{"id":11561,"date":"2015-07-13T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=11561"},"modified":"2015-07-13T05:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T09:00:52","slug":"war-great-sport-rmrs-first-co-on-recruiting-tour-in-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/war-great-sport-rmrs-first-co-on-recruiting-tour-in-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"'War Great Sport' – RMR's First CO On Recruiting Tour in 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, July 13, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n

Reserve Billets\u00a0–\u00a0The Piggeries<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cWorking party supplied of 3 Officers and 150 OR.\u00a0 Two mines in front of Trench 121 exploded at 9:00 pm.\u00a0 Battalion \u2018Stood to\u2019 from 8:50 pm until 9:45 pm.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>[1]<\/p>\n

\n

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201c\u2026 in the front line, the 13th Battalion had occupied and consolidated the craters of several mines, blown under a position known as \u201cThe Bird Cage\u201d. \u00a0 This German position, situated only ten yards from the Canadian line, derived its name from wire netting which protected its garrison from bombs. \u00a0As it had proved a trouble centre during their previous tour in the line, the men of the 14th heard that it had been blown up with a distinct satisfaction, in no way diminished by the fact that they were due to take over the front once more.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n

\"13<\/a>The Gazette of Tuesday, July 13th was reporting on a recruiting meeting for the 60th Battalion held in Monreal the previous evening. This was Col. Meighen\u2019s second night back in Montreal and he was immediately taking part in recruitment campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sign was thrown on the screen that Col. F.S. Meighen, who commanded the 14th Battalion (RMR) in France was to follow, and a tremendous cheer went up as he appeared on the stand, which was repeated until Major O\u2019Donohoe called for three cheers for Col. Meighen and the men from Montreal, which were given with genuine enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m only just home,\u2019 said Col. Meighen, \u2018But I have come here tonight to ask you and the people of Montreal to hear the call of your brothers in France for more men.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018This is a big fight,\u2019 said Col. Meighen, \u2018and it should appeal to your sporting instincts. It is no rest to be fighting. It is really no better than any hockey [game] but the trouble hunting Germans is they are fighting back.\u2019<\/p>\n

As an illustration of the manner in which the Canadian troops could adapt themselves to any kind of fighting, Col. Meighen told how they had got next to the trench fighting with periscopes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our men,\u2019 he said, \u2018found that a bullet would penetrate about 40 inches into the ground. It did not take them long to figure this out. When they saw a German periscope stick out from an enemy trench our boys would fire directly in line with it so as to hit the ground in front. When we saw a periscope flop down we knew we had got a German.\u2019<\/p>\n

It is a great game, said Col. Meighen. \u2018It has baseball, football, and every other kind of game beaten. But no one ever forgets that it is a game of life and death, both for men and for our Empire. Our men there saw that, and I have time and again seen Canadians slightly wounded anxious to get back to the firing line just as soon as the doctors would let them. Men of Montreal, no doctor is holding you back. You are needed at the front, with our other gallant boys. You cannot do better than to go with the 60th \u2013 and go now.\u2019\u201d [4]<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, July 13, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089762.jpg<\/a> ,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089763.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0 R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg.\u00a0 64.<\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0 \u201cWar Great Sport Says Col. Meighen,\u201d The Gazette<\/em>, Montreal, Quebec, Tuesday, July 13, 1915, pg. 5, col. 3.<\/pre>\n
[4]\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuesday, July 13, 1915 Reserve Billets\u00a0–\u00a0The Piggeries The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cWorking party supplied of 3 Officers and 150 OR.\u00a0 Two mines in front of Trench<\/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-11561","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\/11561","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=11561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}