15 May 21

This is a post that I wrote on my Facebook Group after a rather heated discussion with a person from another Living History Group. The point of discussion was my plan for the Last Hurrah Ride in 2018 was to ride different days kitted out as a Sapper from the principle nation involved in the battle of that day. So that could be a Canadian, Australian or British Engineer, the point being “argued” was that that wasn’t appropriate as I was British.

so here is what I posted:

Part 1 – 22 Dec 2016

A few months ago I was part of a conversation that was discussing about the fact that several of us would be badged up as Canadian Forces for the entry into Mons in Aug 2018. Now the conversation went along the lines that as we were British we shouldn’t dress up as Canadians.

Now I wanted to point out a couple points at the time but being a bit of a pedantic git I thought that I would do a bit of research to justify my line of logic. So this is the first part:

Prior to the Great War the Canadian Forces were split into 2 parts, the Permanent Force of 3000 men and the Militia of 75,000. the militia was set up across Canada to provide defence. When war broke out Canada’s forces were not set up to deploy to overseas as a standing force so volunteers were needed.

In August 1914 the Governor General authorised the raising of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). There was a rush of volunteers, probably helped by high national unemployment and by Oct 14 a force of 36,267 deployed to Europe. While all were Canadian Citizens, their origins by place of birth was made up as follows

Canadians 30% English 42% Scottish 15% Irish 6% Welsh 1% United States of America 0.4% Not Stated 5.6%

The CEF had developed into the Canadian Corps by Aug 16, with 4 Divisions in the Field and a further Division in training in England. By the end of the War Canada had provided 424,589 personnel for overseas service. The breakdown of those troops was:

Canadians 47% Newfoundlanders 0.5% English 30% Scots 9.3% Irish 3.4% Welsh 0.9% Other British 1.1% (people from other areas of the empire such as Bermuda) USA 4.7% Other 2.9%

So from this info, there was a lot of Brits in Canadian Uniform, all wearing the Maple Leaf in some form. Canada was an important part of the Empire and its efforts in the great war secured it’s place at the forefront of the empire. So based on the figures above I’m comfortable with representing the Canadians as we ride into Mons.

Part 2 – Canadian Engineers.

As I have posted before there is a relationship between the Royal Engineers, Royal Canadian Engineers and the Canadian Engineers.

As mentioned before the Canadian Army prior to the great war was comprised of 2 elements the Permanent Force was the regular troops and the Militia Force which was similar to the Territorial Force in Britain. The Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE) was the Sapper element of the Permanent Force while the Canadian Engineers was Sapper force in the Militia.

The following information comes from the Annual Review of the Canadian Permanent Force for 31 Mar 1914. At this time the Permanent Force was 3000 men strong of which there was 297 that Royal Canadian Engineers, this was made up as follows:

Officers 26 Warrant Officers 10 NCOs & men 261

of this group there was 4 officers on attachment to the Royal Engineers, 1 Major and 3 Lieutenants

In addition to the 26 Officers on the force, there was a number of officers under training, some in Canada but 9 RCE Lieutenants were attending training at the School of Military Engineering (SME) at Chatham England.

The Canadian Permanent Force also had a number of British Army personnel on load, 7 Officers and 13 NCOs, of these 2 were Royal Engineers Officers and several of the NCOs were Sappers from the Topographic Section involved in the Mapping vast areas of Canada.

The British Royal Engineers were attached to the Staff of various Headquarters and as such were granted temporary commissions in the Canadian Militia for the tenure of their attachment. So what we have is :

• Lieutenant WG Tyrrell RE, Brevet Captain in the Canadian Militia was the Commander Royal Canadian Engineers for 4th Division Canadian Permanent Force until September 1913.
• Major W Robertson RE, Temporary Commission in the Canadian Militia was the General Staff Officer Grade 2 ,of 5 Division Canadian Permanent Force Until Oct 1913.

What we have here is the fact that we have cross over, exchanges and attachments between the Royal Engineers, Royal Canadian Engineers and the Canadian Engineers.

When the CEF mobilised all 3 groups were deployed but as the CEF and Canadian Corps grew the Canadian Engineers was the pro-dominant Badge used for Canadian Sappers.

Just as a final example of the cross over between Sapper units and forces:

• The British unit of 7 Field Company Royal Engineers was commanded by a Canadian Engineer, badged at the time as a Royal Engineer, in early 1918 through to the end of the war by an officer called Major McGill RE – no relation to the best of my knowledge. (Information taken from the diary of Lieutenant Glubb RE – later to be known as Glubb Pasha for his work with the Jordanian Army post WW2)

So we can see there is a good history of cross over between all the Sapper forces of Britain and Canada. To that end I am very content that I can wear the Cap Badge of the Canadian Engineers of 1918 and pay tribute to the Sappers that helped liberate the city of Mons and I’ll be more than happy to lay a wreath on behalf of my Canadian Sapper mates that I have served alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan – CHIMO