The 18th Battalion Association was an outcrop of the creation of the Great War Veterans Association, later to become the Royal Canadian Legion. The member ship was active and had reunions at their various chapters.[i] One such reunion occurred on 22 October of 1964 recognizing the 50th anniversary of the start of the Great War.... Continue Reading →
Poetry and Regret
Some time after the Armistice in 1918 and July 1921 a former private of the 18th Battalion wrote a poem and published it in pamphlet form. It is now an obscure document and would be lost to history save for the work of Canadiana Online. Hidden, waiting to be found was the pamphlet with its... Continue Reading →
A “most cherished souvenir”: A Request for a Memorial (Silver) Cross
On May 4, 1950, a letter was written to the Department of Veterans Affairs the illuminates the pride of service of a soldier of the 18th Battalion. This letter brings into relief the role of memory and how it shaped a family in bereavement as they wished to have tangible recognition of a loved one’s... Continue Reading →
The Lonely Soldier: Remembering a Leave
18th Battalion Association[i] Windsor and Detroit Branch *MEMORIES[ii]* Some time ago, we were watching the Television Program, “No Time for Sergeants”. The skit was about a lonesome soldier. It was funny. The lonesome soldier was no myth. He was real. It all stated the night we left London. Many of the officers and many of... Continue Reading →
A Young Girl Remembers into Adulthood
Anges McVittie was a young girl when Alfred Steggles boarded with her family before he joined the CEF and the 186 Overseas Battalion on March 13, 1916. Eventually assigned to the 18th Battalion he was to be killed in action exactly one year before the Great War's end. He was one of 154 Canadian soldiers... Continue Reading →
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 