Black Canadians in Uniform - First World War
No. 2 Construction Battalion members in 1917.
Like so many others swept up in the excitement and patriotism that the First World War (1914-1918) initially brought on, young Black Canadians were eager to serve King and country. At the time, however, the prejudiced attitudes of many of the people in charge of military enlistment made it very difficult for these men to join the Canadian Army. Despite the barriers, some Black Canadians did manage to join up during the opening years of the war. Black Canadians wanted the chance to do their part on a larger scale, however, and pressured the government to do so.
On July 5, 1916, the No. 2 Construction Battalion was formed in Pictou, Nova Scotia—the first large Black military unit in Canadian history. Recruitment took place across the country and more than 600 men were eventually accepted, most from Nova Scotia, with others coming from New Brunswick, Ontario, the West and even some from the United States. The Black Battalion’s chaplain was Reverend William White, who had also played a leading role getting the unit formed. He was given the rank of Honourary Captain—one of the few Black commissioned officers to serve in the Canadian Army during the war.
The segregated battalion was tasked with non-combat support roles. After initial service in Canada, the battalion boarded the SS Southland bound for Liverpool, England in March 1917. Its members were sent to eastern France later in 1917 where they served honourably with the Canadian Forestry Corps. There they helped provide the lumber required to maintain trenches on the front lines, as well as helped construct roads and railways. After the end of the First World War in November 1918, the men sailed to Halifax in early 1919 to return to civilian life and the unit was officially disbanded in 1920.
In addition to the men of the Black Battalion, an estimated 2,000 Black Canadians, such as James Grant, Roy Fells, Seymour Tyler, Jeremiah Jones and Curly Christian, were determined to get to the front lines and managed to join regular units, going on to give distinguished service that earned some of them medals for bravery.
Black Canadians also made important contributions on the home front. They helped achieve victory by working in factories making the weapons and supplies needed by the soldiers fighting overseas, and by taking part in patriotic activities like raising funds for the war effort.
Today, the dedicated service of the "Black Battalion" and other Black Canadians who fought in the First World War is remembered and celebrated as a cornerstone of the proud tradition of Black military service in our country.
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Women in Uniform – First World War
Nurses at No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station, July 1916
When Britain declared war on the German Empire, Canada was automatically compelled to fight alongside Britain in the Great War of 1914-18. At the beginning of the war there were five Permanent Force nurses and 57 listed in reserve. By 1917, the Canadian Army Nursing Service included 2,030 nurses (1,886 overseas) with 203 on reserve. In total, 3,141 Canadian nurses volunteered their services. Because of their blue dresses and white veils they were nicknamed the "bluebirds," and for their courage and compassion they received the admiration of many soldiers.
The First World War saw great courage and sacrifice on the part of many nurses, such as Britain’s Edith Cavell. She was a nurse who remained in Brussels, Belgium, after the Germans occupied the city early in the war, tending to wounded soldiers of all countries. However, in addition to this work, Cavell helped captured British, French and Belgian soldiers escape to the neutral Netherlands (where most would eventually make it to England). When her activities were discovered, she was executed as a spy, but not before she helped about 200 men escape the Germans.
Canadian Nursing Sisters working amongst the 1st Canadian General Hospital, Étaples, which was bombed by the Germans. Three Nursing Sisters killed, June 1918.
In many ways, the First World War was a time of great change and innovation in the field of military medical services. At first, medical units were set up in hospitals. However, the eventual establishment of Casualty Clearing Stations provided faster and more effective treatment to the injured at the front line.
The Casualty Clearing Station was an advance unit, situated close to the front line, where ambulances could deliver the wounded to be assessed, treated or evacuated to one of the many hospitals. The early stage assessment and treatment available at these units proved very effective in the efficient handling of large groups of battle injuries thatoccurred at the front. At the same time, however, the proximity to the fighting exposed the Nursing Sisters to the horrors and dangers particular to the front. The advance areas were often under attack from air raids and shell fire, frequently placing the lives of the sisters in danger. As well, the Casualty Clearing Stations were often plagued with the same aggravations of front line life; many nurses reported that rats and fleas were constant plagues.
The dangers of working in an advance area were not restricted to the land operations. One of the innovations of the First World War Medical Services was the introduction of the hospital ship. These ships were also subject to the dangers of enemy attack. On the night of June 27, 1918, the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed by a German U-boat and 234 people lost their lives, including all 14 sisters on board.
In France, as well as Africa and the Mediterranean, the nurses had to deal not only with an exhausting workload, but often under extremely primitive working conditions and desperate climatic extremes. This was the pre-antibiotics age and, as was the case during the South African conflict, the ranks of the injured were swelled by infection and outbreaks of diseases such as meningitis. In spite of these challenges, the Canadian Nursing Sisters were able to provide comfort to the sick and injured.
A total of 3,141 Nursing Sisters served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and 2,504 of those served overseas in England, France and the Eastern Mediterranean at Gallipoli, Alexandria and Salonika. By the end of the First World War, approximately 45 Nursing Sisters had given their lives, dying from enemy attacks including the bombing of a hospital and the sinking of a hospital ship, or from disease. The beautiful Nursing Sisters’ Memorial in the Hall of Honour in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa is a loving tribute to their service, sacrifice and heroism.
Canadian Nursing Sisters, May 1917.
Nursing Sister Christine Macdonald (second from left). Christmas in a field hospital in France, with US Medical Unit as guests of Canadian Army Medical Corps.
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Aboriginals in Uniform - First World War
Joseph Bomberry (left) and George Buck, from the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, were two of at least 4,000 Canadian Indians who left their homes to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War.
(Woodland Cultural Centre)
For four short years our sons fought in European trenches beside their sons, our blood mingled with theirs, as for four hundred years in a different way our bloods had mixed. Four thousand of our Native brothers and now grandfathers saw the European homeland through the sights of rifles and the roar of cannon. Hundreds are buried in that soil, away from the lands of their birth. These Native warriors accounted well for themselves, and the Allied cause. . . .They were courageous, intelligent and proud carriers of the shield.6
The Response
One in three was the proportion of able-bodied Canadian Indian men, of age to serve, who enlisted during the First World War.7 Many Natives lived in isolated areas of the country, where the guns of Europe were especially distant. Yet, approximately 4,000 Canadian Indians left their homes and families to help fight an international war that raged in European battlefields.
One year into the war, Duncan Campbell Scott, the Deputy Superintendent General of the Department of Indian Affairs, reported the Indian response:
I have pleasure in drawing attention to the fact that the participation of Great Britain in the war has occasioned expressions of loyalty from the Indians, and the offer of contributions from their funds toward the general expenses of the war or toward the Patriotic Fund. Some bands have also offered the services of their warriors if they should be needed.8
Scott would make similar statements in Indian Affairs' annual reports for the next five years, as his employees across the country noted increases in both the number of Indian recruits and the amount of money donated by reserve communities.
James Moses of Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve, served in both the infantry and air services. In 1918, the aircraft from which he was observing was shot down over France. Both pilot and observer were reported missing in action. (Russ Moses)
Despite these reports, the total number of Native volunteers is unknown.9 In late 1915, regional officials of the Department of Indian Affairs were instructed to complete and submit "Return of Indian Enlistments" forms. However, in his annual reports, Scott stated that not all of the Indian recruits had been identified. Furthermore, since his department's main concern was Status Indians, its records rarely took into account the number of Inuit, Métis and other Canadian Natives who signed up. Enlistments in the territories and in Newfoundland (which had not yet entered Confederation) were also not recorded. It is safe to say that more than 4,000 Natives enlisted.
The Canadian Government, headed by Prime Minister Robert Borden, had not expected that so many Aboriginal people would volunteer. At first, it had hoped to discourage Native enlistment and initially adopted a policy of not allowing Indians to serve overseas. The policy stemmed from a belief that the enemy considered Natives to be "savage," and a fear that this stereotyped view would result in the inhumane treatment of any Aboriginal people who were taken prisoner.10 However, the policy was not strictly enforced and was cancelled in late 1915 because of the large number of enlistment applications from Indians, as well as the Allies' pressing need for more troops.
Support from Native communities for the Allied war effort was by no means unanimous. For example, some band councils refused to help the Allied war effort unless Great Britain acknowledged their bands' status as independent nations. Such recognition was not granted.
Additionally, following the Canadian government's introduction of conscription—compulsory military service—in August 1917, many Indian leaders insisted that Indians should be excluded. In the past, during the negotiation of Indian treaties, some Western chiefs had requested and received assurances from the British Government that Indians would not have to fight for Great Britain if it entered into a war.11 The government was reminded of these promises many times and, in January 1918, exempted Indians from combatant duties through an Order-in-Council.
Five Indian volunteers from Saskatchewan. Joseph Dreaver (back row, far left) later became chief of the Mistawasis Band and would volunteer to serve in the Second World War as well, as would Louis Arcand (front row, right) of the Muskeg Lake Band.
(Gladys Johnston)
On a voluntary basis, however, Native enthusiasm for the war effort was evident across Canada. Some reserves were nearly depleted of young men. For example, only three men of the Algonquin of Golden Lake Band who were fit and who were of age to serve remained on their reserve.12 Roughly half of the eligible Mi' kmaq and Maliseet men of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia signed up, and, although small, Saskatchewan's File Hills community offered practically all of its eligible men. In British Columbia, the Head of the Lake Band saw every single man between the ages of 20 and 35 volunteer.
In Winnipeg, one newspaper reported that "thirty descendants of Métis who fought at the side of Louis Riel in 1869-70 . . . have just enlisted at Qu'Appelle. They are all members of the Society of French-Canadian Métis of that place. Their names are inscribed on the [Society's] roll of honour."13
News of the war did not easily reach some Canadian Native communities. Reserves in the Yukon and Northwest Territories and in northern sections of the provinces had fewer transportation and communication links with the rest of Canada. Natives living in these areas were often unaware of the war or were unable to enlist without great effort. Nevertheless, at least 15 Inuit—or people having some Inuit ancestry—from Labrador joined the 1st Newfoundland Regiment.14 As well, approximately 100 Ojibwa from isolated areas north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, made their way to the nearest recruiting centre, in Port Arthur or Fort William.15 Many of them served in the 52nd Canadian Light Infantry Battalion—and at least six were awarded medals for bravery.
One recruit with the 52nd, William Semia, a trapper for the Hudson's Bay Company and a member of the Cat Lake Band in Northern Ontario, spoke neither English nor French when he enlisted. Undeterred, he learned English from another Indian volunteer and later was often responsible for drilling platoons.
William Semia spoke no English when he joined the 52nd Battalion. He learned the language from another Aboriginal volunteer and later used it to drill platoons. (Library and Archives Canada/C-68913)
Although its council opposed reserve enlistment, the Iroquois Six Nations of the Grand River south of Brantford, Ontario, provided more soldiers than any other Canadian Indian band. Approximately 300 went to the front. In addition, members of this reserve, the most populous in Canada, donated hundreds of dollars to help war orphans in Britain and for other war-relief purposes.
Many of the Six Nations volunteers were originally members of the 37th Haldimand Rifles, a regiment in the non-permanent active militia based on the reserve. It provided most of the members of the 114th Canadian Infantry Battalion, which had recruited throughout the area. Joining the Grand River volunteers in this battalion were 50 Mohawks from Kahnawake, Quebec, and several Mohawks from Akwesasne. Some Natives from Western Ontario and Manitoba also became members. In the end, two of its companies, officers included, were composed entirely of Indians. In recognition of its large Indian make-up, the battalion adopted a crest featuring two crossed tomahawks below the motto, "For King and Country." As well, members of the Six Nations Women's Patriotic League embroidered a 114th flag, which they adorned with Iroquoian symbols.
Soon after it arrived in Great Britain in 1916, the 114th was disbanded to serve as reinforcements. Several of its members ended up with the 107th Battalion, a Winnipeg unit that went overseas with hundreds of Indians from the Prairies and became first a pioneer battalion16 and then part of an engineering brigade composed of more than 500 Native members.17
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Japanese Canadians in Uniform - First World War
Veterans at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Vancouver, 1939. Photo courtesy of Lieutenant-Colonel Roy Kawamoto, Kelowna, BC.
Resolutely determined to serve their country despite not being fully recognized as equal citizens, 222 Japanese Canadian soldiers overcame prejudice and barriers to enlistment and fought for Canada on the Western Front of the First World War between 1916 and 1918.
Within days of the declaration of war by Great Britain and her Empire against Germany in 1914, members of the Japanese-Canadian community volunteered in recruiting offices in British Columbia to fight in the western European theatre. Initially refused entry to the Canadian Army, the volunteers were subsequently organized into a battalion by the Canadian Japanese Association and professionally trained, but the Canadian government, catering to domestic feelings, refused to mobilize these troops. By joining units in various provinces, 222 Japanese Canadians fought with distinction on the Western Front, where they initially confronted anti-Asian prejudice but earned the respect of their commanders and fellow soldiers while they battled enemy forces. Tragically, nearly one-fourth of them were killed in action and 92 were wounded.
Excluded by law from the right to vote, returning Japanese Canadian veterans pointed to their war service as a practical reason why this marginalized community should be granted the vote after the end of hostilities. Building on their contribution to the war effort, the surviving Japanese Canadian veterans launched a concerted grass-roots campaign in 1920 to gain the franchise which, by law, they had previously been barred from exercising in provincial, and hence also in federal elections. They continued this campaign through the 1920s, especially through the efforts of British Columbia Branch No. 9 of the Canadian Legion, which the Japanese Canadian veterans formed in 1926. In 1931, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia voted to enfranchise the Japanese-Canadian veterans and, within 18 years, all Asian-Canadians received the full rights of Canadian citizenship. These new voters and those who followed could look to the sacrifices of the Japanese Canadian soldiers during the First World War who paved the way for their attainment of citizenship, while all Canadians should celebrate the achievement of equal rights by Asian Canadians.