THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY – 10 August 1914 – During the second week in August militia detachments and units not slated for the Expeditionary Force began arriving at Valcartier to take over administrative and instructional duties in the camp. The Permanent Force supplied the R.C.H.A. Brigade, the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Lord Strathcona’s Horse, together with ordnance personnel. From the Non-Permanent Active Militia a field company of Canadian Engineers, four companies of the Army Service Corps, three field ambulances of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, a veterinary section and a postal detachment were called out on active service to assist in these utilitarian tasks. [1]
Development of this new military camp at Valcartier proceeded at a pace sufficiently rapid that the Minister of Militia predicted the First Canadian Division would be able to mobilize at the camp in about two weeks time.
By August 10th just a week after the formal recruitment campaign had commenced with the intent to enlist between 22,500 and 23,000 men for the first division, the flood of volunteers had been so great that the army had almost enough volunteers for two army divisions instead of one. The names, addresses, and contact information of the volunteers who were not immediately needed for the formation of the first army division were recorded, and the men sent home until they would be needed at some later date.
[1] Col. G.W.L. Nicholson, CD., Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919, Duhamel, Queens Printer, Ottawa,, pg. 21
[2] The Montreal Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 12, 1914, pg. 1, col. 2.
[3] NEARLY SUFFICIENT FOR TWO DIVISIONS: Recruiting Has Been Fully Up to ...Special Despatch to The Globe; The Globe (1844-1936); Aug 10, 1914; pg. 3;