Comrades and Citizens: Great War Veterans in Toronto, 1915-1919
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Comrades and Citizens: Great War Veterans in Toronto, 1915-1919 by Nathan Smith A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. Graduate Department of History University of Toronto Copyright by Nathan Smith 2012 Abstract Comrades and Citizens: Great War Veterans in Toronto, 1915-1919 Nathan Smith, Ph.D. 2012 Department of History, University of Toronto This is a history of returned soldiers of the Great War in Toronto covering the period from when they began returning home in 1915 through to the end of demobilization in late 1919. Based largely in newspaper research, the focus is the discourse of returned men, as they were frequently called, and the role they played in Toronto and in Canada more broadly. The dissertation examines veterans' attitudes, the opinions they expressed, the goals they collectively pursued, the actions they took and their significance as actors and symbols in the public sphere. The study shows that during and immediately after the war returned soldiers played a prominent role in public debate over conscription and wartime politics, the status of non-British immigrants in Canada, the Red Scare and re-establishment policy. In exploring these topics the study elaborates on the identities veterans collectively adopted and constructed for themselves as comrades and citizens. Class, definitions of masculinity, British-Canadian ethno-nationality and experience as soldiers all affected formulations of veteran citizenship and comradeship. Returned soldiers' representations of their citizenship resonated powerfully in Canadian society. The experiences and symbolism of returned soldiers generated interest in civilian society that granted them easy access to the public sphere and encouraged pro-war politicians to use returnees to promote the war effort. Veterans took advantage of their access to the press and public stages to broadcast ii their own views and claim that their service gave them special rights to intervene in public affairs. Comradeship was vitally important to returned soldiers and set them apart from civilians, but it was neither a simple nor stable category. Veterans' debates and the history of veterans' associations testify to the fact that collective service in the war did not erase civilian identities and create a stable platform for united collective activism after the war. Furthermore, comradeship sometimes existed uneasily with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Parliamentary methods were fundamental to veterans' activism, but their politics were also performative, often pursued and proclaimed at street level, and a minority of veterans threatened and engaged in violence they claimed was justified. iii Acknowledgements Research and writing is lonely work, but impossible to do alone. I received help from colleagues, friends and family. I am grateful to a host of people who offered themselves as models to emulate, created needed distractions, and gave their support and encouragement, especially Horst Herget, always a great friend. Institutions were important too. I am thankful for funding from a University of Toronto Scholarship, from Department of History awards and grants, and from an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Funding from the Canadian Historical Association and International Society for First World War Studies also permitted me to attend conferences in 2007 and 2009 that were enormously useful to me. And Carol Ali was an invaluable resource throughout the Ph.D. process and will be missed. A various stages, Tom Mitchell, Glenn Wright, Chris Sharpe, Mark McGowan, and James Pitsula generously shared their wisdom with me in their responses to my questions and by discussing aspects of my research. Noula Mina and Nic Clarke gave me important research tips, as did Karen Teeple of the City of Toronto Archives. Craig Heron read two chapters and provided much needed constructive criticism, while the comments and questions of other members of the Labour Studies group to which I presented material also raised issues and perspectives I needed to think about. Steve Penfold read the whole draft and suggested many ways it could be improved. Jonathan Vance provided invaluable comments at the end of the process as my External Examiner. The questions posed by the other members of my committee, including Rick Halpern, were similarly thought provoking and forward looking. My thanks to you all; your input made the final product better and increased my interest in the project. Several friends read drafts of parts of the dissertation, offering solutions to writing problems, valuable analytical insights and challenging me to think about new questions. Thank you: Dave Goutor, Jeff Bowersox, Amy Milne-Smith and Ruth Percy. My most productive period of writing came when I joined a dissertation writing group, made up of friends whose feedback and conversation was smart and enjoyable. So thank you: Ariel Beaujot, Denis McKim, Susana Miranda, Alison Norman and Cara Spittal. iv My thesis supervisor, Ian Radforth always gave me good advice (that I did not always follow), and he's the one who came up with the idea of studying First World War veterans. I knew right away that it was a good topic and I am grateful to Ian for patiently waiting (and waiting) for me to explain why. My family was intellectually engaged in and wonderfully supportive of my work from start to finish, particularly my mom, Virginia Clark, my dad, Wallis Smith, and Monika Turner. I owe the most to Candace Minifie, my wife and my hero. With gratitude and all my love, I dedicate this to her, and to Charlotte, my inspiration. v Table of Contents Abstract - ii Acknowledgements - iv Abbreviations - vii Introduction - 1 1. Returned Heroes - 38 2. Battle-bonded Comrades - 71 3. Patriotic Men - 99 4. British Citizens - 144 5. Association Members - 185 6. Resentful Veterans - 217 Conclusion - 253 Sources - 276 vi Abbreviations ANV – Army and Navy Veterans AO – Archives of Ontario CEF – Canadian Expeditionary Force CTA – City of Toronto Archives GAC – Grand Army of Canada GAUV – Grand Army of United Veterans GWVA – Great War Veterans' Association LAC – Library and Archives of Canada UVL – United Veterans League vii Introduction On a warm October day in Toronto during the Great War an infantry battalion training for service overseas marched down the city's main street. Their khaki-coloured uniforms and their kilts, for they were a Highland unit, were familiar sights to the people they passed. It was 1917 and soldiers in training had been parading through the streets of Toronto for more than three years. Heading southbound on Yonge Street, the soldiers were traveling downhill, but they covered a considerable distance that day and that earned them occasional rest stops. One was enjoyed 'under the trees of Eglinton,' before the men of the unit pushed themselves to their feet again, hefted their packs up onto their backs, formed their lines and, to the orders of their officers, resumed their march, stomping four abreast. Not long afterwards they arrived at the site of a soldiers' convalescent hospital, at the corner of Davisville and Yonge streets, where veterans of the war the infantry unit was training to fight were collected outside to enjoy the sunshine. The men of the battalion lifted their caps, cheered 'their wounded brothers' and when their commander called for a 'Tiger' he got a big roar for the men of the hospital. As for the returned soldiers outside the hospital, they were 'quiet for the most part.' A few jokes were made with 'the passing Kilties' but the veterans gave no resounding roar to honour and encourage the soldiers as they passed. Onwards the new soldiers marched, descending towards downtown. In due course they put St Clair Avenue behind them, passed the Canadian Pacific Railway station near Summerhill Avenue and crossed Bloor Street. Not long afterwards they reached the intersection of Yonge and College streets where another convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers was located. The marching men had reached Shrapnel Corners, named after an intersection just outside the ruined city of Ypres on the Western Front. As they did at Davisville, many convalescents in their khaki uniforms, often sporting bandages and holding canes or crutches, loitered outside, filling the benches built for their convenience. Here the battalion's commander ordered his men to stop for another ten-minute rest. Some of the recruits sat on the curb and, tired and hot, none of them said much. Gazing at them 1 Introduction from across the street, neither did 'the men at Shrapnel Corners,' who made 'no sign of recognition' and were even more quiet than their comrades to the north, at the Davisville hospital. When the battalion resumed its march, 'bandsmen and the first company or two passed the returned men in absolute silence. Then someone suddenly wakened up, and greetings almost as hearty as those received by the Davisville men wakened the echoes of the Corners.' With less enthusiasm, the soldiers in training repeated their performance at Davisville by shouting out their regard for the men who had come back from 'over there.' The veterans at Shrapnel Corners were less enthusiastic than their Davisville comrades and gave the marching men no reply at all. This anecdote from the pages of Toronto's Evening Telegram1 suggests a number of realities about the nature of the Canadian home front during the Great War. The story clearly demonstrates that mobilizing for war and veteran re-establishment, and reconstruction in a broad sense, were not distinct phenomenon. They overlapped and acted on each other. The war convalescents may have had no enthusiasm for heartily cheering men training to go to war, but the parading men that day, and certainly the officers who directed them, clearly felt the need to recognize soldiers who had gone before them. How many of the soldiers in training felt that, at least in part, they were carrying on the fight on the veterans' behalf? While suggesting the interaction of the efforts mounted to fight and to recover from that experience, the encounter also pointed to themes of difference and separation that emerged during the war.