{"id":11482,"date":"2015-06-28T05:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-28T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=11482"},"modified":"2015-06-28T05:00:45","modified_gmt":"2015-06-28T09:00:45","slug":"toronto-insures-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/toronto-insures-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"TORONTO INSURES SOLDIERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, June 28, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n

Billets –\u00a0Outtersteene<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote nothing for this day: \u00a0[1]<\/p>\n

\n

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cAfter war was declared in August of 1914, Toronto soon became a military headquarters. \u00a0Soldiers were recruited and trained there. As English-Canada\u2019s largest city, citizens were eager to help fight alongside the United Kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThose who couldn\u2019t enlist offered other kinds of support. The City of Toronto donated police horses to the artillery and gave free life insurance to employees who joined the military. Service groups, often led by prominent members of the community, launched fundraising drives to pay for medical equipment for wounded soldiers and to care for soldiers\u2019 families.\u201d\u00a0 [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTommy Church, Mayor from 1915 to 1921, never met a hand he wouldn\u2019t shake. \u00a0His support for soldiers fighting in the First World War comforted many families. When any troops shipped out of Union Station, Church saw them off. \u2018For many soldiers,\u2019 historian Donald Jones noted, \u2018the last thing they remembered about Toronto was the sight of their mayor running beside the train shouting goodbye and wishing them good luck.\u2019 He was also there to welcome the soldiers back. He called families upon hearing of fatalities and asked if he could help. He successfully urged city council to insure every enlisted man from Toronto for $1,000 each. From these actions arose Church\u2019s nickname, \u2018The Soldiers\u2019 Friend.\u2019\u201d [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto newspapers reported on June 30th <\/sup>1915 that \u00a0\u201cFive additional cheques on account of soldiers insurance were received by the city treasurer yesterday, making the total paid over [to date] by the Metropolitan Life $82,000.\u201d [5]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0The names of the five soldiers on whose lives these cheques were paid out included two soldiers of the 14th<\/sup> Battalion, Private Alex. Shanks, and Private Bert Present.\u00a0 In the next two days we will read a little about each of these two men.<\/p>\n

By the end of the First World War the City of Toronto had given 65,000 men for service overseas. Casualties totalled over 25,000 of whom 5,000 had paid the supreme sacrifice. The city had paid death claims of $1,000 each on 3,580 soldiers\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

This insurance program was not unique to Toronto. \u00a0Numerous cities and towns across Canada had similar programs to insure their citizens serving at the front, with the proceeds being paid to the families of those killed.<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, June 28, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089755.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/canada\/first-world-war-100th-anniversary\/map-how-the-first-world-war-changed-toronto<\/a><\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0 \u201cCheers break out in Toronto as Britain declared war on Germany in 1914,\u201d Stephanie MacLellan<\/a>, Toronto Star,<\/em> Toronto, Ontario, Monday, August 4, 2014.<\/pre>\n
[4] \u00a0\u201cMeet a Toronto Mayor From Days Gone By,\u201d Gail Dever, Genealogy a la Carte<\/em>, Oct 14, 2014, http:\/\/genealogyalacarte.ca\/?p=5543<\/a><\/pre>\n
[5]\u00a0 The Toronto World<\/em>, Toronto, Ontario, Wednesday, June 30, 1915, pg. 3, col. 5.<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday, June 28, 1915 Billets –\u00a0Outtersteene The Battalion War Diarist wrote nothing for this day: \u00a0[1] THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cAfter war was declared in August of 1914, Toronto soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}