NewmarketToday.ca brings you this weekly feature about our town's history in partnership with Richard MacLeod, the History Hound, a local historian for more than 40 years.
He conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, as well as leads local oral history interviews. You can contact the History Hound on Facebook or by email at [email protected].
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Armistice Day, Nov. 11, has arrived, and I wanted to do something related to the occasion for this weekend’s article.
The two world wars changed everything locally and it deserves to be embedded in our history, deep within our hearts long after the sounding of the last post.
When war was declared by England on Aug. 4, 1914, Newmarket quickly stepped up to take her place.
Today, we will take a quick look at what was happening on the home front during and after the war, details that you may not know.
Upon the declaration of war, the local Red Cross Society, which had retained its charter from the South African (Boer) campaign, was quickly re-organized in September 1914.
A campaign was launched locally to collect funds and, in February 1915, the Red Cross was able to buy a motor ambulance for use by our Canadian forces for $2,000. Because the monies collected were above the amount required to purchase the ambulance, a decision was made to send a nurse along as well.
Miss Olive Niles volunteered to go and help in the Canadian hospital along with many local medical staff. When the war ended, the local branch of the Red Cross was discontinued, and the Charter was returned to the Head Office in Toronto in 1920.
A Home Guard was established while a Field Comforts Committee provided comforts for the men in the field. This organization was quite separate from the Red Cross.
Ms E. Willson, part of the Society of Friends, organized a branch of the Friends’ Ambulance Corps in support of a corps of more than 300 young men and women, including many qualified medical men, who, with the sanction of the allied governments, rendered yeoman service on the battlefields, as well as in the base hospitals.
Throughout the First War, weekly meetings of the Friends’ Ambulance Corps and the Red Cross were held alternately in the various churches around Newmarket.
Upon the declaration of war, local enlistment began. On Oct. 20, 1914, Lieut.-Col. J. A. W. Allan, V. D., of Newmarket, was appointed to command the 20th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Lieut.-Col. Allan was a veteran of the North West Rebellion of 1885 and had commanded the 22nd Infantry Brigade before the outbreak of war. He remained in command of the 20th until Aug. 30, 1915.
A battalion from York County, the 127th, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Frederick Fieldhouse Clarke, was organized and mobilized in April 1916.
Mrs. Howard Cane presented the colours to “No. 2 Company, York Rangers, 127th Battalion, Newmarket and Sutton branch” at a banquet. At a public farewell held at Market Square, prominent local men, the resident clergy and the military officers, the Hon. E. J. Davis, W. A. Brunton, Col. Clarke, Col. Brown and then-mayor H. S. Cane, addressed the troops.
In his address, Mr. Cane said: “This is an historic meeting. If anyone two years ago had said that the people of York County would be sending a battalion of soldiers to fight in a foreign country we would have said, 'impossible'."
He referred to the 140 men who had gone quietly and alone with no opportunity to receive a public good-bye.
Rev. Canon McGonigle, a volunteer Chaplain with the overseas battalion, asked for divine protection for the men of the Battalion. Then the Citizen’s Band played the national anthem bringing the ceremonies to a close.
The Newmarket Era remarked in an editorial on April 7, 1916: “These are stirring times! Never was there such a war in the world’s history and never did any war strike us with the same force. Over a century ago, the woods along Yonge Street resounded with the tramp of armed men, but it was a faint tramp compared with the tramp of the 127th Battalion down Yonge Street. About fifty years ago the 12th Battalion, York Rangers, camped for two weeks on the Newmarket fairgrounds. That was the largest body of soldiers ever seen in Newmarket”.
If you read my article from a few weekends ago, you will remember that Pickering College was turned over to the Military Hospital Commission for returned soldiers in 1917.
This was a loan without charge as a patriotic and unselfish act on the part of the Board of Management and the Society of Friends and was intended as a contribution to national service to show practical sympathy with the wounded and invalided men.
My grandpa spoke of the courage exhibited by our citizens, all anxieties, fears and sacrifices being bravely accepted. Along the streets, inside the local halls, wherever people congregated, the rousing songs, It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, Rule Britannia, The Maple Leaf Forever, and the national anthem was to be heard.
Recruiting was brisk for "the war to end all wars". Even before the 127th Battalion had left Newmarket, recruiting had begun for a second overseas battalion, the 220th.
After four years of deep anxiety, on Nov. 11, 1918, an armistice was finally declared. The bells began ringing at the town bell, followed by the ringing of all the bells in town.
At 8 a.m., a proclamation was declared, a public holiday with fitting ceremonies. At 2 p.m. the whistles signaled the procession to begin preparations. When they were ready, the marshal mounted a white horse, gave the signal and everyone moved along Huron Street (Davis Drive) to Main Street.
It is said that Main Street has felt the tread of many feet, seen many thrilling processions over the years, but nothing like that day.
After four years of terrible sadness, anxieties, sacrifices, and courageous efforts, local relief and joy burst forth and filled the streets. Five thousand people had assembled at the Military Hospital (Pickering College) when the procession arrived there. The entire district was represented, including Bradford, Sharon, Queensville, Sutton, Mount Albert, Pine Orchard, and Aurora.
Cane’s delivery wagon, carrying a piano, was driven to an open space where massed church choirs led the singing, followed by a prayer by the Rev. Harry Parry, of the Society of Friends. The mayor then addressed the crowd. He reminded them that this was just a rehearsal for the time when the boys return.
No words suggesting arrogance of conquest, no pomp of power, no rattling of swords or beating of drums were offered, just words of thanks. The spirit of Canada had grown up.
By an act of Parliament, Nov. 11, Armistice Day, 1918, was re-designated Remembrance Day. A two-minute silence was reverently observed at 11 a.m., the time of the signing of the armistice.
When I was a child, the day was a holiday, a memorial service was observed on the Sunday, the preceding Saturday was Poppy Day. Services are now held uniformly on Nov. 11.
Each year, the Newmarket Veterans' Association and the Newmarket Legion, with the Citizen’s Band, paraded to the cenotaph, sculpted by Alvin Hilts, on D’Arcy Street where they lay a wreath.
At that time, they would then march to one of the churches and a special service would be held. Every June we would celebrate Decoration Sunday, and these organizations would parade to the Newmarket Cemetery where, amid masses of flowers, a solemn service was held “In Remembrance”.
This service is still held beside the plot of ground set aside by the Cemetery Company in honour of the Newmarket veterans and the Newmarket Legion. Capt. Aubrey Davis, of Davis Tannery fame, donated the flagpole.
Please get out and celebrate Remembrance Day as our ancestors did 100 years ago. It is the very least you can do.
Sources: Official Records of Newmarket Red Cross; Records of the Society of Friends, Newmarket; “The Twentieth”, by Major D. W. Corrigal, D. S. O., M. C.; Memories Courtesy of Mr. L. P. Cane; Stories of Newmarket by Robert Terence Carter; Newmarket Era; The History of Newmarket by Ethel Trewhella; The Toronto Star and; Newmarket – Some Early Memories by Elman Campbell.
