The chief magistrate’s sugar beeting gave Kitchener’s two newspapers ample fodder. “Just how the boys of the [118th] Battalion came to the belief that Mayor Hett was opposed to their wintering in Kitchener is difficult to establish,” said The Daily Telegraph. Previously, Hett didn’t want other cities’ battalions here, and called out local shopkeepers who […] Read more…
What’s the holdup? One could easily imagine the name changers stamping their feet and stirring the air with pointed fingers, as they tried to rile local Britishers. Why hasn’t the name changed yet? How could the important and patriotic city of Berlin be subjected to such indifference? Who was to blame? The Berlin Daily Telegraph’s doggedly […] Read more…
4 August 1916: Two years of war If you asked most people two summers earlier, many wouldn’t believe the war would last longer than six months. Experts poo-pooed the idea: all the numbers pointed to bankruptcy for any nation that embarked in an extended conflict. If the main players foresaw years of fighting, they might […] Read more…
Life at Camp Borden Heat and dust continued to bedevil Borden’s battalion boys. After long days training and marching, keeping clean was the hardest thing to do. This seemed especially so for those who were used to someone else doing their washing. “Mothers, sisters and friends of the 118th boys, if you could see them […] Read more…
Dominion Day, 1916 Canada celebrated its 49th birthday on 1 July 1916. Today it’s sometimes difficult to think of what it was like when Canada was a fledgling nation. In 1916, many people were alive (and remembered) the Charlottetown Conference so thinking back to those early days shouldn’t have been a great stretch. A bit of […] Read more…
Huzzah? According to The Berlin Daily Telegraph, “there has been considerable worry on the part of a certain class in the city.” The shortlist wasn’t to blame: King George V’s radio silence caused furrowed eyebrows because he had yet to congratulate the city on voting to rid itself of its enemy name. It’s not as if […] Read more…