History
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The Death of Roderick Bell-Irving
Its funny what you find, looking for something else. Last week I wrote about 16th Canadian Scottish's Final Battle, one that saw the death of the second in command, Major Roderick Bell-Irving. He was the man who recommended my Grandfather for his commission, which in some ways may have saved his life, for he spent
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Into the Fray – The 16th Canadian Scottish and their final battle
This post was intended to be posted yesterday the 90th anniversary of the final battle of the 16th Battalion in the Great War, but it wasn't finished, thanks to another, um, project. It was the end of September 1918 and the 16th Canadian Scottish was preparing to do battle yet again. The final push of
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How Sir John Franklin helped furnish the White House
In 1845 Sir John Franklin and his officers and Crew set sail in two ships, HMS’s Erebus and Terror in search of the Northwest Passage. Most people know of how they disappeared into the Canadian High Arctic only to perish a long lonely way from home. Many people also know that it was the search
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Franklin,
It is always interesting to read of the modern popular take of Sir John Franklin as “unimaginative” incompetent and the author of his final Arctic Expeditions demise (see the comments in this CBC article). Franklin was chosen, partly because of lobbying, but partly because he was the British Officer with the most Arctic experience. His
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2nd Ypres – The Battle of Kitchener’s Woods
"To my infinite delight, some men came marching up in the moonlight from the end of the canal. I recognized them as the 16th Battalion, Canadian Scottish, and I called out, ‘Where are you going, boys?’ The reply came glad and cheerful, ‘We are going to reinforce the line, Sir, the Germans have broken through.’
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2nd Ypres
Ninety-three years ago today marked the start of the Second battle of Ypres in the Great War. It was one of the most significant moments in the Great War for a number of reasons. Perhaps the main reason was it marked the first large scale use of poisonous gas (not the first use, as it
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Ghosts in the rain
There was a moment, last year in France, that I imagined my Grandpa standing near me, not as a young soldier, but as the man I knew, a man revisiting a place filled with ghosts from his youth. Forty years ago he returned to Vimy, fifty-one years after the battle that must have been a
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Vimy Underground
Early in the film Vimy Underground (The History Channel – Nov. 6th, 8pm ET) Lt. Col Shane Schreiver descends into a Cavern near Neuville St Vaast France. The cavern, originally constructed by french farmers to hide in in time of war, was used by Canadian Soldiers during the Great War in the days leading up