Canada’s Great War on Film: \u3cem\u3eLest We Forget\u3c/em\u3e (1935)

Lest We Forget was Canada’s official Great War film. It sparked controversy when it was shown across the country in 1935, during the midst of the worst depression in Canadian history, and with a growing anxiety over the increased aggression of international dictators. The film provided a contested venue for what the Great War had meant to a generation of Canadians. But this was no ordinary war film. Officially sanctioned and constructed from archival footage, the story of Canada’s war was told in 100 minutes, from the opening phases through to the grim fighting on the Western Front, and including those who supported the soldiers from home. Many journalists, politicians, and veterans called Lest We Forget the most authentic film to have appeared since the end of the war, especially in contrast to Hollywood fictional productions. This article examines the conflicting discourse surrounding Lest We Forget. While the official film, what we would now call a documentary, provided important insight into the war, and how it would be remembered, it probably tells us more about the 1930s than the period from 1914 to 1918. But this is only one part of the story. Canada’s Great War film history remains largely unexplored. Where did this film footage come from? Who filmed these Canadians on the battlefield? How did these cameramen work within the deadly environment of shrapnel, snipers, and poison gas? How was the film footage received during and after the war? To better the importance of Lest We Forget, it is not just the film and the public’s reaction to it, but also the footage that was used to underpin the narrative

“More a Medicine than a Beverage”: “Demon Rum” and the Canadian Trench Soldier of the First World War

A couple of months before he was killed at Vimy Ridge, Private Ronald Mackinnon noted that he had to cut his letter to his father short because he heard “the joyful cry [of] ‘rum up’.” In the renches, everyone reacted when rum was issued. The rum ration was, in the words of Private E. Seaman of the 3rd Battalion, “the highlight of the day.” First Battalion infantryman Ralph Bell wrote that “When the days shorten, and the rain never ceases; when the sky is ever grey, the nights chill, and trenches thigh deep in mud and water; when the front is altogether a beastly place, in fact, we have one consolation. It comes in gallon jars, marked simply ‘S.R.D.’” That SRD was army issued Special Red Demerara rum

“Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914-1919 (Book Review)” by Brock Millman

Review of Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914-1919 by Brock Millma

The Blind Leading the Blind: The Battle of the St. Eloi Craters

The battle at St. Eloi between 27 March and 19 April 1916 was a minor side-show compared to the armageddon raging between the Germans and the French at Verdun. Yet, it was an important event for the 2nd Canadian Division as it was their first set-piece battle on the Western Front. It was also an unmitigated disaster