PPCLI MARKS 100TH ANNIVERSARY IN OTTAWA
There will be a distinct military flavour to Ottawa this week. Soldiers and veterans of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry will be here from Thursday, Sept. 18 to Sunday, Sept. 21 to commemorate the birth of their Regiment 100 years ago here in Canada’s capital.
Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was privately raised by Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault, a wealthy Montrealer who personally paid to raise and equip the Regiment for service in the First World War. The Regiment was named after Princess Patricia, the popular daughter of the Governor General of the time. Princess Patricia, who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was well known to Canadians as a beautiful and modern woman who showed great interest in Canada and its people.
PPCLI was authorized on Aug. 10, 1914, and immediately a call went out across Canada for experienced soldiers to join the Regiment at its headquarters at Lansdowne Park, Ottawa. In nine days the unit was at its full strength of morethan 1,000men, and all were garrisoned in their new barracks – the exhibition buildings at Lansdowne Park
As the unit took shape at Lansdowne, the people of Ottawa took the unit into their hearts, and when the “Originals” left the city on Aug. 28, 1914for the battlefields of Europe, thousands of citizens cheered the men on their way. Throughout the war, the Regiment’s great successes and terrible losses were closely followed in Ottawa. Ontheir return to Ottawa in March1919, they were first greeted by the Mayor, andthen the Governor General, in front of what the
Evening Journal called the “largest crowd ever gathered in Ottawa.”
The present-day Regiment consists of three battalions stationed in western Canada, with two battalions in Edmonton, the Home Station, and the third at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Manitoba. However, the Regiment’s members still remember Ottawa as their original home. And it is with that spirit they will be here for four very busy days.
The 100th Anniversary celebrations began with commemorations in Edmonton on Aug. 8-10. Those activities are linked to the Ottawa commemoration by the Memorial Baton Relay (MBR), a group of Patricia soldiers who began a run from Edmontonon Aug. 10 carrying a Memorial Baton that contains the names of the 1,866 PPCLI soldiers who have died in the service of Canada. The team has visited and celebrated in 23 locations along the way, and will arrive in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 18.
The first event on that day, in the morning, is a tree planting on the grounds of Rideau Hall by the Regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief, The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson.
That afternoon, the Regiment’s MBR team will complete the final leg of their run. At 2:25 p.m., they will set out from the Canadian War Museum, run past the National War Memorial, and then continue along the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to Lansdowne Park and their final destination, the Aberdeen Pavilion. There they will be welcomed by their Colonel-in-Chief and His Worship, Jim Watson, Mayor of the City of Ottawa.
The Colonel-in-Chief and the Mayor will then rededicate the PPCLI Memorial in Lansdowne Park. This Memorial, first dedicated 40 years ago, has been moved from its former location underneath the grandstand to a new position in front of the Aberdeen Pavilion. As well, the road that runs through Lansdowne Park from the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to the Aberdeen Pavilion will be renamed Princess Patricia Way.
The other major public activity that day will be a dress rehearsal of the Sunset Ceremony that will take place on Parliament Hill on Friday. The rehearsal will have the same format as the actual ceremony; those wishing to watch should be at the Hill by 5:45 p.m.
On Friday, Sept. 19, the daytime activity will consist of the rededication of PPCLI Memorials in two city churches: Ste-Anne Catholic Church and the Anglican Church of St. Bartholomew.
The other major activity on Friday will be a Joint Sunset Ceremony on Parliament Hill conducted by Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and Royal 22 eRégiment. Both Regiments were formed in 1914 and are joining together for this special ceremony. Spectators should be seated by 5:30 p.m.
The program will begin at 5:25 p.m. with the Canadian Armed Forces Parachute Team, the SkyHawks, conducting a parachute jump onto Parliament Hill. Then, at 6 p.m., two 100-man Guards – one from each Regiment – will march on from behind the Centre Block, and the Sunset Ceremony itself will begin. His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, will be the Reviewing Officer. The ceremony will end at 7:10p.m., just after sunset.
On Saturday, Sept. 20, the centrepiece of the Commemoration has three phases. The first is a re-enactment of the PPCLI’s original march on Aug. 28, 1914 from their barracks at Lansdowne Park to the old downtown Ottawa train station as they departed to go to war. A 100-man Guard will leave Lansdowne Park by the Northeast Gate at 10 a.m. and march north on Queen Elizabeth Driveway carrying a replica of the “Ric-A-Dam-Doo,” the Regiment’s original camp colour, which had been hand-made and presented to them by Princess Patricia herself. The Guard will halt at the Cartier Square Drill Hall at 10:45 p.m.
In thenext phase, the Guard will march from the Drill Hall at 11:15 a.m. to a position on Elgin Street in front of the City Hall’s Heritage Building. There, in a time-honoured ceremony, His Worship Jim Watson, Mayor of the City of Ottawa, will allow PPCLI “the Freedom of the City of Ottawa,” originally granted to the Regiment in 1985. The Mayor authorizes the Regiment to march within the city’s limits “with drums beating, colours flying, and bayonets fixed.” It is an honour that is best owed upon military units that have a particularly close relationship with a city.
In the final phase, at 12:15 p.m. the PPCLI Guard will march the short distance to the National War Memorial, where the Regiment will formally rededicate itself to the service of Canada for another century. It will end with a march past that will include an “Old Guard,” consisting of Patricia veterans led by General John de Chastelain, who was Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff on two occasions and also was our Ambassador to the United States.
That evening the members of the Regiment will gather for a Regimental Dinner in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of History.
On Sunday, Sept. 21 the commemoration will end with two special services at Beechwood National Cemetery, where many of the Regiment’s former members are buried, including some of those killed in Afghanistan. Thefirst ceremony will be the Laying up of the Colours of the Regiment’s Second Battalion in the Hall of Colours at the Beechwood National Cemetery Building at 1 p.m.
That will be followed up at 1:40 p.m. with a Regimental Drumhead Memorial Service at the Beechwood National Military Cemetery.
Thepublic is encouraged to join with the members of the PPCLI in celebrating their century of service to Canada.
For more details regarding the timings of the week’s program, check the PPCLI schedule outlined below.