World War I in Canada

World War I in Canada

Tanks were first used at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, September 1916. The British government sent this Mark IV tank ”Britannia” to Canada in 1917 for the Victory Loan Campaign. Victory Loan bonds offered a 5,5 percent return over five, ten or twenty years. A 50-dollar bond was introduced to encourage wide participation. The government hoped to raise $150 million, but the loan was oversubscribed reaching $398 million. The money was used both for Canadian war production and to provide credit for Allied purchases of wheat and other goods.

British tank Britannia taking part in the Victory Loan Parade on Sherbrooke Street, Montreal. Anonymous, November 19th, 1917. Photograph, Department of National Defense, Library and Archives Canada.

The history of the 163rd Battailion, known as the Poil-aux-Pattes (Narry Paws), is interwined with the story of Olivar Asselin's decision to enlist and raise a battalion of young French Canadians for overseas service. Asselin, one of the founders of the nationalist movement, was devoting considerable energy to the defence of French language rights in Ontario when, on November 15th 1915, he agreed to recruit a new French Canadian battalion. Asselin was a secular, anti-clerical nationalist with a deep love for France. He told a mass meeting at the Monumen National Theater, that the defeat of France “would condemn us her children in North America to drag out henceforth diminished lives.” The 163rd trained in Bermuda before sailing to England where it was disbanded and used for reinforcements.

163rd Batallion.

Recrutement in Québec focused on Montréal. Nineteen infantry battalions, as well as a pioneer battalion, reinforcing companies, artillery regiments and other units sought volunteers. As many as one in three men were rejected for health or fitness reasons, and by mid-1916 there were few men available who were willing to serve.

150th Mont Royal Carabiniers Recruiting Poster. 1914-1915.

Many of Québec's Irish Catholics had intermarried and assimilated with their French-speaking co-religionists, but a thriving Irish Catholic community – 30 000 strong-lived in Montreal, maintaining their identification as Irish Canadians. Concentrated in Pointe-Saint-Charles and Griffintowm they maintained their own parishes, schools and colleges. With the outbreak of war, a new militia regiment, the Irish Canadian Rangers, was organized and in early 1916 it became the core of the 199th overseas battalion. As is evident in the recruiting posters, Irish Montreal supported Home Rule for Ireland, as well as the war effort. After a tour of Ireland and a brief period with the 5th Canadian Division in England, the 199th was disbanded, with officers and men joining the reinforcement stream.

All in One with the Irish Canadian Rangers 199th Overseas Battalion. 1914-1918. Lithograph. Library and Archives Canada, 1983-28-888.