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Adieu to departing troops

Yorkton was then about 2,800 in population. It appears that most of the town came to give their message of love and gratitude to their young men.
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Yorkton was then about 2,800 in population. It appears that most of the town came to give their message of love and gratitude to their young men.

In 1914, German armies occupied Belgium, in spite of a guarantee of neutrality earlier granted by several countries, including Britain and Germany. Great Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914. Canada, as part of the British Empire, was then also at war.

Yorkton was not totally unprepared, because men who had served in the Boer War had established a local militia in 1910. They had obtained permission from the Dominion Government to erect military headquarters in Yorkton. One veteran of the last of the Boer War, Major Francis Pawlett, had been appointed Officer in Command of the 16th Canadian Light Horse, "B" Squadron, and recruiting had begun. By 1912, the former Immigration Hall located across the railroad tracks, on Front Street South, between Tupper and Second Avenue, was renovated. It housed 75 men and was equipped as a training center. The drills consisted of both foot and mounted exercises.

At the outbreak of war, sixty men under the Command of Major Pawlett departed for more training, first in Regina and then at one of Canada's largest camps at Valcartier, Québec. Lieutenants W. M. Graham, George Howard Bradbrooke, Charles D. Livingstone, Lieutenant J.C. de Balinhard and Sergeant Joseph O'Regan were the other commanding officers. Full scale recruiting began.

In the photo we see the station of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway which became in 1919 the Canadian National Railway, located at Duncan Street and Dominion Avenue.

Source of picture: Del Sveinsson Fonds

Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
heritage@yorkton.ca