(First of a series of articles profiling the various military units -- army, navy and air force -- in the Toronto area.)

By Charles D. McGregor

On 26 April 2005, Canada's oldest, continuously-serving infantry regiment, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, celebrated its 145th birthday. What the future will bring for Canadian reserve units -- army, navy or air force -- remains to be seen, but there will unquestionably always be a place in the military establishment for those men and women who serve in such regiments as the Toronto-based Queen's Own Rifles.

In the event of national need, it is from their ranks, as in the past, that Canada's comparatively small regular force will be augmented by the inclusion of well-trained personnel, ready to step into whatever role is demanded.

On the date of the Regiment's founding in 1860, seven years before the first Parliament of the new Dominion of Canada met on Nov. 6, in 1867, with John A. Macdonald as Prime Minister, Queen Victoria had been on the throne for almost a quarter century. Since the 1700s, British soldiers had been garrisoned in Canada, responsible for the defence of British North America. With the outbreak of war in the Crimea in 1854 their numbers began to reduce as the British Army's resources became more and more taxed and depleted. The Canadian government's reaction was to look to its own for protection, resulting in the establishment in 1860 of two Volunteer Militia Rifle Battalions, one in Montreal and one in Toronto, the latter encompassing four independent local rifle companies from Toronto plus the Highland companies from Barrie and Whitby, as the Second VMR Battalion of Canada. In 1863, permission was granted by Queen Victoria for the battalion to adopt the designation "The Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto", a few years later to become the QOR of Canada. With Confederation in 1867, British military presence was eventually reduced to a single battalion based in Halifax and Canadian defence was now largely the responsibility of its citizen soldiers.

But by then The Queen's Own had already been blooded in battle, in June, 1866 in a sharp encounter with members of the Irish-American Fenians at Ridgeway, Ontario. Crossing the border from the United States, the Fenians' intent was to attain control of Canada and hold it to ransom for the freedom of Ireland. Despite losing soldiers seven killed in action, two who later died of wounds and 21 wounded, The Queen's Own volunteers fought bravely, eventually running out of ammunition and being ordered to retire, firing as they went, resulting in the enemy troops giving up the battle and retreating across the Niagara River, whence they had come. In 1885, members of the regiment fought to defeat Louis Riel in the North-West Rebellion and battled the Cree Chief Poundmaker at the Battle of Cut Knife Hill. With the outbreak of war in South Africa in 1899, 33 Queen's Own soldiers saw action in with the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, sustaining three killed.

In the two world wars which followed, Queen's Own troops again answered the call to arms. With the outbreak of World War I in August of 1914, Canada responded by establishing the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The first Canadian contingent, numbering 33,000, reached England soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, and it was in the thick of the fighting on the continent a few months later in the second battle of Ypres, with The Queen's Own providing most of the men to the Third Battalion CEF. While, initially, many thought the Queen's Own would be allowed to retain its Regimental identity, Ottawa refused to allow members to wear the Queen's Own cap badge. Instead, small groups from the 10th Grenadiers and the Governor General's Bodyguard were posted into the battalion, making it the Third Toronto regiment, a composite unit, which eventually fought in Northern France and Belgium, from Amiens to Langemark. Twenty one battle honours, were awarded to the Regiment during the war. By war's end 7,562 Queen's Own had served overseas, of these 1,254 were killed in action, died of wounds or of other causes. The Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of enemy fire was awarded to four men who had Queen's Own Rifles connections -- one posthumously. More than 60,000 Canadians were killed in action or died of wounds during what was regarded, at the time, as the "War To End All Wars," a terribly heavy toll in relation to the country's population.

In the six years of conflict of the Second World War, 1939-1945, Canada enlisted more than one million men and women in her armed forces. Of these, more than 45,000 gave their lives in the cause of peace and freedom, more than 500 being  members of The Queen's Own. The Regiment was among the first  to land on Juno Beach in Normandy, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, suffering the greatest losses of all Canadian units involved in the invasion that day, with 62 killed and 80 wounded. However, fighting their way, house-to-house, hedgerow to hedgerow against an enemy determined to relinquish no ground without an intensive struggle, by nightfall The Queen's Own had reached the small village of Anisy, its inland strategic objective, among very few which accomplished this. A memorial has been erected by the residents to mark the area where the troops rested that day, and is visited annually by former Queen's Own members on the anniversary of D-Day,.where they gather with the current villagers to conduct a remembrance service.

During the next 11 months, until VE Day was declared, on 8 May, 1945, The Queen's Own was in almost constant action as it fought its way through France and Belgium into Holland, the casualty list mounting but the feeling that victory was near becoming increasingly certain. It was in Holland, near the hamlet of Mooshof, that Queen's Own Sergeant Aubrey Cosens single-handedly attacked a strongly-defended enemy position, against superior enemy numbers, in a supreme act of bravery which cost him his life but cleared the way for his company to move safely ahead to secure the objective. For his gallantry, he was awarded a Victoria Cross, which is commemorated every year in The Queen's Own Sergeant's Mess at Toronto's Moss Park Armoury at the "Sgt. Aubrey Cosens VC" Annual Dinner. The last action of World War Two for The Queen's Own came on 4 May in Holland -- and cost the final lives as two riflemen were killed only 30 minutes before the official order to "Cease Fire" was given.

In the postwar years, Queen's Own members served in the Korean War, where five more lives were lost. Eventually, as the threat of world war diminished and the role of Canada's military was reduced, The Queen's Own's First and Second Battalions in the Regular Force were reduced to "nil strength" in the 1960s and the soldiers transferred to other regiments, principally the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, where they served until eventual retirement.

The Third Battalion, as the Reserve Regiment, based in Toronto, continues to carry on in the traditions established so many years before. An Airborne Company was formed, to provide "jump-qualified" personnel to Canadian airborne operations when required and many members of the Regiment have volunteered for service in peacekeeping roles with NATO or United Nations forces in such hot spots as Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, among others. Thus do members of this proud regiment live up to their motto which was adopted so many years ago -- "In Pace Paratus" -- a Latin phrase which translates as "In Peace, Prepared."