Ruin and Redemption: Losing and Regaining Honour in the Canadian
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Ruin and Redemption: Losing and Regaining Honour in the Canadian Officer Corps, 1914—1945 By Matthew Kenneth Barrett A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in History in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (September, 2019) Copyright ©Matthew Kenneth Barrett, 2019 Abstract This dissertation is the first comprehensive study to trace the evolution of military dishonour and dismissal from an historical perspective in the Canadian armed forces during the First and Second World Wars. Using extensive general court martial records, archival documentation, and restricted personnel files, this study examines judicial sentences of cashiering and dismissal as well as administrative punishments used to deprive officers of their commissions for misconduct, inefficiency, and incompetence. An officer’s failure to follow the formally and informally enshrined rules and values recognized as honourable in military culture deprived him of the right to respect among peers and the right to command subordinates. As this thesis is concerned with the construction of the concepts of honour and dishonour within the officer corps of the Canadian army and air force, I analyze the complicated social, economic, medical, and cultural consequences of officers’ disgraceful termination from military service. Examining institutional responses to officers’ misconduct offers important insights into the espoused values, beliefs and practices prioritized in both military culture and in the wider society. Derived from a British military heritage the idealized form of martial masculinity was best exemplified by dual identity of a man as an officer and a gentleman. Within the martial justice context, examining the nature of officers’ crimes and misbehavior provides historians with the opportunity to explore the boundaries of acceptable forms of gentlemanliness. Perceptions of what exactly constituted ungentlemanly and scandalous conduct in the military exposed the contradictions that underpinned divergent codes of masculinity. The model officer and gentleman was at once expected to be restrained and dignified while also exhibiting aggressiveness and virility. Misbehaviour whether in the officers’ mess, in public settings before civilians or on the battlefield revealed how the social conventions and commitments fundamental to an officer’s identity often depended on a sense of honourableness that was not nearly as stable as government and military authorities preferred to believe. i Acknowledgements “A PhD thesis is very, very rarely read by anyone except the two or three professors who are compelled to do so in order to pass judgement upon it.”1 This quote from a letter which I happened upon in archival work may have much truth to it, but even so I can say that I enjoyed my entire time at Queen’s University discussing, researching and writing this dissertation. There are many people I wish to thank for the successful completion of my five year project. Throughout my graduate career, I benefitted from the tremendous supervision and guidance of Allan English. I was privileged to have the advice and support of Don Akenson and Jane Errington. I am appreciative of Dave Pedlar and Geoff Hayes for serving as my internal/external and external examiners respectively. Financial support from Queen’s University in the way of awards and travel grants, and a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made this project possible. I was glad to purse my doctorate alongside fellow PhD students and friends James Walton, Sonia Dussault and Daniel Meister. I appreciated the support of friends and colleagues including Adam Montgomery, Craig Mantle, Rob Engen and Claire Cookson-Hills. Much of the archival research which formed a crucial foundation of my dissertation depended on the assistance of numerous archivists and analysts who diligently assessed my many access to information requests. In particular I wish to thank Kevin Joynt of Library and Archives Canada for his help accessing restricted Second World War officer personnel files. Most of all I need to thank my family for their constant support. My mother and father have always encouraged me to pursue my interests and have provided the environment to make all of my success possible. My older brother Jeff has always been a source of support and humour, especially related to our shared perspectives on academia. 1 Lennox A. Mills to Robert Borden, 27 Jun 1920. Robert Borden fonds, Library and Archives Canada, MG 26H, reel C-4413, 132496. ii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………….…………………………………………………………..i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………ii List of Figures…………………….……………………….……………………………………………………..v Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Theoretical Framework and Literature Review .............................................................................................. 11 The Meaning of Honour and Dishonour ......................................................................................................... 20 Masculinity, Gentlemanliness and Citizenship ............................................................................................... 32 Methodology, Sources and Outline ................................................................................................................ 41 Chapter 2: Punishment Worse Than Death: Dishonour and Cashiering in the British Army Tradition 49 British Army Tradition ................................................................................................................................... 51 Conduct Unbecoming ..................................................................................................................................... 57 Cashiering and Dismissal ............................................................................................................................... 65 Worse than Death ........................................................................................................................................... 73 Canadian Context: 1867 to 1914 .................................................................................................................... 82 First World War Context ................................................................................................................................ 93 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 98 Chapter 3: No regrettable incidents: Dismissal and Cashiering in the First World War ........................ 100 Drunkenness and Gentlemanly Manners ...................................................................................................... 105 Financial Crime and Dishonoured Cheques ................................................................................................. 116 Scandalous Conduct and Officer Morality ................................................................................................... 121 Gross Indecency and Officer-Man Relations ................................................................................................ 125 Military Misconduct and Conspicuous Leadership ...................................................................................... 130 Cashiering and Imprisonment ....................................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 145 Chapter 4: Coming back, making good: Removal, Return, Re-enlistment and Redemption .................. 147 Sentencing and Ex-Officer Status ................................................................................................................. 151 Promulgation and Disposal ........................................................................................................................... 157 Adverse Reports and Resignation ................................................................................................................. 164 Judgement on the Home Front ...................................................................................................................... 173 Coming Back and Making Good .................................................................................................................. 183 Redemption and Restoration ......................................................................................................................... 188 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 193 iii Chapter 5: Unman the manliest of us: Ex-Officers and Gentleman in the Interwar Period ................... 195 Symbols of Honour ....................................................................................................................................... 199 Democratization of Honour .......................................................................................................................... 208 Officers and Gentlemen in Peacetime .........................................................................................................