A GREAT WAR OF EXPECTATIONS: MEN, MOTHERS, AND MONSTERS IN TORONTO, 1914-1918 by Mary Georgina Chaktsiris A thesis submitted to the Department of History In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (September, 2015) Copyright ©Mary Georgina Chaktsiris, 2015 Abstract Gendered expectations about wartime duty were central to Toronto’s mobilization during the First World War. How Torontonians defined these duties and responsibilities – and how they imagined the war they were waging – exposes attitudes and reactions towards war that were contrary to those expected and promoted by the war effort. Many of these expectations were based on the prevailing imperial understandings of manhood, war, and militarism of the era. The historiography of the First World War generally presents ideas of a national coming of age. However, how Torontonians lived and imagined war from 1914 to 1918 demonstrates this experience was both contested and gendered. This case study of wartime Toronto examines how municipal, provincial, and federal authorities reinforced masculine expectations during wartime, and especially how active service was framed as the ultimate expression of manhood and masculinity. This study traces links between masculine duty and enlistment for war as communicated through war posters and the city’s municipal organizations. Wartime activities – including recruitment and conscription, the identification of enemy aliens, and civil unrest – were framed by understandings of manhood that valued active military service as its ultimate test. Toronto was a military centre for the recruitment of acceptable soldier-volunteers, and later soldier-conscripts; it was also a place where “enemy aliens” were identified, suspected, and registered and where veterans struggled to readjust to civilian life. While some Torontonians supported the war and the ideals of freedom and democracy it was believed to safeguard, others voiced their displeasure about the war and its effects within the city. ii Acknowledgements I owe many thanks to those who helped along in the journey from thesis proposal to Ph.D. dissertation. My co-supervisors, Drs. E. Jane Errington and Karen Dubinsky, provided unwavering support and sound advice as the project moved from original idea to primary research to final product. I thank Committee Members for their insight and guidance, especially in those early days while building the structural scaffolding for the whole research project. I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of this research from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program and from Queen’s University. My special thanks go out to friends and family alike who read, edited, and re-edited various stages of this project. Special recognition is due also to my mother and my sister for all their love and support. iii Table of Contents Abstract .........................................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 The Imagined War...................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 The Call to Arms ...................................................................................................................... 102 Chapter 4 The Insurance of Soldiers......................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 5 The Enemy at Home................................................................................................................. 157 Chapter 6 The “Anti-Greek” Riots............................................................................................................ 182 Chapter 7 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 210 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................................. 222 iv List of Figures Figure 1 "Policeman and Recruit, Armouries, c. 1914".............................................................................. 11 Figure 2 "Plan of the City of Toronto, March 13, 1914" ............................................................................ 23 Figure 3 "WWI Recruiting Sign S.A. War Memorial University Ave. 1914"............................................ 34 Figure 4 "University Ave. 1914-15 Victory Bond parade"......................................................................... 34 Figure 5 "WWI Toronto Street Car Recruiting Headquarters 1915" .......................................................... 35 Figure 6 "University of Toronto Campus, c. 1914" .................................................................................... 49 Figure 7 "Join the 250th Overseas Battalion" ............................................................................................. 53 Figure 8 "Here's YOUR chance IT'S MEN WE WANT"........................................................................... 53 Figure 9 "You Do Anything to Beat Germany Last Year, 1914-1919"...................................................... 54 Figure 10 "British Freedom Worth Defending? 1914-1918"...................................................................... 56 Figure 11 "Your Chums are Fighting, Toronto, Canada, 1914" ................................................................. 57 Figure 12 “You Are No Exception – Join Now” ........................................................................................ 60 Figure 13 "Do It Now! 142nd Battalion Canadian Overseas Contingent".................................................. 60 Figure 14 "Back Them Up My Duty to the Canadian Patriotic Fund" ....................................................... 63 Figure 15 "If You Cannot Put the ’I’ into Fight You Can Put the ’Pay’ into Patriotism" .......................... 63 Figure 16 "Women survey the mock trenches on Toronto’s CNE grounds c. 1914" ................................. 68 Figure 17 “To the Women of Canada”........................................................................................................ 69 Figure 18 “Souscrire A L’Emprunt de la Victoire C’est Metree Fin a la Piraterie". .................................. 69 Figure 19 "Soldiers of the Soil". ................................................................................................................. 72 Figure 20 "Do it Again Daddy, Please!". .................................................................................................... 72 Figure 21 “Daddy What Did You Do in the Great War” ........................................................................... 74 Figure 22 "Munitions Workers Parade at CNE Grandstand"...................................................................... 78 Figure 23 "Curtis Aero planes and Motors Float in Victory Bond Parade, 1916"...................................... 79 Figure 24 "Munitions workers at British Cordite Co., Nobel – Parry Sound, 1916".................................. 79 Figure 25 "Recruiting billboard at South African War Monument, University Avenue, 1916"................. 80 Figure 26 "Fight with Food, 1918" ............................................................................................................. 81 Figure 27 "Waste Not – Want Not, 1918" .................................................................................................. 83 Figure 28 "Mothers of Soldiers, 1920". ...................................................................................................... 84 Figure 29 "Silver Cross Mother"................................................................................................................. 84 Figure 30 "What Are You Doing for the King? 1914-1918"..................................................................... 90 Figure 31 " Questions to Men Who Have Not Enlisted" ........................................................................... 90 Figure 32 "CNE Midway game featuring caricatures of Kaiser Wilhelm"................................................. 91 v Figure 33 “Help the Boys to Keep Them Running”. .................................................................................. 93 Figure 34 "We Licked Them at the Front You Lick Them at the Back" .................................................... 93 Figure 35 "4 Reasons for buying VICTORY BONDS, 1919".................................................................... 93 Figure 36 "The Thin Khaki Line" ............................................................................................................... 97 Figure 37 "Loyal talk won't beat Kaiser Krupp Kulture"............................................................................ 97 Figure 38 “Armouries, University Avenue” ............................................................................................. 103 Figure 39 "Recruiting