The 15th Field Brigade, Canadian Artillery:
A History and Commentary 1919-1933
A History and Commentary 1919-1933
By Lieut. –Colonel C.G. Beeston, R.C.A.
This was their story,
This was their song,
Halt, Action, Front,
Limber, drive on.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1919 every train to Vancouver brought its little band of pilgrims, linked together under the term, which then arose and still remains – “Returned Men.” One by one since that bewildering week of August 1914, they had swelled the ranks as inclination and circumstances had moved or permitted. In the interval their fortune and experience had both differed and resembled greatly, and now they stood together with a common urge and need. Self expression sought self government, and so across the land there sprang up associations of every arm and service. Probably the last thing they ever pictured was a return to khaki, and yet it was from one of these such groups that this Brigade was formed.
Behold, therefore, the “Vancouver Overseas Artillery Association.” Its name was large and its life was small, but it served to make friendships which have never changed. At first we met as tenants of the “Army and Navy Veterans” and having but limited privileges in the social life of our hosts, we seemed to divide our time between long rituals for departed comrades and long telegrams to Parliament. That sort of thing cannot last forever, and we should probably have disbanded much sooner, had it not been for a similar affair founded by the Engineers. They had bravely taken unto themselves quarters of their own and were struggling with the rapid succession of laws which then governed the sale of beer by the glass. They needed members and they sought us in that disarming manner which had so often forestalled a demand for further sand bags. The terms of union were embodied in a document which recited that “the parties hereto have in the past Great War had much in common” and it is interesting to recall that one of the signatories was Lieut.-Col. F.T. Coghlan, D.S.O.
We styled it “The Gunners and Sappers” and never was an ex-service group conducted with such harmony and friendship. Good fellows, were those Sappers, and it was with regret that, after about a year, we decided that falling membership and other ties must bring the club to its close. It served many needs in that period of adjustment and not the least lay in keeping together a number of artillery officers and N.C.O.’s. The founders of this Brigade were nearly all members of that club and a few of them still remain. The “Gunners and Sappers” deserves its little place.
Canada was reforming her militia after a complete rest from such matters of nearly five years. A Board of Officers toured the country, sorting out claims to war-time honours, and in the fall of 1919 in the D.C.O.R. Mess at Vancouver they met representatives of all arms, who pressed for recognition. Re-organization presented little difficulty to the Artillery and for a very simple reason: Vancouver had, through the 68th depot, trained upwards of two thousand gunners, and yet no single overseas battery claimed the city as its own. Lieut.-Colonels of Infantry were by no means rarae aves in our midst, but it is noteworthy that no officer holding such rank in the C.E.F. Artillery was forthcoming.
The question of quarters then arose and it is amazing to recall some of the pious requests made to the travelling Board. One enthusiast had informed them that the men must have a swimming pool. There were none in the building that fell to our lot. It had the advantage of a riding ring and stopped at that. Damply hot in summer, misty and leaky in winter, filled with gloomy rows of dusty, unsafe galleries, reeking first of horse manure and later of carbolic acid, it was our home for twelve years. We worked in it, we played in it, and we grew to regard it with that strong affection which made the Belgian Peasantry cling to their hovels under shell fire.
The 15th Field Brigade, Canadian Artillery: A History and Commentary 1919-1933 By Lieut. –Colonel C.G. Beeston, R.C.A.
This was their story,
This was their song,
Halt, Action, Front,
Limber, drive on.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1919 every train to Vancouver brought its little band of pilgrims, linked together under the term, which then arose and still remains – “Returned Men.” One by one since that bewildering week of August 1914, they had swelled the ranks as inclination and circumstances had moved or permitted. In the interval their fortune and experience had both differed and resembled greatly, and now they stood together with a common urge and need. Self expression sought self government, and so across the land there sprang up associations of every arm and service. Probably the last thing they ever pictured was a return to khaki, and yet it was from one of these such groups that this Brigade was formed.
Behold, therefore, the “Vancouver Overseas Artillery Association.” Its name was large and its life was small, but it served to make friendships which have never changed. At first we met as tenants of the “Army and Navy Veterans” and having but limited privileges in the social life of our hosts, we seemed to divide our time between long rituals for departed comrades and long telegrams to Parliament. That sort of thing cannot last forever, and we should probably have disbanded much sooner, had it not been for a similar affair founded by the Engineers. They had bravely taken unto themselves quarters of their own and were struggling with the rapid succession of laws which then governed the sale of beer by the glass. They needed members and they sought us in that disarming manner which had so often forestalled a demand for further sand bags. The terms of union were embodied in a document which recited that “the parties hereto have in the past Great War had much in common” and it is interesting to recall that one of the signatories was Lieut.-Col. F.T. Coghlan, D.S.O.
We styled it “The Gunners and Sappers” and never was an ex-service group conducted with such harmony and friendship. Good fellows, were those Sappers, and it was with regret that, after about a year, we decided that falling membership and other ties must bring the club to its close. It served many needs in that period of adjustment and not the least lay in keeping together a number of artillery officers and N.C.O.’s. The founders of this Brigade were nearly all members of that club and a few of them still remain. The “Gunners and Sappers” deserves its little place.
Canada was reforming her militia after a complete rest from such matters of nearly five years. A Board of Officers toured the country, sorting out claims to war-time honours, and in the fall of 1919 in the D.C.O.R. Mess at Vancouver they met representatives of all arms, who pressed for recognition. Re-organization presented little difficulty to the Artillery and for a very simple reason: Vancouver had, through the 68th depot, trained upwards of two thousand gunners, and yet no single overseas battery claimed the city as its own. Lieut.-Colonels of Infantry were by no means rarae aves in our midst, but it is noteworthy that no officer holding such rank in the C.E.F. Artillery was forthcoming.
The question of quarters then arose and it is amazing to recall some of the pious requests made to the travelling Board. One enthusiast had informed them that the men must have a swimming pool. There were none in the building that fell to our lot. It had the advantage of a riding ring and stopped at that. Damply hot in summer, misty and leaky in winter, filled with gloomy rows of dusty, unsafe galleries, reeking first of horse manure and later of carbolic acid, it was our home for twelve years. We worked in it, we played in it, and we grew to regard it with that strong affection which made the Belgian Peasantry cling to their hovels under shell fire.
The 15th Field Brigade, Canadian Artillery: A History and Commentary 1919-1933 By Lieut. –Colonel C.G. Beeston, R.C.A.