Nova Scotia's Part in the Great War

Col. R. W. Rutherford, G.O.C.; Col. W. W. Humphrey, A.O.C.; Major R. J. Hayter, G.S.O.; Major A. H. W. Powell, D.A.A. & Q.M.G.; Major W. Gibsone, D.A.A. & Q.M.G. Fortress.

The 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles was recruited from the different Maritime Provinces Militia Cavalry Regiments—“A” Squadron from the 8th P.L.F. (headquarters Sackville, N.B.), an...

The 9th Canadian Siege Battery was composed of officers and men belonging to the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery. Most of the N.C.O/s and men came from Nos. 1 and 2 Companies,...

The proposal to recruit a purely Nova Scotian Artillery Unit originated when four young officers had just completed their training with the Royal School of Artillery at Halifax....

The 17th Battery had the unique distinction of being the only combatant Militia Unit in Nova Scotia to be accepted as a Unit of the Canadian Expeditionary Force for service Over...

In November, 1914, Lieut.-Col. T. M. Seeley, of Yarmouth, N.S. (O.C. 11th Brigade, C.F.A.), was commissioned to organize the 23rd Battery of Field Artillery, to represent the Ma...

The 36th Battery was formed in Sydney in September, 1915, Major Walter Crowe being the organizer and leading spirit in it. The rush of applications for positions in the Battery...

The 14th Brigade, C.F.A., was organized in the spring of 1916 and was part of the 4th Division Artillery, which trained at Petawawa in the summer of 1916. The 14th Brigade, unde...

The Royal Canadian Regiment was raised on December 21, 1883, as a Unit of the new Canadian Permanent Force, for the instruction of the Canadian Militia by establishing schools o...

When war clouds lowered on the European horizon in July, 1914, it would have been strange had the men of Pictou County, Nova Scotia, not been among the first to recognize their...

In endeavoring to write this brief account of the organization, training and operations of the first Battalion of Nova Scotians to be raised and equipped in their own Province a...

The 40th Battalion was authorized January 1, 1915, under the command of Lieut.-Col. W. H. Gibsone (R.C.R.). As the men were recruited, detachments were formed at McNab’s Island,...

The 64th Battalion was authorized in June, 1915, and mobilized at Sussex, N.B., August 15th, 1915. It was originally intended that this should be a Highland Battalion raised in...

The first distinctly Highland Battalion to be organized in Nova Scotia for active service Overseas in the late War was the 85th Battalion, Nova Scotia Highlanders. The Battalion...

The 106th Battalion, Nova Scotia Rifles, was authorized on November 8, 1915, and recruiting commenced at once. Being the first Rifle Battalion recruited in the Maritime Province...

Authority for the recruiting of the 112th Battalion, with headquarters in the historic town of Windsor, N.S., was granted in November, 1915. Its personnel was composed of office...

It is a difficult task indeed to compress a history of the 185th Battalion into the space allotted for the purpose in this book. It is a difficult task, because, if we exclude t...

The 193rd Battalion was authorized on January 27, 1916, and John Stanfield, M.P. for Colchester, in the Dominion House of Commons, was gazetted Lieut.-Colonel and appointed Comm...

In the limited space allowed for this article it is necessary to omit references to the stirring events which marked the recruiting of the Battalions of the Nova Scotia Highland...

The 246th Battalion was authorized in August, 1916, as a Reserve Unit to supply reinforcements to the Nova Scotia Highland Brigade. It was organized at Camp Aldershot a short ti...

No. 2 Construction Battalion was authorized on July 5, 1916. Mr. D. H. Sutherland, of River John, N.S., a well-known railroad contractor, who had enlisted in the 193rd Overseas...

“H.M. Government would be grateful if the Canadian Government would assist in the production of timber for war purposes. Owing to the very serious shortage of freight for muniti...

During the early part of 1918 when the Germans were making their last great drive, few people realized that preparations were already made for the demobilization of the Canadian...

In the lexicon of the Army Service Corps, the word “impossible” does not exist. It was this spirit, insistently inculcated since the organization of the Corps in 1902, that made...

On the outbreak of hostilities the Canadian Ordnance Corps had a strength of four officers, fifty-five other ranks and thirteen civilians. It was very soon apparent that the Ord...

“Men whisper that our arm is weak, Men say our blood is cold, And that our hearts no longer speak That clarion note of old; But let the spear and sword draw near The sleeping li...

That Dental Services are a necessity in the army is one of the many lessons taught us by the War and it has been amply proved that the Canadian Army Dental Corps was responsible...

Before the outbreak of the War in 1914 the Canadian Army Pay Corps had only sufficient Staff to deal with the small permanent force, of which it was an integral part. When the C...

Lord Kitchener once remarked—in reply to a question—“The Front is where a soldier is ordered to be.” In accordance with this, those men whose duties necessitated their being ret...

The Corps of Canadian Engineers has no local connection with any Province in the same way that Infantry Regiments and Battalions have. At the end of the War in France it consist...

The following memorandum was prepared to bring to the attention of the Minister of Militia and Militia Council some facts and figures respecting the services of the Militia of C...

This Unit was organized in 1869 for the purpose of assisting the Regular Forces of the Garrison of Halifax in manning the Forts. The Regiment has always been at a high state of...

The 11th Brigade was the junior Artillery Brigade of the 6th Military District. It comprised in addition to the Headquarters Staff, the 27th (Digby) Battery, the 28th (Pictou) B...

The 63rd Regiment, Halifax Rifles, was first organized as a Regiment in 1860, under the title of “The Halifax Volunteer Battalion.” The Volunteer Companies which then composed t...

Following Great Britain’s declaration of war against Germany on August 4, 1914, the 66th Regiment, Princess Louise Fusiliers, immediately paraded at the Halifax Armories and the...

Much has been written of what was done by Canadian Units in France and Belgium, but little has been said of the Units compelled to remain on home service, which had to content t...

The Composite Battalion was formed at Halifax from Companies drawn from the Militia Regiments of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to replace the Royal Canadia...

This Unit was authorized on September 25, 1917, for the purpose of looking after the draftees under the Military Service Act. Lieut.-Col. H. Flowers, formerly of the 64th and 25...

In the spring of 1915, when the casualties of the Canadian Overseas Forces commenced returning to Canada, the best methods of dealing with them had to be considered. The first m...

In common with other universities in the Empire, Acadia emptied her halls when the call to duty came. Her ideals had always been those directly opposed to war, but to carry out...

The activities of Dalhousie University in connection with the Great War may be considered under the following headings, (1) The Activities of the C.O.T.C.; (2) The Dalhousie Uni...

The University of King’s College at Windsor, N.S., has always been small in numbers, but always big in the spirit it has displayed and in the type of men it has fostered.

In the Great War students, past and present, of St. Francis Xavier University served in every branch of the Forces of Canada, and in the armies and navies of Great Britain, Fran...

Ministers of the Gospel are the avowed ambassadors of the Prince of Peace; and it is so constantly their task to allay the passions of the human heart and to preach universal lo...

The number of men of military age in Canada at the outbreak of the War was approximately 1,720,000, and of this Nova Scotia’s quota was 53,500. As the War progressed it was deci...

The importance of the work done in Military District No. 6 during the period of the Great War is doubtless not realized by the public, other than those who were directly interes...

A brief history of the work of the Shell Committee, its organization, and the part played by the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company in producing munitions during the first two a...

Demobilization, following a war of such length and intensity as that of the Four Years’ War from August, 1914, to November, 1918, is not a mere problem of repatriation, it is a...

The aftermath of the Great War, which virtually ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918, should be historically different from the social and economic muddles and messes w...

The Nova Scotia Branch of the Canadian Patriotic Fund was organized in Halifax, September 2, 1914, with the late Lieutenant-Governor Hon. James D. MacGregor as Chairman of the P...

R. H. Metzler. P. R. Jack. W. B. Milner. A. F. Mackintosh. H. M. Bradford. R. W. Elliott. B. G. Burrill. W. F. Mahon. W. I. MacDougall. H. C. Coughtry.

The Red Cross has been the Angel of Mercy to the soldier lying on his fevered couch in hospital, for it brought to him succor and a message of hope and cheer. But coming in cont...

Until the spring of 1918, the war work of the Knights of Columbus in Nova Scotia consisted in aiding the work carried on at St. Mary’s Army and Navy Club at Halifax, and in send...

For years previous to the Declaration of War, the Y.M.C.A. carried on its work in the summer Militia Camps; consequently the War did not find the Association without some idea o...

The splendid service performed by the Halifax Citizens’ Returned Soldiers’ Reception Committee had its inception in the fall of 1916, when Mr. P. F. Martin, at that time Mayor o...

The first branch of the St. John Ambulance Brigade Overseas established in Nova Scotia was organized in June, 1916, as the Halifax Central Nursing Division No. 17, with Mrs. Bow...

[A description of the work done by each of the churches in Nova Scotia would require a book in itself. The following article on the activities of St. Matthew’s Church, Halifax,...