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Updated: June 8, 2025
The Dominions at the same time declared their readiness to send additional contingents if required, as well as drafts from time to time to maintain their field forces at full strength. The first intimation that Canadian troops had been dispatched to the front from Valcartier Camp came on September 24, when the Hon.
Staff officers, Majors Dixon and Sweny, were both soon called to Valcartier to help organize the first contingent. Later, Major Sweny left for England to join his regiment, which had been ordered to the Front.
These were ominous enough: "The Germans Still Battering Liege Forts Kaiser's Army Nearing Brussels Four Millions of Men Marching on France Russia Hastening Her Mobilisation Kitchener Calls for One Hundred Thousand Men Canada Will Send Expeditionary Force of Twenty-five Thousand Men Camp at Valcartier Nearly Ready Parliament Assembles Thursday."
The greeting of the Minister of Militia, Sir Sam Hughes, as he turned from the desk where he sat in shirt-sleeves, with typewriters on all sides of him, was a cordial handshake and a slap on the back. Would I go down to the new camp at Valcartier and look after the purification of the water supply? I was delighted to get the chance.
When we arrived at Valcartier it was still raining, but the troops already there turned out and lined the roadway to cheer and see us march in. The Minister of Militia met us at the station, together with Lt.-Colonel Murphy of Ottawa, and guides led us to the lines where we were to be quartered for the night.
Finally our captain straightened us out, but the sergeant to this day has never forgotten the incident. North Bay passed, then Ottawa, Montreal, and at last we arrived at Valcartier. So far the life of a soldier had been anything but a pleasant one.
Almost purple in the face with his violence, he roared, "Put those damned hands of yours down!" and he grabbed my wrists and flopped them down. "Young lady, you'll have to take this matter up at Valcartier; there is no time to do anything now. You can go," this to me. I turned on my heel. "Here," he roared. "Don't you know enough to salute your superior officer? Salute!"
The following night on our return from an inspection of the new camp at Valcartier I stood near the citadel in Quebec watching the moving lights on the St. Lawrence far below. As I looked the flashes of a powerful searchlight swept the river, lighting up the opposite shores and playing upon the craft in the river.
He joined as a transport driver at Valcartier. He was a full-blooded Indian and very proud of it. He had left a family and a good farm to go and see some fighting for the King. When he came to see me, he said he knew our regiment would see some fighting and he wanted to go with us. I asked him if he could handle horses. He said he could so I put him into the transport to his great joy.
It lacked, perhaps, something of the wildness of the review that took place on the sandy plains of Valcartier, but it had a dignity that was very inspiring. Only the division that was actually going across was reviewed.
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