Piddingworth Greg Benton |
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| 'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.' --Mark Steyn |
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| Live as free people, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. (1Peter 2) |
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| THE 19TH BATTALION |
| In 1914, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, went to war against Germany. In the course of recruiting volunteers for service, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was divided into "numbered battalions". These battalions formed the divisions of the "Canadian Corps" of the First British Army. This Canadian Corps consisted of 260 numbered infantry battalions, 13 mounted rifle regiments, 13 railway troop battalions, 5 pioneer battalions, field and heavy artillery batteries, as well as a Machine Gun Corps, medical, dental, chaplain's corps, and ambulance, forestry, and service units. Almost two-thirds of the Canadian Corps was comprised of recently arrived English, Scots and Irish born men...including Ernest Leonard, my grandfather, from Plymouth, Devon who. when war broke, was playing football with the "Devonians", a team of English players in the Toronto District Football League and, of which he became Captain. In England, he had played for Torquay United F.C. and was on the championship team of 1909. |
| C.E.F. |
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| The first divsion of the CEF departed for England in 1914 and the second division, in 1915 where it prepared for war on Salisbury Plain. The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) Regiment of Hamilton, Ontario served as a recruiting depot providing 145 officers and 2507 other ranks to the numbered battalions; especially the 16th, the 19th, and the 173rd Highlanders battalions and so continues to perpetuate the 19th battalion today. As part of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, Second Division, the 19th battalion saw its first action at St. Eloi, France in 1916. It then went on to distinguish itself in the battles of the Somme, Courcellette, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendale, Drocourt-Quéant, and the pursuit to Mons. It was the pipes and drums of the 19th that led a victorious Canadian Corps across the Rhine and into Germany. Grandad Leonard was twice-wounded in battle. |
| POPULAR SONGS & MARCHES DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR |
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