THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY, 14 August 1914 – The Montreal Garrison parade scheduled for the evening of August 14th turned out to be an event not to be forgotten. Thunder roared and lightning flashed during the parade, rain swept in sheets across the ground, and the troops, most of whom were still in civilian clothes and many of whom had drilled for only a day or two, manoeuvered uncertainly, but with anxiety to do well, in mud and water ankle deep.
From a military standpoint the review was a failure, as was the march through the city which followed. That night in August remained as the first occasion on which many of the men realized that days of bitterness and testing lay inevitably before them. It was a baptism of sorts, and would be the first of very many such wet days for the Battalion in the months and years ahead.
Is this where the term “RMR Weather” was born…?
1. Dodds, Brig.- Gen. W. O. H., C.M.G., D.S.O. (J.A.Millar) Photographs Relating to the Great War, 1914-1918.; Special Collections, University of Victoria Libraries, The War Pictorial, p. 53; http://spcoll.library.uvic.ca/Digit/WOD/Individual%20Photos/05_1.htm 2. Featherstonhaugh, R.C., The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925, pg. 6. 3. The Montreal Daily Mail, Saturday, August 15, 1914, pg. 1, col. 1.