THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY – 07 September 1914 – Rain began on Saturday night and continued steadily.\u00a0 It poured heavily during Sunday\u2019s review parade by the Governor-General and continued throughout today.\u00a0 The rain fell so heavily that the Governor-General was unable to keep his planned inspection of camp facilities today, and the Camp Commandant cancelled all orders except for the duty battalion while the remainder of the camp was given the day off.\u00a0 In the afternoon a couple of battalions were marched to the ranges, but were marched back again as no practical work could be done in the deluge.\u00a0 Tents were swamped; even ditching could not guard against flooding.\u00a0 Men who got drenched during yesterday\u2019s review and changed to dry clothes were drenched again and today there is not a man with a dry stitch in camp. [1]<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys took it well\u201d said Lieut.-Col. Burland of the 3rd<\/sup> Victoria Rifles, himself shedding rain like a young waterspout.\u00a0 \u201cYes, the boys took it well. There was not a grumble.\u201d\u00a0 The Montreal men are hanging on in good spirits, both the 5th<\/sup> Royal Highlanders and the composite battalion [The Royal Montreal Regiment] sticking it out with fortitude in their discomfort.\u00a0 Bonfires are the rule along the infantry lines, and the men glean some scant comfort from these.\u201d\u00a0 [2]<\/p>\n \u201cThe Montreal men have stood the medical test well, and while no official figures are forthcoming at the moment, it is said the percentage of rejections will be small indeed.\u00a0 The composite battalion, [The Royal Montreal Regiment] made up of the Grenadiers, Victoria Rifles, and 65th<\/sup>, will lose only about fifty men, and the 5th<\/sup> Royal Highlanders will be in about the same proportions.\u201d\u00a0 [3]<\/p>\n The Battalion history adds this anecdote: \u201cThe pouring rain which fell on the review of the Contingent by the Duke of Connaught the previous day continued for several days after the review. Greatcoats, issued on the 8th<\/sup> were welcome in consequence. Though the rain was far from pleasant, the troops used the resultingwaters in a cheery little game played after dark. The rules of this sport have never been coded, but the object is to divert surface water from one\u2019s own tent into the tent of one\u2019s next door neighbour.\u00a0 This requires skill and an eye for contours.\u00a0 Speed and a shovel and ability to fade silently into the dark are also attributes of value.\u00a0 The game is undignified for authority of course, and one officer caught digging a ditch on a rainy night claimed never to have heard of it.\u00a0 He was, he said, laying out a golf course.\u201d [4]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY – 07 September 1914 – Rain began on Saturday night and continued steadily.\u00a0 It poured heavily during Sunday\u2019s review parade by the Governor-General and continued<\/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-9132","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\/9132","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=9132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[1] From: \u201cDuke Tenders To Contingent Warm Congratulations,\u201d The Montreal Daily Mail<\/em>, Montreal, Tuesday, September 8, 1914, pg. 2, col. 4.\n[2] \u201cDuke Tenders To Contingent Warm Congratulations,\u201d The Montreal Daily Mail<\/em>, Montreal, Tuesday, September 8, 1914, pg. 2, col. 4.\n[3] Ibid.\n[4] R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 10.<\/pre>\n