorate of History and Heritage. The second phase of the modernization, including the installation of a climate control system, was initiated shortly thereafter but the project encountered numerous set-backs. The Museum entrance is guarded by the Perth Street Lamp c. 1860. This stood outside the barracks of the Imperial Black Watch in Perth. Purchased from the city by Major CR Trenholme of the Canadian Grenadier Guards, who presented it to the Black Watch in Montreal.

Notes Volume I, Appendices

1. Bold/Capitals indicate battle honours permitted emblazoned on Regimental Colours. 2. His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales KG KT GCB OM AK QSO PC ADC Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. 3. 1970 Col Bourne had to preside over the disbanding of the two regular battalions as the Canadian Army went through a period of re-organization. However, for administrative purposes, he remained as Colonel of the Regiment until the end of his term in 1973. 4. The Regular Force battalions did not appoint Honorary Lieutenant Colonels. 5. NAC RG8 Vol 797 C Series. Refs to Quebec Volunteers, Glengarry Light Infantry 23 July 1813; Glengarry Fencibles cited recruiting from Montreal and west of Montreal; a Highland Coy from Montreal raised during 1812. The Fencibles disbanded in Montreal 1816; status of Montreal Highland Rifle Coy confirmed parading c. 1827. See also, NAC, RG9, Rare Books, KEQ1053 A78 1821: “Abstract of the Militia Act at present in Force c. 1821” Quebec: 1821. RG9 correspondence, 28 May 1814; recruiting in Montreal for Fencibles “Lt William Campbell of the Royal Scots may be appointed to that company, who has already recruited several men towards his quota of fifty.” Two light regiments noted by Col Baynes (GOC, Militia Headquarters, Montreal), correspondence 14 February 1814: “Canadian Voltigeurs” and “Glengarry Light Infantry”. 6. Various titles: 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers / 5th Select Embodied Militia / the Fifth Battalion of the Militia. 7. LAC: Muster Rolls, Canadian Militia, 1837–50 (MG 13 WO13); “Montreal Light Infantry. 8. McGill, McCord archives. McCord Family Papers 1766–1945: Military, General 1819–1865 07543-0755; Box 739-773 “Montreal Light Infantry, 1838”; and, LAC RG9 Militia General Orders 1805–1846. Reels C1527-28; Vol 84 “Paylists, Independent Companies”; C3, C5; Of interest: Vol 84 “Montreal Light Infantry 1770–1811” – forerunner to Voltigeurs and Montreal Light Infantry; Vol 27 “Montreal Rifle Company 1823”; Vol 46 “7th Montreal Company 1835”, “7th Montreal Company 1839”; C1528 “Correspondence: Montreal Light Infantry, 1838”; Battalion sized, 1837 Rebellion. Incorporated 2/3 independent Coys, including Highland Rifle Company. According to the Almanach de Québec of 1838, the officers of “The Montreal Rifles” were: Major Henry Griffin; Captain S DeBleury; Bt/Major PE Leclerc, Jas Brackanridge; Lieutenants Chas T Greece, Lewis Moffatt, John Blackwood; 2nd Lieutenants Win. Meredith, John Ross, Chas H Gates. The officers of the “ First Battalion “: Lt Col Norman Bethune; Majors Isaac Valentine and Stanley Bagg; Captains J Jones, Geo Phillips, Chas Geddes, JP Sexton, J Platt, Lewis Haldimand, John Riddell, Joshua Pelton. “The old volunteer and militia corps which did such good service during 1837–38 were disbanded in May 1839”. Start of the Crimean War, 1854, Capt Fletcher, with authority, offered the services of a hundred men of the Montreal Fire Battalion. There was also a “Highland Company” in Quebec, in 1837. 9. Militia act (19 Victoria Chapter 44) 8 May 1856, 16 October 1856. See RG9 (c. 1855–1865) IC3 Vol 15 Militia Nominal Rolls and Paylists: 8 May 1857 cites “Captain John Macpherson’s Company of Highland Volunteer Militia Rifles at Montreal”; Paylists from 1860 cite 1st and 2nd Companies of Montreal Light Infantry parading 1860–1861, six days training per year. “Highland Rifle Company Pay Lists 1857–1859” avg trg ten days per annum. 10. RG9 Militia Returns: IC 1 Vol 87 “Reports, Correspondence Adj Gen”; IC 2 Vols 9,10,63, 64 “Annual Returns, Quarterly Returns”; IC 3 Vol 10, 11 “Pay Lists, Nominal Rolls”; IC 8 Vol 3, 15 “Quarterly Returns Militia” RG 9 IC8.3 “Commanding Officers Reports on circular 13 October 1862 Concerning Clothing and Equipment of Volunteers, Lower Canada.” MGO of 31 Jan 1862, refers to MGO 22 Jan 1862 which authorized the six companies listed sequentially: “One Volunteer Militia Rifle Company at Montreal. To be Capt: Havilland LeMesurier Routh, Esquire... then (to be Capt)

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11.

12.

13. 14. 15.

16. 17.

18.

19.

| Appendix – Notes Andrew Allan, Gordon Gates Mackenzie, James L Mathewson, William Hopkins, Alexander Campbell.” Militia Dept, Quebec 1 Nov 1862. Section 72–77 “Montreal Light Infantry”; Sect 87 “No.10 Company Highland Rifles”; and, “5th Batt VM Rifles (The Royal Light Infantry of Montreal) 7 Nov 1862”. Its officers were Capt Herald Douglass, Lieutenant HR Sewell and Ensign EFHT Patterson. 8 February 1867, these two English-speaking companies were transferred from the 9th to the 8th, as Numbers 5 and 6 companies. In 1866, the 9th Battalion, Quebec, had two English speaking companies, one of them, Number 5, being known as the Highland Rifles. Amalgamation of Highland Company commanded by Captain Kenneth Campbell; marks the formal end of the original Montreal Light Infantry; EJ Chambers, in 1905 History 5th Scots, considers this lineage significant. Also, BW 008-18 Historical V 1–17. Correspondence Alexander Robertson to Lt Col CN Monsarrat, 1st February 1916 re history of the 5th Royal Highlanders. Royals Incorporated two Coys to affect lineage: Montreal Highland Rifle Company, 1863, Captain Peter Moir; re-designated “7th (Highland) Coy,” 1865, commanded, Captain John Grant – strength fifty-five all ranks. Secondly, 1866 Captain K Campbell, joins 5th with the remaining Company, of the Montreal Light Infantry battalion. See McGill Rare Books, Lande Collection S1584 Montreal: “Regulations and Standing Orders of the Montreal Light Infantry.” Lowell, Montreal 1857. Montreal Light Infantry was listed as “six companies of seventy-five men besides Bugler, and due complement of officers and non-commissioned officers”; by 1866 it had “dwindled down” to one effective rifle company. Chambers, Ibid., 38. No. 1 Coy (Captain John Hood) was kilted in 1880; a year before No. 6 Coy was in kilts. Last change in regimental uniform was 1899: white and red checkered hose exchanged for black and red. Uniform same as Imperial Watch except for badge and sporran. 5th Royal Scots adhered to white sporran with two long black tassels while the Imperial BW had five short “bobs”. Pipe Band adopted Royal Stuart tartan in 1901. Chambers, 68. MGO 20 June 1902: 5th Royal Scots authorized eight companies and reorganized as two battalion unit with a regimental headquarters. Conversion to two battalion organization effected 1906 when 5th RSC occupied new armoury on Bleury St. MGO 20 June 1902. Lt Col Fleming negotiated the name change to BW (RHR). BWA, BW 008-5 Affiliations 1904–1936. Contemporary documents are confusing; both titles (5th Select Embodied Militia and 5th Battalion Montreal Volunteers) appear for 5th Battalion raised by Governor Provost. The proclaimed connection stated is with the “5th Select Embodied Militia”; that conscripted battalion was quickly disbanded but cadres amalgamated with The Light Infantry. In the 1820s, Lord Dalhousie asked the Gregorys and the Molsons to form their Companies of Militia. John Molson was involved in the 5th Battalion Sedentary Militia from 1812–1829. John T Molson included in officers’ list of the No. 2 Company, Montreal Light Infantry, 1862. See: Molson family fonds (P046), The Molson papers, McCord. The Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry. The regiment was originally raised in Scotland in 1803 then re-raised in Canada. In 1805, the unit was recruited from the French-speaking peoples in Montreal. The commissioned and noncommissioned officers were Scottish while the core of the regiment would be French-Canadian. The Scottish roots of the regiment are evident in the regiment’s coat of arms with a thistle. By the start of the War of 1812, the regiment strength was six hundred men. The activities of the regiment during of the War of 1812–14 were focused on the protection of “The Montreal District.” The light company fought at the Battle of Chateauguay and the grenadier company at the Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814). A small detachment fought at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm and some of the battalion companies served as marines with the squadron on Lake Champlain in several raids in 1813. The unit was disbanded in 1816. BWA 008-24, Vol I 1-17. “... a distinctly Scottish unit was first introduced ...in the year 1837, when volunteer brigades were organized in this city to quell a rebellion. This Scottish unit had its beginning in a company of the Montreal Light Infantry… the birth of the Royal Highlanders must be traced to this date.” Robertson/ Monsarrat, 1 February 1916. Correspondence also cites letters from Wm J Tupper KC (Winnipeg) and Campbell Smith (Edinburgh) re Regimental origins; also: “The first distinctly Scottish military organization raised in Montreal”, Col John Fletcher, correspondence, Carson, 1905. John Macpherson (later Colonel), a member of Number One Company, formerly the Montreal Rifle Rangers, raised in 1854, was appointed captain, and on 30 October 1856, George McGibbon, was gazetted lieutenant, and Peter Moir, ensign. November 13, 1856, Assistant Surgeon WE Scott, MD, “from the Montreal Light Infantry,” was gazetted surgeon, “of all the rifle companies in Montreal.” At this time, there was “no provision for a battalion organization in the militia”. Ibid., Chambers, Canadian Militia, 1897. On 16 October 1856, the 7th or Montreal Highland Rifle Company was authorized. The new Montreal battalion, 31 January 1862 designation as the 5th Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles, Canada, will be Scottish, sponsored by six wealthy businessmen known as “The Montreal Chieftains”: Havilland L Routh, Andrew Allan, Gordon G MacKenzie, James L Mathewson, John M Hopkins, and Alexander Campbell. Each “chieftain” undertakes to raise a “Company” of at least fifty-five men, and this initial recruitment target is met at once. No.10

Appendix – Notes |

20.

21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31.

32. 33.

34.

35.

36.

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Company (authorized 16 October 1856 as “The Montreal Highland Rifle Company”) paraded with 1st “Prince of Wales Regiment” Volunteer Militia Rifles, and re-designated No.9 Company, 7 November 1862. Within a few months of the authorization of the “Royals” re-designated the “5th Battalion Royal Light Infantry” gazetted under Capt (Lt Col) HL Routh, the “New regiment absorbed Capt John Macpherson’s Highland company of the 1st Prince of Wales Regiment,” and thus fell heir to the record and seniority of that historical company. “This Highland Company had earned an enviable reputation for physique and drill. Its transfer to the Royals marks the nucleus from which has been developed the Royal Highlanders of Canada as a Highland Regiment.” William Mills, Call To Arms. (Montreal: 1914), 27–28. Lt Col Carson (with Lt Col Meighen) resigns 1910; reforms 1st Battalion POW Rifles as Canadian Grenadier Guards. Carson, as Major General serves as “minister of defence special representative” in separate UK HQ during the First World War 1915–1916. Maj SC Norsworthy was the acting CO and later Lt Col. SST Cantlie was posted to Corps HQ Staff (three months 1943–1944) then returned as CO 1 RHC in January 1944. RHC COs, RSMs and Regimental Pipe Majors c. 1953–2014, see Vol III, Appendix. CO 1 CHB 1951–1952. CO 2 CHB 1952–1953. CO RHC to 1952 and CO 3 RHC to 1955. Last CO 3 RHC post war. RHC COs, RSMs and Regimental Pipe Majors c. 1953–2014, see Vol III, Appendix B. Logan’s Farm (later renamed Parc Lafontaine) Montreal: near what is today bordered by Rachel, Papineau and Sherbrooke Streets, ref BW008 Vol III, 1912 Colours, Plans. See: EJ Chambers, The 5th Regt Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders (Montreal: 1904), 24; and, Col Paul P Hutchison, The Black Watch RHR – A Short History 1705–1940. (Montreal: 1940), 10; and, PP Hutchison “A Brief History of the Canadian Battalions of the Black Watch. Part I 1862– 1914” unpublished manuscript; also, BW008 The Hutchison Papers, c. 1926–1945. NAC. RG9 Gen Order 20 June 1902: 5th Royal Scots of Canada reorganized as two battalion unit albeit with one set of Colours; conversion to two battalion organization delayed till completion of new armoury, Bleury St. (1906). Command was by senior “Lt Col-Commandant” (not promoted to Colonel) over 2x Lt Col Battalion OCs. This created problems; see: NAC RG 9 Post Confederation; RG 9 II B2 Vol 3 (9); RG 7 G21 Vol 79; Borden Letterbooks, Carson Case, V7; and, BW008 Carson Correspondence: Min of Defence Sir F Borden and Maj-Gen Gascoigne c. 1905–1906. BW 008-20 Colours 1911–1912; and, Also, Paul P Hutchison, Canada’s Black Watch, the First Hundred Years (Montreal: 1962); Hereafter cited as BW Hist, 51–53. BW 008-20 Colours 1911–12 and, Hutchison BW Hist, 52. “This was the first occasion that Colours were presented in Canada by a Prince of the royal blood.” The initial venue of Logan’s Farm was cancelled at the last moment due to soggy ground. CO, Lt Col GS Cantlie was assisted by Imperials (Lt Col Hugh Rose of Kilravock, CO 42nd BW); this the first official occasion that the Montreal regiment and Imperial Black Watch worked together. Gen Currie ordered a Corps victory parade into Germany. No colours were carried by any of the Canadian units during the war with the exception of the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry: “a gallant formation which was raised and eventually commanded by a former officer of the Regiment, Lt Col AH Gault DSO.” See, BW008-1 Colours; and, CB Topp, The 42nd Battalion, CEF Royal Highlanders of Canada (Montreal: 1931), 307, RC Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada 1914–1919 (Montreal: 1925), 312; and, PP Hutchison, The 73rd Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada 1915–1917 (1944) Unpublished manuscript. Also, Hutchison BW Hist, 139. BW 008 Colours, Cantlie to Birchell, 28 Nov 1918 “They are in a very tattered condition and would not stand much handling”; further, the 42nd noted the 1912 Colours “bore badges which were not then used by the 42nd Battalion.” Both sets of Colours were “never used but carried unpacked on the march to Germany.” They returned to Canada cased in April 1919 and that same month “were again laid up but without ceremony.” See also: Major PP Hutchison article “The Colours of the Black Watch” Montreal, 1931; article for Red Hackle (UK), 3. See: Fetherstonhaugh, 312–314; Topp, 306–307; see: Knox Précis. “It is believed the theatre Battle Honours awarded to the 13th (overseas) Battalion on account of the First World War were added to the regimental Colour about 1931.” Hutchison, 1940 History 258–259. ”The Colours of the 2nd Battalion were restored to the custody of the Regiment to be used until new Colours could be obtained.” The 73rd had no colours but acquired a King’s Colour (donated) but this was refused by DND: “there could be no regimental colour for a unit which had ceased to exist.” It was nevertheless carried to Church (1922; by Lt PP Hutchison; a former 73rd officer) where it was consecrated by the Regimental chaplain and laid up. Later DND correspondence on 16 Oct 1928 suggested “no objection to this flag [73rd Kings Colour] bearing thereon the Great War Battle honours for 73rd Battalion.” BW008-20 Colours; Lt Col EW Pope to OC RHC.

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37. Except for brief period 1918–1919 in Europe, two Militia Battalions in Montreal had one set (the “1912” set) of colours; 1927 Captain Howard Murray OBE presented Regimental Colour to 2nd Battalion. Delay, admin difficulties re DND approval: “no new colour for a regiment that no longer exists.” BW 008-30. Colours. See archives BW 008-20/30 and, Cantlie correspondence; examples of submitted designs and drawn corrections, with explanatory notes. 38. BW 008; Hutchison BW Hist: “…Church Parade on May 28th, 1922. Its special purpose was to deposit the Colours of the three overseas battalions.” 150; Col Knox noted: “The Colours rec’d by what is now the ‘Black watch of Canada’ were never taken into use ... on account of the 13th and 42nd Battalions were never consecrated and are now in the Regimental Museum [circa 1974]. The King’s Colour rep the 73rd Battalion was consecrated by Regimental Padre and laid up in the Regimental Church at same time as the ‘1919’ Colours.” However, CB Topp recorded: “…on January 29th the colours were consecrated and presented to the Battalion, the presentation being made by Major General FOW Loomis, General Officer Commanding the 3rd Canadian Division.”, 307. 39. Hutchison, BW Hist.: “the Presentation of Colours to the 2nd Battalion...May 28th, 1931 at Molson Stadium...twenty-five thousand spectators...The new colours were a joint gift of Lt Col GS Cantlie and Captain Howard Murray...As a result… the Colours presented in 1912 became those of the 1st (13th) Battalion, RHC.”’, 170. Knox “Included on Regimental Colour were WWI battle honours awarded to 42nd Battalion.” 40. Regiment title changed to The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada, 1 January 1930; first appearance of BW in Regimental title. 41. BW provided Large Infantry Reserve Company of veterans to the Reserve Force. BW 008 WW2. 42. Hutchison, BW Hist, 267–269 and, 307–310; See also, Simon Falconer, Canada’s Black Watch, An Illustrated History of the Regular Force Battalions, 1951–1970 (Fredericton: 2009), 21–30. 43. The Church of St Andrew and St Paul, a Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, 3415 Redpath Street, Montreal, QC H3G 2G2. 44. BW008 1-20 Colours: Extract published letter from Sir Gerald W Wollaston KCB KCVO, King of arms and inspector General of regimental Colours; circa February 1945. The discussion re topic and proposed solution is creative and interesting: see BW008-20 Colours, Correspondence PP Hutchison and Maj the Reverend GH Donald from The Church of St Andrew and St Paul, 9 February 1945. 45. Disorganized after Vimy Battle. 46. First Canadian unit to enter Mons 11 November 1918.

Index to Volume I

Numbers in italics refer to photos or maps. The ranks given for individuals are the highest they were known to have held within the timeframe of this book.

A&A Golf Match (Athletics and Alcohol), 354 Abelson, Sgt Major, 13th, 148, 173 Aberdeen, Scotland, 7, 196 Aberdeen, Earl of, 36, 40, 41, 42 Act of Proscription, 1747 (UK), 347; forbids wearing of kilts, 347 Act of Union, 1840, 15 Aitken, Max, later Lord Beaverbrook, 197 Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 17; see also Edward VII Albrecht, Generaloberst, Duke of Württemberg, 155 Aldershot, England, 324 Alderson, Lt Gen Sir Edwin, 137, 138; commanding Canadians, 137, 151, 152, 154; Inspector General, 197 Allan, Capt Andrew, 19; raises company, 1862, 19 Allan, Hugh, 5th RHC, 347; Royal Naval Air Service, 347; killed, 1918, 347 Allan, Sir H Montagu, Hon Col, 67, 68, 298, 319, 335, 336, 342, 345, 346, 347, 351, 352, 364; Lady, 68; Ravenscrag, 336, 345, 346; and Allan Cup, 347; daughters Gwendolyn and Anna drown on SS Lusitania, 347; son Hugh killed in war, 347; honorary colonel, 357; presents silver monteith bowl, 1938, 362;

Ravenscrag now Allan Memorial Institute, 371 n 92 Allan, Sir Hugh, 19, 336 Allan Cup, 347; champion represents Canada at Olympics, summer 1920, winter 1924–36 and 1948–64, 347 Allen, Col C Kennedy, 92 alphabetized company system, 164 Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, McGill, 150, 230 Amherst, Gen Jeffrey, 4, 5, 73 n 6; “Amherst House,” 73 n 6 Angus, Forbes, 346, 347 Angus, Richard Bladworth, 345, 346 Appleton, Capt Arthur Wellesley, 13th; as Salome, 231 Armstrong, Charles J, 67, 353–4 Arras, 203, 210, 215; disturbances, Dec 1918, 225 Arthur, Prince, of Connaught, 226; presents new Colours to 13th, Germany, 1919, 287, 393 Artois Switch, D–Q Line, 212 Atholstan, Lord, Sir Hugh Graham, 50, 83 n 226, 197; publisher of Montreal Star, 334, 346 Attaque à outrance, 137 Auftragstaktik (mission directed tactics), 151, 180 auld alliance, 4

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Index

Back River (Rivière des Prairies), 354; Back River Polo Club, 167, 354; polo matches at Saraguay (now Cartierville), 354 badge: Black Watch, 330, 332; list, 417 bagpipes, 60, 61, 127, 198, 220, 225–6; Waterloo Bagpipes, 1815, 437 Ballantine, James, designer, Edinburgh, 317 balmoral, use by 1917; 383; with Red Hackle, 185, 186, 321–2, 333, 383, 384 Barker, Billy, pilot, 191 Barron, Richard, 91 battle honour, addition of “South Africa, 1899– 1905” to 1862 Colours, 337; 1812 and 1813 Battle Honours awarded in 2012, 371 n 104; list, 373 Battles, pre-1914, Bushy Run, Battle of, 1763, 92; CaRillon (tiCondeRoga), Battle of, 1758, 5, 90; Champlain, lake, (also Carillon, Ticonderoga), 1758, 35, 90, tercentenary, 57, 113; Châteauguay, 1813, 11, 93, 446 n 17; CRysleR’s FaRm, Battle of, 446 n 17; eCCles hill, Fenian raid, 1870, 24; geldeRmalsen, 60; laColle mills, Battle of, 1814, 446 n 17 Battles, 1914–1918; CAMBRAI, Tilloy, 214; Tilloy Hill (map, 309), 216; GERMAN OFFENSIVES, MARCH 1918, Kaiserschlacht, 203; MARNE (5–12 Sept 1914), 125; HILL 70, 187, 198; 15 Aug 1917: 13th, 15th, and 16th attack, 198; Hugo Trench, 198; HOOGE (June 1916), 158, 170, 171, 172; HUNDRED DAYS, (8 Aug–11 Nov 1918), 53, 187, 190, 203–21, 223, 233; Hill 102 (map, 308), 281; amiens (Aug 1918; map, 308), 207; attack, 8 Aug 1918, 208; afterwards, 317; CamBRai (map, 309), 210, 212, 214, 220; fall of, Oct 1918, 224; Canal du noRd, 210; reached, 212; operation Currie’s brainchild, 213; speed and shock, 213; 214; dRoCouRt– Quéant line (DQ Line) (map, 308), hinge of Hindenburg Line, 210; battle 2–4 Sept 1918, 211–12; German guns captured by Good et al. of 13th, 281; hindenBuRg line, 210, 211; 13th reaches, 212; maRCoing line (map, 309), 210, 212, 214; battle: 29 Sept 1918, 214–18; scathing after-action report, 220; sCaRpe, 27– 30 Aug 1918, 211; ValenCiennes, Canadian Corps’s last major action, 220, 223, 226; MOUNT SORREL, 161; Battle of, 2–14 June 1916, or The June Show (maps, 304–5); 170–4, 195, 221; Maple Copse, 171, 172; Observatory

Ridge, 171, 173, 174; Sanctuary Wood, (map, 305), 171, 172, 173, 174, 186; Recapture of Sanctuary Wood by The Black Watch, 13 June 1916, by William Barnes Wollen, 271; Zillebeke Bund, 172; Zillebeke Switch, 172; Zillebeke Trench, 172; PASSCHENDAELE, 185, 186, 233; Oct–Nov 1917, 199–201; frozen kilts, lice, 200; aerial view of salient, 278; Graf House farm, 200–2, 204; terrible casualties for 42nd, 202; SOMME OFFENSIVES, July– Nov 1916, 178, 186, 189, 190, 202, 216, 221, 233; CEF”s costliest battle of war, 183; in 13th War Diary, 228; CouRCelette, 177, 178, 179, 181, 190, 221; Fabeck Graben trench line, 178, 179, 180; Mouquet Farm, 177; Zollern Graben, outer glacis of Regina Trench, 179, 181; VIMY RIDGE, 175, 185, 187, 215, 220, 355, 357, 364, 393, 431; 9 April 1917, 189 (map: plan of attack, 306), collective success for 13th, 42nd, 73rd, 189–90, tunnels, 193; Black Line (Zwischen Stellung), 195; Coburg Subway, 194; Grange Crater, 194; Grange Tunnel, 195; gReat Raid, Vimy, 1 March 1917: 54th (Kootenay), 72nd (Seaforths), 75th (Mississauga) and 73rd RHC, 191; first Canadian use of gas, 191; Hill 135, 193; Hill 145, 193, 195, 196; Canadian National Vimy Memorial, 195; Macdonell, lessons from, 246 n 199; underground layout, 247 n 216; schema of attack, on photo of 1936 unveiling of memorial, 276; on Easter Sunday 1917, 276; topographical planning map, 277; 335, 348, 357; Zivy cave, 193; Zwölfer Weg (Black Line), 194; tunnels (subways), winter 1917, 193, from 500 to over 1000 metres, 193, telephone cables and water mains, 193, Zivy cave, 193, German, 195; YPRES, FIRST BATTLE OF, Oct–Nov 1914, 137; YPRES, SECOND BATTLE OF, April–May 1915 (maps, 302–3), 130, 169, 171, 173, 174, 177, 186, 189, 195, 211, 215, 221, 225, 262, 316, 336, 360; 13th RHC, 139–60; Festubert, battle at, 13th, 19–23 May 1915, 162; gas attack: first ever, Second Ypres, 144; later attacks, 155; effects, 158; treatments, including urine, 159; 215; Gravenstafel Ridge, 149, 150, 154, 155, 156, 157; Fabeck Graben/Regina Trench, 15–16 Sept 1916, 177, 178, 216; Mousetrap Farm, 147, 158; Ross rifle v. Lee-Enfield, 155;

Index conclusion re 13th: fighting retreat and loss of ground, 159; aftershock, 161; in 13th War Diary, 228; Moyes sketch in War Diary, 263; sign, 433 Beaufort, near Amiens, 209 Beauharnois Canal, 47 Beaverbrook, Lord, Max Aitken, 197 Beaver Hall Hill, 334 Belaney, Archibald (Grey Owl), 13th, 176 Bennett, Capt William, 13th, killed at Hill 170, 198 Bessborough, Earl of, Governor General 1931–5, 335, 336, 356, 394 Bethune, Capt Donald Alexander, 68, 76 n 58, 167 Bethune, Lt Col Norman, 13, 14, 76 nn 58, 63 Beveridge, Capt John Kay, 42nd, 167, 317, 356 Biggar, Lt LH, 42nd, 224 Birchall, Lt Col William D (CO RHC 1919–20), 20th Reserve RHC, 227; Lieutenant Colonel, 55, 289 Bird, Cpl William “Will,” 185, 187, 214; And We Go On, 193, 327; other writings, 327 Birks, Gerald Alfred Sigourney, 73rd, 191 Birks, Henry, 42nd, 165, 172, 191 Birks, Henry and Sons, jewellers, 191 Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, 167 Bishop’s College Drill Association, 1861, 342 Bishop’s College School, Lennoxville, 134, 347; cadet corps, 25, 295; provides majority of officers for 5th RHC, 342 Bishop’s College School Cadet Corps, 341, 342–3; affiliation with Black Watch, 343; uniform, 343 Bishop’s College Volunteer Rifle Company, 342 Bisley Team, 195; 1894, 44; summer 1914, 127 “bite-and-hold” tactics, Currie’s, 187 Bjorn, Capt Ky, 362 Black Watch Memorial Home, Forfarshire, Scotland, 348; Victoria Cross room, 348 Black Watch Pipe Band Association, 319 Black Watch Ski Patrol, 358 Black Watch Window, St Andrew and St Paul Church, 278, 334, 367 n 9; see also McLennan Window. Blackader, Capt Gordon H, 42nd, 166; killed at Mount Sorrel, 174 Blackader, Col KG (CO 1938–9), 290, 316; leads contingent to coronation, May 1937, 360; heads 1st Battalion, 1938, 361; takes over, Oct 1938, 362, 364

| 449

Blackader, Lt, 67 Blaiklock, Major WM, 37, 39 Blécourt, near Marcoing Line, 218, 219 Bleury Street, 14, 163, 168; named after Major de Bleury, 14 Bleury Stree Armoury, 1906, 48, 50, 115, 116, 126, 127, 130, 160, 291, 314, 319, 333, 336, 364, 365, 394, 395, 397, 428–44; 1950 fire, 118; paid off, 1910, 65; mess, 165; reserves guarding, 227; RHC soldiers march past, 294; area revived, 294; smart sentry, 295; crowding, with two battalions, early 1920s, 315; indoor range used for introductory musketry training, 315; sergeants’ mess, 322; parade square, 322; feudal aspects of design, 334; officers’ mess, 335, 342, 346, 347; VC plaques on parade square, 348; VC brass plaques on parade floor, 1921, 349; Mess Committee, 350; Honorary Mess, 352; 1950 fire, 392, 395; Laid Up Colours, St Andrew and St Paul, 398–9; building plans, c. 1904, 423–6, messes, 426; photographs, 428–44; officers’ mess, 429– 37; Colours cabinet, 431; Sergeants’ Mess, 438; Band Room, Junior Ranks’ Mess, 439; regimental boards and tablets, 430–4; VC brass tablets, 443; Regimental Museum, 444; completion 1906, 447 n 31 Blighty Trench, Vimy Ridge, 196 Blue Bonnets racetrack, Montreal, 4, 316 Bois Rasé, Hill 70, 199 Bolton, Col Bruce, xvi Bonsecours Market, 20, 50 Borden, Dr Sir Frederick William, Liberal Minister of Militia and Defence 1896–1911, 39, 41, 42, 44, 49, 51–3, 56, 65, 70, 127, 166, 341, 363 Borden, Lt Col A, 85th, 168 Borden, Sir Robert, Conservative Prime Minister 1911–20, 53 Bourne, Col John, 12 Bovey, Col Wilfred, Black Watch, 199 Boyd, Pipe Major WR, 104 Bramshott Camp, England, 279 Bramshott Cup (football), 286 Brass Band, 316, 356 Breckinridge, Cpl William, From Vimy to Mons, 327 Britain: support for US Confederacy affects attitude to Canada, 22, 23, affects Americans,

450

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Index

23; removes Canadian garrisons, 1871, 26; Halifax garrison leaves for South Africa, 1900, 45; immigrants and sons, 126 Brittan, Lt Stanley, 13th, 174 Brown, Lt George, 94 Brown, Major Ernest, surgeon, 13th, 150, 158 Brown, Major John, 73rd, 192 Brown, Pte Alexander Leys, 13th, 159 Brutinel, Brig Gen Raymond, 212, 249 n 278 Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, 358; The Thirty-nine Steps, 358; Royal Scot Fusilier, 358 Buchanan, Capt Erskine Brock, 321; nephew of VC Buchanan, 362 Buchanan, Lt Col Victor C (CO 13th 1916), 67, 133, 151, 152, 154, 156, 163, 171, 173, 174, 255, 362, 432; boar’s head tattoo, 133; takes over 13th, 5 Jan 1916, 177; killed at Regina Trench, 181; with Eric McCuaig in dugout, Sept 1916, 270 Bustard Camp, Salisbury Plain, 137 Bustard Inn, Salisbury Plain, 137; Alderson’s (Canadian) HQ, 137 Butler, Lt Col HC, killed at Mount Sorrel, 171 Butler, RSM Frank, 13th, 218 Byng, Lt Gen Julian: takes over Canadian Corps, 29 May 1916, 173, 181, 186, 192; after Vimy, takes over an army, 199; tells Currie to take Passchendaele, 199; Sanctuary Wood, 271 cadet corps, popular in late century, 339; replaces “Drill Associations,” 340, 340; at Montreal High School, 1864, 340 Cameron, Lt Col George W (CO 1901–2), 47, 100 Cameron, Gen Sir Archibald, 329, 331, 332, 364 Campbell, Capt Donald, 35 Campbell, Capt John, 91 Campbell, Capt Kenneth, 21, 25, 33; 1866 and c. 1875, 98, 99 Campbell, Col, 57 Campbell, Cpl Iain, 3 Campbell, LCpl James, 13th, 152 Campbell, Lt Col Edmond AC (CO 1882–84), 34– 5, 100; photo wearing kilt, 35 Campbell of Inverawe, Major Lord Duncan, 35; Black Watch, 35 Campbell tartan, 107 Camp Borden, 70 Campey, Lucille H, 31

Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle School, 361 Canadian Army Cadet movement, 341; Strathcona’s role, 341 Canadian Infantry Assoc.Efficiency Trophy, 357 Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Hill 145, 1936, 195, 276 Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), 143, 165, 217, 229, 346; Montreal station hall, 127; see also Windsor Station “Canadian Way of War,” instigated by Montreal gunners, 235 Le Canadien, 75 n 40 Cantley, Capt Charles, 163, 230 Cantley, Col Tom, 163 Cantlie, James A, 165 Cantlie, James A, Jr, 128 Cantlie, Capt Stuart, 363 Cantlie, Lt Col George S, 26, 40, 43, 47, 51, 52, 53, 58, 65, 66, 67, 100, 110, 113, 116, 118, 120, 128, 236, 255, 256, 269, 334, 337, 345, 346, 347, 351,365, 393; Sam Hughes’s representative in London, 1914, 127; and Third Contingent, 129, and 44th/42nd, 129; leaves for Europe with 42nd, May 1915, 130, 139; in France, 162, 164, 165, 166; horses Bluebell and White Heather, 166; 167; “Cantlie tartan,” 168; 169; Mount Sorrel, 172, 174; playing “Chase the Ace,” 176; Somme, 177, 178, 180, 188, 189; Somme shatters him and ends tenure, he later creates and runs 20th Reserve Battalion (RHC), 183; Colours, Dec 1918, 226; heads 20th Reserve RHC, 227, 228; creation and outfitting of 42nd, 266; on White Heather, 269; with football team, 1918, 286; spring 1939, 298; 70 years of service, 1956, 298; 1919, 314; and silver inkstand, 324, 325; and WG Peterson, 325, 326; Cantlie Dinner, 1935, honouring fifty years, 351–2; honorary colonel, 357; London for coronation, 1937, 360; and silver inkstand, 434, 435 Cantlie, Major Stephen D, 363; adjutant, son of GS Cantlie, 362 Carillon, Fort, 91 Carlisle, Bill, xvi Carson, Brig Gen JW (CO 1902–9), 44, 46, 47, 48, 50–1, 51–3, 61, 66, 69, 100, 110, 111, 166, 230, 363; founds Canadian Grenadier Guards Regiment, 52, 112; Hughes’s protégé in London, 53, and officers, 1904, 112; replaces

Index Cantlie as Hughes’s rep in London, 129, huge power there, 129, 162; Brigadier General, 163, 168, 169 Carter, Pte Harold G, 73rd, executed, 247 n 215 Cartier, Jacques, 4 Cartier, Sir George-Étienne, Conservative Minister of Militia and Defence, 26 Cavalry School, St John’s (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu), 322 Cave, Lt Jordayne Wyamarus, 42nd, 217, 224 Caverhill, Lt Col Frank (CO 1884–91), 35, 100, 339; heads regiment 1884–91, 35; with his officers, 102, 108; encourages Highland Cadets, 340 Chalmers, RSM W, 314 Chambers, Capt Ernest J, 339, 340; The 5th Regt Royal Scots of Canada Highlanders, 447 n 30 Chantier, Sgt H Howard, 230 Charland, Louis, 75 n 39 Charles, Prince, Duke of Rothesay, Colonel-in Chief, 2003–present, 372 n 125, 429 Chasseurs Canadiens, 12 Château de Ramezay, 35 “China Wall” (a sandbag-lined approach in trench), 172 Christie, Lt Jameson, 13th, 213 cigarettes, as rations, 164 Clark, Brig Gen John Arthur, takes over 7th Brigade, early Aug 1918, 214; Marcoing Line, 215, 216, 218; Ewing’s scathing after-action report, 220 Clark, Lt Gregory, 189 Clark, Sgt Harry, 202 Clark-Kennedy, Lt Col William Hew, VC, 13th, 67, 135, 262, 351, 446 n 14; early career with 5th RHC, 132; No 4 Company, 13th, 140, 142, 149, 154, 157, 158, 161, 163, 314, 357; commands from Mount Sorrel to the Somme, 177; earns Victoria Cross, 210; takes over Victoria Rifles (24th), Dec 1917, 210; Arras, 211; attitude, 223; family, 240 n 21; photo, 282; pleased in 1927 to be Black Watch VC, 348; attends VC plaques dedication, 1932, 349 Cohen, Lt Myer Tutzer, 42nd, 195, 201, 202; killed at Graf House, 202; stained-glass Star of David to commemorate him in Black Watch Window, 202, 279; photo, 278; aerial view of Graf House farm, 278

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Colborne, Sir John, 95 Colchester, 349 Colonel-in-Chief, George V, 1912–36, 363; Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, 1937– 2002, 292, 360, 363, 395, 397, 429 Colours, 66, 67, 116–18, 314, 352; Colours, Dec 1918, 226; originals too fragile for march into Germany, so new ones made and presented, 226; 13th receives new Colours in Germany, 1919, 287; Loomis presents new Colours to 42nd in France, 1919, 287; Laying Up Colours of 1862 and of 13th, 42nd and 73rd RHC, St Andrew and St Paul, 1932, 297, 336–7; Colours in safekeeping, 1930–2, 335; King’s Colour, 1921, to all Canadian regiments for each battalion that served overseas, 335; 1862 and 1912 Colours, 335; new Colours, 1931, 335; addition of “South Africa, 1899–1905” to 1862 Colours, 337; presentation of Colours, 1912, 347; regimental Colours: 1862–2009, 391–9; 1862 Colours, 391, 392; 1912 Colours, 392, destroyed by fire, 1950, 392; 1919 Colours, 393, 394; 1931 Colours, 394, 395; 1962 Colours, 395, 396; 1974 Queen’s Colour, 397; 2009 Colours, 397, 398; Colours cabinet, 431 Connaught, Duke of, Prince Arthur, Governor General 1911–16, 66, 67, 118, 197, 226, 314, 347, 392, 434; and Duchess, 132; and see Prince Arthur Connaught Rifle Range, near Ottawa, 320 Coristine, Major SB, 166 Cornwallis, Marquis, 60 Côte St Luc Rifle Ranges, 37, 68 Côte St Paul, 231 Court of Inquiry, March–April 1897, 40–2 Craig, Governor Sir James, 10 Craig, Lt Matthew, 42nd, 217 Craig Street Drill Shed, 50, 69; users c. 1890– 1905, 83 n 225 Crawford, Earl of, 59; 42nd tartan, 59 Crawford, Lt Col JD (CO 1875–82), 34, 99, 100, 110; oversees conversion from Fusiliers to Scots, 34 creeping barrage, 196 Crichton, RSM WO 1 James, 323 Crimean War, 15, 61, 62, 71 Croak, Pte John, 13th, 208, 348, 349; wins Victoria Cross at Hangard Wood West,

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Index

Amiens, 8 Aug 1918, and dies in action there, 208; photo, gravemarker, medals, 280; VC tablets dedicated, May 1932, 349 Currie, Lt Gen Arthur, 140, 212, 236; commands 2nd Brigade at Ypres, April 1915, 140; 183, a gunner, perfects “bite-and-hold” tactics, 187, pay with shells, not men, 187; defensive doctrine, 187; insists on “square corps” [meaning?], 197; takes command of Canadian Corps 6 June 1917, 198; capture enemy vital ground, then receive German counterattack with masses of artillery, 198; Hill 70: large coloured maps to memorize, lectures, training and complex rehearsals, 198; Byng tells Currie to take Passchendaele, 199, Currie says costs will be horrifying, 199; Macdonell replaces, as head of 1st Division, 200; “offensive doctrine,” 205; reorganizes, 205; command of operational art, 207, 210 (and see map, 307); proposed surprise attack near Arras, 210; Canal du Nord operation Currie’s brainchild, 213; two-battalion front at Canal du Nord, 213; Marcoing Line, 218, 220; Mons, 224; march to Rhine, 225; prediction re Passchendaele, 278; Currie’s operational art within BEF (Canada’s Hundred Days), map, 307; visits RHR, 1921, 316; Black Watch (McLennan) Window, 1921, 317; new Colours, 335; takes salute, 337; 349 Cuthbert, James, 6–7; seigneury, 7 Cuthbertson, Brian, history of regular battalions during Cold War, xv Dalhousie, Lord, 8, 13, 446 n 16 Danson, Pte Harry, 13th, 153 David, Lt Col Eleazar, 95 Davidson, Chief Justice Lt Col Hon Sir Charles: Hon Colonel, 73rd, 130 Davidson, Lt Thornton, goes down with Titanic, 130 Davidson, Lt Col Cam Peers (CO 73rd 1915–16), 67, 128, 131, 256; heads new 73rd, 130; after Somme, medically boarded, 183; Sparling replaces, Dec 1916, 191; and WG Peterson, 326 Dawson, Lt Col AG, 331 Denison, Lt Col Septimus, 55 de Ramezay, Governor Jean-Baptiste, 4 de Ramezays, 73 n 6

Devlin, Lt Col, 17 Dinesen, Pte Thomas, 42nd, 209, 231, 348, 357, wins Victoria Cross 12 Aug 1918 at Amiens, 209, 229, 348; sketch by A.S. Scott, 229; painting, photo, and Victoria Cross, 282; Merry Hell, 327; attends VC plaques dedication, 1932, 349 Dinesen, Isak, 209 Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence, Ottawa, xvi, 11 discipline and Canadians 135 Dodds, WOK, 67, 236; senior in CEF, 129 Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA), 339 Dominion Rifle Association, 127 Donald, Rev George H, chaplain, 334; minister of St Andrew and St Paul, 1925–45, 334, 336, 337, 395 “Drill Associations,” 1862, 340; later “Cadet Corps,” 340; = “Rifle Companies,” 342 drill sheds, early 1860s, 22 Drummond, Lady, 133, 236; establishes hostels and department of information, 240 n 24 Drummond, Capt Guy Melfort, 13th, 67, 133, 143, 145, 176, 262; killed, Second Ypres, 146, 162, 241 n 58 Duff, Lt Col Adrian Grant, 324, 325 Dunbar, Captain WE, 356–7 Dunlop, Dr William, 12 Dutort, Etienne, 13th, 161 Dyde, Lt Col John, 16 Dyer, Brig Gen Hugh Marshal, replaces Macdonell, 201, 207; Black Watch Window, 1921, 317 Edinburgh, 8, 143, 159 Edinburgh School of Art, 229 Edward, Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, 1933 visit, 356 Edward VII, 66; coronation, 1902, 51 Edward VIII, abdication, Dec 1936, 360 Eldred, Pte TB, 320 Elizabeth, Queen, later Queen Mother, Colonelin-Chief, 1937–2002, c. 1939, 292; receives Cantlie, 1937, 360; presents 1962 Colours, 395; presents 1974 Queen’s Colours, 397; portrait, 429 Elkington & Co Ltd, regimental jeweller, Regent Street, 324, 325; and silver inkstand, 434, 435

Index English, Lt Col Dr John A, xv Erskine, Lt Col, 202 Esdaile, Capt, 94 Eustace, Col, 12, 76 n 53 complete in full Evans, AC, takes over 2nd Battalion, 1938, 362 complete in full Ewing, Lt Col Royal Lindsay Hamilton, 42nd (CO 1923–4), 76 n 57, 165, 167, 172, 181, 185, 255, 314, 316, 321, 334, 393; Major, 189; Vimy Ridge, 195, 196; daylight raid, 13 Feb 1917, 204; Amiens, 209; Cambrai, 214; Marcoing Line, 216, 217, 218, 219; scathing after-action report, 220; Arras, Dec 1918, 225; Colours, Dec 1918, 226; two week’s supplementary staff course in England, 236; and company, May 1916, 265; Lieutenant Colonel, 289 Farnham, Quebec, 70, 71; militia camp, 1911, 70, 71, 111, 113 feather bonnets, 232; with plume (Hackle), 383 feathers: pre-regulation, 60 Fencibles, 10, 11, 12; from ‘defencible,’ 75 n 44 Fenians, 22, 23, 24; from ‘Fianna,’ 23; raid on Fort Erie, 1866, 23; camp in Vermont, 23; impetus to Confederation and inter-provincial railway, 23; raid on Eccles Hill, 1870, 24–5; raid on Pigeon Hill, 1866, 24; Irish Quebecers’ divided loyalties, 25; bolsters 5th recruiting, 25; 5th at Cornwall, 1866, 98; raids of 1866 and 1870, 340; defeat of, 343 Ferdon, Col Len, xv Fetherstonhaugh, Harold Lea, 334; architect, St Andrew and St Paul Church, 1932, 334 Fetherstonhaugh, RC, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada, xv, 125, 139, 327, 334 Fisher, LCpl Frederick “Bud,” VC, 13th, 230, 236, 241 n71, 242 nn 73–5, 77, 260, 261, 322, 343, 348; 349, 401; saves 10th Field Battery, 22 April 1915, 149–51, map, 303; earns Victoria Cross, 151; killed at Ypres, 153, 158; family, 242 nn 75, 86; portrait, 243 n 109 Fisher, Lt Alastair, 13th, 143 Fisher, Lt William Henry, 242 n 75 Fitzgerald, Sgt Major W, 73rd, 194 Fitzpatrick, Sir Charles, 316 Flanders, 125, 137 Fleming, Col Andrew (CO 1934–6), 290, 332, 343, 348, 357; takes over, 1934, 349, 350, 351, 357; sends delegation to Vimy unveiling, 1936,

| 453

357–8; negotiates change to ‘Black Watch (RHR),’ 446 n 14 Fletcher, John, 77 n 67; boy bugler, 77 n 67 Fletcher, Major, 21 Fletcher’s Field, 52, 56, 66, 117, 118, 131, 171, 298, 322, 392 Flora MacDonald, goat, Black Watch mascot, 164, 206, 226, 232, 439; leading 13th, 283 Foam, Co Sgt Major Victor L, 361 Foch, Marshal (Maréchal) Ferdinand, 207; Généralissime (Supreme Commander), Allied Armies, 207 Forget, Senator Louis-Joseph, 41 Fort Senneville, 9 Fortune, Col Victor, 186 Foster, MO Capt Lowell Shields, 73rd, 219, 230 Fraser, Capt Malcolm, 6 French, Field Marshal Sir John, 125, 137, 156 Fushimi Sadanaru, Field Marshal, 346 Gafferty, Capt, 42nd, 178 garrison riding trials, 361; Riley Shield, 361 Gascoigne, Major Gen William Julius, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42 Gater, Pte AP, stretcher bearer, 42nd, 202 Gault, Major A Hamilton, 67, 109, 166; PPCLI, 169, 170, 171, 195, 230 Geddes, Col Augustus, 152 General Service Medals, 1899, 79 n 111 George V, 58, 127; coronation, 1911, 55; reviews 4th Canadian Division, Bramshott, July 1916, 279; permits multiple empire affiliations with British units, 330; Colonel-in-Chief, Black Watch, 331; approves new name, 1935, 332, 333; silver jubilee, 1935, 357, parade, 357; Colonel-in-Chief, 1912–1936, 363 George VI, inspects troops in Montreal, May 1939, 292; takes throne after brother abdicates, Dec 1936, 360, coronation, May 1937, 360, Black Watch sends contingent, 360; visits Montreal with Queen, May 1939, 362–3, says to her, “This is your regiment – you inspect it,” 363 German Official History, Der Weltkrieg 1915, 156 Ghurkhas, 164 Gibson, Pte Albert, 42nd, 218 Giveen, Lt Butler, 13th, 152–3, 174 Givenchy, 163 Glad, Kongland, 13th, 153 Glasgow, 8, 159

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Index

glengarry, 62, 111, 232, 322, 333, 383; in use till Second Ypres, 1915, 119; balmoral replaces, 186; in “Cantlie Tartan,” 266; khaki, 268; with 42nd badge, 268; till 1916, 383; resurgence, 1929–40, 384 Good, Cpl Herman James, 13th, 208, 348; from Big River, New Brunswick, 208; wins Victoria Cross at Hangard Wood West, Amiens, 8 Aug 1918, 208; photo, gold watch, medals, 280; Hill 102, with German guns Good and comrades captured, 281; attends dedication of VC tablets, May 1932, 349 Goodfellow, Cpl RC, 45 Gordon, Lt Col Rev Alexander M Gordon, 46, 321, 334 Grafftey, Major WA, 42nd, 224, 314; assault on Mons, 10 Nov 1918, 224; “Songs and Parodies,” 231 Graham, Major Rev Edwin Ernest, chaplain, 13th, 136; killed Sept 1918, 220 Graham, George, 315 Graham, James, sixth Duke of Montrose, 347 Graham, Sir Hugh, later Lord Atholstan, 50, 83 n 226, 197 Grand Trunk Railway, 16, 57 Grant, Major John, 20, 22, 24, 99 Greenshields, James Naismith, 142 Greenshields, Capt Melville “Mel,” 13th, 142, 148; killed at Mount Sorrel, 174 Gregg, Lt Milton F, 215; from Maritimes, 215, wins Victoria Cross at Marcoing Line, 28 Sept 1918, 215, 216; later Liberal cabinet minister, 215; photo, 282; proudly Black Watch VC, 1927, but also RCR affiliate, 348; attends VC plaques dedication, 1932, 349; 357 Grenfell Cup, polo, 362 Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney), 13th, 176 Griffin, Capt Henry, 10, 15; Mary, 75 n 39; Griffintown, 10, 75 n 39 Gunn, Lt Col JA, 129 Guy Street barracks, 227 Haig, Field Marshal Douglas, Commanding 1st Army, 136, 137, 183; Field Marshal, 199, 207, 210, 212, 323 Haldimand, Col, 74 n 33 Hale, MO Capt William, Jr, 42nd, 196, 202 Halifax, 43, 163, 195; garrison, 26; Halifax Rifles’ Armoury, 50

Hamilton, Lt Col Gawain Basil Rowan, 349, 350, 351; Mrs, 350 Hanson, Major, RMR, 147 Harrington, Tom, 199 Haydon, Lt John, 42nd, 217 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 5 Herbert, Major Gen Ivor, 70 Hetherington, Pte J, 104 Highland Cadets, Montreal, 340; uniforms, 340; encouragement from regiment, 340; Pipe and Bugle Band, 340; out-of-town excursions, 340–1; group of alumni volunteers for South African War, 341; Highland cadet battalion of four companies, by 1900, 341; kilted cadet corps, 341; government order, 1920, 341 Highland costume, 16 Highlanders, 5, 7, 31; in French armies, 4; Roman Catholic, 9; most early-18th-c. fighting Highlanders Catholic, in continental armies, 74 n 21 “Highland gathering,” July 1918, 206 “Highland Laddie,” 67, 336 Hill, Capt Rev J Edgar, chaplain, 43, 66, 102; St Andrew’s Church, 334 Holdway, Pte Henry, 13th, 150, 151, 153 Holt, Sir Herbert Samuel, 346 Honorary Colonels, list, 375–6 Honour Roll, 367 n 10 Hood, Lt Col John (CO 1891–3), 35, 36, 44, 100, 339 Horne, Gen Lord Henry, 198, 207, 211, 212, 220, 224 Houde, Mayor Camillien, 363 Houghton, Col Charles Frederick, MP, 40 Howard, Col Albert “Bert” Turner, 13th (CO 1936– 9), 290, 316, 356; steps down, Oct 1938, 362 Howe, Gen Sir William, 60, 73 n 13 Hughes, Major Gen Garnet, 147, 259 Hughes, Sir Sam, Conservative Minister of Militia and Defence 1911–16, 53, 126, 127, 129, 131, 132, 147, 162, 163, 169, 259, 324, 365, 432 Hutchison, Col Paul P, 73rd, 323, 326–7, 364, 395; histories of Black Watch 1852–1962, xv, 3, 50, of 73rd Battalion in Great War, xv, including WG Peterson’s “The Lost Legion,” 327; takes over 1st Battalion, 1938, 362; re histories, 447 n 30 Hutchison, Major Bruce, 263

Index Ibbotson, Capt Benjamin, 43 Ibbotson, Capt Henry, 43 Ibbotson, Lt Col IL, 361; heads 2nd Battalion, 1938, 361, 364 Ibbotson, Lt Col Edward Benjamin (CO 1897– 1901), 36, 37, 38, 39, 40–2, 43–4, 69, 100, 109; Lieutenant Colonel, 43–4, 46, 154, 166 Ibbotson family, 342 “Indianer Taktik” (re Canadians on night patrol), 176 Ingold, Sigmund, in Zurich, 162 inkstand, silver, with boar’s heads, 324–5, 434, 435 Irish Rangers, Montreal, 165 Jackson, Pte MT, stretcher-bearer, 42nd, 217 Jamieson, Capt Robert Harry, No 2 Company, 13th, 140, 142, 143, 149, 153 Jeffrey, Major John, 13th, 158 Jessop, Battalion Sgt Major JR, 314 Johnson, Pipe Major W, 335 Johnson, Sir John, 6 Johnston, David, Governor General 2010– present, 444 Jones, Bandmaster WO HG, 316 Jones, Pte WE, 13th, 162 Kemp, James C, 170, 230 Kennedy, Lt Rod, 13th, 206 Kennedy, Sgt Major GW, killed at Graf House, 202 Kennedy Crater, Vimy Ridge, 194 Kerr, Capt Roy, 13th, 139 Kerselare, near St-Julien, 147, 156 khaki aprons, 240 n 13; jackets, spats and aprons, 63 Khan, Pte Kamal (a Ghurkha), 13th, 176 Kiely, Pte John Joseph, stretcher-bearer, 42nd, 217–18 Kilpatrick, Padre Major Rev George Dinwoodie, 42nd, 180, 200, 206, 208, 224–5, 317, 355; Odds and Ends from a Regimental Diary, 327 kilt, 62, 204, 232, 320–1, 364, 382; colours: Gordons: yellow stripe, Seaforths: white, Camerons: red, and Argylls: dark green, 134; frozen, lice-infested, at Passchendaele, 200; no lice, 227; significance, 232 King, Lt WM, 224

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King, Brig William, No 10 Battery, 13th, 149, 150, 151; Brigadier, 322 King, William Lyon Mackenzie, Liberal Prime Minister 1920–1, 1925–6, 1935–48, 315–16, 359 Knox, Capt Alexander, 324; and silver inkstand, 324, 325 Lachapelle, Pierre, 13th, 161 Lafontaine Park, Parc Lafontaine, 21, 67, 79 n 99 Laight, Pte Herbert George, 42nd, with khaki glengarry, 268 Landing of the First Canadian Division at StNazaire, 1915, by Edgar Bundy, ARA, 133, 259; hangs in Canadian Senate, 133; includes Buchanan, Loomis, Eric and Rykert McCuaig, and General Turner, VC, 133 LaPrairie, militia training camp, autumn 1865, 69 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, Liberal Prime Minister 1896–1911, 31, 45 Lauzon, 1927 Camp, 321 Le Cateau, 223 Leclaire, Capt JA, 363 Leduc, Col L, 326 Lees, Capt Gerald, 13th, 143; killed at Second Ypres, 156 “Left Out of Battle” (LOB), 189 Leggat, Col, 334 Lessard, Col François-Louis, 52 Lindsay, Lt Stanley Bagg, 13th, 143, 148, 157 Lipsett, Major Gen LJ, 190, 207; Loomis replaces, as head of 3rd Canadian Division, early Aug 1918, 214 Lisgar, Lord, Governor General 1869–72, 25 Little, Capt GW, 216 Logan’s Farm, 21, 67, 79 n 99, 97, 391 Logan’s Park, 67, 79 n 99 Loomis, Brig Gen Sir Frederick Oscar Warren (CO 13th 1914–15), 53, 67, 112, 121, 133, 134, 230, 236, 255, 342, 393, 432; senior in CEF, 129, to head 13th, 131; at Second Ypres, April 1915, 140, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 150, 151; Lieutenant Colonel, 152, 154, 156, 157, 158, and seven surviving, functioning officers, 161; commands 7th Brigade, 177; commanding 2nd Brigade at Vimy Ridge, 194; replaces Lipsett as head of 3rd Canadian Division,

456

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early Aug 1918, 214; towards Mons, 215, 216; Marcoing Line, 220; attitude, 223; Mons, 224; presents Colours to 42nd, 226; superb writing in 13th War Diary, 228, 229; presents new Colours to 42nd in France, 1919, 287; portrait by Bundy, 287; visits, 320; dies, Feb 1937, 360; magnificent funeral, 360 Lorne, Marquis of (John Campbell, later Duke of Argyll), Governor General 1878–83, 32; Lorne tartan, 32, 107, 382, 393, regiment adopts, 22; continuing influence, 34; inspection by, 34; and see Princeess Louise Louisbourg, 5 Louise, Princess, Marchioness of Lorne, 32 Lovett, Lt Col James H, 13th (CO 20th Reserve RHC 1918–19), 177, 227 Lydden Spout, 168 Lydon, Major Fred S, trained Highland Cadets, 340 Lydons, Capt, 38 Lyman, Capt FS, with gargantuan busby, 101 Lyman, Capt Henry, 96; dress shako, 1866, 96 MacDonald, Capt Donald, 5 Macdonald, Gen Donald, 60 MacDonald, George, 170 Macdonald, John A, Conservative Prime Minister 1867–73, 1878–91, 22, 32, 57; monument, 69 MacDonald, Major Gen DA, 232 MacDonald, Marshal (Maréchal) Jacques, 61 MacDonald, Mr, 42nd, 179 MacDonald, Piper Archibald, 5 MacDonald, Sir William C, 339 MacDonald College, 206 [Macdonald] Macdonell, Major Gen Sir Archibald Cameron, 160, 169, 172, 173, 181, 194, 196, 230, 351, 357; leaves 3rd Brigade to replace Currie as head of 1st Division, 200, 204; Amiens, 209; lessons from Vimy, 246 n 199; heads RMC, 315; Black Watch Window, 1921, 317 MacDougall, Capt Hartland, 167 Macdougall family, 342, 346, 354 Macfarlane, Major Walter, 154, 189 MacFarlane, Donald, 230 Macfarlane, Major William, 13th, 212 MacIntyre, Duncan Ban, 345, 347 MacKay, Col Tom, xv, 91 MacKay, Robert, MP, 68, 116 Mackay, Senator Robert, 43, 50

Mackenzie, Capt Hon Ian, 319 Mackenzie, Ian, Liberal Minister of National Defence, 360 MacKenzie of Seaforth clan, 17 MacKinnon, Pte Donald Johnston, 73rd, 273; photo, 1 March 1917, after gas raid (one of great war photos), 273 Macpherson, Lt Col John D (CO 1925–6), 16, 25, 31, 77 n 77, 79 n 115, 329; Major at Somme, 177; heads regiment, 289, 323; and silver inkstand, 324; re Black Watch, 331 Macpherson, Col John D, 16 Macpherson, Piper GB, 13th, 213 MacTier, Major William SM, 13th (CO 1932– 4),143, 157, 158, 189, 316, 336, 348; heads regiment, 290, 349, 360 Magee, Lt Col Allan (CO 20th Reserve RHC 1915–16), 170, 227, 230, 257 Maitland of Lauderdale, Lt Col, 60 manoeuvres, on Mount Royal, 320 Manson, WO D, regimental pipe major, 133, 157, 159 Martin, Mayor Médéric, 316 Massey, Vincent, 323 Matheson, Pipe Major, 110 Mathewson: Capt James (CO 1862), 134; Hugh, 134; James, 134; Kenneth, 134; Samuel, 134 Mathewson, Lt JA, 42nd, 178 Mathewson, Major Samuel J, 42nd, 178, 199, 230 Mathewson, Lt Col Frank Stanton, 42nd (CO 1926–7), 134, 173, 178, 180, 189, 230, 236; evocative letters, 135–6; 20th Reserve RHC, 227; Lieutenant Colonel, 289, 316, 321, 330 Mathewson family, 240 n 29, 251 n 324, 342, 346 Maxwell, Gen Sir John, 330, 331 McArthur, Colin, 339 McCarthy, Alex, 355 McClements, RSM J, 73rd, 131 McCord, Brig John Samuel, 20, 27 McLeod, Sgt Alex, 13th, 153; killed at Ypres, 153 McCrae, Capt Dr John A, 159, 230; at Second Ypres, 159; Scrimger urges him to publish In Flanders Fields, 159 McCuaig, Capt, 67; senior in CEF, 129; extraordinary service, 133 McCuaig, Clarence J, 133; three sons in 5th RHC at Second Ypres, 132 McCuaig, Major Gen G Eric (CO 13th 1916–18, CO RHC 1920–3), 133, 140, 173, 236, 255, 319, 351, 364, 432; boar’s head tattoo, 133;

Index 146, 150, 255, replaces Buchanan after Regina Trench, 181, 183; Lieutenant Colonel, Hill 70, 198; leave, 206; returns April 1918, 206; Amiens, 208, 209; Artsoi Switch, 212; to head 4th Brigade, 212; in drag, 231; Beaverbrook on, 242–3 n 101; with Buchanan in dugout, Sept 1916, 270; Colonel, 289; takes command, 314, 315; redesignates battalions: 1st becomes 13th, 2nd, 42nd, 316; retires 1923, 316; “The Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch),” or “RHC,” 1920, 329; McCuaig, Lt Clarence, 140, 157, 181 McCuaig, Major D Rykert (CO 1925–6), 13th, 133, 140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 155, 156, 158, 171, 176; 289, 314, 432; heads regiment, 316 McDonald, Pte GJ, 225 McDonnell, Rev Father Alexander, 9–10 McGee, Thomas D’Arcy, MP, 20, 22, 95 McGibbon, Capt Gilbert, 13th, 150 McGill battalion, 165 McGill COTC (Canadian Officers’ Training Corps, 1912), 170; 1910s, 134; sends four companies overseas, 170 McGill Daily, 145; and CEF, 239 n 9 McGill family, 8; James, 10; Peter, 14 McGill Stadium, 322, 341 [Molson?] McGill University, 143, 150, 159, 170, 195, 217, 219, 237, 325, 343, 346; units in Great War, 126, campus for training, 131; Union, 163; COTC, 165, 224; men in CEF, 239 n 9; front campus, 296, 341 McGill units in CEF: No 3 (McGill) General Hospital (first CEF unit in France), 7th (McGill) Siege Battery and 10th (McGill) Siege Battery, 239 n 3 McGregor, Lt HP, 191 McIntyre, Lt Robert, 42nd, killed at Graf House, 201 McKessock, Capt Robert McLennan, 48th MG, 142 McLennan, Bartlett (CO 42nd 1916–18), 165, 166, 172, 177, 186, 269; returns to command 42nd, 183; recovers, but observes at Vimy Ridge, 194; on leave again before Passchendaele, 201; stained-glass window, 202; killed 3 Aug 1918, 207; Celtic Cross headstone, granite, Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, 271; and officers, 4 June 1918, 272; Black Watch (McLennan)

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Window, St Andrew and St Paul Church, 297, rededication, 1932, 297, unveiling of, 1921, 317; creation and unveiling of, 1921, 317; making of granite headstone, 317, moving it from France to Mount Royal Cemetery, 317– 18; annual McLennan Steeplechase, begun 1920, 354, McLennan, GS, 230 McLennan Celtic Cross headstone (relocated), Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, 271, 317–18 McLennan Window, St Andrew and St Paul Church, 297; rededication, 1932, 297; unveiling of, old St Andrew and St Paul, 1921, 317; now more usually ‘Black Watch Window,’ 367 n 9 McLeod, Sgt Alex, 13th, 158 McNaughton, Brig Gen Andrew, 196; his guns crucial at Vimy Ridge, 196; guru of counter battery fire, 196; innovations in “sound ranging,” 196 Meighen, Lt Col FS, 43, 52, 110, 134; founds Royal Montreal Regiment, 14th Battalion, 52 Mercer, Major Gen Malcolm S, 169, 171 “military schools,” 69; become regiments, 70; two schools of gunnery at Montreal and Toronto; school of cavalry at Toronto, 1865, 79 n 102 Militia Act, Canada, 1868, 26; amendments, 1900s, 49; new act, c. 1903, 56 Militia Act, Lower Canada, 9; 1830, 13; 1812–37, 14; 1793, 75 nn 36 Militia Act, United Province of Canada, 1846, 77 n 71; 1855, 15, 17, 52, details, 77 n 74; 1862, 21, 1863, 69 Militia budgets, 319 militia camps, 320; 1933, 356; 1938, 361; 1939, Valcartier, 1939, 361 Militia Council: first, 1904, 49; makeup, 84 n 223 Militia Laws of New France abolished, 9 Militia Laws renewed, 1803, 10 militia training systematized, 70 Mills, Col Arthur Lennox S (CO 1931–2), 290, 316; heads regiment, 1931–2, 324, 348, 349, 350 Molson, Capt Herbert, 42nd, 165, 166–7, 172, 174, 219, 352, 353; sailboat The Red Hackle, 354; Honorary Colonel, 357; death and grand funeral, 1938, 361 Molson, Capt JH, 320 Molson, Hartland, 168, 233

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Molson, Hartland de Montarville, 1915, 120 Molson, Herbert, 231, 314 Molson, Lt Stuart, 67, 140 Molson, Lt Walter, 42nd, 216; horrifically wounded at Marcoing Line, 219–20 Molson, Lt William Hobart, 232 Molson, Maj Hubert, 1915, 120, 176 Molson, Percival, 170, 174, 219, 230 Molson, Stuart, 135 Molson, Tom, 1915, 120 Molson family, 13, 231, 342, 346, 446 n 16; Molsons in 5th RHC, 240 n 40 Molson Papers, 75 n 50 Molsons in 5th RHC at Ypres, 132 Monash, Gen Sir John (Australian), 207 Monck, Lady, 21, 97, 391 Mons, Belgium, 125, 210, 223, 360, 434; within reach, Oct 1918, 224; 42nd assault on Mons, 10 Nov 1918, 224; signing Golden Book, 224; last Canadians to die in war, 224; Cease Fire order, 42nd, 11/11/11, 1918, 277; 42nd marches into, 288 Monsarrat, Lt Col Charles N (CO 1915–19), 20th Reserve RHC, 13, 237; Lieutenant Colonel, 289 Montgomerie, Lt JCT, 42nd, 224; assault on Mons, 10 Nov 1918, 224 Montreal, 8, 9, mayors, 1900–14, 46; surrender, 1760, 59; seedbed for 5th RHC’s strength, 237; contributions to CEF, 240 n 18; 42nd marches into, 288 Montreal Cavalry, 1803, 16, 77 n 76 Montreal dock riots in 1903, 56 Montreal downtown armouries, 427 Montreal garrison, 27, 232, 318, 365, officers, 1860, 95; parade, 109; officers, 1900, 110; 1930s, 359 Montreal Garrison Coronation Contingent, May 1937, 360 Montreal Highland Cadet Corps, 339 Montreal Hunt and Back River Polo Club, 166 Montreal Militia, 356; garrison, details, c. 1838, 77 n 69 Montreal Polo Club, 316 moppers-up, 195; crucial, 204 Morrisey, Capt, 15th, 147 Morrisey, Capt Thomas, No 3 Company, 13th, 140, 230 Morrison, Sgt William, 13th, 158

mottos: Ne Obliviscaris (Never Forget), 1885, 329, 384; Quis Separabit (Who will separate us?), original, 1862, 337; “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” (“No one provokes me with impunity”), c. 1930, 384 Mount Stephen, Lord (George Stephen) 8, 50, 68, 165, 197, 236, 345, 346; Lady, 68 Moyes, John McQueen, ARCA, 13th, 229, 230; sketches and battlefield maps in 13th War Diary, 263–4; In the Dugouts, 270 Muir, Alexander, 23–4; The Maple Leaf Forever, 24 Murray, Capt Howard, 335 Murray, Capt James, 92 Murray, General and Governor James, 4, 5, 8 Naismith, Lt Col George, surgeon, 159 Nivelles, Belgium, incident/mutiny, Dec 1918, 225 Norsworthy, Major Edward Cuthbert, 13th, 132, 165, 262, 431; Major, 67; Norsworthys in 5th RHC at Second Ypres, April 1915, 132; three brothers followed him into 5th RHC, 132–3; as major, Loomis’s adjutant, at Second Ypres, 140–1, 142, 143, 145, 152, 158; killed, Second Ypres, 146, 162, 241 n 58 Norsworthy, Lt Col Stanley Counter, 42nd (CO 42nd 1916–17), 166, 178, 181, 189, 189, 190, 196, 255, 269; Fabeck Graben/Regina Trench, Sept, 1916, 178, 179; acting commander until McLennan returns, 183; commanding 42nd at Vimy Ridge, April 1917, 194; in charge again, 201; becomes brigade major of 8th Brigade, 205; re Vimy, 357; portrait, 431 Norsworthy, Lt Alfred J, 73rd, killed at Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917, 194, portrait, 431 Norsworthy family, 346, 431; in 5th RHC, 132–3 Notman, William, photographer, 35, 48, 99, 102; studio on Bleury, 83 n 218 Ogilvie, Lt Col Gavin Lang, 42nd (CO 1927–8), 205, 289, 316, 321; ditty: “You Made Me Stand-to” (based on “You Made Me Love You,” by James V. Monaco and Joseph McCarthy, which Al Jolson recorded in 1913), 205 Ogilvie, Col AE, 343 Ogilvie family, 342, 346, 354 Osborne, Battalion Sgt Major N, 314 Ostell, Col JT, 13, 76 n 57 Otter, Brig Gen Sir William, 49, 52

Index Packham, WO 1 JH, 361; appointed RSM, 1st Battalion, 1938, 361 Papps, Private, 42nd, 180 Parks, LCpl Stanley, 149 Parry/Perry, Pte Anthony Robert, 42nd, died at Regina Trench, 181 Paton, Hugh, 345, 354; Paton Mills, Sherbrooke, Quebec, made kilts and glengarries, 244 n 130; Paton Cup (polo), 355 Pease, Major Edson, 42nd, 195, 217 Pellatt, Major Gen Sir Henry, Toronto, 51, 52 Perkes, Pte Scott, 13th, 153 Permanent Active Militia, 45, 356; serious instruction expensive, 1930s, 359 Permanent Force, acquires first armour in 1938, 361 Perry, Lt Col Kenneth M (CO 13th 1918), 143, 154, 173, 189, 225; acting CO, Dec 1917–April 1918, 206; Lieutenant Colonel, heading 87th, April 1918, 206; back heading 13th, replacing Perry (on leave), 223–4; Moyes sketch in 13th War Diary, 263 Petawawa, Camp, 20–25 June 1914, 71, 114, 119 Peterson, Major William Gordon, 73rd, 325–7; Silhouettes of Mars, 326; “The Lost Legion,” re 73rd, in Hutchison’s history of 73rd, 327 Pipe Band, 323, 356 pipers, 350; pipe banners, 350, 432; Stewart tartan, 1932 rule, 355 Pipes and Drums, 316, 324, 335, 347 piping competitions, 231; massed pipe bands, 232 Pitblado, Lt Charles “Pitt,” 142, 153, 156, 158, 162 platoon: new, dynamic version, autumn 1916, 175; six elements late autumn 1916: riflemen, Lewis gunners; evolution, 419–21, grenadiers, bombers, scouts and snipers, 187; new version (30 men), by summer 1918, 205 Plumer, Lt Gen Sir Herbert “Old Plum,” 152, 173, 199 Pointe-aux-Trembles Rifle Ranges, 68, 314, 364; shooting competition, 359 Point St Charles Rifle Ranges, 68 polo, 354–5; hiatus in Quebec, 1939–85, 362; see also Back River; Saraguay Prévost, Governor Sir George, 10, 11, 12; orders draft, 1812, 75 n 50 Price, Brig CB, 348 Price family, 342

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Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, 347, 356 Prosser, Lt AD, 13th, 174 Quaich Cup, 350, 430, 371 n 97 Quebec City, 5, 8, 9, 43, 46, 48, 73 n 7, 106, 235; as Scottish colony, 4; bridge, 46; tercentenary, 1908, 57–8, 111; Citadel, 128 Quebec conscription riots of 1917, 56 Quebec Dock Strikes, 1878, 56 Queen’s (Westminster) Cadet Corps, London, 1910, 340 raid, components of, beginning mid-1916, 175–6; purposes, 246 n 194 raids, Canadian, early 1918, 204 ram’s head snuff mull, 324, 437 Ravenscrag, 336, 345, 346 Red Cross, 162; hospital train, 286 Red Hackle, 62, 168, 185, 232–3, 321, 364, 383; origin of, 59–60, 81 n 140; Red hackles and balmorals, Nov 1916 and Nov 1917, 186, 209; “General permission for the Red Hackle,” 28 June 1918, 233; Black Watch, 330, 331, 333; 1932 rule, 355–6 Red Hackle, first issue, 256; later empire regimental organ for Imperial Black Watch, 256 The Red Hackles, regimental theatre troupe, 231 regimental pipe majors, 1876–1953, 390 regimental sergeants major, 1875–1953, 389 Richardson, Lt Paul, 42nd, KIA Mount Sorrel, 174 rifle clubs, 339; interprovincial musketry competitions, 339; branches of the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA), 339 “Rifle Companies,” 342; “Drill Associations,” 342; Black Watch, 1918, 419 rifle competition, first Canadian, Montreal, 1864, 78 n 91 rifle meet, 358 rife platoons, four-section, 419 rifle practice, 320 rifle ranges, 319; Côte-St-Luc, 37, 68; Pointeaux-Trembles, 68, 364; Point St Charles, 68; Connaught, near Ottawa, 320; St Bruno, 364 Riley Shield, 361 Rintoul, Pte John, stretcher-bearer, 42nd, 202 Ritchie, Drum Major WO George, 356 Ritchie, Gord, xvi Robertson, Alexander, 34

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Index

Rose of Kilravok, Lt Colonel Hugh, 66, 67, 351 Rose, Major John, MP, 17, 20, 68, 95 Ross, Gen James George, 332 Ross, Brig Gen James Gordon, 67, 127, 128, 131, 151, 236, 351, 352, 432[?]; becomes Paymaster General for Canadian Forces in Europe, 128; senior in CEF, 129; machine gun officer, 142, 144; Lieutenant, Second Ypres, April 1915, 148, 153, his Colt detachments, Second Ypres, 158; visits 20th Reserve RHC, 227; background, 239 n 7; manuscript by, 239 n 9; eleven MGs in his report, and draws deployment sketches, 240 n 46; “thirty yards” from battalion HQ to German trenches, 241 n 48; 335 Routh, Lt Col Haviland L (CO 1862–75), 13, 17, 18, 26, 27, 34, 94, 95, 100, 351; as captain, raises company, 1862, 19; retires, 1871, 27; LeMesurier, Routh and Company, 78 n 87 Routh, Sir Randolph Isham, 20 Royal Military College (RMC), Kingston, Ontario, 140, 142, 166, 315 Royal Montreal Cavalry, 14, 95 Royal Montreal Golf Club, Dixie, West Island, 354 Royal School of Infantry, Halifax, 325 Royal Schools of Infantry: Quebec, 70; Toronto, 70 Rust, Capt Benjamin Henry, 13th, 163, 192; killed 1916, 192 Ryder, Lt George, 42nd, 218 St Andrew and St Paul, Church of, Presbyterian, 1932, regimental church, 297, 333–5; relocates to Redpath and Sherbrooke Streets, 1932, 297; originally on Dorchester Street, 1918– 32, 334; Black Watch Window rededicated, 1932, 297, unveiling of, 1921, 317, Laying Up Colours, 1932, 297, great organ, 297, regimental church, cathedral style, 333, “the A&P,” 333, 334, English Gothic Revival, 334, Black Watch Window moved here, 1932, 334; 1862 Colours, 391, additional Colours, 395, 397 St Andrew’s Church, 333; earliest regimental church, 333; torn down, 1927, 334 St Andrew’s Society, 316; Ball, 37, 1913, 132, 1930s, 353, 1937, 360; gives Colours, 1912, 66; Archives, 75 n 50 St Andrew’s University, Scotland, 326; St Andrew’s OTC Mess, 327

St

Paul’s Church, Dorchester Street, 334; becomes second regimental church, c. 1912, 334; merges with St Andrew’s 1918, 334 St-Quentin, 220 St Sauveur, Laurentian Mountains, 358 Salaberry, Lt Col Charles de, 11 Salisbury Plain, 135, 137, 257; Alderson’s (Canadian) HQ, 137; 5th RHC at, 265 Saunders, Lt Tom, 13th, 174 Saunders, Pipe Major AJ, 73rd, 131 “Schools of Military Instruction,” Quebec, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto, early 1860s, 22 Scotch Whisky, 350 Scotland, 325, 341 Scrimger, Capt Francis, surgeon, RMR, VC, 158– 9, 236; treats gas effects, 159; recalls lecture on urine, 159; urges John McCrae to publish poem, 159 Selbie, Lt JD, 13th, killed at Mount Sorrel, 174 Sellon, Lt Ernest Marmaduke, 13th, 143 Sewell, Lt Col WR “Bill,” xvi, 431, 432; builds Colours cabinet, 431–2 Shorncliffe Camp, England, 227 Shum, Major John Lancelot, 42nd, 195, 320 silver inkstand, 324–5, 434, 435 Sinclair, Lt Col Ian Macintosh Roe (CO 13th 1918, 1919), 143, 153, 189, 255, 393; replaces McCuaig commanding 13th, Aug 1918, 212; Canal du Nord, 213; takes leave Oct 1918, replaced by Perry, 224; Colours, Dec 1918, 226 Singer, Sgt, 1884, 101 Smart, Capt VI, 170 Smith, Capt Charles, 13th, 143 Smith, CSM G, 225 Smith, Lt Col William Osborne, 27 Smyth, Major Gen Sir Selby, 28, 31, 34, 56 Smith, Sir Donald, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, 36, 37, 41, 50, 68, Lady Strathcona, 68 Smith-Dorrien, Gen Horace (“Smithereens”), 151 Smyth, Thomas B, xvi South African (Boer) War, 44, 45, 62, 71, 127, 131, 132, 135, 136, 143, 149, 169, 192, 235; 5th RHC departs for, 101, 321, 341 Sparling, Lt Col Herbert (CO 73rd 1916–17), 256: replaces Davidson in command, Dec 1916, 191; leads raid of 1 March 1917, 191; crisis in numbers, 197

Index Steele, Lt Col Harwood, 362 Stephen, George, Lord Mount Stephen, 8, 50, 68, 165, 197; Lady, 68 Stephens, Lt L DeK, 42nd, KIA Mount Sorrel, 174 Stewart, Charlie, 170 Stewart, Col Charles James, 215 Stewart, Gen, of Garth, 355 Stewart, Sgt John, Seven Years’ War diary, 92 Stewart tartan, 1932 rule, 355 Stirling Cup Tyro, 320 Strathcona, Lord, 8, 339, 341, 345; and see Smith, Sir Donald Strathy, Lee, 230 Strathy, Lt Col James Alexander Lord (CO 1893–7), 36–42, 66, 100, 165, 230, 232, 339; “Amherst House,” 73 n 6; encourages Highland cadets, 340 Strathy Cup, 43–4, 104 Strong, Lt Col EH, 331 Studd, Lt Roy, 42nd, 195 Sulte, Benjamin, 6 summer camps, militia, 70, 232, 320–2; summer 1939, 364; 1921–30, 367 n 21 Taplin, Ben, 432 Tara Hill, Mount Sorrel, 173 tartans: Seaforth or Campbell (Government), 17; Black Watch, 107, Campbell, 107, Lorne, 107, Royal Stuart/Stewart, 107; for 42nd RHC, 167–8; Cantlie tartan, 266; creation and outfitting of 42nd, 266; “hard tartan” and “soft tartan,” 321; Black Watch, 330 Taylor, Capt Rev R Bruce, chaplain, 1912, 334; St Paul’s Church, 334; serves with regiment overseas, 334; becomes principal of Queen’s University, 1917, 334 Taylor, LCpl William John, 202 Teffer, Pte Frederick, 146 textile worker’s strike, Valleyfield, 1900, 56 Ticonderoga, 1758, 35, 90, 159 Ticonderoga, Fort, 91, 323 Tomlinson, Capt FW, 152, 156 Topp, Major C Beresford “Toppo,” 42nd, v, 172, 179; The 42nd Battalion History, xv, 220; 172, 179, 327; Vimy Ridge, 195; Colonel, 201; takes over at Marcoing Line, 29 Sept 1918, 215; Parvillers, 229 Toronto Black Watch Association (TBWA), 1928, 355, 430; for Imperials only, 355; “Canadian” Chapter, 355

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Trainor, Sergeant John, 149, 154, 158 Trout, Lt Harry B, 42nd, 204, 216 Trudeau, Jean Baptiste, 13th, 161 ‘Turcos’ (Tirailleurs), 140, 144, 146, 148 Turner, Gen, VC, 133, 140, 147, 150, 154, 351 Tweedsmuir, Lord, Governor General 1935–40, 360, 361; Lady, 360; and see John Buchan Units and Formations THE BLACK WATCH (ROYAL HIGHLAND REGIMENT) OF CANADA BlaCk WatCh: Part I: 1759–1914: armoury (Bleury Street), 14, 126; battle honour, 11; bloodline, 6; executive board, xvi; Regimental Advisory Board, xvi; Black Watch Regimental Museum, Balhousie Castle, Perth, Scotland, xvi, 434, 435; Black Watch Regimental Museum and Archives, Montreal, xvi; 42nd Black Watch Regiment, 4, “Black Watch tartan,” 4, 34–5; first Colours, 1862, 19; Black Watch or government tartan, 32, 107, variant of Campbell tartan, 32, 107; Imperial Black Watch, 33, affiliation with, 1905, 58; Imperial Black Watch archives, Perth, 60; 42nd disappears, and Royal Highland Regiment becomes ‘The Black Watch,’ 61; Imperial Black Watch, 65, 66; 1st and 2nd Battalion, Imperial Black Watch, 68; militia training camp 1865 at LaPrairie, 69. Illustrations to Part I: early years of Black Watch in North America, 90–3; first battle honour, 1813, 93. Part II, 1914–1919 (see 5th Battalion, Royal Montreal Light Infantry, and 13th, 42nd, 73rd Battalions for their war years): Cantlie creates new 42nd, 1914, 129; Imperial: most captured, late Oct 1914, 137; Imperial boasts of Canadian connection after Second Ypres, 159; Imperial, 167; Black Watch tartan for 42nd, 167–8; officers’ mess, 229; 1905 affiliation, 232; calibre of officers, 233. Illustrations to Parts II and III: Red Hackle, first issue, 256, later empire regimental organ for Imperial Black Watch, 256; further name changes, 291; Black Watch Window, Colours, church, 297; global Black Watch RHC 1900–2014 (map), 301. Part III, 1919–1939: US

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recruiting tour, 1917, 322; gift of silver boar’s head inkstand, 324–5, 434, 435; tightening affiliation, 330–3; tartan, 331; ten affiliated regiments, 332; The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, 1935, 332; being an officer always expensive, 353; mess dues, 353; registered letter, 353; A&A Golf Match, 354; Toronto Black Watch Association (TBWA), Imperials only, 1928, 355; militia camp, 1933, 356, winter training, 358, summer camp, 358, serious instruction too expensive, 1930s, 359, parades nearly eight hundred men, mid-Depression, 359; Ottawa reorganizes military, late 1930s, 360–1, but funds short, 361; last peacetime reunion dinner, 362, royal visit, May 1939, 362–3, organization and structure, 363; Carson–Borden dispute, 1900s, 363; regiment and battalion, 363– 4; summer camp, St Bruno, 1939, 364; two post-1918 strands: reservist and tested in battle, 365; Foulkes: ‘casual training’ between the wars, 365. Appendices: battle honours, 373; honorary colonels, 375–6; lineage, 1812–2012, 377–9; commanding officers, 1812–2014, 381–7; tartan, 383; regimental sergeants major, 1875–1953, 389; regimental pipe majors, 1876–1953, 390; sergeant majors, 1864–1915, 390; regimental Colours: 1862–2009, 391–9; honours and awards, 401–11; badges, 417; battles in the Great War, 418; rifle company and platoon formations in Great War, 419–20; platoon attack by late 1917, 421; officers’ mess, 429–37; Colours cabinet, 431; regimental silver, 434, 436; Sergeants’ Mess, 438; regimental boards and tablets, 430–4; VC brass tablets, 443; Regimental Museum, 444 5th Battalion, Royal light inFantRy oF montReal; Part I: 1759–1914: formation, 17, 18, compensation, 1862, 21; drill sheds, early 1860s, 22; excellence in shooting and dress, 1862, 21; forms six companies, 1862, 19; annual June inspections begin, 21; sesquicentennial, 2012, 21; training locations, 1862, 20;

uniform, scarlet, 1862, 20; weapons, 1862, 20; adds ‘Royal,’ 21, first Colours, 1862, 21, 97; training, 1862, 21; deployment to Windsor, Canada West, 1864, 23; aid to civil power, 1866, 23; protecting local facilities, 1866, 24; sent to Cornwall and US border, 1866, 24, 98; new rifles, 24; training in St John’s (St-Jean), 24; review on Champ de Mars, 1866, 24; companies 2 and 5 disbanded, 25–6; snub of military ball, 2; disbandment, 1871, 27; summer training, 1871, 27; complex negotiations, 27–8; “disorganization,” 1871–7, 28; becomes “Royal Fusiliers.” 28; adopts bearskin busby, 28; massive growth 1877, 28; six companies, 28; glengarry cap, 28; busbies from England, 28; spectacular appearance on parade, 29; becomes a Highland unit, 31–3; adopts Black Watch tartan, 32; No 1 Company, 32, six-year conversion to kilted Highland unit, 32; becomes 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1880, 33; adopts Lorne tartan, 22; glengarries, 33; becomes Royal Scots of Canada, 1884, 33; feather bonnet, 1895, 33, 35; Royal Stuart tartan, 33; Red Hackle, 33; virtually Black Watch, 33, 35; sporran, 33; boar’s head and motto, 33, 34; becomes The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) of Canada, 1931, 34; Campbell influence, 34; new Colours, 1912, 34; “The Campbells Are Coming,” 34; gradual conversion from Campbell to Black Watch tartan, 34: Routh/Crawford/ EAC Campbell, 34; EAC Campbell in charge, 35; becomes 5th Royal Scots of Canada, c. 1882, 35; Campbell heads regiment 1882–4, 35; photographed wearing kilt, all but completes conversion, 35; Caverhill heads regiment 1884–91, 35; moves from Bonsecours Market to new Craig Street Drill Hall, 35; officers’ mess, 35; Hood (1891–2) emphasizes height and fitness, 36; Strathy 1893–7, 36, wants discipline, produces conflict, 36, clash with Ibbotson, 36, 37, 38; training poor, 37, church parades, regular drills, rifle practice, 37; Red Hackle and Feather

Index Bonnet Fund, 1893, 37; replacement ball, 1895, 37; Strathy presents silver challenge trophy (Strathy Cup), 1896, 38, 42, 104; Gascoigne intervenes, 38, Windsor Hotel summit, 38, paralysis, summer 1896, 39, church parade, Oct 1896, 39, Ibbotson confronts Strathy, 39, minister intervenes, 39, silent meeting, 39, Court of Inquiry, March–April 1897, 40–2, Strathy resigns, 42, Strathy’s legacy, 42; Ibbotson in charge, 1897–1901, 43–7; a shooting regiment under Routh, then decades of decline, 44; excursion to Portland, Maine, 1898, 44–5; service in South African War, 1899–1900, 45; second battle honour, 45, spur to enlistment, 45; quest for “Highland status,” 46; royal review, 1901, 46; aid to civil power, Valleyfield, 1900, 47, 109; other forces join, 47; Cameron succeeds Ibbotson, 1901, 47; Carson follows Cameron, 1902, 47; Carson’s tenure 1902–9 [OK?], 48; Bleury Street Armoury, 48; up to sixteen companies, 1906, 48, grows from six companies to eight, 48, two battalions, 48, 5th Regiment Royal Scots of Canada, Highlanders, 48, mounted officers, 48, promotions hard to obtain, 49; first Militia Council, 1904, 49; new Bleury Street Armoury, 50, meteoric impact, 50. Becomes 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC), 1906, 50, 378; ‘citadel,’ 51; Carson v. Borden, 51–3; Carson and Meighen form separate units, 52; trip to coronation, 1911, 55; aid to civil power: definition, 55, nine calls, 1864– 1903, including five against workers, 55, against dock strikers, 1903, 55–6, confrontations over language, religion, education, Irish patriots, Orange parades, 56, attitudes of men and officers, 56; disputes and litigation over pay, 56, instances of aid to civil power, 56; mess dinners, 57, regimental fund, 57, amateur v. professional soldiers, 57, about fifteen drills or parades per year, 57, training, 57, summer excursions, 57, tercentenaries of Quebec, 1908, and Lake Champlain, 1909, 57–8, 111; affiliation with Imperial

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Black Watch, 1905, 58, company tartans, 59, Earl of Crawford and 42nd tartan, 59, “Royal” conferred, 1758, 59, origin of “Black Bear,” 59, origin of Red Hackle, 59–60, Geldermalsen, 60, 42nd Regiment, 60, origin of red feathers, 60, 42nd becomes ‘The Black Watch,’ 61, adopts kilt and wears Campbell, then Lorne tartan, 61, adopts bagpipes, 61, pipers receive Royal Stuart tartan, 61–2, regimental dress, 62–3, social respectability, 65, motto and device adopted 1885, 65; armoury paid off, 1910, 65, Cantlie replaces Carson, 1910, 65, advisory board, 66, preparation of new Colours, 66, fiftieth anniversary, 2012, 66, Duke of Connaught, 66, 67, presentation of Colours, 1912, 66, 67, 68, 116–18; shooting competitions, 68, training schedules, 68, major annual events, 68; 1860s–1910s: training schedules, summer training, training camps, pay, strength, 69, militia training and summer camps, 70–1, Farnham Camp, 70, 71, 111, 113. Notes to Part I: establishment as of 20 June 1902, 83 n 217, new regimental church, Sherbrooke Street, 1931, 83 n 226; aid to civil power: Hackett funeral, 1878, and smallpox “vaccination riots,” 1885, 84 n240, others, n 242; regimental camps and excursions 1875–1913 (selected list), 85 n 244, 111, 113, 114, camps and training camps, selected, 87 n 288. Illustrations to Part I: 1860s’ uniforms, 94–6, dress shako, 1866, 96, receives Colours, 1862, 97, summer tunics, light infantry shakos, 97, at Hemmingford, Quebec, during Fenian raids, 1866, 99, Cadet Battalion, 103, bandsmen, 103, pith helmets with Red Hackle, c. 1905, 104, pipers, 1898, 105, sergeants, 1898, 105, evolution of tartan, 107, parade, c. 1912, 115, Petawawa, 20– 25 June 1914, 119, Valcartier Camp, late Sept 1914, 119, officers in officers’ mess, July 1914, 121. Part II: 1914–1919: Ross forms overseas unit, Aug 1914, 127; raises 13th Battalion, CEF, and sends to

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Valcartier, Aug 1914, 128; abortive plan for Highlander replacement unit, 128; with Victoria Rifles, helps form 24th Battalion, autumn 1914, 129; Cantlie helps form 44th (soon 42nd!) Battalion for Third Contingent, autumn 1914, 129; RHC battalions: distinct appearance, 130, khaki apron, 130; raises 73rd Battalion, summer 1915, 130; RHC battalions: eight companies each at Valcartier, four in England, 131; prepares for war involving science and technology, 131; most officers work for brokers, banks or family companies, 132; Molsons, Norsworthys, and three McCuaig brothers at Second Ypres, 132; 13th joins with 14th–16th battalions in 3rd Brigade of 1st Division, 133; noblesse oblige in officers’ mess, 134; Alderson takes command of Canadians, 137; 13th at Second Ypres, April, 139–60; 13th’s conduct at Ypres sets tenor and standard, 159; Black Watch becomes central feature of identity, 160; now proven in battle, 163; depositing of Colours in St Andrew and St Paul, 1932, 297. See 13th, 42nd, 73rd Battalions for their war years. Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917, 189–97, collective success for 13th, 42nd, 73rd, 189–90, 42nd took heaviest casualties, 197, Black Watch panCanadian, 197; in support at Arleux and the Scarpe, 198; 20th Reserve Battalion, RHC, 226–7; Guy Street barracks, 227; 5th RHC battalions win six Victoria Crosses and 931 major decorations, 234; 5th RHC creates seven separate units during war, 234, 8627 casualties, including 2613 killed in action and 6014 wounded, 234, factors underlying wartime accomplishments, 237. Notes to Part II: 5th RHC, in effect, recruiting depot for Montreal battalions of 2nd Contingent, 239 n 11; “We were probably the biggest nuisance the army ever created” (chapter 9, 168), 251 n 332. Illustrations to Parts II and III: at West Down, Salisbury, 265; regimental church, St Andrew and St Paul, Montreal, 278. Maps to Part II: see

pages 301–9. Part III: 1919–1939: Topp, The 42nd Battalion History, 327; and Bishop’s College School, 342–3, and other regimental schools, 343; Regimental Brass Band, 347; presentation of Colours, 1912, 347; produces battalions for war, 364. Notes to Part III: McLennan Window now more usually Black Watch Window, 367 n 9; Honour Roll, 367 n 10; Summer Camps; 1921–1930, 367 n 21; The Great War Service Tablet, 1934, 371 n 100; 1812 and 1813 Battle Honours awarded in 2012, 371 n 104. Appendices: battle honours, 373; honorary colonels, 375–6; lineage, 1812–2012, 377–9; commanding officers, 1812–2014, 381–7; uniforms, details, 382–4; regimental sergeants major, 1875–1953, 389; regimental pipe majors, 1876–1953, 390; sergeant majors, 1864–1915, 390; regimental Colours: 1862–2009, 391–9; honours and awards, 401–15; badges, 417; battles in Great War, 418; rifle company and platoon formations in Great War, 419–20; platoon attack by late 1917, 421 13th Battalion RhC. Part II, 1914–1919: 13th, 126; raised Aug 1914, 128, goes to Valcartier, Aug 1914, 128, sails from Quebec, 30 Sept 1914, 128; Loomis to head, Aug 1914, 131; many Nova Scotians, 131; acquires four Colts, 131– 2; brigaded with 14th, 15th, and 16th battalions (Canadian Scottish units) in 3rd Brigade of 1st Division, 133; Alderson takes command of Canadians, 137; into trenches near Armentières, 23 Feb 1915, 137; Second Ypres, 23–5 April 1915, for 13th (maps, 302–3), 139–60, 500 yards of front at Ypres, 140, nauseating conditions in trenches, 141; War Diary, 144, German gas attack, combat, 144–5; fighting around St Julien, Kitchener’s Wood, etc, 146–60, loses half its men, 157, conclusion: fighting retreat and loss of ground, 159, conduct at Second Ypres sets tenor and standard, 159; Loomis and seven surviving, functioning officers, 161; Festubert, battle at, 19–23 May 1915,

Index 162; Battle of Mount Sorrel, or The June Show, 2–14 June 1916 (maps, 304–5), 170–4; new officers for the Somme, 176; Second Ypres, 181; Regina Trench, 8 Oct 1916, 181–2, loses ¾ of battalion, 182; adopts Red Hackle, c. 11 Nov 1916, at Cambligneul, France, replacing glengarry with balmoral with Red Hackle, 186; Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917 (map, 306), 189–97, collective success for 13th, 42nd, 73rd, 189–90, advances with 1st Division, 193; Black Watch pan-Canadian, 197. Hundred Days: (maps, 307–9). Amiens, 8 Aug 1918: to capture Hangard Wood and Coates Trench, 208; attacks Artois Switch, 212; reaches Canal du Nord late Sept 1918, 212; Sinclair replaces McCuaig commanding, 212; crosses Canal du Nord and helps surround Cambrai, 212; crosses Canal du Nord, 213–14; takes Marquion with 14th, 213; Milton Gregg wins Victoria Cross at Marcoing Line, 28 Sept 1918, 215, Marcoing Line, 218, 219; losses in Sept 1918, 220; last fighting patrol, mid-Oct 1918, 221; casualties [for what period?] , 221; Oct 1918 fairly quiet, Mons within reach, 224; advances on Mons, Oct 1918, 224; Aftermath: march to Rhine, Dec 1918, 225, 226; for march into Germany, 13th and 42nd request 1862 and 1912 Colours, 226, new Colours, 4 Jan 1919, Schloss Ereshoven, Germany, from Prince Arthur of Connaught, 226; drafts from 20th Reserve, 227; superb writing by Loomis in 13th War Diary, 228, Moyes illustrates War Diary, 229; concert, 231, battalion orchestra, 231; twenty-two battle honours, eleven of them major, 234, composition at war’s end, 235; mobilized at Valcartier 1914, 239 n 3, strength at Valcartier, 240 n 26, composition, 243 n 116. Illustrations to parts II and III: Second Ypres, April 1915, 260; Machine Gun Platoon, late Sept 1914, 261; map of trenches near Ypres, 264; battalion headquarters after Second Ypres, 264; Pipe Band, with Flora MacDonald, spring 1918, 274; at

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Valcartier, 1914, 275; in trench, July 1918, 275; German guns captured 8 Aug 1918 at Hill 102 by Good et al., 281; liaison with 3rd Indian Division, 284; receives new Colours in Germany, 1919, 287; in armoury, 291; depositing Colours in St Andrew and St Paul Church, 1932, 297; 1919 Colours, 393. Part III, 1919– 1939: 73rd becomes 1st Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC), 1921, 314; battle honours, 322; Fetherstonhaugh, The 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada, 327; King’s Colour, 1921, and new Colour, 1931, 335; veterans, 1933, 357; 362. Appendices: battle honours, 373; lineage, 378; commanding officers, 383; regimental Colours, 393, 398; honours and awards, 401–6; badges, 417; battles in Great War, 418; rifle company and platoon formations, 419–20; platoon attack by late 1917, 421; battles: list and map, 418; Ypres sign, 433 42nd Battalion, RhC, 60, 90, 92, 130; tartan, 59, 60, 62, 65; red feather, 60; name disappears, 61; badge, 91, shipping out, 1915, 120. Part II: 1914–1919: 42nd raised late 1914 (originally 44th), 126, 129; outfitting, early 1915, 130; Cantlie tartan, 130; leaves for Europe, May 1915, 130; acquires Colts, 132; Alderson takes command of Canadians, 137; to England summer 1915, with 13th in France Oct 1915, 164; composition, 165; officers, 166–7; Black Watch, Cantlie, and field khaki tartans (war tartan), 167–8; Battle of Mount Sorrel, or The June Show, 2–14 June 1916 (maps, 304–5), 170–4; Fabeck Graben and Regina Trench, 15– 17 Sept 1916, 178–81, casualties rival 13th’s at Second Ypres, 181; 54 per cent Montrealers till war’s end, 185; Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917 (map, 306), 189–97, collective success for 13th, 42nd, 73rd, 189–90; Ewing in temporary command, 190; three daylight raids at Vimy: 1 Jan, 13 Feb, 1 April 1917, 190; 9 April: advances with 7th Brigade, 3rd Division, 193, takes heaviest casualties of 5th RHC units, 197;

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3 Nov 1917: capture and defence of Graf House, 200–2, terrible casualties, 202; audacious raids, 204; Perry acting CO Dec 1917–April 1918, McCuaig returns April 1918, 206. Hundred Days: (maps, 307–9), 42nd ordered to capture Hill 102 on first day of Amiens, 8 Aug 1918, 207; McLennan killed 3 Aug 1918, 207; attacks along Scarpe, 212; fighting in Marcoing system, 213, Tilloy Hill, 216, Marcoing Line, 219, casualties, 221; assault on Mons, 10 Nov 1918, 224; last Canadians to die in war, 224. Aftermath: 42nd and disturbances in Arras, Dec 1918, 225; for march into Germany, 13th and 42nd battalions requested regiment’s 1862 and 1912 Colours, 226; nine major battles and several raids, 234, varying officer strength, 235, composition at war’s end, 235. Notes to Part II: 42nd’s composition before Vimy, 248 n 235. Illustrations to Part II: 42nd officers, May 1916, Nov 1918, 257; creation and outfitting of 42nd, 266; moving towards front, Sept 1918, 274; Cease Fire order, 11/11/11,1918, Mons, 277; men equipped for war, 279; 42nd receives new Colours from Loomis in France, 1919, 287; marches into Mons, and into Montreal, 288. Illustrations to Part III: 42nd officers, with new Colours, near Lille, France, Feb 1919, 290; depositing of Colours in St Andrew and St Paul Church and rededication of Black Watch Window, 1932, 297. Part III: 1919– 1939: 42nd becomes 2nd Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC), 1921, 314; Trooping the Colour, 1929, 296; unveiling of Black Watch Window, 1921, 317; battle honours, 322; and Peterson, 326; King’s Colour, 1921, and new Colour, 1931, 335; veterans, 1933, 357. Appendices: 42nd battle honours, 373; lineage, 378; commanding officers, 384; regimental Colours, 392–4, 398; 1919 Colours, 393, 394; honours and awards, 407–11; badges, 417; battles in Great War, 418; rifle company and platoon formations, 419–20; platoon attack by late 1917, 421;

battles: list and map, 418 73Rd Battalion, RhC, 61, 67. Part II, 1914–1919: 73rd raised late 1915, 126, founding, 1915, 130, mostly Scots by birth or descent, but a number of Americans, 131, training in Montreal, 131, adopts Cantlie tartan, 131; to Valcartier, Sept 1915, 131, in England by April 1916, 131, south of Ypres, ready for Somme, summer 1916, 131, launches journal Red Hackle, 19 Feb 1916, 131; Alderson takes command of Canadians, 137; tartan, 168; after Somme, Herbert Sparling replaces Peers Davidson as commander, 183; Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917, 189–97, collective success for 13th, 42nd, 73rd, 189–90, 191, Vimy, 9 April 1917 (map, 306), 73rd advances with 12th Brigade, 4th Division, 193; Black Watch pan-Canadian, 197; junior unit, not enough replacements, 197; five battle honours, with Somme and Vimy prominent, 234; Illustrations: George V reviews, Bramshott Camp, July 1916, 279; wounded on hospital train, 286; officers’ reunions, 1936, 1950, 1977, 293; depositing of Colours in St Andrew and St Paul Church, 1932, 297. Part III, 1919– 1939: 73rd becomes 3rd Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada (RHC), 1921, 314; and WG Peterson, 326, and his “The Lost Legion,” 327, Tom Dinesen’s Merry Hell, 327, other books about, 327, Hutchison, The History of the 73rd Battalion CEF, 327; King’s Colour, 1921, 335; veterans, 1933, 357. Appendices: battle honours, 322, 373; lineage, 378; commanding officers, 384; regimental Colours: 393–4, 398; 1919 Colours, 393, 394; honours and awards, 412–14; badges, 417; battles in Great War, 418; rifle company and platoon formations, 419–20; platoon attack by late 1917, 421; battles, list and map, 418 Royal highlandeRs oF Canada (RhC), 1920. Formerly 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal (which see) and then, from 1906, 5th Regiment Royal Highlanders of Canada (5th RHC).

Index Illustrations to Part III: Pipe Band, 1938, 296; Park Avenue, New York, 1925, 298; pipe band, 298. Part III: RHC created April 1920, 314, 329; 1921 formation of four battalions: 1st (13th CEF). 2nd (42nd CEF), 3rd (73rd CEF) and 4th Reserve (20th Res CEF), 314; further name changes, 291; men’s canteen and second-floor messes, 313; 1919 visit by Edward, Prince of Wales, 313–14; four battalions of highland soldiers, 314; officers’ mess changing, 314–-15; schedules and activities, 1925 camp for field officers and captains, Longueuil, 315; armoury scheduling for two battalions, 315; training for men and officers, 315; military tournament, spring 1921, 315; leadership, 316; music, 316; social life and sports, 316; McLennan (Black Watch) Window and headstone, 1921, 317–18; Verdun Memorial, 318; many members donating drill pay to regimental fund, 319, church parade, range qualifications, weekend camp, 320, shooting, 320, militia camps, 320, manoeuvres on Mount Royal, 320, exercises, 320, summer camps, 320–2, “Local Garrison News,” weekly in Montreal Star, 322, tactical exercises, 322, drilling and shooting, 322, parades, 322, US excursions, 322–4; RHC, 1920, 329, ‘5th’ disappears, and worry about boar’s head, 329, and motto, 329, gradual approach to Black Watch, 1920s, 330, parallels with other Canadian units, 330, George V permits multiple empire affiliations with British units, 1924, 330, formally ‘Black Watch,’ 330; The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, 1935, 332 1st ReinFoRCing Company RhC, 227, 234 2nd ReinFoRCing Company RhC, 234 20th ReseRVe Battalion, RHC, 183; George Cantlie sets up and runs, 183; at war’s end, 226–8; history, 256; football team with Bramshott Cup, 1918, 28; becomes 4th Reserve Battalion, RHC, 1921, 314 148th ReseRVe Battalion, and McGill COTC, 239 n 3, 256; poster, 256; officers and men, 257

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Pre-1914 1st Battalion, montReal militia, 10, 13, 14; 1st Battalion, VolunteeR militia RiFles, 17, 32, 94; 1st pRinCe oF Wales Regiment, 77 n 77; Highland Company of, 77 n 77, 94; 1st pRinCe oF Wales’s RiFles, 17; 2nd Battalion light inFantRy, 60; 3Rd ViCtoRia RiFles, 27, 37; 5th Regiment, united states aRmy, 58, 113; 6th FusilieRs, 43; 6th hoChelaga light inFantRy, 43; “7th Company (highland),” 16; 9th highland Company, 25; 10th Royals, toRonto, 65; 17th duke oF yoRk’s Royal Canadian hussaRs, 47; 60th (oR missisQuoi) Battalion, 25; 60th RiFles, 28, 68; 65th CaRaBinieRs mont Royal, 47; 77th Regiment oF Foot (Montgomerie’s Highlanders), 92; 78th Foot (reconstituted Fraser Highlanders), 28, 32; 84th Regiment, Royal highland immigRants, 60; 103Rd Foot, 43; 111th inFantRy us inFantRy Regiment, 92, 93; Canadian Regiment oF FenCiBle inFantRy (Glengarry Fencibles), 10–11; Compagnie de gens d’aRmes éCossais (King’s Scots Guard), 4; Company oF highland VolunteeR militia RiFles, 25; FRaseR highlandeRs, 60; Frasers, 5; 78th, 4, 5, 73 n 7; tartan, 73 n 7; glengaRRy light inFantRy FenCiBles, c. 1812, 75 n 44; “glengaRRy Regiment,” 9; goVeRnoR geneRal’s Foot guaRds: Ottawa, 58; Lake Champlain, 1909, 113; gRenadieR guaRds, 20; gRand tRunk RailWay BRigade, 28; highland Company, toRonto, 1856, 77 n 79; highland Company oF montReal, 16, 94; highland Regiment, 16; highland RiFle Company, 1856, 11, 12, 13, 17, 21, 31, 32, 78 n 84, 349, 351; montgomeRy’s highlandeRs (77th), 4; montReal highland RiFle Company, 5, 11, 13, 14, 17; becomes No 9 or Highland Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Light Infantry of Montreal, 17; continuing evolution to 1880, 18; triumph in Portland, Maine, 1858, 44; montReal light inFantRy, 1837, 13, 14, 16, 19, 25, 28, 33, 76 n 57, 95; “First Royals,” 15; structure, 79 n 98; centennial, 1937, 332, 351; pRinCe oF Wales’ FusilieRs, 52;

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Index

pRinCe oF Wales’ RiFles, 52; Queen’s oWn RiFles, Toronto, 24, 49, 51, 52, 65, 77 n 79; armoury, 50; 1914–1918 CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, Canadian expeditionaRy FoRCe (CEF), 126, 130, 230, 233; British and Montreal participation in war effort, 126; provincial makeup, 185; overhauled after Somme, 187; definitive modern army, Sturmtruppen, “Shock Army of the British Empire,” 207; still part of Henry Horne’s First British Army, 207; Amiens, Arras and Canal du Nord-Cambrai (maps, 307– 9), 207; Amiens, 210; delays at Cambrai, 214; 226; Major Battles 1915–1918: figures on killed in action, total casualties, 234; contribution, 235; McGill alumni and, 239 n 3; Montreal contributions to, 240 n 18, direct channel of communications between Ottawa and Canadian forces, 246 n 192; Canadian CoRps, Sept 1915, 53, 169, 171, 178, 180, 192, 233, 365; Allied “shock troops,” 197; Currie takes command, 6 June 1917, 198; four divisions and one hundred thousand men, 234; topographical planning map for Vimy, 277 ; seCond oVeRseas Contingent, Oct 1914, 129; DIVISIONS, 1st, 140, 153, 160, 181; Alderson in charge, 137; at Second Ypres, April 1915, 140, front over 4,000 yards, 140; Macdonell replaces Currie, 200; at Amiens, takes much of Germans’ strong Fresnes–Rouvroy defence system, 209–10, Byng: “finest operation of the war,” 210; Canal du Nord, 213; Marcoing Line, 218, 219; march to Rhine, Dec 1918, 225–6; 2nd, 178, 220; 3rd, Dec 1915, 169, 171, 178, 181, 196; Lipsett in command, 190; Passchendaele, 200; Amiens, 209; Loomis succeeds Lipsett, early Aug 1918, 214; Canal d’Escaut sector, 220; Loomis attitude, 223; advances on Mons, Oct 1918, 224; 226; 4th, 150, 191, 193, 196; Passchendaele, 200; Canal du Nord, 213; takes Bourlon Wood, 214; Marcoing Line, 218, 219; BRIGADES, 1st, 182; 2nd, 157; 3rd (“Canadian Scottish”), 133, 140, 144, 151, 152, 182; contains four Canadian

Scottish units: 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, 133; Dyer replaces Macdonell, 200; Marcoing Line, 218; breaches line, 219; parade together after Second Ypres, 159; 5th, 211; 7th, 173, 178, 182, 204, 213; Clark takes over, early Aug 1918, 214; Marcong Line, 216, 219; advances on Mons, Oct 1918, 224; brigadiers, 317; 8th, 172, 214; 9th, 182; Canadian Cavalry Brigade, 223; BATTALIONS, 2nd Canadian mounted RiFles, 47, 172, 218; 7th (British Columbia), 155; 8th (Winnipeg’s “Little Black Devils”), 155; 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment), 52, 133, 150, 151, 155, 165, 364; in 3rd Brigade with “Canadian Scottish” units: 13th, 15th, 16th, 133; on front at Second Ypres, April 1915, 140; 171; Vimy Ridge, 194; raid, 204; Canal du Nord, 213; takes Marquion with 13th, 213; Cambrai, 214; Marcoing Line, 218, 219; drafts from 20th Reserve, 227; mobilized at Valcartier, 239 n3. Vimy Ridge, 194; 1930s strength, 359; 15th (Toronto’s 48th Highlanders), 128, 133, 144, 150, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 171; in 3rd Brigade with Canadian Scottish units: 13th, 14th, and 16th, 133; on front at Ypres. April 1915, 140; 16th (Canadian Scottish), 133; in 3rd Brigade with other Canadian Scottish units: 13th, 14th, and 15th, 133; Marcoing Line, 218; 22nd (Van Doos), 211; 24th (Victoria Rifles of Canada), 43, 165, 348, 364; armoury, 50, and replacement, Cathcart Street, 1934, 83 n 228; overseas contingent, 1914, 129; formed autumn 1914, 129; 5th RHC helps form it, 129; leaves for Valcartier, and ultimately 2nd Division, 129; 2nd Canadian Division, 176, 177; large contingent of 5th RHC seconded to, 234; Clark-Kennedy with, 210–1; postwar, 316; awards and honours, 415; 44th, autumn 1914, 129; becomes 42nd, 129; see also 42nd Battalion; 49th (Edmonton), 169, 173, 195, 200, 201, 215; 54th (Kootenay), 191; 58th, 182; 72nd (Seaforths), 128, 191; 75th (Mississauga), 191; 77th (Wentworth), 201; 78th (Pictou Highlanders), 131, 163; 85th Battalion,

Index 168; 87th (Canadian Grenadier Guards), 52, 112, 129; Eric McCuaig takes over, 206; Perry leaves, to rehead 13th, 223; postwar, 316; 1930s strength, 359; 92nd (48th Highlanders), 185, 227; reinforcements, Aug–Dec 1916, 246 n 187; 93Rd (Cumberland), many move to 13th, 131; 96th (Saskatchewan), 168; 132nd (New Brunswick), 18; CameRon highlandeRs, Winnipeg, 128, 202; loRd stRathCona’s hoRse, 47; maisonneuVes, 165; pRinCess patRiCia’s Canadian light inFantRy (PPCLI), 67, 166, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 195, 200, 201, 206, 212, 214, 215, 216, 218; only Canadian battalion to fly Colours during war, 226; McGill connection, 239 n 3; composition, 244 n 138; Royal Canadian dRagoons, 45, 70, 315, 316, 356, 357; St-Jean, 361; Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), 45, 70, 169, 179, 180, 200, 205, 214, 215, 218, 224, 315, 325, 326, 348, 356; OTHER UNITS, 10th BatteRy, 242 nn 72, 75, 261; 2nd Field Company Ce, 155; 3Rd Field Company Ce, 154; 7th hussaRs, 132; 8th Canadian Field amBulanCe, 219; no 3 (mCgill) geneRal hospital, 126 OTHER, Australian, austRalian impeRial FoRCe, 126; 207; Monash, 207; five divisions, 208; British, BRitish expeditionaRy FoRCe (BEF), 125, 130, 137; seCond aRmy, 173; 22nd BRitish CoRps, 213; 3Rd indian diVision, 164; 15th (sCottish) diVision, BEF, Highland band, 231; 2nd Battalion goRdon highlandeRs, 62; 2nd BuFFs (Royal East Kent Regiment), 152, 155, 156; 2nd punjaB RiFles, 230; 4th BlaCk WatCh teRRitoRials, 143; 5th glosteRs, 195; gRenadieR guaRds (British), 131; king’s oWn Royal Regiment (Lancaster), 215; French, tiRailleuRs (‘Turcos’), 1st and 2nd battalions, 140, 144, 146, 149; 45th algeRian diVision (French Army), Second Ypres, April 1915, 140; German, geRman aRmy, 171, 210, 225; 51st diVision, 157; 2nd ReseRVe eRsatz BRigade, 157; 127th inFantRy Regiment, 173; geRman maRines, 180 POST-1918 Canadian Army, 1st and 2nd sheRBRooke RiFle Companies, 342; 17th duke oF yoRk’s Royal

| 469

Canadian hussaRs (17th Hussars), 361; receive new “cavalry armoury” atop Mount Royal, 1930s, 361; riding competition with Black Watch, 361–2; depot Battalions, 350; lanaRk and RenFReW sCottish Regiment, 330–33; pRinCe edWaRd island highlandeRs (PEIH), 330–1; le Régiment de maisonneuVe, 1930s strength, 359; Allied, 4th/5th Battalion BlaCk WatCh (Territorials), 327 Valcartier, Camp, 129, 135, 163, 165, 169, 232, 240 n 26, 365; Sept 1914, 119, 128, 269, 432 Valleyfield, labour unrest, 1899–1901, 47, 56, 109 Vanier, Major Gen Georges P, 210, 211, 223 Verdun, 178; exceptional contribution to war effort, 318; dedication of Verdun Memorial, Oct 1924, 318 Vermont, 23, 24 veterans, 319, 320; veterans’ associations, 318; 13th, 42nd and 73rd, 1933, 357 Vickers arms manufacturer, Sheffield, 163 Victoria, Queen, 61; grants name ‘The Black Watch,’ 61; chooses Ottawa as capital, 76 n 60 Victoria Cross, 126, 127, 145, 208, 236, 237, 322, 343, 357; VC room in Forfarshire, 348; plaques on parade square, 348, 401 Vimy Cross, 435 Vimy Memorial, 276, 358; unveiling by Edward VIII, 1936, 276, 358; Fleming sends delegation, 358; ‘pilgrims,’ 358 Voltigeurs, 1812, 10, 11, 77 n 76 Volunteer Militia Rifle Companies, 16 Volunteer Rifle Company, 1827, 76 n 63 Wakeling, George, 318 Walkem, Major Hugh Crawford, 42nd, 166, 172, 174 Walker, Capt Herbert, 13th, 142, 145, 148, 149, 153, 156 Walker, Lt JG, 13th, 174 Wallis, Col Hugh Macdonell (CO 1930–1), 290, 316, 320, 323, 331, 335, 348 war art; see John McQueen Moyes; Adam Sheriff Scott; War Diary War Diary, 42nd, 183; 13th, 193; writing by Loomis in 13th War Diary, 228; art by John McQueen Moyes in 13th War Diary, 229 Wasdell, Pte Frederick, 45 Watkins, RSM Ivor, carvings, 433

470

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Index

Watt, LCpl, 13th, 143, 158 [cohort is a group, not a single person] Waud, Cpl Edward, 155 Wavell, Sir Archibald, 188 Weapons, aRtilleRy: role of timing, 176; “fire plans,” 176; “creeping barrage” (or “walking barrage”), 176; neglect of, at Somme, 188; fire, 199; artillery fire plan and barrage, 204; artillery mixes high explosive and shrapnel with gas, 215; “Chain RoCkets”: green, orange, white and gold, 204 ; Colt maChine gun, 151, 261, 347; gives way to Vickers, summer 1916, 175; weight, 153; model 1895 machine-guns, 131; Colts at Ypres, 142; Colt detachment, 150; machine guns, 204; at Black Watch Museum 242 n 85; gas, White Star Gas, 191; “jaCk johnson”: German 15-cm shell (after US boxer), 154; lee-enField RiFle, 168, 174, 265, 285, 341; many Canadians at Ypres discard Ross, in favour of, 155, ditto at Mount Sorrel, 174; leWis gun, 132, 179, 180, 187, 202, 204, 285; Lewis gun sections, 173, 176; Belgian invention, British introduced summer 1914, 175, “the Belgian Rattlesnake,” 175, British developed 303 calibre, 175, US version, 175, crucial role, 175, drum magazine, 175; competition, 320, 358; maChine gun, 71, 131, 132, 142, 195, 204, 213, 240 n 20; machine gun detachment (det), 143, 146, 149, 153, 158, 173, 176; “Emma Gee,” 150; fire, 180, 201; machine gun section, 192; machine gun emplacements, 195; fire, 199; machine gun bunkers, 200; Grafton, The Canadian Emma Gees, 1918, 240 n 19; eleven MGs in JG Ross’s report, and hand-drawn deployment sketches, 241 n 46; mills BomBs (hand grenades), 135, 285; Mills bomb grenadiers, 173; Mills No 5 v. German stick grenades, 187; No 5 Mills, 190; stick grenades, German, v. Mills No 5 , 187;

stokes

(trench mortar), 176, 190; RiFle 285; barrages, 204; Ross RiFle, 155, 168; factory, 128, many Canadians at Second Ypres discard, in favour of Lee-Enfield, 155; still used at Mount Sorrel, 174; 42nd with, May 1916, 265; tRommelFeueR (heavy artillery fire), 189; ViCkeRs heaVy maChine gun, 132; replaces Colt, summer 1916, 175; WestleyRiChaRds BReeCh-loading RiFle, 1866, 24 Wedd, Capt WB, 42nd, 179 White, Capt, 208; section of tanks, Amiens, 208 White, Hon Seaton, 346 Whitehead, Capt Ward, 13th, 142, 148, 154, 156; uncertainty over status, 161–2 Whitney, Lt Col, 95 Willcock, Lt Ralph, 190 Willets, Lt Col Charles, 215 William Scully and Sons, 337 Williamson, Pipe Major JS, 350 Wilson, Blair, 42nd, 165, 179 Wilson, Capt, 42nd, 178 Wilson-Smith, Mayor Richard, 41 Wolferstan, Sgt Major CRP, 172 Wollaston, Sir Gerald W, 399 Wolverhampton, 143 Wood, Capt, takes over RCR at Marcoing Line, 216 Woodbridge, Pte T, 358 Worthington, Major Gen Frederic “Fighting Frank,” 361; heads Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle School, 1938, 361 Worthington, Lt Alan, 13th, 143 gun

gRenade,

“You Made Me Stand-to” (Lt GL Ogilvie based it on “You Made Me Love You,” by James V. Monaco and Joseph McCarthy, which Al Jolson recorded in 1913), 205 Young, Lt Robert, 13th, 213