Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The Committee Members That Organized the Montreal Home Guard

A few months ago while searching for information regarding the Montreal Home Guard, I came across this book that was available on a CD. - “The Call to Arms Montreal’s Roll of Honour by William Mills - c1914”. I ordered the CD but did not have a CD drive to access it. Finally bought an external drive yesterday.

There is only one page in the book that discusses the Montreal Home Guard (p. 104). We are aware of most of what was written, but I did find this piece of information:

“The committee in charge of the arrangements for the Home Guard was made up as follows: J. N. Greenshields, K.C, chairman; Lieut.-Col. Geo. Starke, Lieut.-Col. Hutchison, Robert Bickerdike, M.P., R. J. Dale, A. J. Brown, K.C, E. L. Pease, E. C Pratt, P. P. Cowans, D. C. Macarow, John D. Oppe, William Lyall, J. W. Pyke, David Law, H. W. Beauclerk, F. W. Tofiekl, Dr. Milton L. Hersey, D. Gallery, F. L. Wanklyn, and Alexander Warden, Secretary.”


I don't think anyone has previously uncovered this information and shared it here.

Interesting that in a Francophone area there is not even a token French Canadian.

Before the Parti Quebecois was in power, Montreal was a bilingual city. Montreal was the centre of manufacturing in Canada at a time when things were actually made in Canada. The PQ in the 1970s pushed the anti English agenda onto the province and many Anglophones left along with many of the industries. The goal was to leave Canada and create a French nation. The separatists are still trying to secede.

Nick

i wonder how many of them actually were part of the Guard, had rifles and who has the guns now. With that list of names it should be easy to track.


Norm

Some folk in the House of Commons taking shots at the savage rifle on page 852

https://www.google.com/books/editio...AJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22savage%22

For whatever it is worth...I have 6 rifles in my data of 128 MHG rifles that have a name on it and none are among the names posted above. Still a lot out of the 800 plus that we don't have info on.

you probably have my MHG guy's name: John D. Baile. I looked his name up and it showed a guy with this name as a 40 ish businessman in Montreal in 1914. It didn't say anything about him being in the MHG. There is a book on military firearms produced for foreign governments but I can't find my copy. It covers the MHG in detail.

Up until 1921 Montreal was predominately an english city. In all the information that I have found I have yet to find one french name associated with the MHG.

Good to see that you hang around from time to time Blair.


Norm

As a Canadian and student of Canadian history, I can tell you that francophones, being the majority population of Quebec then and now, hated the English for their conquest of New France in 1759.

They regarded WW 1 an "England's war" and had no interest in seeing a British victory.

"maudit anglais!" (damned English!) was their watchword.