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egocentric Minister of the Militia, Colonel Sam Hughes, on the job. Prior to
the war, Canada, like Britain, had a small permanent armed force but depended
on volunteers to make up the bulk of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).
Hughes, who was fanatical about Canadians entering the war (with him as their
leader, he hoped), drummed up support for the cause from coast to coast.
The first recruits were dominated by British-born men with strong emotional and
family ties to Britain. They were shopkeepers, mechanics, bankers, engineers
and farmers, many of whom knew nothing about the military nor war, especially
not the sort of conflict they were about to find themselves knee-deep in. There
were some Aboriginal peoples, few blacks, no Asians and few immigrants from other
countries. As a result, it was mostly British and unemployed white young men
who died on the fields of Flanders early in the war. Women were not permitted
to volunteer for military service (although a husband needed his wife's permission
to enlist). |
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Kit inspection, 11th
Battalion.
The earliest recruits tended to be Canadians of British
extraction, pictured hear near their tents at kit inspection. |
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