The Canadian Garrison Artillery Goes to War, 1914–1918

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the garrison artillery branch of the Canadian Militia, which played a unique part in mobilization for the First World War. It cites the legislation that limited the Canadian Militia to home defense, a role in which the garrison artillery had a leading part for the protection of sea ports and which it fulfilled throughout the war. It also talks about the siege batteries of heavy howitzers for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), the organization created in August 1914 to raise contingents for overseas service. The chapter describes officers on the rolls of the militia garrison artillery units that mobilized in 1914, which succeeded in leadership roles throughout the whole of the war. It mentions that garrison gunners benefited from an identity as an elite group of technicians especially suited for warfare in the industrial age.