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 I O N
E G A
L R
E

Y
T H

LISHING
E
OF PUB LENCE N
EXCEL
I
L

E 26
Z

G SINCE 19 A
I O G
N M A

BOOM
and bust

T he larger format and

cleaner design of the January
1956 issue of The Legionary
surely wowed readers.
New technology dramatically increased
photo resolution and the magazine showed
off with more and larger images. A French
insert also appeared for the first time.
In 1961, Queen Elizabeth proclaimed
The Royal Canadian Legion.
Chilling news on the Cold War, including
a nuclear weapons primer and civil defence
plans, was counterbalanced by new memoirs
and humour columns. Military news was
dominated by unification of the navy, army
and air force and growth of peacekeeping.
The Last Post grew longer and longer.
Anniversaries of the Korean War
appeared next to those of the world wars;
pilgrimages to Europe became popular as
more families visited relatives’ graves.
Advocacy for pension increases was the
major veterans’ issue, but the baby boom
also grabbed headlines as youth programs
expanded. An internationally renowned
coach was hired to organize national track
and field clinics and the Legion advocated
for school teachers’ professionalization.
Royal visits were covered with less verve
as national excitement built for Canada’s
100th birthday.
In January 1969, The Legionary decided
to move with the times, modernize its look
and change its name to Legion Magazine.
But a financial crisis dimmed the excite-
ment. Legion Magazine lost its second-class
mail status and faced a budget-busting post-
age increase of nearly 1,400 per cent. Serious
cuts were needed—pages shrank and only
10 issues were produced in 1969. To save the
magazine, more changes would follow. L

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 1

Features
18 HIT SO SOON
My great-uncle William was killed
in the attack on Regina Trench
By Stephen J. Thorne
26 KING’S POSTWAR TRIP
In 1946, the Canadian prime minister
attended a peace conference, visited
battlefields and witnessed the
Nuremberg trials
By J.L. Granatstein
32 SUB VS. SCHOONER
In a U-boat rampage off the East Coast
in 1918, the schooner Dornfontein
was captured and burned
By Marc Milner
38 A MONUMENTAL DAY
The unveiling of the Canadian
National Vimy Memorial in France
on July 26, 1936, was witnessed
by 3,000 veterans of the battle
By Stephen J. Thorne
46 AIRWOMEN
Female pilots had broken endurance,
altitude and speed records before
the war, but their hopes of a wartime
flying career were stopped in Canada
by a thick glass ceiling
By Sharon Adams
 COLUMNS
12 MILITARY HEALTH MATTERS
Time heals
By Sharon Adams

14 FRONT LINES
Military selects new camo
By Stephen J. Thorne

16 EYE ON DEFENCE
Out of touch
THIS PHOTO By David J. Bercuson
Pilots with the Air Transport Auxiliary at Hatfield,
England, on Jan. 10, 1940. The civilian air service 54 FACE TO FACE
delivered aircraft from factories to squadrons at
Was the Newfoundland Regiment
air and navy bases.
Wikimedia sacrificed at Beaumont-Hamel?
By John Boileau and Stephen J. Thorne
ON THE COVER
Lieutenant William Edward Everett Doane of 80 CANADA AND THE NEW COLD WAR
Halifax led a company in an attack on Regina Enough ships?
Trench on Oct. 1, 1916. By J.L. Granatstein
Mary Doane/Doane Family Archive

82 HUMOUR HUNT
Target practice
By John Ward

84 HEROES AND VILLAINS

Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar
& Benito Mussolini
By Mark Zuehlke

86 ARTIFACTS
Shot-up polecat
By Sharon Adams

88 O CANADA
Road to Confederation
By Don Gillmor

DEPARTMENTS
4 EDITORIAL
7 LETTERS
10 ON THIS DATE
56 IN THE NEWS
68 SNAPSHOTS
79 LOST TRAILS
79 REQUESTS
79 MARKETPLACE

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 3

 EDITORIAL
The key
is adaptability
K
udos are in order. For the past
16 months—the COVID era—The
Royal Canadian Legion has made every
effort to prevent interruption to the
services it provides to veterans, and it
has shown remarkable adaptability.
Back in the pre-pandemic days, Legion
branches served as second homes to many in
communities across Canada. Places to gather
in groups, socialize, reminisce, grumble,
throw darts, get support—and do good work
for others. Branches generate new members
and new revenue. And
they are fundamental to
DIGITAL the grassroots federal-
INITIATIVES HAVE ist model by which the
Legion operates. Thank
BEEN EMBRACED goodness it won’t be
AND EXPANDED. much longer before they
are all reopened and
operating at capacity.
But looking back, the lockdown closure
of branches dealt quite a body blow to
the core of this national institution.
A year ago, the prospects for many
branches looked grim. More than 120
predicted they would be unable to reopen
for financial reasons or would reopen but
fail within three months. Another four
branches said they would close permanently.
4 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
Dominion Command stepped up and set
an example by dipping into its reserve fund
to disburse up to $3 million to branches
most in need. Then it fired up its advocacy
machine to persuade the federal government
to step up, too. In November, Veterans Affairs
Canada came through with the $20-million
Veterans Organizations Emergency Support
Fund; $14 million was allocated to Legion
branches struggling with operational
costs as a direct result of COVID-19. That
money was disbursed in three phases:
$7.2 million to 701 branches in December,
$2.8 million to 282 branches in March and
the remainder to 885 branches in May.
Digital initiatives have been embraced and
expanded—necessarily: tap-enabled poppy
donation boxes, online membership sign-ups
and renewals, electronic funds transfers,
investments in social media marketing. Even
digital membership cards are in the works.
The members of Dominion Executive
Council have mastered the art of the Zoom
meeting. This is all good preparation for
the 2021 dominion convention in August,
which will be a video conference this time.
Sure, you could say some of these
initiatives were already in the works,
but the pandemic provided the catalyst
to implement them fully ASAP.
Finding novel ways to stay in touch with,
and even deliver meals to, isolated elder
veterans, to remotely keep up the services
it provides to those who need VAC ben-
efits, and to continue to commemorate the
fallen without large gatherings—time and
again, Legion leadership, from branches
to provincial commands to Dominion
Command, asked not what can’t we do,
but what can we do. Kudos are due. L
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Vol. 96, No. 4 | July/August 2021

Board of Directors
Bruce Julian VICE-CHAIRMAN Tom Irvine SECRETARY Dave Flannigan
CHAIRMAN
DIRECTORS Tom Bursey, Bill Chafe, Steven Clark, Owen Parkhouse, Angus Stanfield, Louise Tardif, Brian Weaver, Irit Weiser

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6 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

LETTERS
Comments
can be sent to:
Letters,
Legion Magazine,

Living
86 Aird Place,
Kanata, ON
K2L 0A1
or e-mailed to:

history magazine@
legion.ca

I was enjoying “Medical advances

behind the line, Part 2” (May/June) and
I was surprised and pleased to see the
quotes from Stewart Hastings Bull. Stu Bull
was my high school history teacher and
Unhappy patients
I was thrilled with the excellent research and details
in the May/June 2021 article “Medical advances
behind the line, Part 2.”
the commanding officer of our cadet corps. My brother-in-law was in the Canadian Army
As students we knew that he was a veteran Medical Corps. He was stationed in Italy at a field
and had a glass eye due to a war injury, but hospital, then transferred to the surgical ward
his injuries were evidently more extensive of a Canadian General Hospital in Nijmegen,
than any of us realized. I didn’t know about Netherlands. As he spoke German, he was a
the Canadian Letters and Images Project great help in dealing with the German patients,
that you mentioned. I’ll have to look up especially the Nazi Hitler Youth units. They were
his memoir. Thanks for the great article. completely fanatical and difficult prior to surgery.
HOWARD SCRIMGEOUR, GUELPH, ONT. FAYE ENGLER

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legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 7

 Memories of
the Balkans
The article by Stephen J. Thorne
brought back good and bad memo-
ries of my tours in the Balkans
(“Peace enforcement,” May/
June). All three tours as a combat
engineer were rewarding yet hard
on my body and soul. Minefields,
unexploded ammunition and
booby-trapped mass graves were
the bulk of my six- to eight-month
tours. The article gives a good
overview of what the Canadian
Armed Forces did overseas.
I think we peacekeepers and
peacemakers have not been
represented properly, nor has our
government or population recog-
nized our true involvement in these
wars. I always wonder what would
have been the outcome if Canadian
soldiers stood in harm’s way to
stop the killing of innocent people.
Major-General Lewis MacKenzie’s
leadership on the ground saved the
lives of thousands but, by proving
our government and the UN were
not equipping our troops with
the tools to stop the meaningless
killing, he, as I, decided to retire.
Like thousands of other veterans
of the CAF, I will never forget our
sacrifices as our country has.
STAN NACHTIGAHL, CANMORE, ALTA.
Making do
Good story on Canadian involve-
ment in United Nations operations
in Bosnia (May/June), especially
how Canadians manage to “make-
do” when Ottawa doesn’t. There
was a good movie about this in
1997, called Peacekeepers. It was
aired by CBC. Yet it seems to have
disappeared. What happened to
it? There was a very good scene
of a Canadian soldier facing
down one of the warlords. Kind
of makes a Canadian feel proud.
JAMES KNUTSON, WATERVILLE, QUE.
8 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
Unknown enemies
The U.K. and Canada “face the
same enemies, (“Britain’s Defence,”
May/June). Could you please
explain who Canada’s enemies
are and why? Does any other
country—other than the one to the
south—threaten Canada? Are they
building military installations on
our borders or hosting war games?
Are there any warships of foreign
countries enforcing free passage
or funding separatist groups here?
Just curious, as war should not
be a game nor welcomed as the
U.S. and Australian governments
seem to want, providing a bunch
of other countries share the peril.
PAUL WHITTAKER, GILMOUR, ONT.
Sympathy for
the White Rose
I enjoy every issue of Legion
Magazine, but the story in the
March/April issue about the White
Rose group of student activists in
Nazi Germany during the Second
World War was a real eye-opener.
That’s the type of story we tend
not to hear much about, as it casts
a positive light on the activities
of Germans, our enemies, in that
war. Such incredible courage
those young people showed.
I also really enjoyed the
last line in your article “Lord
Stanley’s cup(s),” marking the
valiant and continuing efforts
of the Maple Leafs to avoid
having to ever hold it again.
DARYL LOGAN,
SALT SPRING ISLAND, B.C.
A father’s battle
I only just came across Hugh
Halliday’s excellent article from
2009 (“Fighting German Jets,”
November/December) about
engagements between Royal
Canadian Air Force bombers
and German Me-262 jets. I real-
ized very quickly that he was
describing in some detail a battle
on March 31, 1945, in which my
father’s Halifax was shot down.
The entire crew survived and
were shipped to Stalag Luft I
in Barth, Germany, where they
remained until the end of the
war. My father and his crew were
very close throughout the rest of
their lives and frequently held
reunions. My father, Flying Officer
Kenneth K. Blyth, wrote two
memoirs about his experiences
and I helped him edit and recall
many of his wartime stories.
Sadly, he and his crew are all
gone now, but I thank you for
your efforts in memorializing
the wartime efforts of Canadians
in the Second World War.
JEFF BLYTH, GLENDALE, CALIF.
Unknown city
On page 29 of the March/April
edition is a picture of the
2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s
Canadian Light Infantry returning
home and the caption reads
“unidentified city.”
I am almost certain the city is
Winnipeg, as I believe that 2PPCLI
were based there at that time and
that the picture is taken on Portage
Avenue, with the Hudson’s Bay
store in the background.
NEIL MATHESON, CRANBROOK, B.C.
The PPCLI march unidenti-
fied photo is possibly in front
of the Rosewood Hotel Georgia
in Vancouver, on the corner of
Howe Street and Georgia Street.
P.N. RINGHAM, VANCOUVER
Corrections
The photo on page 11 of the
May/June issue accompanying the
“On this Date” entry for June 8,
1944, is a Lancaster bomber, not
a Liberator. The rifle on page 18
is a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield
No. 1, not a Ross rifle. The
aircraft on page 50 is a Hawker
Typhoon Mk 1B, not a Spitfire.
 SOCIAL SIGNALS
What’s trending for Legion Magazine

Alfredo Villa Ritchey Graevell gratitude. Comment on: “Canadians take

Meyer was unrepentant, a true Nazi SOB.
At the surrender, the rat slipped out of
his SS attire and donned the uniform of a
Wehrmacht (regular army) officer to avoid
retribution instead of facing the music as the
SS officer he truly was. This being said, his
personal involvement in the massacre was
never clearly established. Same thing goes for
Joachim Peiper and the Malmedy massacre.
Comment on: “Was it right to commute Kurt
Meyer’s death sentence for killing Canadian
PoWs?” (Face to Face, March/April 2021)
Edith Jones Cunningham
We have so many millions of men to thank
for the fact we are not all now speaking
German. Too often we forget what we owe
to those who went before us. Comment on:
“With the guns in the Second Battle of Ypres”
(Military Milestones, April 20)
Shane Cameron
The lesson we should have internalized
then, and still haven’t grasped,
is to stop buying American crap
for our armed forces. Comment on:
“Broken Arrow” (March/April 2021)
A couple of times in Nam, more times
in Thailand. Bamboo vipers and cobras.
Comment on: “Snakes on a chopper”
(Front Lines Weekly, March 9)
Christopher E. Richardson
The navy and air force certainly did stand
the line beside our allies. Comment on:
“Take your shot—we did, says Gulf War
vet” (Front Lines Weekly, March 3)
Alfredo Villa
Our beloved warbird. Sadly, it had to
die an abominable death to become
immortal. Comment on: “Broken Arrow”
(March/April 2021)
Ken Gunlaugson
General Douglas Haig should have been
shot. And then cashiered for that. But he
was a pal of King George V. Comment on:
“Canada and the brutal battles of the
Somme” video
Edith Jones Cunningham
We have so much and so many to be
thankful for. Time for a little more
Fresnoy” (Military Milestones, May 1)
Paige Runolfson
Thank you Lord Stanley. There’s a Stanley
Cup monument at the corner of Sparks
and Elgin in Ottawa. Comment on:
“Lord Stanley’s cup(s)” (March/April)
Shelley Nelson
Went to the cemetery of the NZ/Australians
at Gallipoli. It was on the top of the cliff
overlooking the water. Very haunting place.
Several of our Canadian/American tour
group started crying (mainly men). There
was a real sense of the presence of the dead
there. Completely different from being in a
regular cemetery—can’t really explain the
atmosphere. Comment on: “Pilgrimage to
Turkey: Going back to Gallipoli” (January/
February 2016)
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with the latest

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legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 9

 ON THIS DATE

July
9 July 1793
The Act Against Slavery is passed,
a start to the abolition of slavery and
importation of slaves into Upper Canada.

10 July 1943
The 1st Canadian Division is one of
the Allied forces landing in Sicily.

1 July 1916
The Battle of the Somme begins. At
Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland
Regiment advances into German
machine-gun fire. Only 68 of 780
who went forward into battle
answered roll call the next day
(see page 54).
3 July 1944
Enemy mortars and machine-gun fire
ravage Canadian troops advancing on
Carpiquet airfield in Normandy.
4 July 1827
The Pork and Beans War begins. It results
in redrawing of the boundary between
Maine and New Brunswick.
5 July 1900
Sergeant Arthur Richardson
earns the Victoria Cross
for riding
through heavy
crossfire on a
wounded horse to
rescue a comrade
during the Boer War.
6 July 1885
Louis Riel is charged
with treason.
18 July 2010
M.Cpl. Paul Douglas Mitchell earns the
Medal of Military Valour, putting himself
in danger in Afghanistan to provide 27 July 1953
machine-gun cover so comrades can
An armistice ends the Korean
reach safety.
War; 26,000 Canadians served,
more than 500 were killed.
19 July 1943
HMCS Huron is
28 July 1943
commissioned and
After vicious house-to-house
joins the flotilla
combat, Canadian troops
escorting convoys
clear enemy resistance from
to and from Russia.
Agira, Sicily.
20 July 1924
29 July 1948
First World War air The former naval officer training
ace Basil Deacon school HMCS Royal Roads
Hobbs conducts becomes Canadian Services
the first long-range College and begins training
air survey over Manitoba naval, flight and army personnel.
and Saskatchewan.
30 July 1918
21 July 1955 The first of 100,000 Canadian
In France, Flt. Lt. R.G. Morgan troops begin congregating for
and AC1 H.J. Waters stand on a the Battle of Amiens in France.
wing containing a fuel tank to
pull the pilot from a burning 31 July 1942
RCAF jet. They are awarded The Women’s Royal Canadian
the George Medal. Naval Service is established;
by war’s end nearly 6,500
24 July 1942 women join up.
On convoy escort duty in 
the North Atlantic,
HMCS St. Croix
sinks U-90.
25 July 1814
British and Canadian forces
stop the American advance
into Upper Canada at
Lundy’s Lane near Niagara
Falls, Ont.

10 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

 Visit legionmagazine.com

August for a full list of monthly

On This Date events.

1 August 1957
The North American 20 August 1915
Aerospace Defence The Newfoundland
Command integrates Regiment leaves for the
air defence of Canada Mediterranean and the
and the United States. Battle of Gallipoli.

2 August 1990
Iraq invades Kuwait; Canada
immediately sends a naval task group.
3 August 2000
Sailors from HMCS Athabaskan
board a merchant ship in the
Atlantic in a dispute over
military materiel.
5 August 1963
The U.S., the United Kingdom and the
Soviet Union sign a limited nuclear test
ban treaty.
6 August 1945
The atomic bomb is dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan; about 140,000
people die—many of radiation.
7-10 August 1813
The U.S. loses four ships to the British
in a battle for naval supremacy on
Lake Ontario.
12 August 1918
Thomas Dinesen and Robert
Spall earn Victoria Crosses
near Parvillers, France.
13 August 1973
The Canadian Forces announces
the acquisition of eight CH-147C
Chinook helicopters.
14 August 1944
HMCS Iroquois helps fend off two
German attacks on a convoy
in the Bay of Biscay.
16 August 1943
A Canadian-American task force
lands at Kiska Island in the Aleutians
prepared to fight, but the Japanese
have already left.
17 August 1943
Sicily is liberated: Canada suffers
2,310 casualties, including 562 killed.
18 August 1941
Pilot John Gillespie Magee, 19, slips the
surly bonds of earth to touch the face of
God in “High Flight,” the official
poem of the RCAF.
21 August 1940
The Permanent Joint Board on Defence
is established by Canada and the U.S.
22 August 1917
Filip Konowal earns the Victoria Cross
in the Battle of Lens by attacking and
capturing enemy machine guns.
25 August 1875
The North West Mounted Police establish
Fort Brisebois in Alberta. It is renamed
Fort Calgary the following year.
27-29 August 1944
In Italy, 1st Canadian Infantry Division
smashes through German positions,
known as the Red Line, along the
Arzilla River.
30-31 August 1916
The Canadian Corps begins relieving the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
on the Somme near Pozières, France.

11 August 1914
The Automobile Machine
Gun Brigade No. 1
is formed, the first
Canadian motorized
armoured unit
of the Great War.

IWM; Sharif Tarabay; Courtesy of

Larry Milberry; Wikimedia; LAC; DND;
National Air Force Museum of Canada legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 11
 MILITARY HEALTH MATTERS
Time
heals
W hether buying time or
giving it time, the clock
and calendar measure the success
of military medics and physicians.
Medics feverishly work against
the clock during the golden hour—
that brief period of time to stave
off death following severe trauma,
when bleeding must be controlled,
shock prevented, and the patient
transported for more intensive care.
For physicians, it’s a waiting
game. Only time will tell if what
they’ve done will repair or cure the
patient, and Mother Nature can
take her own sweet time about it.
But what if time could be
stretched for the former, and
shortened for the latter?
DARPA, the futuristic U.S.
Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, has major
projects looking at both ends
of this time continuum.
The Biostasis program aims
12 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
By Sharon Adams
to improve survival for military
personnel who suffer traumatic
wounds or injuries and acute infec-
tions by “going after time itself,
at least how the body manages
it,” says the DARPA website.
By slowing down or speeding up
biochemical reactions inside cells
following traumatic injury, it may be
possible to extend the golden hour
by, say, slowing excessive bleed-
ing or triggering blood clotting.
“If we can figure out the best ways
to bolster other biological systems
and make them less likely to enter
a runaway downward spiral after
being damaged, then we will have
made a significant addition to the
biology toolbox,” said program
manager Tristan McClure-Begley in
an interview with Military Times.
On the research agenda is cryp-
tobiosis, how certain animals have
evolved to survive life-threatening
trauma. Tardigrades, for instance,
can slow down their metabolic
processes to survive freezing,
radiation or dehydration (“Docbots
and drones” September/October
2019). The animals are still alive,
even though their metabolic
processes seem to have stopped.
They revive once circumstances
improve. Perhaps drugs can be
developed to control human bio-
logical systems to lengthen the
time for life-saving interventions.
Time passes slowly for some-
one in hospital or rehabilitation
following a wound or injury.
But researchers with DARPA’s
Bioelectronics for Tissue
Regeneration program are investi-
gating ways to speed up healing.
The goal “is to design a bioelec-
tronic device that would be used
as a ‘smart’ wound dressing that
would cut the time it takes to heal
a complex wound in half,” said
Jonathan Rivnay of the McCormick
School of Engineering at
Northwestern University in Illinois.
Many research teams are work-
ing to develop a device controlled
iStock
by artificial intelligence that
will respond to biomarkers
in the wound, to stimulate or
dampen certain healing pro-
cesses to optimize wound RESEARCHERS WITH DARPA
healing. The device could be ARE INVESTIGATING WAYS TO
used, for instance, for switching SPEED UP HEALING.
off the inflammatory response
or triggering growth factors that
stimulate muscle regeneration.
Another project is looking at
treatment of wounds with large
amounts of muscle damage. The
body usually generates a thick,
stiff scar over large wounds Teams at various universities are personnel, such as blast wounds
because it is unable to regener- working to develop bioelectronics from explosions, it will also be
ate enough muscle tissue. for sensing and stimulation, new welcome for treatment of civilians’
“The sort of technology we’re imaging technology to measure hard-to-heal wounds from such
developing offers hope where blood flow and growth of blood things as deep burns, loss of muscle
there otherwise would have been vessels, flexible photonic devices due to an accident or cancer treat-
no hope,” said Stephen Badylak, for monitoring temperature and ment and the stubborn wounds
deputy director of University of biochemical factors in the wound. that can accompany diabetes.
Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute Although this technology is Time heals all wounds, but
for Regenerative Medicine, in an being developed for use on com- with a little scientific help,
interview with The Engineer. plex wounds sustained by military perhaps much faster. L

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legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 13

 FRONT
FRONT LINES By Stephen J.Thorne
LINES
A LEGION MAGAZINE
PODCAST

Military selects
new camo
It seems like yesterday
when the Canadian
military last unveiled a new
camouflage pattern uniform.
Their pixelated look, known as
the Canadian Disruptive Pattern,
or CADPAT, was computer-
designed to reduce the likelihood
of detection by night-vision equip-
ment as well as the naked eye.
Coming in woodland green
and desert sand patterns, it
marked a dramatic, high-tech
change in military fashion—and
spawned a revolution in uniform
design among Canada’s allies.
That was in 2001. CADPAT uni-
forms have been used by the army,
navy and air force. Those fatigues
got a lot of use and underwent a
lot of refinements. A lot of water’s
gone under the bridge and a lot of
Canadian blood has been spilled
on them since. Now, two decades
later, the Department of National
Defence has come up with a new
design and a new combat uniform.
Dubbed the Modernized
Combat Uniform, it comes in a
single Multi-Terrain pattern (above)
designed for wherever operations
might go. There will no longer
be a distinctly desert camo uni-
form. Canadian special forces
soldiers will continue using the
American MultiCam pattern. “Clothing will transition to The CADPAT uniforms had
DND has issued two requests the new pattern as current stocks just been issued and, with the
for proposal to provide material are depleted and contracts for development and contracting
and the “work required for these production of new uniforms are process taking place before
new uniforms to be delivered,” awarded,” said DND. 9/11, neither the military nor
the department said in a state- anyone else outside Osama bin
ment. The bidding process was Ottawa’s knickers were in a Laden’s inner circle had much of
to end May 12 and a contract was knot in 2002-03 over the fact our an idea a major war would soon
expected by June 30. The first soldiers were wearing green in erupt in his dusty backyard.
deliveries are expected in January. the arid climes of Afghanistan. So, as the first Canadian

14 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com Stephen J. Thorne; DND

> New podcast series now available! Go to legionmagazine.com/frontlines.

soldiers landed in Afghanistan,

they were wearing the first
new combat fatigues available
to them—forest green.
Pundits and politicians declared
the uniforms an embarrassment,
when, in fact, at least half the
armies of the coalition—Middle
East included—were wearing green.
Serendipitously, the Canucks’
crisp new fatigues faded
after a couple of washings.
The diluted green, combined
with the powdery desert dust,
proved ideal camouflage in
much of the Afghan terrain.
American helicopter pilots who
provided top cover and shuttle
and supply services remarked on
how difficult it was to pinpoint
the Canadians ensconced in the
mountains of Tora Bora and the
Shah-i-Kot Valley. Far more dif-
ficult, they said, than it was finding
American troops in their light-
brown (read ‘bright’) desert camo.
Furthermore, the Canadian
uniforms provided better night
camo than the lighter U.S. fatigues.
The Canadians eventually got
their desert fatigues (opposite),
which had been coming all along.
They were darker than the U.S.
kit, and proved effective for the
evolving environments in which
the Canucks would work.
The digital design was way
ahead of traditional camouflage
patterns, and the Americans soon
adopted digital camouflage in a
variety of basic tones for different
branches of its armed forces.
And they worked. A U.S. study
showed that it took 2.5 seconds to
detect soldiers wearing the pixel-
IT COMES IN A SINGLE MULTI-TERRAIN
PATTERN, GOOD FOR WHEREVER
OPERATIONS MIGHT GO.
experience of soldiers in the field.
But they still fade. Indeed, the
difference between fresh Canadian
fatigues and well-used ones is so
stark, you would question whether
they are even the same uniform.
Decisions on their replacement
came after some 600 troops at
CFB Petawawa in Ontario field-
tested a predominately brown pat-
tern, with some green and black, in
September 2019. Defence scientists
subsequently altered the prototype.
The designers have removed a
pencil pocket on the lower arm
of the combat shirts and altered
the placement of other arm
pockets. Waist suppression has
been extended and sizing has
been changed from four-inch to
two-inch increments, increasing
the range to 47 sizes from 21.
There will be 42 sizes of pants,
twice as many as currently exist.
And more changes may be in store.
DND is initially asking for
114,725 combat shirts and
pants in the existing CADPAT
Temperate Woodland pattern
to ease the transition.
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“The contract also includes
four options for CADPAT Multi-
Terrain pattern uniforms,” said
the department. “If all options
are exercised, we could equip
over 90,000 members with
their entitlement of three
uniforms each.”
That would total about 272,000
new-pattern uniforms.
Cost of the new fatigues will
be announced once the contract
is awarded.
But uniform development
won’t stop there. DND is spending
$9 million over three years on
university-driven research into
such technologies as chameleon-
inspired camouflage that adapts
its colours and patterns to different
environments and backgrounds,
fabrics that can block radio signals,
printable electronics that can be
woven into clothing to monitor
health and material that mends
itself when damaged.
CBC reports that a handful
of businesses are also involved,
including athletic apparel manu-
facturer Lululemon Athletica. L

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legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 15

 EYE ON DEFENCE
Out of touch
Gender discrimination is not acceptable,
in any way, shape or form
I have been writing this
column for Legion Magazine
for more than 15 years and I have
written columns for other maga-
zines and newspapers for even
longer. Until now, I have never
written a personal column. Why
now? Because I want to express
my view about gender discrimina-
tion and sexual misconduct in
the Canadian Armed Forces.
In several ways, I was involved
in the aftermath of the Somalia
Affair of the early 1990s.
That disgraceful series
of events emerged after
Somali civilians were
killed by Canadian
soldiers on a United
Nations Chapter VII peace
enforcement operation
in Somalia. The killings
were covered up and, as
the scandal emerged, it
was apparent that there
were some deep problems
in the Canadian Army.
I wrote a book about the Somalia
Affair, titled Significant Incident:
Canada’s Army, the Airborne,
and the Murder in Somalia. As a
result of that, and I suppose other
writing of mine on Canadian
16 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
By David J. Bercuson
military history, I was asked
by Doug Young, the minister of
national defence in 1997, to write
a report to him suggesting what
might be done by the military to
reform itself after he had closed
down the Somalia Inquiry.
Young also asked Jack
Granatstein, then and now one
of Canada’s most prolific histo-
rians and a graduate of Royal
Military College of Canada;
Desmond Morton, another
accomplished Canadian military
IT WAS ALSO CLEAR
THAT THE FAILURE
WAS A FAILURE OF
LEADERSHIP.
historian and RMC grad; and
Albert Legault, a political sci-
entist specializing in Canadian
defence and foreign policy.
Young’s successor, Art Eggleton,
later appointed me to the
Minister of National Defence’s
Monitoring Committee on Change
in the Canadian Armed Forces
and the Department of National
Defence, from 1997 to 2003.
As I wrote my book and took
part in advising three defence
ministers it became clear to me
that those murders, racist acts
and other bad behaviour among
the military occurred in part
because some Canadian soldiers
were behind the times and did
not reflect the Canadian
values of the 1990s.
By that time, Canada
had become a diverse,
rights-based society and
racist behaviour was unac-
ceptable to the vast majority
of Canadians. It was also
clear that the failure was
a failure of leadership in
not understanding the
phenomenon or the basic
truth that Canadians
wanted their military
to reflect what Canadian
society had become.
Not all leaders were culpable,
but enough were that rot was
able to eat away at the core of
Canada’s military ethos.
 We all made many recom-
mendations on how to get out of
the mess and many of those were
implemented by the government
over the next few years. But
gender issues were largely—not
completely, but largely—ignored
by the government, by the
armed forces, and by us.
Gender issues are front and
centre today because our society
as a whole believes women have
an inherent right to respect
and to choose their own career
path and that our society is
poorer—economically, socially
and morally—when impediments
are placed in their path.
This wasn’t true at the end of
the Second World War. It wasn’t
true 50 or even 25 years ago.
It should have been, but largely
it wasn’t. And for too many
men in the Canadian military,
it is still not accepted today.
The military exists because
we need one and because
citizens—taxpayers—support it.
As long as Canadians conclude
that the military is out of touch
with Canadian
values, they will
be frustrated by
what goes on in the
military and will
demand change.
Gender dis-
crimination may
still exist in other
militaries around
the world, but
such behaviour
is not acceptable,
in any way, shape or form.
What to do about it? I return
to suggestions from more than
two decades ago.
Appoint a military inspector
general with authority to intervene
in the chain of command and
directly solve problems.
Impose a zero-tolerance
policy when the rules are broken
and impose strict punishment.
IMPOSE A
ZERO-TOLERANCE
POLICY WHEN THE
RULES ARE BROKEN.
Lay down the law and bring
the armed forces into line with
the values of Canadian society.
Such behaviour is intolerable
anywhere in the civilized world.
Our military is no exception. L

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legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 17

Lieutenant William Edward
Everett Doane of Halifax led
a company in an attack on
Regina Trench on Oct. 1, 1916.
Troops (OPPOSITE) fire a six-inch
Howitzer in battle.

Mary Doane/Doane Family Archive

 My great-uncle
William was killed
in the attack
on Regina Trench

By Stephen J. Thorne

H
Harvey Doane, my great-
uncle, was a noted engineer,
a celebrated yachtsman, a
captivating storyteller and
a veteran of the Great War.
In short, he was a family icon
whose name still floats and
dances among us more than
three decades after he died.
An elegant, old-world
gentleman in a pencil mous-
tache and yacht-club blazer,
he and his wife, my Aunt
Mildred, whom he called
“Skinny,” used to come with
Mildred’s sister, Aunt Dot,
for Sunday dinners at my
parents’ home in Halifax.
These sessions with the
senior generation of the
family were generally not
much fun for a young boy
who was expected to dress
up, sit still and keep quiet
while the adults gossiped
20 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
and reminisced. But Uncle
Harvey was different story.
Wielding a loaded cigarette
holder in one hand and a
scotch in the other, my great-
uncle would regale us with
pre-dinner tales of his time
in Egypt and Palestine with
the forces of Field Marshal
Edmund Allenby—he of
Lawrence of Arabia fame.
Uncle Harvey never
mentioned his wartime
service in France; it was only
recently that I discovered
he was even there—and
the reason why he never
seemed to mention the fact.
Unknown to me, Uncle
Harvey had a brother, William,
who was killed at Regina
Trench near Courcelette dur-
ing the Battle of the Somme.
He is affectionately referred
to as Billie by family today,
none of whom ever knew him
beyond the contents of a dog-
eared old album of newspaper
clippings and photographs
assembled by his father and
eventually bequeathed to
my cousin, Mary Doane.
The turn-of-the-century
Doanes were a military
family, of sorts. Harvey
and Billie’s father, Francis
William Whitney Doane,
known as “FWW,” was the
Halifax city engineer. Born
in Barrington, N.S., he had
joined the 63rd Regiment,
The Detroit Publishing Company/Wikimedia; Mary Doane/Doane Family Archive
Halifax Rifles, as a lieutenant
in 1900. He went on to become
captain, then quartermaster,
before he was appointed
honorary major in 1913.
All across the country
in little towns, sprawling
counties and big cities alike,
militias like the 63rd had
long played a fundamental
role in Canada’s defence. The
63rd’s operational history
from its formation in 1860
included the Fenian Raids,
the North West Rebellion and
the South African (Boer) War.
When not training or fight-
ing, militias often found them-
selves breaking up riots, clean-
ing up after natural disasters
and, in Halifax in 1917,
helping in relief and recovery
efforts after history’s biggest
man-made explosion to that
time devastated the city.
There were also significant
social and cultural elements
to militia life, with its regular
get-togethers, periodic parades
and refined mess dinners, says
author and historian Tim Cook
of the Canadian War Museum.
“The militia in a city or
town tended to have the most
prominent young men of
society,” said Cook. “Why?
Because it’s a great place to
get together and network.
It’s like the Rideau Club,
but you are in uniform and
you’re firing and engaging in
manly and masculine work.
“It may look a lot like pea-
cocking around, marching and
wearing uniforms, but these
people were largely integrated
into the elite of society—cer-
tainly the officers. You’d be
hard-pressed to find another
organization that had more
prominent young people in it.
“It’s very different today
in the reserves, because

we value military service
today much differently.”
After more than 14 years
of militia life, 41-year-old
FWW joined the active
service roster with the
219th Highland Battalion
(Nova Scotia), Canadian
Expeditionary Force, on
Aug. 11, 1914. It was a week
after Britain declared war on
Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany.
His sons had followed him
into the 63rd, and a year after
FWW joined the 219th, Billie,
the youngest by 18 months,
enlisted for overseas ser-
vice at Valcartier, Que.
He had just graduated
with an arts degree from
Dalhousie, an athlete and
“a brilliant student,” said
newspaper accounts. He had
his eyes set on a career in law.
The fate of 22-year-old Billie,
it seems, would dictate the
course of his older brother
Harvey’s military career.
Billie embarked for
Britain aboard His Majesty’s
Transport Saxonia on
Oct. 18, 1915. He’d just been
promoted captain with
the 40th (Nova Scotia)
Battalion and arrived
in Plymouth, England,
after an 11-day voyage.
He had a reputation as
an outstanding shooter and
by June 1916 had qualified
as a 1st Class instructor
in “musketry and Lewis
machine gunnery.”
One of the muddiest, bloodi-
est trials of the war, the Battle
of the Somme, was about to
begin and Billie Doane wanted
to be a part of it. Three days
after the offensive began in
disastrous fashion on July 1,
1916, with a still-unmatched
57,000 British and Empire
casualties in a single day, he
requested a demotion back to
lieutenant in order to find a
place in the fighting force. A
promotion to major was pend-
ing, but if an officer wanted
to see action sooner, a step
back in rank was the quickest
The Cunard Line’s
Royal Mail Ship
Saxonia was
pressed into
way forward to the trenches. wartime service.
Billie got his demotion, but As HMT Saxonia, it
it was mid-September before delivered Canadian
he was transferred to the soldiers—including
25th Battalion (Nova Scotia William Doane—
Rifles) in France. On Sept. 29, to England,
he joined his unit at the front. then served as
accommodation
Two eventful days later, he
for German
lay dying in a muddy crater prisoners of war.
on the Somme battlefield near
Courcelette. His last words: “I
didn’t want to be hit so soon.”
Troops from the
Royal Field Artillery
fill a water tank,
filtered through a
chlorinator aboard
a truck.
Wielding a loaded
cigarette holder in
one hand and a
scotch in the other,
my great-uncle
would regale us.
legionmagazine.com > MAY/JUNE 2021 21

Grandcourt Road
Stuff Redoubt Courcelette
Thiepval
Thiepval Ridge
La Boisselle
Regina
Trench
On Sept. 22, the Canadians
had taken the village of
Courcelette, toward the
northern end of the Somme
battlefront. It was the first
battle to use tanks and was
marked by the use of the
creeping barrage as an integral
tactic in Allied warfare.
The measured victory
(skirmishes continued for
Regina Trench
(MAP) was the weeks after) had taken
longest German seven days and cost almost
trench of its type 30,000 Allied casualties.
on the Western And still it continued.
Front. An inscrip- Lying north of Courcelette
tion beneath a was Regina Trench (Staufen
family album Riegel), a German position
photo of two on the north-facing slope of
soldiers inspecting Thiepval Ridge running from
a shell crater (ABOVE
northwest of the village of
RIGHT) reads “Near
Pozieres a ‘crump’ Le Sars, southwestward to
has landed on the Stuff Redoubt (Staufen Feste),
Albert-Bapaume close to the German fortifica-
Road.” tions at Thiepval. It was the
longest German trench of its
type on the Western Front,
and it proved a stubborn
objective for the Canadians.
The preliminaries in
the Battle of the Ancre
22 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
Le Sars
Heights—Thiepval
Ridge and Regina
Trench—were already
underway by the time
Billie arrived in theatre.
“Hello Old Man,”
Billie wrote his father on
25th Battalion letterhead
from the Somme. “You will be
surprised to note the badge.
Am over here in Europe on
a little jaunt. We are away
back from the guns and
there is no danger here.
“The amount of artillery
down here is almost unbeliev-
able. We have it all over the
Boch. They can’t even put up
their observation balloons. We
immediately give them fits….
“Tell mother there is no
need to worry…. Remember
me to all my friends. The 25th
have covered themselves and
all of Nova Scotia with glory
in the last few days. Well,
be good Old Scratch. Bill”
It was his last letter
home, arriving after the
Oct. 8 telegram informing
his parents of his death.
Billie Doane commanded
a depleted ‘A’ Company in its
attack on Regina Trench two
days after arriving at the front.
The trench had been among
the original Thiepval objec-
tives, and it was supposed to
have been captured by end of
day on Sept. 26. But, as a Vimy
Foundation history put it, “like
most of the battles fought on
the Somme, the attack had
devolved to a multi-week
slog, as the British army tried
in vain to take increasingly
smaller chunks of territory.”
Just over the ridge and
surrounded by kilometres of
barbed wire, the meander-
ing trench was a daunting
objective. There was no way
to approach it but in full view
of the enemy, and there were
no flanking options available.
The approaches dictated a
tight formation, easing the
work of German gunners.
As on the first day of the
Somme exactly three months
earlier, Allied artillery largely
failed to do its job on the
Germans’ barbed-wire entan-
glements, and most remained
intact. But British generals of
the day were a stubborn lot.
Divisional command-
ers protested the orders to
attack. The commander of the
Canadian Corps, Lieutenant-
General Julian Byng, took the
extraordinary step of backing
them up. But the British hier-
archy—namely General Hubert
Gough, a favourite acolyte
Mary Doane/Doane Family Archive
 Billie Doane
(at left) with
Geordie Campbell,
Douglas (possibly
of Field Marshal Douglas Lieutenant John Harley, who Edgar) and
Haig—refused to reconsider. was with Billie when he died Scott Anderson
Haig, who commanded and assumed command of at Valcartier, Que.,

He had a
the British Expeditionary what was left of ‘A’ Company. before they de-
Force, had it in his head that Both men were recover- ployed for Britain
Thiepval could facilitate ing from wounds at the in 1915. Billie’s last
the breakout he had hoped IODE Hospital for officers in correspondence
the Somme would produce.
reputation London’s Hyde Park—Nutter
(BOTTOM): a letter
home on the
Seeing to it was Gough’s big- with a bullet to his left shoulder
gest assignment to date.
as an on Sept. 19; Harley by shrapnel
letterhead of his
adopted regiment,
By Sept. 30, fierce hand- outstanding in the right arm at Regina and his last battle-
to-hand fighting had cost Trench. He couldn’t write. field message.
the British-led forces 12,500 shooter. “At one time the 25th had to
casualties on the ridge. Some get out of their trenches owing
13 square kilometres had
been gained in an advance
of one to two kilometres.
Zollern Trench and Hessian
Trench had been taken.
Regina Trench, defended
by the elite German Marine
Brigade, along with parts of
Stuff and Schwaben redoubts,
remained in German hands.
The commander of the
25th Battalion, Colonel
Edward Hilliam, a native
Englishman, had been told to
capture Kenora and Regina
trenches “at all costs.” The
25th had already seen plenty of
action, and paid for it, going in.
Nine days after the attack,
Major Augustine Nutter wrote
a letter to Billie’s mother
on behalf of himself and

to heavy shelling, but good old

Bill went back three times for
wounded men, and got them
in,” wrote Nutter, a Montreal
native. “Bill also volunteered
to go out with a scouting party
and reconnoitre ‘Kenora’
trench—a sporty thing to do.”
By Oct. 1, the battalion had
been reduced to just 200 men
with 12 machine guns, some
borrowed. At most, Billie
Doane’s company comprised
50-60 troops, half or less
of its normal strength.

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 23


The attack on Regina Trench
was launched at 3:15 p.m.
Troops inspect a in mist and light rain.
captured German “Boom,” wrote Francis
Mauser T-Gewehr Zwicker, a private in
anti-tank rifle. ‘C’ Company, 25th Battalion,
Some 15,800 of from Lunenburg, N.S.
the 13-millimetre “A great gun from the
guns were vicinity of La Boisselle
produced, the only announced zero hour.
weapon of its kind “Simultaneously every
in the war. The
battery in [the] rear took up
inscription in the
family photo album the signal and an avalanche
says it “could pierce of shells rent the air, crashing
any spot on a into enemy lines, obliterating
tank—but only them in fire and smoke.”
1 out of every 10 The 8th Brigade attacked
were fired—Hinie across Grandcourt Road to
hadn’t the nerve the south with the 4th and
at the last.” Heinie, 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles.
short for Heinrich, 4CMR was to seal off Regina
is a derogatory
Trench on the extreme left
term for German
soldiers that to defend against German
originated in counterattacks from the west.
the war. The 22nd Battalion
(French Canadian) faced
the longest trek, nearly a
kilometre. It was to attack
in three waves of 80 men.
Flanked by the 22nd on
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their right and the 24th on
their left, Billie was to lead his
company up the middle with
the rest of the 25th, part of a
kilometre-wide attack that
would cross Kenora Trench
and press on into Regina.
“The thin khaki line
comprising ‘A’ Company and
two platoons of ‘C’ sprang
from their trenches,” wrote
Zwicker, who watched as
they ran past the small
advance trench in which
his platoon had spent four
weary days, 100 metres in
front of the main line.
A purple Very light rose
from the German lines,
signalling “enemy advancing,
artillery assistance required.”
A barrage ensued and
the Canadians were raked
with heavy machine-gun
fire, “speeding little mes-
sengers of death into our
ranks,” as Zwicker described
it in The [Halifax] Sunday
Leader. “The Grim Reaper
had already been busy.”
A sergeant-
major paused and
ordered Zwicker’s
platoon forward.
“On we rushed
through the smoke
of battle; the noise
of bursting shells,
the rattle of rifles
and machine guns seemed
one continuous explosion,
which made the ground sway
and tremble under our feet,
and the air about us vibrate.”
The 22nd made it a half-
kilometre before artillery
and small-arms fire slowed
it to a crawl and its troops
realized that the defensive
wire had not been touched.
One company was virtually
eliminated between the enemy
trenches. Part of another
reached Regina Trench but was
overwhelmed and destroyed.
Only 30 members of the
25th reached the wire at
Regina, Billie among them. At
some point, he pencilled a last
message: “The Battalion did
not succeed in the attack and
are resuming their original
position, W.E. Doane, Lt.”
Harley said Billie was just
15 metres from the German
line when he was cut down.
The Liverpool, N.S., native
was with his comrade when
he was hit. Harley dragged
his wounded company
commander into a shell
hole and bandaged him,
but Billie died a short time
after, “without much pain.”
“He knew he was hit
badly,” Harley reported,
“and all he said was, ‘I didn’t
want to be hit so soon.’”
Harley removed the dead
man’s watch and, via Nutter,
promised Billie’s mother he
would hand it to her soon.
Harley returned to Halifax
for treatment, where it is
believed he made good on his
promise. Plagued by nerve
damage to his right arm, he
never returned to the front.
But he lived another 50 years.
The left forward company
of 5CMR made their objective

and established a blocking
position at the west end of
Regina Trench, but it was
driven out early the next
morning by multiple coun-
terattacks. Another assault
company was impeded by wire
and machine-gun fire and
reported only 15 survivors.
They took cover in craters
and ditches and waited for
nightfall before scurrying
back to Kenora Trench, where
the follow-up company had
secured a stretch to within
about 100 metres of the junc-
tion with the main position.
In his after-action report,
Hilliam said 30 of his men
who reached the wire dug in
and remained in shell holes
until dark. “Lieut. Gray who
was in charge, tried to col-
lect them together. Finding
only six left, he decided to
fall back on KENORA.”
Three soldiers, including
a Corporal Newton of ‘B’
Company, were stranded
forward and took refuge in a
shell hole to the right of the
German trench. They stayed
there until 3 p.m. on Oct. 3,
when Newton led his two men
out, losing one in the process.
The 25th suffered 112
casualties in the advance,
including 46 dead or missing.
It pulled out of the Somme on
the night of Oct. 1-2, heading
west and north to Lens before
relocating four months later
to the Vimy region, where
it would participate in the
seminal victory at Vimy
Ridge the following spring.
A week after Billie died,
FWW and Alice Doane
received the dreaded telegram:
“Regret to inform you that
your son William has been
killed in action, nobly doing
his duty for his country.”
Mary Doane/Doane Family Archive
Unaware of his brother’s
fate, Harvey had married
Mildred on Oct. 6. The couple
were on their honeymoon
when the bad news came.
Billie’s death was all over the
local papers, and letters and
tributes continued to come in.
“It was Bill’s first tour in
the trenches and I watched
him closely,” wrote Lieut.
Roderick C. MacDonald.
“He was cool and collected
as an old hand, fearless and
energetic and at once won
the admiration of the men.
“Many a man has spoken
to me of the way he led them
in that charge and how
well he was leading and
encouraging them when he
was hit. I know your sorrow
will be mingled with pride
that he did his part in the
great work allotted to him.
“I myself will always
think of him as an old friend
and a brave soldier and
only hope that if it is my
lot to die in France, I can
die as nobly as Bill did.”
He didn’t have to.
MacDonald was promoted
to captain and survived
the war, albeit with a
case of tuberculosis.
The fighting for Regina
Trench continued through
October and into November.
On Oct. 21, the 4th Canadian
Division captured the western
portion of the trench with
little opposition while, farther
west, two divisions of II Corps
took Stuff Trench in 30 min-
utes. The gains gave the Allies
control of Thiepval Ridge.
The Canadians repulsed
three counterattacks the
next day. Over the two days,
they took more than 1,000
German prisoners. The 4th
finally captured the east
“ I hope that if
it is my lot to die in
France, I can die as
nobly as Bill did.”
end of the trench during
the night of Nov. 10-11.
Canadian losses during
some 42 days of fighting
for Regina Trench totalled
14,207. There would be no
breakout at the Somme.
The battle north of
Courcelette was raging when
a bereaved FWW headed for
England on Oct. 13 aboard
SS Olympic, sister ship to
the ill-fated RMS Titanic.
He was appointed quarter-
master of the 17th Reserve
Battalion and spent nine
days in France in November
1917 on “conducting duties,”
during which he visited his
son’s battlefield grave.
Uncle Harvey joined the
active roster on Oct. 16, 1916,
and went to England with the Billie’s battlefield
grave, the earth still
Canadian Reserve Artillery the
freshly turned. The
following March. As a major, inscription reads:
he was assigned to the 420th “Lnt W.E.E. Doane
Siege Battery, Royal Garrison 40th Canadian Inf.
Artillery, part of Britain’s Killed in action
Egyptian Expeditionary Force. 1.10.16. Next of kin
He was later seconded for F.W.W. Doane,
duty with the War Office and Halifax Canada.”
finished his overseas service
with the 420th in France. He
returned to Canada aboard
SS Scotian, arriving home on
March 3, 1919, full of stories. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 25
KING’S
POSTWAR

TRIP
IN 1946, THE CANADIAN
PRIME MINISTER
ATTENDED A PEACE
CONFERENCE, VISITED
BATTLEFIELDS AND
WITNESSED THE
NUREMBERG TRIALS

By J.L. Granatstein
Prime Minister Mackenzie King visits
Normandy while in France for an
August 1946 meeting of world leaders
that would determine the future of
international politics for years to come.
Captains E.L. McGivern and J.H. Medhurst
(OPPOSITE) examine a German pillbox at
Dieppe, France, three months after D-Day.

Ken Bell/DND/LAC/3191757; Juno Beach Centre

C The Canadian
delegation to the
United Nations
Conference
(ABOVE) meet
in their hotel
headquarters
in San Francisco
Canada had played a significant and sub-
stantial role in the victory of the democracies
over Nazism and fascism, and 1945 was a year
of triumphs for Prime Minister Mackenzie
King and his nation.
Canada also was fully represented at the
United Nations Conference on International
Organization in San Francisco in the spring of
1945, and Ottawa’s fight to prevent the Security
Council from deploying Canadian troops
without Ottawa’s permission led to Article 44
in the UN Charter forbidding such action.
King himself was present for most of the meet-
In May 1946, King attended the
Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference
in London. Scheduling prevented all the
leaders from being at the table at the
same time, and the conference was really
a series of bilateral discussions.
The new Labour government led by Clement
Attlee faced terrible fiscal pressures, and it
was as interested in seeing the Dominions
pick up some of Britain’s defence burdens
as the Conservatives had ever been.
For his part, Mackenzie King was uninter-
ested in making commitments that inevitably
on May 10, 1945, ings, something that greatly benefited him and would press Canada into a foreign policy
to hear King his Liberal party in the June general elections, directed by London, and the fact that the com-
declare Canada’s which the government party narrowly won. muniqué was anodyne was a victory. There had
determination
In September, the defection of Igor been only an “informal exchange” of views and a
to bring the war
with Japan to Gouzenko, a Russian cipher officer, with preference for flexible methods of communica-
a successful documents confirming that the Soviet tion over “any rigid centralized machinery.”
conclusion. Union had been operating spy networks out A few days later, King told Lord Addison,
of its embassy in Ottawa involved Canada Attlee’s secretary of state for dominion affairs,
in matters of the greatest importance with that he might as well be blunt: Canada was
its Allies in Washington and London. “not in favour of a Commonwealth policy” on

28 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com UN Archive; Leo Rosenthal/LAC/3201412

defence or foreign affairs. If Canada had an
observer at a meeting, it had to be understood
“it was simply for the sake of information and
that no commitments were to arise nor were
we to be regarded thereby as being consulted
as distinguished from being informed….”
THE CONFERENCE
The prime minister soon returned to Canada. WAS ANOTHER
He was back in Europe a few months STEP TOWARD
later. While there were no German peace
negotiations in the immediate future,
THE LOOMING
Canada was a full participant in the Paris COLD WAR.
Peace Conference in the summer of 1946.
This was a second-tier meeting, its purpose
to negotiate peace treaties between the victors
and the Nazis’ satellite nations—Hungary,
Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Finland.
“Canada’s interest in the successful outcome of
the deliberations of this conference is obviously
less immediate and direct than that of some of
the participating countries,” King stated in an
address to the conference. “Our concern is to see
that…the peace treaties will be based upon broad
and enduring principles of justice and equity.”
With no pressing interests in the negotia-
tions, the simple fact that Canada was present
was recognition of its status. For the Great
Powers, however, the conference was another
step toward the looming Cold War, and the
Western allies faced off with the Soviet Union
on procedural issue after procedural issue.

The lack of progress freed King and his party

to leave the peace conference on Aug. 10 to visit
Dieppe and the Normandy battlefields, where
the Canadians had fought and so many had died.
King was greeted with fervour by dignitar-
ies and ordinary French citizens, children
singing “O Canada,” arches with banners
proclaiming “Honneur aux Canadiens,” and
speeches from mayors and ministers.
But the battlefields were the chief reason for
the visit. Colonel Charles Stacey, the Canadian
Army historian, accompanied the prime min-
ister to provide explanation and context. He
did not always please King, not least when he
pointed out the shattered tanks used at Estrées-
la-Campagne, where the British Columbia
Regiment’s Shermans had been outgunned and
destroyed by German Panther and Tiger tanks.
“One felt it was almost a sort of worship
of these various instruments of destruction.
Horrible looking things. All rusted. Piled up.”
For his part, Stacey, never an admirer of
King, was not impressed. “Here in the heart
of the Norman countryside there was no
crowd to cheer; nothing for a politician.”
Clearly the historian found the politician King and health
boring, an old gentleman with no particular and welfare
interests, no special conversational skills. minister Paul
“One should remember too,” Stacey wrote, Martin Sr. (ABOVE)
“that he is probably past his best; he is 72….” attend the UN
The Canadian cemetery at Bretteville- General Assembly
sur-Laize still had wooden crosses in Flushing
marking the graves. Meadows, N.Y.,
in October 1946.
“It touched me deeply to see between the
graves that were named, here and there, one
simply classified as an ‘unknown soldier,’” wrote
King. “I found it quite impossible to give any
expression to my feelings. Indeed, as I said, I felt
silence was the only language in such a place.”
Moved by the sea of graves of his country-
men, King’s lack of comment was exactly
the right acknowledgment of sacrifice.
On his visit to Juno Beach, where the
3rd Canadian Division had landed on D-Day,
there were cheering crowds, flags and speeches
galore, but the prime minister revealed how

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 29

 little he knew of the cross-Channel invasion
and the creation of the two Mulberry harbours.
“I did not realize until yesterday that our
troops had to land on shores, to clear the
beaches and make it possible to have ships sunk
which constituted a harbour for the landing
craft and the landing of large numbers, etc.”
King’s next and last visit to the battlefields
was to Dieppe on Aug. 18, one day before
the fourth anniversary of the disastrous
raid of 1942.
King looked at the beach at Puys, where the
Royal Regiment of Canada had landed, and
noted in his diary that it “seemed to be [one]
of the most difficult for a landing…. One sees
cliffs rising steeply out of the sea; then there
was a narrow sort of valley which led into the
town, and then on the other side a very high
hill on top of which was a gun emplacement”
that commanded “a complete view of the beach
and one man with the help of the gun…could
“IT WAS SENDING MEN
TO CERTAIN DEATH
WITHOUT A GHOST
OF A CHANCE.”
destroy men as rapidly as they could land.”
King had a good eye for the ground and
for tactics, and his conclusion was correct.
“I really felt as though the men who
had planned that raid ought to have been
cashiered…. It was sending men to certain
death without a ghost of a chance…. It just
made me indignant beyond words.”
The next day, the anniversary of the
raid, King attended ceremonies in the
Dieppe council chamber and at the
main beach in front of the town.
He tried to find some reason for the
assault, that “in the sum total of things, it
had been of some real contribution.” But
he did not believe this. “I confess in my
heart I felt that it had been a terrible thing
to send men into that area to discharge a
mission that could only end in death….”
Still the public reception cheered him.
Everywhere there were large crowds of
French citizens, young and old, cheer-
ing the prime minister and the Canadian
soldiers who paraded through the town.
“We must have walked for a mile,” King
wrote. “There were crowds cheering on
both sides of the street all the way. From
windows they began throwing flowers.
Little children clapping their hands; dogs
barking; old soldiers wearing medals.
All happy and rejoicing, singing ‘Vive le
Canada.’ In reply, we said ‘Vive la France.’”
After the Dieppe ceremonies, King spent
another day at the peace conference in
Paris. He and his entourage then flew to
Berlin to tour the ruins of Hitler’s capital.
It was an “appalling sight,”
King said. “Tiergarten, one waste
of ground. Beautiful buildings
demolished beyond recogni-
tion. The whole centre of the
city all but totally destroyed.”
The Canadian party then
visited the Chancellery and
Hitler’s bunker, his “place of final
refuge.” King picked up a piece of
a wall, “an interesting souvenir”
for a man who for years had col-
lected ruins for his Kingsmere
estate. He was then given a tile
from the Führer’s bathroom.
King was appalled when he
saw the bunker and the place
where the bodies of Hitler and
Eva Braun, his mistress and
last-minute wife, were burned.
They were “vermin and rats
and the like, with holes in the ground.”
King and his entourage then boarded a flight
for Nuremburg, where the trials of 20 senior
Nazi leaders were close to conclusion before
an international tribunal. King had met some
of Hitler’s henchmen on his visit to Berlin in
1937; now he saw Hermann Göring, Joachim
von Ribbentrop, Konstantin von Neurath and
the others in very different circumstances.
Göring, King wrote, “had shrunk to
almost half the size as I remember him. Von
Ribbentrop, the foreign minister [and before
the Great War a wine salesman in Ottawa]
looked a mere shadow of himself. An old weary
looking man, taking voluminous notes.”
Von Neurath was foreign minister in
1937. He “has got much older. He sat with
his hands folded across his lap; hardly turn-
ing his head, looking straight ahead. A very
pathetic solitary figure. When one thinks of
how pleasant he was as a gentleman in a high
position…it seemed an appalling fate—an
example of a man who got in with the wrong
gang—got to where finally he could not get
out of [the] situation he found himself in.”
Eight years earlier, von Neurath had
given his Canadian visitor a long justifica-
tion for German anti-Semitism. After the
Holocaust, a broken man, he was in the
dock with the other “real criminals.”
King then visited the prison cells in which
the Nazi leaders were housed. They could
exercise daily, but the rest of their time was
in solitary confinement: “How right it is to
what they have given to others to endure.”
Wikimedia; Juno Beach Centre
Back in Paris for his last day at the peace Defendants
conference, King attended a meeting of in the dock at
Commonwealth delegates presided over by the postwar
Ernest Bevin, the British foreign minister. Nuremburg Trials
In a discussion on whether or not a par- (ABOVE). King tours
ticular issue should go to the United Nations the beach at
Courseulles-sur-
for consideration, King was outspoken.
Mer (OPPOSITE).
“I expressed myself as believing the U.N.O. He later climbed
was just coming into being and it was the aboard the remains
last thing that should be done to let forty of a landing craft
or fifty nations [discuss] these questions. used by soldiers
I really feel the U.N. threatens to become of the Régiment
as great a menace as the League of Nations— de la Chaudière
a lot of immature, untrained minds wish- on D-Day.
ing to register their positions, etc.”
For King, and for some Canadian diplo-
mats as well, the bloom was off the rose.
The conference and King’s visit
to Europe were over. He returned to
Canada with less than two years left in
his long tenure as Canadian leader.
Fusty and fussy, King was not impressive up
close. Stacey’s grumpy comments in Normandy
were not wrong. But King had a clear sense of
what his people wanted and needed, and in
the more than two decades he led the govern-
ment, he had changed Canada dramatically.
A relatively poor, largely agricultural nation
at the end of the Great War, by 1946, Canada
had become an industrial power that, for
example, built the vehicles on which much of the
Commonwealth armies had rolled to victory.
No one much admired King as a man, but
seen with the proper perspective, he was
a leader. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 31
 HOME FRONT By Marc Milner

IN A U-BOAT
RAMPAGE
OFF THE EAST
COAST IN 1918,
THE SCHOONER
DORNFONTEIN
WAS CAPTURED
AND BURNED

Sub VS.
schooner
32 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
 Dornfontein is launched in Saint John, N.B., in July 1918.

Heritage Saint John legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 33

 On
Aug. 3, 1918, a small boat carrying nine
sailors arrived at Gannet Rock in the
Bay of Fundy. They had a tale to tell.
The previous day, a submarine had stopped
their schooner—looted it, and took the crew as
prisoners. Then the raiders set the schooner
on fire and turned its crew loose in their small
boat. It had taken more than 12 hours to row
On its maiden to shore. It was not supposed to happen.
voyage (ABOVE), When the First World War started in 1914,
the four-masted submarines were a novelty weapon. Their
schooner was range was short and everyone expected them
carrying a heavy
to operate inshore, fully submerged and, in
load of wood to
Natal, South Africa. accordance with international law, to sink only
warships. After all, submarines did not have
enough crew to take ships as prizes, or space for
prisoners, or—in the German case—the ability
to bring captured ships home as prizes of war.
Certainly they presented no threat to
Canada, if only because they could not cross
the Atlantic. So Canada sent troops to the
Western Front and the British promised
to protect Canada from whatever naval
threat developed. No one expected much.
However, the establishment of a “distant
blockade” of Germany by the Allies in 1914,
by closing off the Strait of Dover and the
34 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
passage between Scotland and Norway, gave
the Germans an opening. To be lawful, a
blockade had to be right along the enemy coast.
The Germans responded in early 1915 with a
“blockade” of Great Britain by submarines,
threatening to sink warships and merchant
ships on sight. With that, the U-boat war on
Allied merchant shipping began in earnest.
The sinking of RMS Lusitania by a U-boat
in May 1915, with a heavy loss of life (many
American), brought enough international
pressure to end the first unrestricted
campaign. The pattern repeated itself
in 1916, when neutral pressure stopped
another unrestricted U-boat campaign.
In the meantime, Germany’s U-boat fleet grew
in size, power and range, including a program
of “U-freighters” to evade the Allied blockade.
In July 1916, the 1,600-tonne U-Deutschland
arrived at Baltimore, Maryland, to load
cargo. (The second U-freighter, U-Bremen,
was lost at sea on its maiden voyage).
Clearly, U-boats could cross the Atlantic.
More alarming was the arrival in October of
U-53—a 740-tonne combat submarine—at
Newport, Rhode Island, which promptly sank
four British vessels just outside American
waters. By the end of 1916, the shooting
war had come to the western Atlantic.
Germany declared another unrestricted sub-
marine campaign against the Allies in February
1917. They expected the Americas to declare
war, but believed they could not intervene
decisively in Europe for years. And if Germany
could sink more than 800,000 tonnes of British
shipping a month over the next six months,
Marc Milner; SDModelMakers; Wikimedia
The life
of
U-156
During the Great War, the Germans built 373 U-boats, most of them
small and intended for European waters. But a portion were large,
displaced up to 1,000 tonnes, and were capable of long-range patrols.
The biggest, however, were the five remaining U-freighters which
the Germans converted into warships in 1917. These submerged
cruisers were the largest submarines in the world, over 60 metres long
with a cruising radius of 49,000 kilometres and full displacement
weight of over 2,200 tonnes. Just one of these monsters, like U-156,
carried more firepower than the entire RCN: two 15-centimetre deck
guns, two 88-millimetre guns and 18 torpedoes.
The U-cruisers were a law of the sea unto themselves.
U-156 was commissioned at Bremen, on the Weser River about
60 kilometres from the North Sea, on Aug. 28, 1917.
Its first voyage was to the Canary Islands to load contraband.
The British learned of this effort to breach the blockade and
sent a sub to ambush U-156. A torpedo from a British sub
hit U-156, but failed to explode. The U-boat escaped.
The sub’s only cruise operation began on June 15, 1918, when
Captain Richard Feldt and his crew of 76 set off for Long Island,
N.Y. Over the next nine weeks, U-156 accounted for approximately
four small steamers, three trawlers, 19 fishing schooners, two very
large sailing ships, one tanker, four barges and a U.S. Navy cruiser.
U-156 did not escape retribution. The Allies laid deep minefields
at the entrances to the North Sea to sink U-boats slipping through.
Signals sent by Feldt in the final approaches gave precise timing and
routing for his passage through the Northern Barrage. When U-156
failed to report in on Sept. 25, it was assumed that it had struck a
mine and sunk with all hands. It carried to the grave the other side
of one of the most fascinating stories of Canada’s Great War.

Britain would capitulate. The 1917 U-boat The presence of U-156 in the Bay of Fundy
campaign was a gamble, but one worth the risk. makes it difficult to explain what happened next. The Imperial
The British beat the U-boats by introduc- On July 31, the 695-tonne four-masted cargo German Navy sub
ing convoys in the summer of 1917, but the schooner Dornfontein cleared Saint John, N.B., U-156 (ABOVE) sank
subs kept the Royal Navy fully engaged in on its maiden voyage with a load of lumber 44 ships before
European waters for the rest of the war. for Natal, South Africa. Highly classified it was lost in the
Canada was left to fend for itself—with some routing instructions issued before departure Northern Barrage
minefield between
important help from the Americans. By 1917, were supposed to keep it safe. These were
the Orkney Islands
the Royal Canadian Navy had 20 small ships usually kept in a weighted bag, ready to throw and Norway.
and 12 Battle-class trawlers armed with puny overboard should the enemy appear. Other RMS Lusitania
12-pounder guns at best. As 1918 dawned, the than that, Dornfontein was on its own. (BELOW), bound for
Canadian coast was largely undefended. Liverpool from
New York, was
The U-boats arrived in the summer As 1918 dawned, the sunk by a torpedo
of 1918. U-151 was already in U.S. waters
when U-156 reached Cape Race, Nfld., in
Canadian coast was from U-20 on
May 7, 1915.
early July. It sank a couple of Norwegian
schooners and then headed for New York.
undefended.
largely undefended.
After dropping mines, which sank the
cruiser USS San Diego on July 19, U-156
turned back north. In broad daylight—and
just five kilometres away from vacationers on
the beach at Cape Cod—the U-boat leisurely
sank four barges and damaged their tug with
gunfire. News of the attack off Cape Cod
reached Canada just as the fishermen
came ashore in Canso to tell their story.
The next day, July 26, U-156
attempted to sink two British freighters
south of Cape Sable, N.S. News of these
attacks reached Ottawa on July 27.
 The nine crew
members were
taken aboard
the sub while
the schooner
looted.
was looted. By the afternoon of Aug. 2,
Dornfontein was about 60 kilo-
metres south of Grand Manan
Island when U-156 rose from the
depths and fired two shots across the
bow. Dornfontein hove to. The nine crew
members were taken aboard the sub while
the schooner was looted for food (it carried
six months of supplies), the seamen’s cloth-
ing, other valuables—including Dornfontein’s
secret instructions—and gasoline.
The Canadians were held on the U-boat for
five hours, interrogated and fed a meal of bully
beef and rice. Nearly all the German crew spoke
English and one lieutenant claimed to have vaca-
tioned annually on the Maine coast for decades.
Dornfontein’s captain described the Germans
as “a beastly looking set of fellows….” The
Within a month presence of blueberry pie on the mess table
of launch (ABOVE), seemed suspicious, and seaman James Oliver
Dornfontein was of New River, N.B., protested that the food was
seized, looted and probably poisoned. What happened next is
burned by a U-boat unclear, except that Oliver was shot in the leg.
crew 10 kilometres The cheery calls of “Goodbye!” and “Good
south of Grand
luck!” from the Germans were bitterly ironic
Manan Island in
the Bay of Fundy. for Dornfontein’s crew as they set off for Grand
Manan that afternoon. As they rowed away,
their ship was ablaze from stem to stern.
At 6 a.m. the next day, Dornfontein’s crew
scrambled ashore on Gannet Rock and, later
that day, rowed the short distance to Grand
Manan, where they were met by the RCN
and taken to Saint John. The men provided
details of U-156’s size, armament and crew.
The signal to Ottawa read in part,
“Submarine two hundred and seventy feet
long, able to submerge in twenty seconds.
Engine room plates marked U fifty-six.
Vessel painted black on top, grey underneath,
old paint….”
36 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
More alarmingly, the report noted that
“All papers taken.” A board of inquiry found
the schooner’s captain “gravely negligent” and
suspended his master’s licence for the rest of
the war.
Meanwhile, U-156 headed for the Grand Banks
of Newfoundland, sinking more fishing schoo-
ners and then the 4,900-tonne British tanker
Luz Blanco in a running gun battle off Halifax.
On Aug. 20, the Germans captured the
Canadian steam trawler Triumph, which
they armed with one or two 3-pounder
guns. Triumph was a familiar sight, and it
had no problem getting close. After sink-
ing four schooners off Canso, U-156 and
the hijacked Triumph headed for the fish-
ing grounds south of Newfoundland.
The Canadian navy could do little. Its ships
were too small, too slow, too poorly armed and
too few to either trap the big subs or fight them.
Evidence of that was soon clear. On Aug. 25,
one section of an RCN patrol, HMCS Hochelaga
and Trawler 22, caught sight of a schooner’s
masts falling and went to investigate: they
found U-156 lying on the surface. Instead of
attacking immediately, the Canadians ran
away. By the time the whole patrol—Cartier,
Hochelaga and two trawlers—returned to the
scene, U-156 was long gone and soon on its way
home. The captain of Hochelaga was dismissed
from the service for failing to use “his utmost
exertion to bring his ship into action.”
To provide the RCN with a safe refuge,
the Halifax fortress was fully manned until
the end of the war.
Dornfontein burned to the waterline
but was salvaged. It sailed again under the
American flag as Netherton until it was
abandoned at sea—on fire—in August 1920.
James Oliver limped for the rest of his life.
And U-156 never made it home. L
Heritage Saint John
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 PHOTO ESSAY By Stephen J. Thorne

A MONUMENTAL
DAY The unveiling of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial
in France on July 26, 1936, was witnessed by
3,000 veterans of the battle

On July 26, 1936, Canadian Expeditionary The Vimy Pilgrimage Belgium and commuted
11 years and $1.5 million Force fought together for constituted the largest in 235 buses. The three-
after construction began, the first time—and won single peacetime and-a-half week trip cost
100,000 people gathered where others could not. movement of people $160 per person (equiva-
on the slopes of Vimy Some 3,000 veterans from Canada to Europe lent to $3,000 today).
Ridge in France for the of the battle walked the to that time. Ottawa At the memorial,
unveiling of one of the land over which they had waived passport fees and Edward mingled. Military
most striking war memo- fought and 3,598 of their even issued special Vimy aircraft flew low over-
rials in all of Europe. brethren had died. This Pilgrimage passports. head, dipping their
The Canadian National time, many had their The government and wings in salute. At home,
Vimy Memorial, designed families at their sides. private sector also listening over radios in
by Toronto’s Walter “This glorious monu- provided paid leave for kitchens and sitting
Allward, stands at the ment crowning the hill participating employees. rooms, at Legion halls
crest of the ridge where of Vimy is now and for The Canadian Legion and lunch counters, the
some say the nation was all time a part of Canada, co-ordinated accommoda- country was transfixed.
born—an imposing memo- though the mortal tions and transportation. Three years later,
rial to more than 11,285 remains of Canada’s Five transatlantic liners, Canada was fighting
Canadians who died with sons lie far from home,” escorted by two Canadian another war in Europe
no known grave in France declared King Edward warships, departed and around the globe. L
during the Great War. VIII at the unveiling. Montreal on July 16 and
A monument to peace, “Their immortal memory arrived in Le Havre on
it is the centrepiece of is hallowed upon soil the 24th and 25th. The
a 91-hectare battlefield that is as surely Canada’s pilgrims were lodged in
park at the site where as any acre within her nine cities throughout
all four divisions of the nine provinces.” northern France and

Carving the stone sarcophagus for the

memorial in 1935. Designer Walter Allward
chose limestone from an ancient Roman
quarry in Seget, Croatia.
Wearing a commemorative Canadian Legion medal on his right lapel,
King Edward VIII leads Vimy Pilgrimage participants during the
unveiling of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France.

LAC/3612539; Georges Bertin Scott/CWM/19670070-014 legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 39

The columns of the Vimy Memorial (TOP) tower over
sailors marching in review shortly after the unveiling.

Edward greets Charlotte Wood of Winnipeg (BOTTOM),

Canada’s first National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother,
who lost two sons in the war. French President
Albert Lebrun looks on.
Bronze
commemorative
medallions (TOP)
were struck to
mark the occasion.

Canada Bereft
(RIGHT), the
centrepiece
of the massive
monument, was
carved from a
30-tonne block
of stone.

French artist
Georges Plasse
made drawings
of Allward’s
vision (RIGHT).

Toronto Star Photo Archive/Baldwin Collection/Toronto Public Library; Smith Archive/Alamy/2BW3J04; CWM/19680100-002;
Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau/LAC/3224327; Georges Plasse/Walter Seymour Allward/Toronto Reference Library
42 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
The terrain
(LEFT) still bears
the scars of battle.

A recruiting
poster (INSET) for
the Second World
War invokes an
image of the
memorial.

Spirits of soldiers
ascend the slope
(BELOW LEFT) in
Australian Captain
William Longstaff’s
painting “The
Ghosts of Vimy
Ridge.” Allward
said he had been
inspired by a
wartime dream
in which dead
soldiers “rose
in masses, filed
silently by and
entered the fight
to aid the living.”

The memorial
(RIGHT) is inscribed
with the names
(TOP) of 11,285
Canadians who
died with no
known grave in
France during
the Great War. It
remains a point
of pilgrimage to
this day.

R. Filipowski/CWM/19750105-001; iStock/531109315; CWM/19890275-051;

Wikimedia; Nigel Jarvis/iStock/1277880634 legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 43
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War was the most brutal era
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The cost was high, but the
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Korea: The forgotten war
Korea: The forgotten war sheds
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Victoria Cross Liberating Normandy:
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From Ypres in April 1915
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The fight for Italy
More than 92,000 Canadians
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Battle of the Atlantic
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Twenty-five great
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The Somme examines the role
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The hard-fought WW I Battle of
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More compelling stories
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Passchendaele: Canada’s
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The Canadian Corps was thrust
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craters to help Allied forces in
the Battle of Passchendaele—
Canada’s third major victory
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The Canadian Corps fought
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John McCrae—doctor, gunner
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The year 1945 started with a
massive German bomber attack on
Allied airfields. But the Allies soon
pushed back and Canadian troops
led the advance across Belgium
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endgame was at hand.
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From late 1944 to May 5, 1945,
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By July 1940, Europe had fallen under
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Canada and the
Victoria Cross
No one ever set out to earn a
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They were mostly spontaneous
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Airwomen
FEMALE PILOTS HAD
BROKEN ENDURANCE,
ALTITUDE AND SPEED
RECORDS BEFORE
THE WAR, BUT THEIR
HOPES OF A WARTIME
FLYING CAREER
WERE STOPPED
IN CANADA
BY A THICK
GLASS
CEILING

By Sharon Adams
 H
Helen Harrison was a
child when she decided
to become a pilot.
The RCAF Women’s Born in Canada in 1909
Division lines up but educated in England,
for inspection by the age of 27 she had
(ABOVE) in Halifax in earned her pilot’s licence,
1944. Recruitment qualified as a commercial
posters (RIGHT) pilot and received seaplane
helped persuade and instructor’s ratings. The
more than 17,400 Royal South African Air Force
recruits to join the offered her an instructor’s
division. Canadian course on military aircraft;
pilot Helen
while there she also earned
Harrison (PREVIOUS
PAGE) found a
an instrument flying rating.
wartime flying She became the first
career with woman in the British Empire,
the British Air it is believed, to instruct on
Transport Auxiliary. military aircraft after she was
48 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
hired to train reserve
air force pilots in
South Africa.
At the beginning
of the Second World
War, Harrison
tried to join the
Royal Air Force,
but was rejected.
She got the same reception
when she returned home in
1940 to try her luck with the
Royal Canadian Air Force.
“When I applied to the
RCAF, I was rejected because
I wore a skirt,” she said in
Lois K. Merry’s Women
Military Pilots of World
War II. “I was furious. I just
couldn’t believe it. I had
2,600 hours, an instructor’s
rating, multi-engine and
instrument endorsements,
a seaplane rating and the
experience of flying civil and
military aircraft in three
countries. Instead they took
men with 150 hours.”
Harrison then pinned her
hopes on the establishment of
a women’s auxiliary air force
that would allow women, as
in other Allied countries,
to ferry military planes
between factory airfields
and military air bases.
But when the Canadian
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
(CWAAF) was established by
order-in-council in 1941, its
function was “to release to
heavier duties those members
of the RCAF employed in
administrative, clerical and
other comparable types of
service employment.”
Things did not improve for
female pilots when CWAAF
was integrated with the
RCAF in 1942 and renamed
the Royal Canadian Air
Force (Women’s Division).
Its motto was ‘We Serve
that Men May Fly.’
Only a handful of very
determined Canadian female
pilots managed a wartime
flying career. And they had
to leave the country to do it.
During the Great
Depression, there weren’t
enough jobs to go around
and many occupations
were barred to women. The
war changed that. Women
filled civilian jobs left
vacant by men who signed
up for the services, and
the services themselves
opened to women, freeing
up servicemen for combat.
During the Second World
War, more than 17,400
recruits volunteered to
serve in the Royal Canadian
Air Force (Women’s
Division). Most joined to
serve their country, but
many joined because of the
benefits—which included
room and board—and wages,
even though early in the
war, they were only two-
thirds of men’s pay (later
boosted to four-fifths).
Initially restricted to jobs
as telephone operators,
cooks, transport drivers
and hospital workers, as the
war progressed, more and
more occupations previ-
ously considered men’s work
were opened to women.
Women became instru-
ment mechanics, parachute
riggers, air photographers,
intelligence officers, weather
observers, wireless operators,
Canada Aviation and Space Museum/CAvM6034; RAF Air Historical Branch/Wikimedia;
Glennis Boyce/The Memory Project; CWM/20090063-008; Patricia Collins (née Holden)/
The Memory Project; The Winnipeg Tribune/Newspapers.com
meteorologists,
air traffic control-
lers. In all, 69
of 102 air force
trades were open
to women—but
flying wasn’t
among them.
All the doors were
shut in female pilots’
faces, but in 1942 a cou-
ple of windows opened.
Faced with a severe
pilot shortage, in 1942 the
United States began training
licensed women pilots for
the Women Airforce Service
Pilots. Called WASPs, they
served everywhere a male
pilot would—except in com-
bat. Duties included ferrying
military aircraft, testing
overhauled planes and towing
targets for gunnery practice.
More than 25,000 women
applied, but only 1,800
were accepted and 1,074
graduated. Some applicants
were from Canada, but they
lacked a key qualification—
U.S. citizenship.
“WHEN I APPLIED TO THE
RCAF, I WAS REJECTED
BECAUSE I WORE A SKIRT.”
But Virginia Lee Warren qualified as a test pilot. Patricia Holden
was born in Canada of “I flew Harvards (from (ABOVE, at left) was
American parents and had Canada), the B-24 from delighted to dis-
learned to fly in Manitoba, the Ford Factory in Detroit, cover photography
ferrying men to a gold mine Lysanders, Piper Cubs, twin- was one of the
accessible only by air. She engine Cessnas (UC-78), occupations open
qualified for her pilot licence BT-15 (basic trainers), and a to her in the RCAF
and became a WASP in couple of flights in the B-17, Women’s Division.
The Winnipeg
1943, making the cut despite AT-7 and AT-10.”
Tribune ran a story
being two years underage In 1942, North American (TOP) when Virginia
and a quarter-inch too pilots were recruited for Warren was
short, she said in a film the British Air Transport accepted for pilot
on YouTube. During the Auxiliary (ATA), a civilian training in the U.S.
war, she ferried planes and operation that ferried more Ferry Command.
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 49
 than 300,000 military
aircraft within Great Britain
during the war. Some 1,200
pilots were recruited; 168
were women, five were
from Canada. A number of
female former ATA pilots,
including Jaye Edwards of
Lynn Valley, B.C., emigrated
here after the war.
In April 1942, Helen
Harrison became
the first female
Canadian ferry pilot
with the ATA—
known as Attagirls.
Returning from
leave in Canada, she
was one of the few
women to co-pilot
a Mitchell bomber
across the Atlantic.
“I was happy as a
LEFT TO RIGHT: Air
lark and higher than a
Transport Authority kite,” she was quoted in
pilot Jaye Edwards She Dared: True Stories of
emigrated to Heroines, Scoundrels, and
Canada following Renegades by Ed Butts.
the Second World “The most difficult part of
War. Helen the flight was using the tube
Harrison was the to go to the bathroom,” she
chief instructor at a said. “I got a little damp.”
flying school prior
Marion Powell Orr and
to the war. Pilots
Marion Orr and Violet Milstead, whose
Vi Milstead relax love of flying made them
on the wing of a fast friends, soon followed
Harvard combat Harrison. Both earned their
training aircraft. pilot’s licence in 1939.
In 1942, Orr, the second
woman in Canada to qualify
as an air traffic control
assistant, was manager
and chief flight instructor
at the St. Catharines Flying
Club in Ontario. The RCAF
turned down her application
to serve as a wartime flight
instructor, even though she
had trained military pilots as
a flight instructor at Barker
Field in Toronto. But she
was hired as a controller in
the Goderich RCAF base.
Milstead worked at a wool
shop, saving pennies for flying
50 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
lessons; she earned her com-
mercial licence in 1940 and
instructor’s rating in 1941.
By the time the ATA began
recruiting, she had amassed
about 1,000 flying hours.
Orr and Milstead both
passed flight tests adminis-
tered by the RCAF and set off
for Britain on April 19, 1943.
Not only would they do the
same job as men, but from
1943, female ATA pilots were
paid the same as the men.
Orr flew her first ATA flight
on June 2, 1943, and would
fly dozens of different aircraft
before war’s end, includ-
ing Harvards, Hurricanes,
Spitfires, Ansons, Swordfish
and Tiger Moths. She deliv-
ered the planes from factories
to bases and returned dam-
aged aircraft to repair depots.
Milstead moved quickly
up the ranks. ATA cadets
were promoted to third
officer upon completing
training; Milstead held
that rank for only six days
before being promoted to
second officer, and soon
after became a first officer.
She flew trainers, fighters,
bombers—four
dozen different
types of aircraft
in all. She was
the longest-serving
Canadian ATA pilot,
achieved the highest rank,
and flew more hours than
any other woman pilot. Just
a shade over five feet tall, she
frequently flew sitting atop
a packed parachute so she
could see out the cockpit.
ATA couldn’t train pilots
in every one of the 147 differ-
ent wartime aircraft, so the
70 most common types were
divided into six classes. Pilots
were trained on one aircraft
in each class and considered
to be qualified to fly all the
other types in the class.
Each was given a Blue
Book, a compendium of
knowledge covering every
airplane, and a blessing
when piloting an unfamiliar
aircraft for the first time.
“Good God, girl!” an
RAF pilot said to Milstead
who was about to get into a
Beaufighter night fighter for
the first time. “You can’t fly
this plane from a book!”
“I can from my book,” she
said, quoted in She Dared.
 ALL THE DOORS WERE
SHUT IN FEMALE
PILOTS’ FACES, BUT IN
1942 A COUPLE OF
WINDOWS OPENED.
Orr read the book before
her first flight in a Spitfire.
“You just studied the book,
started up and hoped for
the best.… On takeoff, I was
pressed so hard into the
seat I couldn’t move. I was
at 4,000 feet before I knew
it,” she said in a 1976 article
in Canadian Aviation.
Spitfires were her favourite
to pilot; Tiger Moths were
the trickiest of the lot. She
flew Mosquitos, Blenheims,
Beaufighters, Mitchells,
Hawker Tempests, Hellcats
and Spitfires—nearly 50
different types in all.
ATA pilots flew as many
as eight flights a day in half
a dozen different aircraft,
through fog, storms and in
CTV News; LAC/C-058286; Helen Marcelle Harrison Bristol/LAC/3644881; Toronto Aviation History
the dark, navigating by dead
reckoning to avoid the inter-
ception of radio transmis-
sions in enemy-infested skies.
ATA pilots liked to say the
acronym stood for ‘Anything
to Anywhere.’ It was danger-
ous work—174 ATA pilots, 15
of them women, were killed.
“The difference between
our training and RAF train-
ing is that we were trained to
fly not just one type of single
engine, but any type of single-
engine planes,” said Edwards
in a CBC interview in 2018.
Once she was caught in a
snowstorm and got lost in
fog. Her wings were icing
up. “Airplanes are born to
fly,” she said in a newspaper
interview in 2018. “A little
power and a little turn and
that should take us back
where we started from.”
Climbing out of a plane,
Orr often saw men pretend to
faint. Men “seemed to think
they had a monopoly on all
the air between the earth
and heaven.… I soon learned
that when a woman invades
a man’s field, she must do
the job better than a man
if she is to be successful.”
The barriers were even
higher for Elspeth Russell,
the only Canadian female
ATA pilot from Quebec. She
was determined to fly for the
ATA, even though she was
not a pilot before the war, and
civilian flying schools had
shut down for the duration.
She flew with another pilot
until she became proficient
in the air, then amassed
150 solo hours. She applied
to the ATA in 1943, and
despite her inexperience,
she was judged to be an
above-average pilot. She
too had lied about her age.
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 51

“I’D RATHER BE 2,000 FEET
UPSTAIRS, THAN EAT,
SLEEP OR GET MARRIED.”
Russell started out fer-
rying light planes, but soon
graduated to bombers. She
ferried more than 30 different
types of planes in her ATA
career, including Spitfires,
Mustangs, Hudsons, Hellcats,
Wellingtons, Mosquitos,
Beaufighters and Dakotas.
After the war, Canadian
Attagirls had to compete
for jobs with all the men
with war flying experience.
The determination that
earned them pilot careers
during the war served
them afterward as well.
Russell married fellow
ATA pilot Gerry Burnett in
1945, settling in Matane,
Que., where she flew as a
commercial pilot. The pair
formed their own airline,
Matane Air Services, in 1948.
Before they sold the company
in 1965, their fleet had grown
from a Stinson 108 and Piper
PA-12 to include a half dozen
Cessna Cranes, a de Havilland
Dragon Rapid, four
Lockheed 10s and a DC-3.
Orr also went into business
for herself.
“I had all that experience
and I knew that I couldn’t put
it to use in Canada,” she said
in Merna Forster’s 100 More
Canadian Heroines: Famous
and Forgotten Faces. She
worked for a time as a flight
instructor, then became
the first woman to own and
operate a flying club, using
her skills in aeromechan-
ics to fix her own planes.
52 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
After selling her business
in 1961, Orr became the first
woman in Canada licensed
to fly helicopters and shortly
afterward earned her heli-
copter instructor’s rating. She
was an instructor at Toronto
Airways for a decade before
she decided for the first time
to retire—but she was back in
the sky in no time, working
as a freelance instructor.
By the end of her career,
Orr had taught more than
5,000 students how to fly.
Of her 21,000 logged fly-
ing hours, 17,000 had been
spent as an instructor.
She stopped flying in 1994
and died in a vehicle collision
in 1995 in Peterborough, Ont.
Meanwhile, Orr’s pal
Milstead had become
“Canada’s only woman
bush pilot and one of the
few females in this country
to make a peacetime liv-
ing jockeying aircraft for
pay,” wrote Bruce McLeod
in “Bush Angel,” a 1948
article in Maclean’s.
“I’d rather be 2,000 feet
upstairs,” said Milstead, “than
eat, sleep or get married.”
But she did marry—a
pilot, of course. In 1947, she
and her husband moved
to Sudbury, Ont., working
as charter pilots and flight
instructors. They flew to
mining camps in all weather,
carrying workers, equipment
and supplies in Cessna and
Fairchild Husky machines.
“A mining executive who
has flown with Violet Milstead
told me, ‘She’s a natural,’”
wrote McLeod. “‘She flies a
plane like she was part of it.
I figure it’s safer sitting up
there with Vi Milstead and the
birds than it is walking across
a Sudbury intersection.’”
Milstead and her husband
worked out of Sudbury,
Windsor and the Muskoka
Lakes before a brief stint
in Indonesia, where she hit
the glass ceiling again. She
was allowed to fly in that
country, but they wouldn’t
hire a woman as an instruc-
tor. So the pair returned to
Canada when her husband’s
contract was up. But her
career as a pilot was over.
Milstead held office jobs
until she and her husband
retired in 1973, enjoying
piloting their own Piper
Cub. Milstead’s husband
died in 2000, and she fol-
lowed in 2014, aged 95.
After deactivation of the
WASPs, Warren returned
to Canada and married in
1945, giving up her flying
career. She died in 1995.
Harrison went on flying
professionally for decades.
She flew as a demonstra-
tion pilot after the war,
then worked as chief flying
instructor for a number of
flying services in British
Columbia and trained
floatplane pilots until her
retirement in 1969.
Harrison said that during
the Second World War, her
fellow female ATA pilots often
wished they could fly in com-
bat, as Russian women did.
In Canada, that was a long
time coming. Women were
accepted as pilots in the
RCAF in 1979, but it was 1987
before female fighter pilots
took the controls of combat
aircraft, at long last shat-
tering the glass ceiling. L
Alberta Aviation Museum
FLYING Even though she had trained pilots to fly,

A DESK
Margaret Littlewood (BELOW) ended up
grounded during the war, serving as
a flight simulator instructor (ABOVE).

Even though there was a short- I was qualified, and he didn’t

age of pilot instructors, female care that I was a woman.”
flight trainers were also grounded But Littlewood was destined
during the Second World War. to fly a desk during the war.
When wartime fuel rationing She became the sole female
forced civilian flight schools instructor on the Link Trainer,
to close, flight instructor a flight simulator used by the
Margaret Littlewood lost British Commonwealth Air
her job at Gillies Flying Training Plan to teach instru-
Service near Toronto. ment flying to male pilots.
She hoped to go on to The simulator turned and tilted,
train military pilots and replicating the feeling of flying.
applied to all 10 British Inside the simulator’s cockpit,
Commonwealth Air trainee pilots used an instrument
Training Plan Air panel to control the flight. Outside,
Observer Schools. Littlewood plotted courses for them,
She received nine using external controls to simulate
rejections before bad weather and emergencies.
First World War Male trainers soon stopped scoff-
flying ace Wilfrid ing as she calmly taught student
(Wop) May hired pilots how to regain control after
her at No. 2 Air they had gotten into trouble in
Observer School the simulator. She logged 1,200
in Edmonton. instruction hours with 150 students
“He was not a in Edmonton and at RAF Ferry
man to dilly-dally Command Centre in Dorval, Que.
with problems,” After the war, Littlewood earned
Littlewood is quoted commercial pilot licences, but
on the Edmonton ended her flying career in 1954.
City As Museum She worked for the federal transport
Project website. ministry until she retired in 1980.
“He thought She died in 2012, aged 96.

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 53

 FACE TO FACE
It was a battle that should
never have occurred.
There was no sound
military reason for a British attack
on the Somme at a location of no
military importance. The British
were unprepared for a massive
summer assault and would have
preferred to wait until the fall.
The terrain favoured the
defender, who was exceptionally
well-prepared.
The British soldiers were
largely raw volunteers. Their ar-
tillery support was inadequate
and lifted forward too soon.
The detonation of mines shortly
before zero hour alerted the
Germans and allowed them to man
their defences. The first assault be-
gan at 7:30 a.m., when the defend-
ers could clearly see the attackers.
There were a staggering 30,000
casualties within the opening hour,
but medical facilities had been
told to anticipate only 10,000 a
day. Stretcher-bearers were over-
whelmed by the massive numbers
of dying and wounded soldiers
strewn across the battlefield,
mixed in with those already dead.
By now it was obvious to
commanders at all levels that
the battle was going horribly
wrong. There was certainly
enough time to cancel the opera-
tion, but that did not happen.
Instead, the rigidity of British
generalship came to the fore. One
54 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
Was the Newfoundland
Regiment sacrificed at
Beaumont-Hamel?
John Boileau says YES
of the worst mistakes a military
commander can make is to re-
inforce failure. And that is exactly
what happened that tragic day.
By continuing the attack,
another 28,000 casualties oc-
curred by nightfall. Among
the fresh attackers were al-
most 800 Newfoundlanders.
Additionally, several tacti-
cal errors directly affected
the Newfoundland Regiment.
After the first attack, Major-
General Beauvoir De Lisle, com-
mander of the 29th Division,
misconstrued German white
flares to his right as a signal for
the capture of the first objec-
tive. To the Germans, it meant
their artillery was falling short.
THE
NEWFOUNDLAND
REGIMENT SIMPLY
CEASED TO EXIST.
De Lisle thought he needed to
reinforce success and promptly
ordered his 88th Brigade, which
included the Newfoundlanders,
to advance. If he had taken the
time to confirm the signal, he
would have known not to attack.
British Army’s 1st Battalion
Essex Regiment was ordered to
attack on the Newfoundlanders’
right. But no liaison took place
between the Newfoundlanders
and the Essex to co-ordinate
their movements. As a result,
the Newfoundland Regiment
became the only unit mov-
ing forward on the Beaumont-
Hamel sector of the battlefield.
When the Newfoundlanders
tried to advance, they discovered
the communication trenches
leading to the front line blocked
by dead and wounded soldiers
from the earlier assault. This
forced the Newfoundlanders to
climb out of the trenches almost
300 metres short of their front line
and move down an open slope.
Many were killed or wound-
ed before they reached the
front line. Others died as
they clustered to get through
gaps in their own wire.
In about 30 minutes, the
Newfoundland Regiment simply
ceased to exist. In the words of
Martin Middlebrook, author of
the seminal work The First Day
on the Somme, “Rarely can a bat-
talion have been so completely
smashed in such a short time.”
More than 700 Newfound-
landers were casualties,
needlessly sacrificed on the
altar of British inflexibil-
ity and incompetence. L

I t’s a tough assignment
when you’re asked to defend
the indefensible, especially
without sounding disrespect-
ful to those poor soldiers who
were ordered over the top at
the Somme on July 1, 1916.
The question implies that
only the Newfoundlanders
were sacrificed.
But the Newfoundlanders were
no more or less sacrificed than the
nearly 50,000 other British and
Empire soldiers killed or wounded
that day. Given the events of that
morning, the intransigence of their
commanders and the military mo-
res of the day, they had to proceed.
They were, quite simply, in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
The Newfoundland Regiment
was in the third wave at
Beaumont-Hamel. In typical First
World War fashion, they were told
to attack even though two previ-
ous waves of attackers had been all
but stopped dead in their tracks.
Almost 800 Newfoundlanders
went into battle: 386 were
wounded; 324 killed; 68 an-
swered roll call the next morn-
ing. In all, 19,240 British and
Empire soldiers died that day;
almost 40,000 were wounded.
It’s still the bloodiest day in
British army history.
Thirteen British and six French
divisions—more than 120,000
men—launched the Somme
Illustrations by Joel Kimmel
JOHN BOILEAU is a retired army
colonel and the author of hundreds
of articles and 14 books on Canadian
military history, including Too Young
to Die: Canada’s Boy Soldiers,
Sailors and Airmen in the Second
World War. He lives near Halifax.
Stephen J. Thorne says NO
offensive across 24 kilometres of
front. Artillery, they would learn,
had been largely ineffectual.
North of the Albert-Bapaume
road, the advance was practically
over before it began. The Loyal
North Lancashire Regiment alone
had 303 men killed. The newly
formed New Zealand Division sent
18,000 men into action. It lost
6,000 wounded and more than
2,100 killed in the first month.
GERMAN SIGNAL
ROCKETS WERE
MISTAKEN FOR
SUCCESS FLARES.
Like the Newfoundland
Regiment, they suffered stagger-
ing losses because the offensive
was ill-conceived, poorly planned
and badly executed. Had it worked
as intended, the war might have
ended sooner and millions of
lives might, in the long run, have
been saved. It was not to be.
The losses were staggering. The
few Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
who made it through the German
wire to the right found them-
selves trapped. The 2nd South
Wales Borderers on the left were
annihilated in 15 minutes.
STEPHEN J. THORNE
is an award-winning journalist,
editor and photographer.
He has reported on the
downfall of South African
apartheid and from war fronts
in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
The two battalions of the
86th Brigade followed, cross-
ing their front line just before
8 a.m. Like the dead and wounded
who lay piled before them, they
were cut down en masse.
British communications were
abysmal. Front-line command-
ers wanted a pause to resume the
bombardment. But German signal
rockets were mistaken for suc-
cess flares. The third wave went
out, and many died in the effort.
At 10:05 a.m., Beaumont-Hamel
was paused. It would fall to the
51st Highland Division on Nov. 13.
Like most officers of the day,
Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Hadow,
the unpopular British army officer
commanding the Newfoundlanders,
and his boss, Sir Douglas Haig, the
architect of the whole sorry affair,
were products of their time—tradi-
tional, unyielding and slow to grasp
the new industrialized warfare.
Some 1.2 million Allied troops
were killed or wounded in 141 days
of fighting at the Somme. Every
single one was sacrificed, along
with every other soldier who
died in every other battle of a
criminally wasteful war. L
> To voice your opinion
on this question, go to
www.legionmagazine.com/
FaceToFace
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 55
 IN THE
NEWS
56 VETERANS’ HOUSE
OPENS IN OTTAWA
By Stephen J. Thorne

57 DEC FOCUSES
ON SUPPORT
TO BRANCHES
By Eric Harris

60 DOMINION
CONVENTION
IN AUGUST
TO BE VIRTUAL

60 VALOUR GAMES
SET FOR 2022
By Stephen J. Thorne

61 SAJJAN ANNOUNCES
INDEPENDENT SEXUAL
MISCONDUCT REVIEW
By Sharon Adams Veterans’ House
62 ONE DEAD IN
SNOWBIRD CRASH
By Sharon Adams
opens in Ottawa
62 LEGION NATIONAL By Stephen J. Thorne
FOUNDATION
DISBURSES OVER
$350,000 TO
VETERANS’ GROUPS
A new 40-unit veterans’
housing facility has
opened at the former Canadian
Forces Base Rockcliffe in Ottawa,
and one less on the street gives
you a warm and fuzzy feeling.”
The Royal Canadian Legion’s
Ontario Command and District G
63 PROJECT LAUNCHED the first of what its builders hope of Ontario Command each donated
TO HONOUR MÉTIS
will be many across Canada. $100,000 to the project. Half
VETERANS
Six years in the making, the money is designated for peer-
By Sharon Adams
Veterans’ House is a project of support initiatives. Ontario Legion
the Ottawa-based Multifaith branches and other organizations
64 UNFORGETTABLE IAN
Housing Initiative charity, across the province provided
TELLS THE STORY OF
A SOLDIER’S BATTLE which plans to build similar additional donations. The Legion
WITH DEMENTIA facilities in other cities. National Foundation has pledged
By Stephen J. Thorne It is located in the Andy $200,000 to the facility.
Carswell Building, named for Prior to the opening, Legion
65 VETERAN SUPPORT a former Royal Canadian Air volunteers in Aurora, Ont.,
GROUPS RECEIVE Force pilot. The facility includes helped ship 40 “apartment kits”
$4 MILLION nine accessible apartments filled with housing necessities
IN FUNDING for those with disabilities. like kitchenware and bedding.
By Sharon Adams “I’m over the moon!” said an Ontario Command also pro-
emotional Dave Gordon, chair of vided 40 mattresses and a
66 SERVING YOU Ontario Command’s Provincial TV for the common room.
Homeless Veterans Program. “One A Legion committee will help
67 OBITUARIES homeless veteran is one too many, residents with other needs.

56 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com Ontario Command

Peer-support staff will be in the
building during the day to help
IN THE
residents navigate their new
lives, including helping them
NEWS
to fill out applications for assis-
tance from Veterans Affairs
Canada. Job recruiters will share
employment opportunities.
Homeless veterans have made
up about 8.5 per cent of Ottawa’s
homeless shelter clients in recent
years. The new building was to
house 16 residents but, as esti-
mates of the number of homeless
veterans grew, the design was
expanded to house two dozen,
then 30, then 35. The project was
capped at 40 in order to main-
tain the feeling of community.
The new residence includes
DEC focuses on
support to branches
At its meeting via
video conference on
April 24-25, Dominion Executive
Council (DEC) considered the many
impacts of COVID-19 on The Royal
Canadian Legion in recent months.
A common theme through the
meeting was how the Legion has
responded to the pandemic and its
plans for a post-pandemic future.
“A top priority of the RCL in the
past year has been to help many
branches, in serious financial dif-
ficulty because of the lockdowns,
avoid permanent closure,” said
Grand President Larry Murray.
“Dominion Command initially
provided relief using national
reserves to the extent feasible and
then successfully sought assistance
from government for the first time
PEER-SUPPORT STAFF WILL BE IN
THE BUILDING DURING THE DAY
TO HELP RESIDENTS NAVIGATE
THEIR NEW LIVES.
quiet indoor spaces and calming
gardens with winding paths, water
features and an area for veterans
to walk service dogs. There are
indoor and outdoor exercise facili-
ties, individual rooms for when
residents want privacy and com-
munal spaces for socializing.
Ottawa Salus, which provides
affordable housing and services
By Eric Harris
“BRANCHES
STEPPED UP TO
THE PLATE TO
OFFER THEIR
SPACES FOR
VACCINATION
AND TESTING.”
in the Legion’s nearly 100-year
history. The support focused
strictly on branch survival.”
“We have managed to quickly
and efficiently ensure the branches
applying for federal support have
received financial help,” said
Dominion President Tom Irvine.
to adults with serious mental ill-
ness, is managing the project’s
in-house mental-health support.
Other partners and sharehold-
ers include Veterans Affairs
Canada, Soldiers Helping Soldiers,
True Patriot Love, Helmets to
Hardhats, Support Our Troops
and the Canadian Forces Morale
and Welfare Services. L
“Branches stepped up to the plate
to offer their spaces for vaccina-
tion and testing. And branches
have continued to innovate to offer
services, invite and renew mem-
bers, and promote remembrance.”
In April 2020, DEC announced
it would release up to $3 million
in Branch Emergency Funds
from the national reserves to
help branches struggling finan-
cially during the pandemic. Almost
$2.5 million in non-repayable
grants had been disbursed to date.
On Nov. 10, 2020, Veterans
Affairs Canada announced the
$20-million Veterans Organizations
Emergency Support Fund. The RCL
was allocated $14 million to distrib-
ute to Legion branches struggling
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 57
 with operational costs as a direct
result of COVID-19. The funds
were disbursed on Dec. 21 ($7.2
million to 701 branches), March 1
($2.8 million to 282 branches)
and May 7 (remaining funds to
885 branches). Provincial com-
mand offices were eligible to apply
for the third phase of the fund.
Dominion Treasurer Mark
Barham reported that Dominion
Command ended 2020 with an
operating surplus of $1,310,917.
(The 2019 surplus was $135,077.)
Investment returns were $403,195
in 2020, $138,507 less than bud-
geted. Market volatility and the
drawdown of reserve funds for
the $3 million Branch Emergency
Fund explain the variance. The
Supply Department finished
the year with $4,007,152 in sales,
surpassing revenue expecta-
tions by $1.4 million. The sale
of Legion face masks brought
in the majority of this surplus.
RCL committee expenses were
90 per cent below budget, due to
travel and event cancellations:
member sports were $347,991
under budget and track and field
was $259,099 under budget.
Member Services expenses
exceeded budget by $60,240,
due largely to increases in credit
card and mail processing fees and
extended hours of operation.
DEC gave the go-ahead to produce
an electronic membership card,
downloadable to mobile devices,
to complement the current plastic
membership card and stickers.
“The pandemic demonstrated
we need new methods to distrib-
ute physical cards and stickers,”
said Bruce Julian, chair of the
Membership Committee. “An
e-card would modernize and
reduce costs. It is carried on a
smart phone app [a “wallet”] that
securely holds card information.”
Following its strategic plan
to update the membership
experience, Member Services
58 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
THE 2021
DOMINION
CONVENTION ON
AUG. 13-15 WILL
BE CONDUCTED
VIRTUALLY.
has increased branch online par-
ticipation, improved the online
member-renewal process, and
allowed new members to join local
branches online. In 2020, 76 per cent
of memberships were processed
online, either by branches or by
members themselves. And 6,454
members joined online, compared
to 1,456 in 2019.
In the first quarter of 2020,
Legion membership was increas-
ing by two per cent year-over-year,
Julian reported, but the pandemic
put the brakes on that. Total
paid membership in 2020 was
248,427, down by 11,770 members
(3.5 per cent) compared to 2019.
In view of membership
declines due to the pandemic,
said Julian, the RCL will have
to increase its marketing efforts
post-pandemic. To date, the 2021
membership in the Legion was
down 26,000 year-over-year.
To build momentum and posi-
tion the Legion for recovery, an
additional $150,000 will be spent
on marketing and membership
initiatives, including paid social
media ads targeting new members,
a direct-mail campaign to renew
existing members and telemarket-
ing calls to non-renewed members.
Poppy and Remembrance
Committee chair Angus Stanfield
brought forward an action
item to increase the number
of “Pay Tribute” tap-enabled
donation boxes available in 2021.
In last year’s pilot project, 250
boxes were placed in HSBC banks
and some Legion branches in
Ontario. HSBC pays for the boxes.
The goal for 2021 is 2,000.
Stanfield also moved that
$599,700 over three years be
approved to support the Heroes
in Mind Advocacy and Research
Consortium, which supports
research to benefit the health and
well-being of Canadian military,
veterans, public safety personnel
and their families. Spearheaded
by the University of Alberta
Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine,
partners include the Legion’s
Alberta-Northwest Territories
Command, the Northern Alberta
Institute of Technology and
other like-minded institutions.
The motion was approved.
Also approved was $25,000
to Heroes Mending on the
Fly Canada, $15,000 to Ways
to Wellbeing, and $6,000 to
11 Days of Remembrance.
Sports Committee chair Brian
Weaver reported on the 2022 and
2023 schedules for member sports
championships (cribbage, darts
and eight ball) and the Legion
National Youth Track and Field
Championships. The commit-
tee is seeking branches to host
cribbage and darts in 2023.
Convention Committee chair
Irvine reported that DEC decided
on March 31 that the 2021 dominion
convention on Aug. 13-15 will be
conducted virtually (see page 60).
This triggered the cancellation of
reservations for the convention
centre and hotel in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon will be offered the
opportunity to host the conven-
tion in 2028. Saint John, N.B.,
is scheduled to host in 2024
and Winnipeg in 2026.
Plans are underway for the
Legion’s 100th anniversary
program from June 2025
to July 2026, reported
Owen Parkhouse, chair of
the Centenary Committee.
A special logo (right)
has been designed
IN THE
and approved by DEC,
NEWS
and the following
institutions have been
contacted: Canadian
Heraldic Authority for
a coat of arms; Royal
Canadian Mint for a
centenary general circulation
coin; Canada Post for a
centenary commemorative stamp;
and the National Film Board for a
documentary on 100 years of the
Legion. More planning committee
members—at least one member per
command—are being recruited.
Dave Flannigan, chair of the
Legion National Foundation
(LNF), reported that more than
$350,000 is being disbursed in
2021 to charitable organizations
supporting veterans and their
families (see page 62). The LNF
board approved a fundraising
strategy that includes a direct-
mail campaign, online appeals, a
monthly giving program and legacy
giving. Its corporate campaign—
for national and local businesses
alike—is expanding. The Digital
Poppy and Remembrance
Island campaigns will run from
Oct. 29 to Nov. 11, 2021.
“2020 MADE IT
CLEAR HOW
RESILIENT
MEMBERS ARE.”
Reports by provincial command
presidents revealed a common
theme: despite the pandemic,
the nationwide work of the Legion
carries on.
“2020 made it clear how resilient
members are,” said John Mahon of
Alberta-NWT. “We have strength
The Royal Canadian Legion
in numbers, and our
priority has been
taking care of veterans
and the homeless.”
Valerie MacGregor
of B.C./Yukon
reported that the
command’s flagship
project, Legion Veterans Village,
a 20-storey mixed-use build-
ing in North Surrey, B.C., is on
schedule. It will include a centre
of excellence on mental health for
veterans and first responders, a
rehabilitation and health centre,
housing units and commercial
space. The first of two phases is
due for completion in late 2022.
Garry Pond of Ontario noted that
the 40-apartment Veterans’ House
in Ottawa opened its doors to its first
residents in February (see page 56).
Pond cautioned that with
Article III complaints in abey-
ance, it has been “quite stressful,
especially to those who have pro-
ceedings hanging over their future.”
Article III outlines the Legion’s
complaints and appeals process.
In March 2020, DEC decided all
current and new complaints and
appeals would be held in abeyance
for the duration of the pandemic.
Other presidents echoed the
point. “We have lots of Article IIIs,
and people are just burnt out,”
said Marion Fryday-Cook of
Nova Scotia/Nunavut. “These are
difficult times,” said MacGregor,
“and we need to be calm, kind,
and take care of one another.”
Under new business, Nathan
Lehr motioned for Dominion
Command to produce a letter
of support for a Newfoundland
and Labrador Command initia-
tive to repatriate the remains of
an unknown soldier from the
First World War, to be interred
at the 100th anniversary rededi-
cation of the Newfoundland
National War Memorial in
St. John’s on July 1, 2024.
“I support this initiative 100 per
cent,” said Dominion Immediate
Past President Dave Flannigan.
The rest of the council agreed.
The meeting concluded with
a special presentation by Irvine.
Michael Cook, David Sinclair
and Gerry Vowles—all past
command presidents—were
presented with the President’s
Citation (above) in honour of
their commitment and outstand-
ing service as trustees of B.C./
Yukon Command in 2017-19. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 59
 Dominion convention
in August to be virtual
O riginally planned to
take place in Saskatoon,
The Royal Canadian Legion’s
48th dominion convention will
be conducted by video conference
on Aug. 13-15 this year.
The decision was based on the
safety of Legion members, predic-
tive factors associated with the
pandemic and restrictions imposed
on the convention facilities, said
Steven Clark, executive direc-
tor of National Headquarters.
Delegates from Legion com-
mands, sections and branches
will convene online to make
policy decisions and set the future
course of the organization.
This may pose a challenge to
some, but current technology should
ease the process, said Clark. The
internet browser Google Chrome
will be used and a minimum
THE ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION’S
48TH DOMINION CONVENTION
WILL BE CONDUCTED
BY VIDEO CONFERENCE.
Valour Games set for 2022
C anada’s first
Valour Games, a
homegrown project created
after Toronto hosted the 2017
Invictus Games for wounded
veterans and service members,
are set to launch in Ottawa in
60 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
5 megabits-per-second internet
download speed is required.
The 14-page convention call
was distributed on May 5 and
registration through provincial
commands opened immediately.
To register and participate in the
online convention, each delegate
has to provide a unique and cor-
rect e-mail address to be the main
point of contact for registration
and access to the convention site.
The convention call outlines
constitutional requirements for
how branches appoint accred-
ited delegates (one per 100 voting
members, essentially). Delegates
must be members in good stand-
ing and be paid up to Dec. 31,
2021. For each accredited delegate,
branches must complete a creden-
tial certificate (available at www.
legion.ca/2021convention) and
By Stephen J. Thorne
November 2022. The games
are to be held every two years
in select Canadian cities. Some
500 competitors are expected.
The weeklong competition is
to feature 10 adaptive sports,
including archery, powerlifting,
forward it to provincial command.
Provincial commands need to pro-
vide delegate lists to the Convention
Credentials Committee by July 5.
Five online events are sched-
uled for Aug. 13: one for delegate
familiarization training and four
workshops. The convention
opening ceremony is on Aug. 14,
followed immediately by busi-
ness sessions, which continue
the next day. The installation of
officers and closing ceremonies
take place after the close of busi-
ness on the afternoon of Aug. 15.
The convention call includes
more details on the registration
process, voting and proxies, resolu-
tions, questions (in writing only)
on reports and resolutions, can-
didates for office and significant
timings. A detailed schedule of the
three-day agenda is also included.
Fees are $30 for delegates and
$10 for observers.
For more information, go to
the convention home page at
www.legion.ca/2021convention,
e-mail Convention2021@legion.ca
or phone 1-855-330-3344. L
wheelchair tennis, rugby
and basketball.
“Canada’s Valour Games are
much more than elite competi-
tion—they are a vital part of
the rehabilitation journey for
Canada’s ill and injured warriors,”
reads the Valour Games’ web-
site. “Many Canadians may not
IN THE
know the extent of the physical
NEWS
and emotional trauma service
members undergo while serving
our country, or the extraordinary
burdens placed on their families.
“Canada’s Valour Games hon-
ours our service members and
their families by showcasing
their resilience and strength
through competitive sports. The
Games give Canadians an oppor-
tunity to celebrate, support and
show their gratitude to military
families across the country.”
Under the slogan Empathy to
Empowerment, the Paralympics-
style competition aims to spread
awareness, support veterans and
help them address their wounds,
both mental and physical.
Sajjan announces
independent sexual
misconduct review
An independent
external
review of harassment and sexual
misconduct in the Department of
National Defence and the Canadian
Armed Forces has been announced.
“It is clear we have not lived up
to our responsibility to protect
members from harassment and
misconduct,” National Defence
Minister Harjit Sajjan said in
the announcement in April. The
review is an initial step in building
a system that better responds to
complainants while holding per-
petrators to account, he added.
THE ONTARIO
GOVERNMENT
HAS COMMITTED
$3 MILLION IN
INVICTUS GAMES
REVENUE TO
THE PROJECT.
By Sharon Adams
Former Supreme Court jus-
tice Louise Arbour will head the
review, which will recommend
how an independent reporting
system, free from the chain of
command, can be established for
those affected by misconduct.
In addition to recommend-
ing changes that can be made as
the review progresses, Arbour is
being asked to identify systemic
issues and policies and practices
in the military that contribute
to the current culture and how to
go about changing that culture.
The review follows a commitment
The Ontario government has
committed $3 million in Invictus
Games revenue to the project.
Lisa MacLeod, the province’s
minister of heritage, sport, tour-
ism and culture industries,
said the games are designed
to demonstrate the “trans-
formative power of sport” for
wounded veterans in the midst
of recovery and rehabilitation.
The biennial Invictus Games
were created by Prince Harry,
himself an Afghanistan war vet-
eran, to help wounded veterans
and service members along their
respective roads to recovery.
The inspiring Toronto event
drew some 550 athletes from
17 countries. They participated in
a dozen adaptive sports, watched
by 75,000 spectators. L
of $236 million by the federal
government for DND, CAF and
Veterans Affairs Canada to use in
developing a peer-support program
for those who have been harmed
by sexual misconduct in connec-
tion with their military service.
“We are committed to making
a lasting change, one that will see
the Canadian Armed Forces and
the Department of National
Defence shed the toxic and out-
dated values, practices and policies
that have harmed our people.
Today’s steps are the beginning
of that,” said Sajjan. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 61
 One dead in
Snowbird crash
By Sharon Adams
A small bird caused
the crash of a Royal
Canadian Air Force Snowbird
in 2020 which claimed one life.
The Snowbirds had been doing
flyovers of Canadian communities
in a show of support for front-
line COVID-19 workers across
the country. They were leaving
Kamloops for Comox, B.C., on
May 17. Two CT-114 Tutor air-
craft took off, but one went into
Legion National Foundation
disburses over $350,000
to veterans’ groups
T he Legion National
Foundation board has
agreed to disburse more than
$350,000 in donations to
support programs for veterans,
service members and youth
across the country.
“This is the first year significant
62 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
a steep nosedive at low altitude.
Aboard were pilot Captain
Richard MacDougall and public
affairs officer Captain Jennifer
Casey, who is believed to have
become briefly entangled with
her ejection seat and whose
parachute failed to fully open.
The aircraft crashed into a
neighbourhood about two kilo-
metres from the airfield. No
one on the ground was injured,
donations have come in,” said
Sam Laprade, the foundation’s
development director. The foun-
dation has raised about a million
dollars by hosting the digital poppy
campaign and through donations
from individuals and corporations.
The funds will be used to support
but Casey was killed and
MacDougall seriously injured.
The investigation into the crash
showed one small bird went into
the engine, causing a compressor
stall and loss of thrust. This was
followed by an aerodynamic stall.
“Snowbird 11’s power loss
could not have come at a worse
time—low altitude, low airspeed,
proximity to another aircraft and
in the vicinity of a built-up area,”
said Colonel John Alexander,
RCAF director of flight safety.
The investigation report recom-
mends more training to prepare
aircrew for low-level engine failure
after takeoff, clarifying direc-
tives for commands to eject over
populated areas and research
to stabilize ejection seats. L
projects across the country.
Veterans’ House, a new facility
that provides supportive hous-
ing and rehabilitation services
for 40 veterans in Ottawa, will
receive $200,000. Victoria’s
Cockrell House, which provides
shelter, food and support services
iStock/458324721
to homeless and under-housed
veterans, will receive $100,000.
IN THE
The Perley and Rideau Veterans’
NEWS
Health Centre in Ottawa will
receive $25,000 for support of
aging veterans.
Sea, land and air cadets across
the country will receive a total of
$15,000 for bursaries. The Salvation
Army in Yellowknife, Ridgewood
Veterans Comfort Fund in
“VETERANS STILL NEED HELP, AND
A LOT OF VETERANS ARE SUFFERING
MORE THROUGH COVID.”
Project launched to
honour Métis veterans
T he Métis National
Council has launched
the Métis Veterans Legacy
Commemorative Program and
wants to hear from communities
and individuals seeking funding for
local commemorative initiatives.
“As a nation, we will finally
tell the stories of the sacri-
fices made by our veterans, by
appropriately and respectfully
recognizing the losses, pain and
anguish war leaves behind,” David
Chartrand, vice-president of the
Métis National Council, said in
the February announcement.
Up to $200,000 is available for
creating monuments and space for
commemoration, hosting ceremo-
nies and educational initiatives.
The program’s objective is “to
leave a strong, honest portrayal
Saint John, N.B., and Caribou
Memorial Veterans Pavilion in
St. John’s will receive $10,000 each.
The Legion National Foundation
was established in 2018 to provide
a vehicle for donors interested
in supporting projects at the
national level. A registered char-
ity, the foundation can issue tax
receipts for donations, while The
Royal Canadian Legion cannot.
By Sharon Adams
and a legacy to the thousands
of Métis men and women who
fought for Canada, but who
were forgotten when they came
home,” said Chartrand, adding
that many did not return.
The program will also promote
awareness of Métis veterans’
achievements and sacrifices among
the broader Canadian public.
It is the third and final phase of
a $30-million agreement signed
in 2019 to honour Métis veterans
of the Second World War, which
included an apology from the
Government of Canada for wrongs
experienced on their return.
“We regret that our country has
taken three-quarters of a century to
address the concerns of Métis veter-
ans who joined Canada’s call to arms
to enter the Second World War,”
The foundation supports proj-
ects that promote the mental and
physical well-being of military
and RCMP personnel, as well as
veteran housing initiatives and
bursaries for universities, colleges,
technical schools and vocational
trade schools. It also supports
pilgrimages of remembrance and
other commemorative programs.
Donations to the foundation are
up despite—or perhaps because
of—the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Veterans still need help, and a
lot of veterans are suffering more
through COVID,” said Laprade.
“People who support veterans are
incredibly loyal and they did not
let COVID stop them at all.” L
Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence
MacAulay said in the apology.
“Many experienced prejudice, pov-
erty and a relative lack of pre-war
education, vocational skills and
work experiences. We apologize that
the benefits offered to veterans after
the war were not well designed to
meet Métis veterans’ specific needs.”
Under the first phase of the agree-
ment, dozens of living veterans
have been identified to receive
$20,000 compensation and rec-
ognition payments. In the second
phase, payments are being made
to spouses and common-law part-
ners of deceased Second World
War Métis veterans. If the spouse
or common-law partner has died,
surviving children of a Métis vet-
eran who died after January 2016
are entitled to the payment. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 63
 Unforgettable Ian tells
the story of a soldier’s
battle with dementia
By Stephen J. Thorne

U nforgettable Ian
is a bittersweet
mini-documentary about
a dementia-sufferer, Ian
Doig; his devoted wife
Kathie Reid; and the
front-line workers who
care for him. Written and
directed by Rhiana Ehara,
the film tells the story
of the long-retired army
officer and his struggles
with aging, change and
short-term memory loss.
Doig is an endearing
subject—an accomplished
man forced to confront
the vulnerabilities and
consequences that the
years have wrought. That he
does so with such grace, humour
Retired soldier Ian Doig at
and fortitude is inspiring. Revera Stoneridge Manor
He came to the Revera in Carleton Place, Ont.,
Stoneridge Manor long-term joined by wife Kathie Reid
care home in Carleton Place, (MIDDLE) and care workers.
Ont., three years ago after a Doig is one of 747,000
bad fall. As is often the case, it Canadians who suffer
was a difficult transition for all from dementia.
involved. Doig was subsequently
diagnosed with dementia.
“I don’t know why I’m here
but I am and so I just try to
make the best of it,” said Doig. at Stoneridge con-
“And that usually involves tracted the virus in
going around with a smile on the spring of 2020; six
my face and a cheerful word.” died. Residents were
More than that, however, the forced into isolation.
80-something was—at the time “Well, you can’t
the film was made last year—an fight it,” said Doig.
advocate for his fellow residents, “I’ve been chasing
the vice-president of the residents’ he remained ever the jokester. around the world. I’ve been an
council and, despite his desire “City morgue,” he answered as army officer. I’ve been a diplomat.
to go home, an enthusiastic par- he picked up a phone call from his I’ve been all of these things and
ticipant in multiple activities and wife during a 2020 COVID-19 lock- all the rest of it…. I’ve handled all
educational talks. All the while, down. Fifty-three of 60 residents kinds of difficulties, but never this.”

64 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com Revera Stoneridge Manor

 More than 747,000 Canadians
live with dementia, and the num-
IN THE
bers are rising. Currently, about one
NEWS
in four Canadians over 85 suffer
with dementia, and the seniors
population will increase by 68 per
cent over the next two decades.
The disease takes an awful toll,
not just on those who suffer from
it, but on those around them.
As inspiring as Doig is, his caring
wife of more than 20 years may be
even more so. Kathie Reid is a stal-
wart advocate for her husband—a
loving partner who was put in the
impossible position of allowing
Veteran support groups
receive $4 million in funding
V eterans Affairs Canada
has awarded $4 million
in funding to 23 organizations
across the country serving
veterans and their families.
“We’re supporting some
remarkable organizations doing
vitally important work on behalf
of veterans and their families,”
said Minister of Veterans Affairs
Lawrence MacAulay in the March
announcement. Since 2018, the
Veteran and Family Well-Being
Fund has provided support to
60 organizations involved in
research and development of
innovative community-based
services for veterans.
This year’s funding will help
provide wellness programs for
female veterans, support the
social and emotional well-being
of all veterans, their families and
caregivers, develop programs for
Indigenous veterans, and tackle
homelessness among veterans.
“I’VE HANDLED ALL KINDS OF
DIFFICULTIES, BUT NEVER THIS.”
the man she loves to be placed in a
care facility for the rest of his days.
“I find it really hard to accept the
fact that he should be here,” she
said. She expects his dementia will
eventually progress to the point
he will no longer recognize her.
By Sharon Adams
The Veteran Resource Guide
for Canadian Armed Forces
members leaving the military—
produced by the Trenton, Ont.,
Branch of The Royal Canadian
Legion—will include informa-
tion on finding a doctor, mental
health contacts, opportunities for
socializing in the community and
places where veterans gather.
Support for female veterans
includes a women’s-only Camp
Aftermath for acquiring skills for
long-term management of opera-
tional stress injuries and PTSD;
a Canadian Women’s Wellness
Initiative in Seabright, N.S., teach-
ing transcendental meditation
as stress management; and The
Pepper Pod, a retreat for female
veterans in Gatineau, Que.
Support for homeless veterans
includes hiring a national co-
ordinator for the Homes for Heroes
Foundation, which plans to build
veterans villages in Kingston, Ont.,
“That will be awful,” said Reid.
“For me. But it won’t be awful
for him.”
Unforgettable Ian was scheduled
to be released on June 23 and will
be available for viewing online
at www.reveraliving.com. L
Winnipeg, Edmonton and
Surrey, B.C.; the Built for Zero
project of the Canadian Alliance
to End Homelessness; temporary
housing and case management
services of Fredericton Homeless
Shelters; Les Sentinelles dans la
communauté program of the Old
Brewery Mission in Montreal;
and the Veterans Emergency
Transition Services Canada’s
Guitars for Vets program.
Employment initatives include
development of hiring modules by
Toronto-based Challenge Factory to
help small and medium-sized busi-
nesses hire veterans and Helmets
to Hardhats Canada’s appren-
ticeship and hiring programs.
Indigenous veterans’ fund-
ing includes new Turtle Island
programs at Mi’kmaq Ksalsuti
Wellness Resources, in partnership
with the Gagetown Military Family
Resource Centre in Oromocto,
N.B., and for teams of Indigenous
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 65

“WE’RE SUPPORTING SOME REMARKABLE
ORGANIZATIONS DOING VITALLY
IMPORTANT WORK ON BEHALF OF
VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES.”
researchers for the Saskatchewan
First Nations Veteran’s Association.
Wellness programs funded
include research into veterans’
mental health at the Lawson Health
Research Institute in London, Ont.;
SERVING SERVING YOU is written by Legion command service officers. To reach a service officer, call toll-free
YOU 1-877-534-4666, or consult a command website. For years of archives, visit www.legionmagazine.com
Advice for veterans
living outside Canada
A re you a veteran
living outside Canada
and in the process of applying
to Veterans Affairs Canada
for disability benefits?
It is important to know that
when you submit a disabil-
ity application, VAC requires
a confirmed diagnosis from a
medical professional to accom-
pany your application. The
diagnosis is to be included in the
medical questionnaire that VAC
will send to you for the medi-
cal professional to complete.
Are you concerned who will
pay for the medical examina-
tion to complete the medical
questionnaire to obtain a current
diagnosis for your application?
Don’t be concerned. When
you apply to VAC for disabil-
ity benefits or go through The
Royal Canadian Legion for
assistance, your application pack-
age will include a letter for your
66 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
two PTSD studies, one examining
the impact of sexual misconduct
and the other, the impact of
witnessing recruitment of child
soldiers; a veterans’ chat line run
by the Mood Disorders Society of
medical professional advising
of the requirements to complete
the medical questionnaire.
The information from VAC will
specifically note whether any
additional medical evidence is
required, such as X-rays, MRIs or
an audiogram/tinnitus report.
The invoice for completing
the medical questionnaire and
accompanying documents, if
applicable, will be paid by VAC for
the fees associated with medical
exams/assessments support-
ing your disability application.
Note that if a health professional
recommends additional test-
ing that VAC did not specifically
request (for example, an MRI),
VAC will not cover the costs.
You do not need pre-approval
from VAC to have this question-
naire completed, and VAC will
not pay in advance. VAC will only
pay the invoice when the medical
questionnaire is completed and
Canada; Team Rubicon Canada’s
Veteran Pandemic Recovery proj-
ect; True Patriot Love’s project to
integrate creative arts into reha-
bilitation and recovery; a grief
support program offered through
Wounded Warriors Canada; a
Univeristy of British Columbia
research project investigating the
use of sports in fostering social
connectivity and well-being to
veterans transitioning to civilian
life; and the Respect Campaign
forum to promote collaboration on
improving mental health services
and reducing homelessness. L
forwarded with your application.
VAC will not pay for ordinary
medical visits. The payment
authority for VAC is specific to
the application for disability
benefits. If your disability appli-
cation is rendered favourable,
in future years, VAC will pay
for medical information that
it requires to reassess whether
your condition has worsened.
A reminder for veterans who
already have entitlement: you
can request a reassessment if
you believe your condition has
worsened since your last assess-
ment through your My VAC
Account or by contacting VAC
at www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/
contact#outside-canada.
Or contact a Legion Command
Service Officer for assistance
with your application to VAC
by calling 1-613-591-3335 or
by e-mail at veteransservices@
legion.ca. L

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
IN THE
NEWS
The bells in the Peace Tower
in Ottawa tolled 99 times on
April 9, once for each year that
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,
lived. He died earlier that day at
Windsor Castle in England.
Husband to Queen Elizabeth II
for 73 years, Philip was a Second
World War naval veteran and an
advocate for veterans’ issues.
“A man of great service to
others—first as a decorated naval
officer and later as a dedicated
leader in the areas of community
engagement and philanthropy—the
Duke always sought out the best
in people and challenged them
to strive for greater heights,” said
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He was born Prince Philip of
Greece and Denmark on the island
of Corfu in Greece. When Philip
was just a year old, his father,
Prince Andrew of Greece and
Denmark, was exiled from Greece.
Philip went to school in various
countries in Europe before settling
Margot Arsenault
Former Quebec Command
President Marguerite (Margot)
Arsenault died March 17 in
Valleyfield, Que. She was 76.
Wikimedia; Tom MacGregor
OBITUARIES
in Britain where he joined the
Royal Navy. Even though many of
his relatives were Germans involved
with the Nazi leadership, he served
throughout the Second World
War and saw action in the Pacific
Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
He served in the Allied invasion of
Sicily as well as the battles of Crete
and Okinawa. He was mentioned
in dispatches during the Battle
of Cape Matapan against Italian
naval ships off Greece in 1941.
He retired from active service in
1952 with the rank of commander.
Philip met his cousin Princess
Elizabeth in 1934 and they began
writing to each other in 1939.
He asked Elizabeth to marry him
in 1946 but the announcement
was delayed until after her
21st birthday in 1947.
He gave up his Greek and
Danish titles, took the surname
Mountbatten, and became a British
subject. On Nov. 20, 1947, the day
of their wedding at Westminster
Abbey, he was named Duke of
Edinburgh by George VI. Under
wartime restrictions, the wedding
was a simple affair. They have
four children, Charles, Anne,
Andrew and Edward.
Philip completed 22,219 solo
engagements, gave 5,496 speeches,
1944-2021
A member of both Rose
Leblanc and Valleyfield branches,
Arsenault belonged to The Royal
Canadian Legion for 30 years
and served as Quebec Command
President from 2011 to 2013.
She came to some national
attention in 2012 after criticizing
former Quebec premier Pauline
Marois for her disrespectful
attitude toward the poppy.
Although she did not serve
1921-2021
and was patron, president or
member of more than 780
organizations during his
royal career.
He served as Grand President
of the British Commonwealth
Ex-Services League, now known
as the Royal Commonwealth
Ex-Services League, from 1974
until 2015, after succeeding
Lord Mountbatten. During
that time, he chaired two
meetings a year and presided
over 10 triennial conferences.
He was given the title of colonel-
in-chief of the Royal Canadian
Regiment in 1953. He served in
the same role with the Cameron
Highlanders of Ottawa, the Seaforth
Highlanders of Canada, the Queen’s
Own Cameron Highlanders of
Canada, the Royal Hamilton
Light Infantry and Canada’s
army, air and naval cadet corps.
In 1956, he established The
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which
encourages young people to decide
what they are passionate about
and helps them develop skills to
succeed. The movement has spread
to more than 140 countries.
He was named honorary general
of the Canadian Army and the
Royal Canadian Air Force and
honorary admiral of the Royal
Canadian Navy in 2011. L
in the military, Arsenault is
remembered as a devoted and
involved Legionnaire and a
champion of remembrance. Her
father was a veteran and her sister,
Annette, also served as Quebec
Command President in 2009.
Arsenault is survived by her
son Paul, siblings Annette,
Jeanne, Roger and André,
three grandchildren and
two great-grandchildren. L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 67
 SNAPSHOTS
Volunteering in the community

British Columbia/Yukon 68
IN THIS
Nova Scotia/Nunavut 69 ISSUE
Newfoundland and Labrador 70
Quebec 70 Legion branches
Saskatchewan 70 donate more than
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
70
75
$171,000
to their communities

Lisa Rosales, donor relations officer of Langley Memorial

Hospital Foundation, receives $10,000 for equipment from Bill Nelligan (left) receives the Legionnaire of the
poppy chair Earle Fraser (left) and honours and awards chair Year Award from honours and awards chair
Pat Keeping of Cloverdale Branch in Surrey, B.C. Robbie Klassen of Cranbrook, B.C., Branch.

Sgt.-at-Arms Roy Buchanan (right) and Bob

Kanngiesser of Alberni Valley Branch in Port Alberni,
Marlene Dietrich of Heritage Place, an assisted-living B.C., present $5,000 to Meals on Wheels representative
facility, receives $1,000 from Sgt.-at-Arms Roy Buchanan Dawna Sawyer, who presented the branch with
of Alberni Valley Branch in Port Alberni, B.C. a certificate of appreciation.

68 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

Second World War Métis veteran
and Dieppe prisoner of war
Paul DeLorme of Chilliwack,
B.C., Branch celebrates his
100th birthday, accompanied
by Jessica Brown, program
co-ordinator at Weinberg Wendy Forth (left) and Laurie Grubb of Mount Benson Branch in Nanaimo, B.C.,
Residence in Vancouver. prepare takeout meals for veterans and families.

President Lew Forth of Mount Benson

Branch in Nanaimo, B.C., congratulates
Grade 12 student Natasha Edwards on Dean Holm, whose colour poster placed first at zone and third at provincial
her second-place finish in the B.C./Yukon level, is congratulated by poster chair Gerlinde Jaeckel of South Burnaby
Command video contests. Branch in Burnaby, B.C., and his teacher Mairi Spence (right).

President Al Peterson and cadet liaison officer Art Leduc

of A.H. Foster MM Memorial Branch in Kingston, N.S., North Sydney, N.S., Sobeys manager Gerald Ford (centre)
present $1,800 to the F/Lt Graham air cadet squadron, presents fruit baskets for veterans to President Bill
represented by (from left) WO2 Nathan Gray, Lannigan and Sgt.-at-Arms George MacIntosh of
Capt. Rhonda Bull and WO2 Bell Smith. JIM HILDEBRAND Breton Branch in Sydney Mines, N.S. CYRIL HATCHER

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 69

 SNAPSHOTS Volunteering in the community

Korean War veteran Leslie Mercer

of St. John’s Branch receives Iberville, Que., Branch members (from left) Jean-Claude Morin,
a Quilt of Valour. Claudette Turmel, Gilberte Lamarre and President Rolland Roy
hold their annual blood drive in spite of the pandemic.

Joanne Blais accepts $2,500 for the Hull Regiment army Valéry Gaudreault-Vachon accepts a $250 scholarship
cadet corps from Sgt.-at-Arms Christophe Chene from Second Vice Robert Contre of De Lanaudière
of Aylmer, Que., Branch. Branch in Joliette, Que.

Poppy chair Brian Morris (left) and President Trevor Bancarz
of Robert Combe VC Branch in Melville, Sask., present $2,000
to Sheri Honeywich of St. Paul’s Lutheran Home toward the
purchase of three portable systems to provide better-quality
sound for hearing-impaired residents. DIANNE HACK
Stratford, Ont., Branch First Vice Stephen Zurbrigg
and President Dale Bast (right) present $5,000 to
the Stratford air cadet squadron, represented by
WO1 Owen Hoelscher and sponsoring committee
chair Donna Cassel.

70 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

Grand Bend, Ont., Community Foundation representative Stratford, Ont., Branch President Dale Bast (centre)
Nan Brooks presents $4,000 to Veterans Memorial Branch accepts a defibrillator and memorial plaque from
President Gerry Bezaire to assist with the purchase and Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund representative Patrick
installation of a new furnace for the branch. Armstrong (left) and paramedic Jeff Sager.

At Seeley’s Bay, Ont., Branch, Zone G-2 Commander Bowmanville, Ont., Branch poppy chair Mike Richard
Ralph McMullen and President Rob Fernell congratulate (left), along with service officer John Greenfield,
Laurie Hall on receiving the Legionnaire of the Year award. present $20,000 to Andrea Russell, chief development
officer of the Bowmanville Hospital Foundation.

President Brian Eldridge and L.A. President Kim Baverstock

President Shirley Ruttan (right) of Central (right) of Ambassador Branch in Windsor, Ont., present $5,625
Muskoka Branch in Bracebridge, Ont., presents to Huron Lodge executive director Alina Sirbu on behalf of the
the Legionnaire of the Year award to Robert Gale. Ontario Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation.

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 71

 SNAPSHOTS Volunteering in the community

President Shawn Taillon of Bells Corners Branch in

Hanover, Ont., Branch President Dan Haverson
presents $2,500 to Saugeen Mobility and Regional
Transit manager Roger Cook.
Nepean, Ont., presents $18,564 to Perley and Rideau
Veterans’ Health Centre in Ottawa, represented by its
foundation executive director Delphine Haslé and director
Louise Mercie. The money is for three vital-signs
machines and three housekeeping carts.

President Wali Mohamed of Mackenzie Branch in

Woodbridge, Ont., accompanied by Zone E-2 L.A.
Commander June Sweet and secretary-treasurer Dianne
Scaturchio (right), presents $5,200 on behalf of the Ontario
Command, Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation to
Hospice Vaughan, represented by Scott MacMaster.
President John Morris (left) and poppy chair Michael
Beatty of Byron-Springbank Branch in London, Ont.,
present $29,680 to St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation
manager Sue Hardy toward the purchase of equipment
for the Parkwood Hospital veterans care program.

Goderich, Ont., Branch Catch the Ace co-chairs Margaret Cook

(left) and Dennis Schmidt present $10,000 in lottery revenues to
President Dan Haverson of Hanover, Ont., Branch the Alexander Marine General Hospital Foundation, represented
presents $2,000 to Hanover and District Hospital by director Kathleen Babcock, chair David Mackechnie,
Foundation chair Mark Rogan. and executive director Kimberley Payne.

72 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

 President Winston Spratt of South Carleton Branch
in Manotick, Ont., presents $6,500 to the Perley and
Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre in Ottawa, represented
by the centre’s foundation director Doug Brousseau
(left) and executive director Delphine Haslé.
At the Kinmount District Health Centre in Kinmount, Ont.,
John McGrath Branch President Mary-Lou Ferguson
presents $1,290 to hospital foundation chair Barbara
Millington on behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches
and L.A. Charitable Foundation. The money will buy a
blood pressure monitor and mobile stand.

President Kathy Gardner, First Vice Gord Walsh and poppy chair Peggy Sunstrum
Coldwater, Ont., Branch of Lt.-Col. Harry Babcock Branch in Napanee, Ont., present $10,900 to
presents the Legionnaire of Adrienne Harris-Hale (left), foundation chair of the Lennox and Addington
the Year award to Second Vice County General Hospital on behalf of the Ontario Command, Branches
Carol Baird. and L.A. Charitable Foundation.

First Vice Jack Hume (left), President Mervin Ward and

President Peter Schaffer (right) of Carleton Place, Ont.,
Branch presents $5,000 to the Lanark Branch of the
Navy League, represented by Lieut. (N) Dan Denief and
its president, Scott Barkell. The money will help with
the youth cadet corps in-house and virtual programs.
secretary June Elliott of Georges Vanier Branch in
Hawkesbury, Ont., present $5,200 to the Hawkesbury and
District General Hospital Foundation’s interim executive
director, Erin Tabakman, on behalf of Ontario Command,
Branches and L.A. Charitable Foundation.

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 73

 SNAPSHOTS Volunteering in the community

Osgoode, Ont., Branch poppy chair Peter Valdstyn and

youth education officer Elsie Hickey present $5,000 from District C Commander Eric Ross (left) and Zone C-1
poppy funds for Veterans’ Priority Needs at the Perley and Commander Dennis Schmidt congratulate Lucknow,
Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre, represented by foundation Ont., Branch President Linda Sharpin on the
executive director Delphine Haslé. branch’s 80th anniversary.

Vaughan-Woodbridge MP Francesco Sorbara (second from left)

presents $8,100 from the Veterans Organizations Emergency Bowmanville, Ont., Branch’s Mike Richard (left)
Support Fund to President Wali Mohamed and secretary-treasurer and John Greenfield present $10,000 to the
Dianne Scaturchio of Mackenzie Branch in Woodbridge, Ont. Clarington air cadet squadron, represented
Zone E2 Commander Bruno Scaturchio (left) is also attending. by training officer James Major.

President Heather Atkins of Lt.-Col. John

Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Doug Shipley (fourth from left) Foote VC Branch in Grafton, Ont., presents
presents $10,845 in federal government emergency support funding to $1,500 to the Cobourg army cadet corps,
Elmvale, Ont., Branch, represented by (from left) John Windley, represented by civilian instructor
Larry Trahan, Milt Walters, Carolyn Heads and Frank Beasley. Kathy Powell.

74 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

 Sarnia, Ont., Branch First Vice Les Jones (right) presents $3,050 First Vice Les Jones of Sarnia, Ont., Branch
to Sarnia Historical Society president Cory Burke to publish author presents $1,500 to Carolyn Pennie, founder
Tom Slater’s War Remembrance Project commemorating of St. Vincent de Paul Bare Necessities
Sarnia’s fallen since the Boer War. Little Lunches.

Elma Noye of George Pearkes VC Branch in

Summerside, P.E.I., presents the award for
second place in the provincial essay contest
Théresa Gallant and Paul Gallant of Wellington, P.E.I., Branch
to Jackson Ramsay.
congratulate third-place winners in the provincial literary
contest, Grade 7 student Mary-Etta Francis and Grade 5
student Véronique LeBlanc. PAULETTE LEBLANC

P.E.I. Command Vice-Chairperson Brian Rector,

accompanied by First Vice Owen Parkhouse,
place a wreath marking the 70th anniversary
of the Battle of Kapyong, which took place
in April 1951 during the Korean War.
VETERANS AFFAIRS CANADA
P.E.I. Command Vice-President Brian Rector (right) and President
Duane MacEwen present a plaque to student Christopher
Murphy. Inspired by an assignment to write an essay about the
importance of remembrance, Murphy spent 35 hours walking
100 kilometres, raising $1,050 to support veterans. J. YEO

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 75

 SNAPSHOTS Volunteering in the community
Second World War veteran
Norma MacLean, a long-time Meadow
Bank resident, receives a bouquet in
celebration of her 101st birthday
from P.E.I. Command President
Duane MacEwen, socially distanced
outside the window.
President David Doucette (left) of
Lt.-Col. E.W. Johnstone Branch in
Kensington, P.E.I., presents the
50 Years Long Service Medal to
John Brown. KATHY DOUCETTE
76 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
CORRESPONDENTS’ ADDRESSES
Send your photos and news of The Royal Canadian Legion in
action in your community to your Command Correspondent.
Each branch and ladies auxiliary is entitled to two photos in an
issue. Any additional items will be published as news only. Material
should be sent as soon as possible after an event. We do not
accept material that will be more than a year old when published,
or photos that are out of focus or lack contrast. The Command
Correspondents are:
BRITISH COLUMBIA/YUKON: Graham Fox,
4199 Steede Ave., Port Alberni, BC V9Y 8B6, gra.fox@icloud.com
ALBERTA–NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: Bobbi Foulds,
Box 5162, Stn Main, Edson AB T7E 1T4, rfoulds@telus.net
SASKATCHEWAN: Danielle Hembroff,
2267 Albert St., Regina, SK S4P 2V5, admin@sasklegion.ca
MANITOBA: William Trefry,
B207 Academy Rd., Winnipeg, MB R3M 0E2, wptrefry@gmail.com
NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO: George Romick,
320 Admiral Court, Thunder Bay, ON P7A 8B5. romickg@tbaytel.net
ONTARIO: Mary Ann Goheen,
Box 308, Gravenhurst, ON P1P 1T7, magoheen@sympatico.ca
QUEBEC: Pierre (Pete) Garneau,
1000 St. Antoine Ouest, Bureau 70, Montreal, QC H3C 3R7,
webmaster@qc.legion.ca
NEW BRUNSWICK: Harold Wright,
2-299 Main St., Saint John, NB E2K 1J1, foulis20@gmail.com
NOVA SCOTIA/NUNAVUT: Rita Connors,
30 Lennox Dr., Lower Sackville, NS B4C 3B2,
rita.connors@ns.sympatico.ca
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: John Yeo,
657 Rte. 19, Meadow Bank, PE C0E 1H1, johnyeo@pei.sympatico.ca
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR: Brenda Slaney,
Box 5745, St. John’s, NL A1C 5X3, bslaney@nfld.net
DOMINION COMMAND ZONES:
EASTERN U.S. ZONE, Gord Bennett,
803-190 Cedar St., Cambridge, ON NIS 1W5, Captglbcd@aol.com;
WESTERN U.S. ZONE, Douglas Lock,
1531 11th St., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, doug.lock@verizon.net.
Submissions for the Honours and Awards page (Palm Leaf, MSM,
MSA and Life Membership) should be sent directly to Doris Williams,
Legion Magazine, 86 Aird Place, Kanata, ON K2L 0A1 or
magazine@legion.ca.
TECHNICAL SPECS FOR PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
DIGITAL PHOTOS—Photos submitted to Command
Correspondents electronically must have a minimum width of
1,350 pixels, or 4.5 inches. Final resolution must be 300 dots
per inch or greater. As a rough guideline, colour JPEGs would
be between 0.5 megabytes (MB) and 1 MB.
PHOTO PRINTS—Glossy prints from a photofinishing
lab are best because they do not contain the dot pattern
that some printers produce. If possible, please submit digital
photos electronically.
FRENCH INSERT—To receive a French insert of Legion Magazine
content, please contact MagazineSubscriptions@legion.ca or
call 613-591-3335.
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 SNAPSHOTS Honours and awards

LONG SERVICE AWARDS

75 70
years years

JOHN DREBET MARGARET HEINMILLER HAROLD KENT STERLING MATHER NORM HAMMOND
Nakusp Br., Frank Lambier Br., St. Joseph Island Br., Bowmanville Br., Dunsdon Br.,
B.C. Palmerston, Ont. Richards Landing, Ont. Ont. Brantford, Ont.

MERITORIOUS SERVICE LIFE MEMBER AWARDS

MEDALS AND MERITORIOUS
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JOANN WALTON-HATCH
Mount Benson Br., Nanaimo

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BILL FECTEAU STEVE GOURDEAU ROBERT BERG LEROY MacINTOSH
Kingsway Br., Peninsula Br., Waterloo Br., Kingsway Br., Edmonton
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ONTARIO
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Barrhaven Br., Nepean
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Blind River Br.
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GORDON RITTWAGE DONALD GOYETCHE ROBERT RIDDELL Coldwater Br.
Matthew J. Dawe Isle Madame Br., St. Joseph Island Br.,
Memorial Br., Arichat, N.S. Richards Landing, Ont. JOHN DUFORT
Kingston, Ont. East Toronto Br., Toronto
JUNE SMITH
East Toronto Br., Toronto
TIM SMITH
Lt-Col. Harry Babcock Br., Napanee
ROBERT DAVIE
Matthew J. Dawe Memorial Br., Kingston
MADDIE FERNELL
Seeley’s Bay Br.
STEWART TAYLOR
Hensall Br., Ont. JOAN McCONNELL
Seeley’s Bay Br.

78 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

 Longtime news
editor retires
By Stephen J. Thorne

A lot of good folks—writers,

editors, designers,
marketers, administrators—
have come and gone over the
course of three decades at Legion
Magazine. Through it all, Tom
MacGregor has been a constant.
He retired in January, after 31 years
working to fill these pages.
MacGregor came to Legion
Magazine in 1989 after writing and
editing primarily for newspapers.
He got started at the Queen’s
Journal and then the Kingston
Whig-Standard. He joined the
staff of his hometown newspaper,
the weekly Huntsville Forester, at
age 23, covering fall fairs, cottage-
country features and occasional
police and court stories.
The winding road of daily
news eventually led him to
Legion Magazine, where he
progressed from writer to assis-
tant editor to news editor.
As he did so, the publication
was evolving from an associa-
tion journal of veterans’ news
and memoirs to a bimonthly
magazine that is now recognized
as the country’s leading com-
pendium of military history.
As news editor, MacGregor
assigned and edited much of the
magazine’s content, including the
News and Snapshots sections and
several columns. He has written
scores of news stories, feature arti-
cles and two editions of Canada’s
Ultimate Story: “John McCrae
and the Battles of Flanders” and
“Canada and the Victoria Cross.”
For “Going back to Gallipoli”
(January/February 2016),
MacGregor travelled with a pil-
grimage to Turkey exploring sites
where the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment fought its early battles
of the First World War.
He also edited three editions
of Canada’s Ultimate Story and
the Veterans Benefits Guide
and wrote two e-books.
With his encyclopedic
knowledge of veterans’ issues,
MacGregor’s experience and depth
has been invaluable through the
pandemic too, as he handed his
reins off to Trevor Oattes, the
magazine’s new assistant editor. L

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 CANADA AND THE NEW COLD WAR By J.L. Granatstein
Enough ships?
What kind of navy should Canada have?
W ith just 8,300 regulars, the
Royal Canadian Navy is the
smallest branch of the Canadian Armed
Forces. This has been reflected in the
RCN’s inability to produce officers to fill
the highest post in the Canadian Armed
Forces: chief of the defence staff.
Since the brief appointment of Admiral
John R. Anderson in 1993, the RCN has had
only two such officers—Vice-Admiral Larry
Murray, who was interim CDS in 1996-97
during the turmoil of the Somalia Affair, and
Admiral Art McDonald, who was appointed
in January 2021. McDonald stepped down
after 41 days in the post and is the subject
of an ongoing investigation after allegations
of misconduct were raised against him.
The apparent lack of highly qualified
naval officers to fill the top position
is one challenge. Others persist.
What kind of navy should Canada have?
What kinds of ships? What roles? What
alliances? And how much money should
Canada be prepared to pay for its navy?
The RCN thinks of itself as a blue-water
navy, not just a coast-bound fleet. It has a
limited Arctic capability—or will have when
all the ships of the Harry DeWolfe-class are
in the water. It recalls with reverence its anti-
submarine role from the Second World War
through the Cold War, but that role is scarcely
present any longer, even though Russian and
Chinese undersea capacities increase daily.
As a NATO member, the RCN has tasks
An artist’s in the Atlantic Ocean, and its frigates, while
rendering of the
getting long in the tooth, can carry them out.
new Canadian
Surface Combatant. But there are not enough ships at present to
Fifteen CSCs are take up an important role in the Pacific Ocean.
expected to be The promise for the future lies in 15 planned
at sea by the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) ships,
early 2030s. replacements for the aging frigates.
80 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
The plan—the National Shipbuilding
Strategy—was announced by Stephen
Harper’s government a decade ago. It
was to build 52 ships—the CSCs, support
ships, Arctic patrol vessels and other
ships—for a grand total of $35 billion.
That sum was seen as outrageous by
some at the time. In February this year,
the parliamentary budget officer projected
that the CSCs alone will cost some
$77.3 billion, and every year of delay in a
project that has proceeded at a glacial pace
adds $3.58 billion to the overall cost. Each
CSC vessel in 2021 dollars may confidently
be expected to cost at least $5 billion.
Costs of the other vessels in the 2011
shipbuilding plan are increasing by a
similar rate of inflation. Two Joint Support
Ships (JSS) estimated in 2015 to cost tax-
payers $2.6 billion, for example, are now
expected to hit $4.1 billion and rising: the
first JSS is late, and is now expected to be
delivered in 2023, the second in 2025.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, a govern-
ment deficit of roughly $400 billion in 2021,
and high deficits projected for the next fiscal
year, any government would be concerned
about the voters’ response to such military
spending. Indeedw, any government would be
hard-pressed to approve this kind of funding.
Obviously this worries navy brass, the
shipbuilding industry and RCN supporters,
and well it might. When the parliamentary
budget officer produced a report a
decade ago arguing that the acquisition
DND
of F-35 fighter jets was far exceeding That is a key question because there is
government cost estimates, the storm of every sign that Russia will continue rebuild-
protest all but shelved the project, and ing and re-equipping its navy—and its forces
Canada still hasn’t acquired a new fighter. generally—to once again be a threat to the
The F-35 is American-built and that democracies. The U.S.
always creates controversy in peaceable can contemplate a two-
Canada. The CSCs are based on a British front war. Can Canada? THERE WILL BE
design (although one not far enough along With, at best, 15 ENORMOUS
yet to have put a vessel into the water). Its CSCs at sea by the early PRESSURE ON
proponents hope that might damp down 2030s, no matter how
public and parliamentary opposition capable they are, the
OTTAWA TO
to such expensive weapons of war. Canadian contribution CONTRIBUTE TO
will only be a token ALLIED SEA POWER
So what does all this mean? force. And the pressure IN THE PACIFIC.
First, assuming the governments of the on Canada will be to
next decade honour their predecessor’s re-arm. To build ships
commitments—and that’s a very large takes years, as we have seen; to put soldiers
assumption—the new navy will dribble in the field takes much less time (though
out a ship or two a year, but not all equipping them well takes years). Will we
will be at sea until the 2030s. again see Canada field a large army?
We cannot predict the global situation We can’t know the future, but it looks
then, but we can expect the Chinese navy expensive. If Ottawa slashes the defence
to get bigger, be better trained and have budget in the next few years, and if there are
vessels at least as effective as any ships increased tensions or conflicts with China
in Western navies. and/or Russia, those cuts will be seen to have
There will be enormous pressure on been foolhardy. The historians will complain
Ottawa to contribute to Allied sea power years later, but the politicians and electors
in the Pacific and perhaps to be a member of the present and near future may not care
of a Pacific military alliance. It might be what the history tomes have to say. L
in Canada’s security interest to join, and
certainly the United States will want
Canada to be in the alliance and to bring
something to the table. Will the RCN
have enough ships to do so?

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 81

 HUMOUR HUNT By John Ward
Target
practice
B ack in the 1960s, the Connaught
Ranges just outside Ottawa used to
hire high school students to pull targets during
various rifle competitions, including a number
of military meets. I worked there one summer.
Every morning, we would trudge down
range and descend into one of two sets of
trenches with targets, one at 600 yards and
a second at 1,000.
We would hoist the targets on a pully system
and watch for a bullet hole to appear. When it
did, the drill was to pull the target down, stick
a red cardboard square on a peg into the hole
(showing the shooter where he hit) and patch
any previous hole with a bit of paper and paste.
It was hot work, down in a concrete trench
in the summer sun, but not especially
strenuous. But it could get exciting at times.
Occasionally a round would hit the metal
target frame and ricochet down into the
trench. There were dozens of chunks gouged
out of the trench walls from years of ricochets.
We thought little of it until one day a
party of military officers came down to see
how things worked. They were decked out
in flak vests and steel helmets. We were
in jeans and T-shirts. I figured the visit-
ing officers must have felt foolish in their
helmets and vests among the unprotected
teenagers. Afterwards, we wondered if things
were more dangerous than we thought.
A retired officer recalls a patrol in Korea
that involved a firefight. He and another
soldier were wounded, but they took
five prisoners.
82 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
“At the end of the battle that night, I said in
effect to my radio operator, ‘Tell headquarters
that we are finished and we are on the
way back.’
“Unbelievably to my way of thinking, I got
an order through him, ‘Go and do the next hill.’
“I said, ‘Tell that stupid son of a bitch we’ve
got five prisoners, only two wounded. We
are on the way back. This is crazy. F--- off.’”
The radioman passed on the message
verbatim, including the last two words.
Headquarters was a suitably outraged
by this breach of radio discipline.
“There was a serious discussion whether
I would get a Military Cross or whether
I would get a court martial. In the event,
the army being the army, I got neither.”
A former air force intelligence specialist
remembers the problems she encountered
when she wanted to fly in the back seat of
a CF-18.
“They told me I couldn’t fly in a high-perfor-
mance jet aircraft, because ‘my female parts
would be damaged.’”
She flew more than 80 hours in fighters.
And a few years after her first flights, women
were in the front seat of the CF-18.
Nicholaas de Vries of Clementsport, N.S.,
tells us that in 1953, a Canadian general
touring Europe was much taken with
the military bands he encountered and
thought it would be great if every Canadian
regiment had a band of its own.
He soon found, however, there weren’t a
lot of musicians in Canada itching to join up.
The solution? Recruit in Europe.
De Vries was living in the Netherlands when
this scheme was hatched and he found him-
self a member of the Black Watch of Canada.
 > Do you have a funny and true tale from Canada’s military culture?
“I never imagined wearing a kilt,” he writes.
“I became Scottish, Dutch and Canadian all
in one whoop.”
Sadly, the plan failed to round up enough
recruits to fulfill the general’s dream.
Allan Gravelle of Bells Corners, Ont., was
with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Germany
in the 1950s. One day a Canadian Sabre jet
crashed not far from base after the pilot ejected
safely. Gravelle was given an unloaded rifle and
dispatched to guard the scattered wreckage.
Soon, a local fire engine drove up with
six volunteer firemen aboard. It paused
briefly and left and Gravelle thought little of
it. But it came back again a while later with
six more fellows. And then it made a third trip.
“It was obvious the fire engine was being
used as a sightseeing tour bus.”
Shortly after, a stern-faced German mother
marched up, accompanied by a worried
young boy. She barked at the lad and he dug
his hands into his pockets, which were filled
with live, .50-calibre rounds from the jet.
He filled Gravelle’s hands with cartridges.
Murray Edwards joined the Canadian army
early in the Second World War and was in
Britain training near Aldershot when he was
tabbed to go to an officer selection centre.
“I reported there and we had 10 days going
through the selection process. The very
first interview was by a psychologist and
Illustration by Malcolm Jones
Send your story to magazine@legion.ca
the word went out very quickly that he was
going to ask you a question on sex and if you
were embarrassed, you would fail. Most of
us in those days couldn’t spell the word.”
Edwards passed.
“PROP WASH? I THOUGHT
IT WAS SOMETHING THAT
THEY CLEANED THE
PROPELLERS WITH.”
Laurie Drain of Fredericton was in the
women’s division of the RCAF in 1943. She
found that air force pranks can be pulled on
men or women.
“I was a very keen airwoman. And when I
was sent out to Victoria…they sent me to look
for some ‘prop wash.’ Well, do you know what
that is, prop wash? I thought it was some-
thing that they cleaned the propellers with.”
Prop wash is the wind generated by a spin-
ning propeller.
“I spent a whole day running from pillar
to post, trying to find this prop wash. Oh
dear. What a thing to remember, but I was so
humiliated when I learned what it was. And
stupid. Because I should have known.” L
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 83
 HEROES AND VILLAINS By Mark Zuehlke

Lieutenant-
General Harry
Crerar had a
short tenure as
commander of
I Canadian Corps
in Italy.
E
Harry
Crerar

ven heroes have flaws. General

Henry (Harry) Crerar rose to
lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the First
World War, then commanded divisions and
corps in the Second World War. Shortly after
the December 1943 Ortona bloodbath, he
visited the front north of the town. Studying
the battlefield’s splintered olive trees and
vineyards and water-filled shell craters,
he muttered, “Just like Passchendaele.”
Having come to Italy in late October 1943,
Crerar was to expand the Canadian presence
there from a single division to a corps com-
failed at command

&
In Italy in 1943, both leaders

clashed repeatedly with Crerar. Vokes

prised of 1st Infantry and 5th Armoured
divisions, 1st Armoured Brigade and
a corps headquarters with supporting
units—approximately 75,000 men. Crerar
was determined the
corps would be distinctly
CRERAR’S Canadian and run ac-
LECTURE WAS cording to his methods.
GREETED WITH From the outset, he
STONY SILENCE. met opposition from
above and below. Eighth
Army’s General Bernard
Montgomery was openly contemptuous.
“I don’t think he has any idea how to
handle a corps in battle,” wrote Montgomery.
Montgomery also refused to put the
armoured brigade under Crerar’s command,
instead sending it to British XXX Corps.
Crerar’s two divisional commanders,
Major-General Guy Simonds and
“Just like
Major-General Chris Vokes, resisted his
Passchendaele.” attempts to command them. Enjoying
—Harry Crerar Montgomery’s patronage, Simonds
found Crerar obsessed with his First
World War artillery officer experience.
“He believed the tactical methods…
employed in Italy were wrong and
should be brought in line with those
used in France and Flanders.… No
amount of argument could budge him
from [this] preconceived idea.”
Building on the thesis, he lectured
Eighth Army top staff on how combined
artillery and infantry tactics of the
Great War could, despite the wintery
morass, be employed to break through
German defences and restore a
war of movement. Crerar’s lecture
was greeted with stony silence.
Determined to prove his theory and
exert command over the corps, Crerar
planned an attack through the winter
mud to seize the village of Tollo, but the
operation was cancelled when I Corps
went into reserve.
Shortly after, on March 9, 1944, Crerar
returned to Britain to command First
Canadian Army. His short tenure with
the corps, Galloway wrote, left a sense
that “Flanders Fields had come to Italy
bringing the same old mud…the same old
extra wounds and death by day and night…
and as an extra, an elderly gentleman
whose mind went back to Passchendaele.
With the spring, it was equally fitting
that this general should fade quietly
away, leaving behind little trace.” L

84 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com

 > To voice your opinion, go to legionmagazine.com/HeroesAndVillains
&
A
Benito
Mussolini
fter 20 years as dictator, Benito
Mussolini’s ever-weakening hold
over Italy was lost on July 25, 1943—just
15 days after the Allies invaded Sicily.
Mussolini’s rapid fall resulted less from
Allied action than domestic political disaf-
fection with his rule.
The unravelling had started in
February 1943. Facing growing opposition
to Italy’s war effort, Mussolini sought
to impose his authority by sacking most
National Fascist Party cabinet ministers
and senior bureaucrats. Appointing himself
foreign minister, Mussolini attempted to
institute a war policy more palatable to the
citizenry. Irreversible battlefield disasters in
North Africa, however, made this impossible.
Mussolini’s health was declining. Gastritis
and duodenitis caused by a nervous disorder
led to bouts of depression. Increasingly
housebound, Mussolini’s ability to govern
was compromised. Four distinct opposition
groups stepped into the resulting vacuum—
The Royal Court, anti-fascist parties, the
Fascist leadership, the military general staff
—and all tried to extract Italy from the war.
On April 29, Mussolini urged Hitler to bro-
ker a separate peace with Russia. This would
enable most of Germany’s army to transfer
south to meet an expected Mediterranean
invasion by the Western Allies. Believing Italy
could no longer be trusted, Hitler and the
German command rebuffed Mussolini.
Barely two weeks later, King Victor
Emmanuel III started actively seeking to
LAC/4316502; Wikimedia
sue for peace with or without
Mussolini’s agreement.
Then, in the first week of June, several high-
ranking politicians urged the king to arrest
Mussolini and appoint a military government.
Emmanuel vacillated. On July 4, however,
the king indicated he no longer opposed
Mussolini’s deposition.
The July 10 storming ashore of American,
British and Canadian troops in Sicily brought
matters to a head. Recognizing Italy’s defeat
was inevitable while trying
to retain power, Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
clung to power
until he was forced
to step down.
He was placed in
protective custody.
promised King Emmanuel HITLER AND
on July 22 to end the war THE GERMAN
by Sept. 15. COMMAND
The long timeline was REBUFFED
necessary, he said, to open MUSSOLINI.
a negotiating channel with
the Western Allies. Mussolini
left this meeting believing the king stood
by him, but the effort came too late.
Two days later, the Grand Council of
Fascism’s 28 members met and denounced
his leadership. When the meeting ended,
Mussolini telephoned his mistress, Clara
Petacci. “It’s all over now,” he said.
On July 25, King Emmanuel accepted
Mussolini’s resignation and placed him in
protective custody.
“At this moment, you are the most hated
man in Italy,” Emmanuel told Mussolini.
Italy surrendered on Sept. 8. Four days
later, a daring German raid freed Mussolini
and he became Hitler’s puppet leader of the “It’s all over now.”
Italian Social Republic. L —Benito Mussolini
legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 85
 ARTIFACTS By Sharon Adams
Shot-up
polecat
How a routine
mission in Croatia
turned critical
The Iltis utility
A battered and bullet-riddled
white utility vehicle on display
at the Canadian War Museum is testament to
the time when the world began to understand
vehicle on that peacekeeping is not a peaceful profession.
display at the While on a peacekeeping mission in Croatia,
Canadian War two Canadian soldiers were shot multiple
Museum in times as they rode in this four-wheel-drive
Ottawa bears Bombardier Iltis. (Iltis is German for polecat).
evidence of Nearly 60 bullet holes pepper the vehi-
the attack cle, clearly marked UN. There are bullet
on Canadian
holes through the back of the driver’s seat
peacekeepers
in Croatia on and the windshield has webs of shattered
New Year’s Eve glass, each with a hole in the centre, mark-
1994. ing shots taken at the soldiers’ heads.
Since 1991, when Yugoslavia began to
break up along ethnic and religious lines,
about 40,000 Canadians have served in
peace operations in the Balkans, includ-
ing those of the United Nations and NATO,
to help curb the violence. Conflict and
border disputes persist to this day.
The first peacekeepers to arrive discovered
themselves in the middle of a civil war, with
no peace to keep.
Canadian forces on land, sea and in the air
helped ensure UN-protected areas remained
86 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com
demilitarized, ran con-
voys to bring humanitarian aid
to civilians and supplies to peace-
keeping forces, and tried to protect
citizens from warring factions. They
also helped enforce arms embargoes,
seizing weapons headed for war zones.
Entire villages were destroyed in the fight-
ing, their populations driven out—or killed in
massacres in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Macedonia and Kosovo. The term ‘ethnic
cleansing’ entered our vocabulary.
Canadian Armed Forces members were
deployed to Croatia in 1994 to monitor a
ceasefire between Croatia and local Serb
authorities, an agreement both sides violated.
Private Phillip Badanai and Master Corporal
John Tescione, part of a contingent of about
800 peacekeepers in southern Croatia, were
returning from a routine mission to their
battalion base on Dec. 31, 1994. They passed
through a familiar Serb-held village and came
upon a group of about 20 armed Serbs stand-
ing on both sides of the road, waving them
to stop. But the Canadians had been ordered
CWM/19950050-00; Phillip Badanai; John Tescione
 “As we passed, they cocked their BY THE
NUMBERS
weapons and fired.”
—Peacekeeper Private Phillip Badanai in an interview
with the Associated Press
1.52
Width in metres

1.837
Height in metres

3.887
Length in metres

85
Fuel capacity in litres

130
Maximum speed
in km/h

500
Cargo payload
in kilograms

1,220
Weight in kilograms
that, under such Both survived
circumstances, and continued
they were not to serve. Tescione, 2,500
to stop but to with shrapnel Number made for CAF
keep on driving. still embedded
“I was just follow- in his head, left
ing orders not to stop for the military in
them,” Badanai told the 2006. Badanai followed
Associated Press a week two years later. Both
after the incident. “As we battled PTSD and both
passed, they cocked their competed in the Invictus Wounded
weapons and fired.” Games in Toronto in 2017. twice himself,
He was shot twice, in The Iltis was donated Private Phillip
the back and left arm; to the museum in 1995 Badanai (ABOVE
LEFT) is credited
Tescione was wounded by the Department of
with saving the
multiple times in the head National Defence. It is an
life of Master
and arms, and in shock. iconic Canadian peace- Corporal John
Badanai drove to the keeper’s vehicle. Originally Tescione (BELOW
Advanced Surgical Centre built as the Type 183 by LEFT), who was
about 13 kilometres away, Volkswagen for the German shot in the
talking constantly to keep military, Bombardier Inc. head and arms.
Tescione conscious. secured a licence and pro-
“Phil kept on talking to me,” said Tescione. duced 2,500 vehicles in Valcourt, Que., for
He credits Badanai with saving his life. the Canadian Forces between 1984 and
Badanai was subsequently awarded the 1988. The Canadian company also sup-
Meritorious Service Medal and named plied nearly 2,700 to the Belgian Army
Peacekeeper of the Year by the UN. and some to Cameroon and Oman. L

legionmagazine.com > JULY/AUGUST 2021 87

 O CANADA By Don Gillmor

ROAD TO
CONFEDERATION
Nation-builders
in the Westminster
Palace Hotel in
In 1866, the Fathers of
Confederation—among
them John A. Macdonald, George-
1866, depicted in
Étienne Cartier, Alexander Galt and
a reproduction
to unite. One of their arguments was they
needed to protect themselves against the
already imperial-minded Americans. Added
to that threat was the fact that the British
George Brown—were in London, staying
of the painting government wanted to reduce its spending
at the Westminster Palace Hotel.
“Fathers of in the colonies, particularly on defence.
ConfederationThey were fine-tuning the British North In Charlottetown and Quebec City,
America Act which, when passed, would create
in London” by this group made eloquent pleas for their
the Dominion of Canada. At a different hotel
John David Kelly. federal dream to delegates from the
was Joseph Howe, who was colonies. There were weeks of negotiat-
trying to get Nova Scotia out of ing, creating, debating and drinking.
THERE WERE Confederation, waving a peti- The document they crafted promised peace,
WEEKS OF tion with 30,000 signatures. order and good government and was adopted
NEGOTIATING, “Macdonald was the ruling by delegates to the Quebec conference in 1864,
CREATING, genius and spokesman,” accord- with the exception of Prince Edward Island
DEBATING AND ing to Sir Frederic Rogers, the and Newfoundland. The delegates then had
Permanent Under-Secretary of to return to their own people and sell the idea.
DRINKING. State for the Colonies. But there The Fenian invasion in 1866 helped cement
were a few non-genius moments. the idea that the colonies needed to unite.
Macdonald woke up in the middle of the
night to find that both he and his bed were The bill was held up for months in the
on fire. His hair and hands were singed and British parliament and finally signed
his shoulder was burned—but he carried on. by Queen Victoria on March 29, 1867.
On July 1, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
The road to Confederation had been and the Province of Canada were pro-
*

paved with mistrust, hostilities and claimed the Dominion of Canada.

alcohol. The Fathers of Confederation
Find many were an unlikely group, divided along
more stories in political, religious and linguistic lines.
our O Canada
George Brown described Cartier as
special issues,
NOW available “that damnable little French Canadian”
in our SHOP! and Macdonald as a drunken corrup-
tionist. Macdonald responded that the
voters “would rather have a drunken
John A. Macdonald than a sober George
Brown.” They eventually got both.
Along with the Irish Catholic Thomas
D’Arcy McGee (both qualities count-
ing against him, in Brown’s view) and
others, they had to convince the colonies
A cannon was fired on the Plains of
Abraham to celebrate Confederation. In
Ottawa, the military assembled on Parliament
Hill to fire a salute. They neglected to take
the ramrods out of their rifles though, which
sailed over Sparks Street. In Toronto, they
roasted an ox in front of St. Lawrence Hall.
Confederation had been a bruising process
that left many unhappy. McGee, considered
one of the country’s greatest orators, addressed
Parliament. “What we need above all else is the
healing influence of time,” he said. A few hours
later, he was dead from an assassin’s bullet. The
great Canadian experiment was underway. L

WWW.LEGIONMAGAZINE.COM/SHOP
88 JULY/AUGUST 2021 > legionmagazine.com John David Kelly/Confederation Life Associates/LAC/3000888
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