A living history of Canada’s war effort a century later
A hundred years ago, a young Canada was engaged in one of the deadliest global conflicts the world has ever witnessed.
The Great War, as it was known then, lasted over four years (191418) and eventually claimed the lives of nine million combatants, including more than 60,000 Canadians.
Those staggering numbers still leave us numb a century later. The last known surviving veteran of the Canadian military from the First World War was John Babcock who died in 2010 at the age of 109.
But the wartime memories and experiences of those who served are being carefully preserved at the new Canadian Centre for the Great War, which will be officially launched Friday at its home in a refurbished old factory in St-Henri, next to the Lachine Canal.
The centre’s director is Mark Cahill, a 52-year-old Montreal entrepreneur who spent more than a decade travelling the world collecting military memorabilia from the First World War.
The result of Cahill’s pack-rat “obsession” has culminated in a significant collection of more than 3,000 artifacts which, he figures, rivals most other private collections specializing in Canada’s oftunsung war effort.
The centre is not so much your typical museum time-capsule as it is an ambitious attempt to celebrate endearing stories of individual soldiers through photos, diaries, medals and old military uniforms.
Guided tours are provided by Caitlin Bailey, the centre’s curator who’s woven together compelling narratives for many of the flown souls on display.
“We try to take the individuals out of the greater context of the war and put them into a specific type of display, and we’re able to tell a much more interesting story,” Cahill said.
“We get to tell a better story, rather than this big regimental story or the story of a battle. We like to tell a little story.”
One such yarn involves Clarence “Buster” Booth of Montreal, a bugler and drummer with the 24th Battalion band of the Victoria Rifles. “He was 21 and lived on Jeanne Mance St.,” said Cahill. “One day a lady walked in with a whole box (of his stuff ). We found all kinds of photos, but you rarely get diaries from enlisted men, and Buster has this wonderful little diary where he was talking about things being really fun at the beginning and very joyous. Later on in the diary, he says, ‘Heavy bombardment ... three others killed.’”
Like thousands of other First World War soldiers, Booth suffered from “shell shock” during the war, Bailey noted.
Another prized possession is a wooden trunk belonging to Brig.Gen. Herbert Stanley Birkett which Cahill found while rummaging in the basement of St. George’s Anglican Church, across from Windsor Station.
“It was completely covered with mud, but I love boxes, so I pulled it out,” Cahill said. “We cleaned it up and (found) it belonged to H. S. Birkett. He was in charge of the third Canadian General Hospital; he was Dean of Medicine at McGill. He’s John McCrae’s (the poet of In Flanders Fields fame) commanding officer ... For me this is a real gem.”
Cahill is no ordinary collector, having shelled out $1.5 million from his own deep pockets to acquire thousands of cool objects — from Princess Mary brass Christmas gift tins to old army helmets — and house them in a centre dedicated to the Great War.
Not surprisingly, Cahill is unabashedly patriotic about Canada’s role in the conflict, and says more should be done to trumpet the exploits of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which fought with distinction in the bloody trenches of Belgium and France and won acclaim as a fighting force at Vimy Ridge and elsewhere.
“A country cannot be a hockey game,” he said. “You cannot only be proud of your country every four years because you win a gold medal in hockey. There’s more to it.
“This is why Vimy Ridge is extremely important because they talk about a commonality that runs right through Canada. If we’re going to be proud in this country, that’s the type of thing we need to be proud of. We need to tell these stories. You can’t be ashamed to tell these stories.
“We’re not proud of killing people,” he added. “We’re proud of the fact that when the chips are down, we do things properly.”
Admission is free to the centre, a non-profit heritage organization that receives no government funding, although donations are appreciated.
The Canadian Centre for the Great War is located at 5524A, Suite 202, St-Patrick St., Montreal.
Visitor hours are Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. Appointments can be made for alternate days. Call 514-788-6007 or visit the website at www.greatwarcentre.com.