Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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LOYOLA COLLEGE Page 16 REVIEW Its formation was announced in the Auditorium by Maj. Gerald Wilson, C.M.G., and within the year of 1919, with the assistance of the Officers of the 55th Irish Canadian Rangers, 199th Bn. C.E.F., the Corps was fully organized with Maj. M. J. McCrory as Commanding Officer. The strength was ninety members in the C. O. T. C. and about 250 in the Cadet Corps. The Drill Master was R. J. M. McClements, late of the 73rd Bn. C.E.F., and the Physical Training Instructor was the late Col. John Long, father of the present Commanding Officer of the Unit. On March 17th, 1919 the official authorization for Establishment was received from Ottawa, and with that began the organization, activities, growth and success of the Unit into its present-day status. COLORS ... Immediately following its official establishment in General Order No. 37, March 17th-19th, that is, on March 21st, the Unit was inspected by Lt.-Gen. Sir Henry Burstall, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Inspector General of Militia for Canada, accom- anied by Brig.-Gen. C. J. Armstrong, C.M.G. and Lt.-Col. R. O. Alexander D.S.O. hat evening the first Mess Dinner was held, the guests of honor being the officers of the Irish Canadian Rangers, and on that occasion the custody of the colors of that Unit were entrusted to the Loyola College Contingent C. O. T. C. In the second year of the C. O. T. C., with the same officers in charge, on October 28th, 1919, the Unit and the Cadets took part in a Victory Parade and were reviewed by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. Two days later, on October 30th, they acted as a guard of honor at the unveiling of the Notre Dame de Grace Memorial by the Prince of Wales, and on that occasion he presented the Colors to the Unit, after commenting on their steadiness and smartness. It is remarkable at this early stage that the Unit got its courses of training under way with such speed and with such success. In the winter of 1920-21 the first candidates were ge for the A Certiffcate, the qualification proper to the Reserve Unit, and the results were very satisfactory. Following the termination of that year Major McCrory, after seeing the Unit off to a successful start, resigned from his post as Commanding Officer, and the next year, 1923-24, Maj. Edgar Reynolds, former 2 i c, took over the position of Commanding Officer with Capt. E. O'Brien as Second in Command. The Unit at this time mustered ninety strong, with 275 Cadets. The first parade was held in November in the shape of the annual arrison parade to St. James Cathedral, and on February 6th, there was a preliminary nspection by Lt.-Col. Alexander. On April 24th the second Annual Mess Dinner was held and the Annual Inspection on June 7th. The Cadets took part іп a Church Parade under the then Major Long and on April 24th was held the first C. O. T. C. Banquet. During the following term, 1923-24, the Unit continued to train and instruct the undergraduates and on May 13th, at the General Inspection by Brig.-Gen. Armstrong, Maj. Reynolds presented a trophy to be known as the McCrory Shield. From this period onwards, the Unit continued to improve and to submit candidates for the А Certificate, always, in the latter with a very high percentage, оуег 85%, of successful results. The Annual Mess Dinners, Inspections, and Church Parades continued to be held with the same smartness and precision with which they had been inaugurated, and which have continued to attract attention and praise from Military Officials and general public alike. In 1926, however, due to a radical cur- tailment of Militia Expenditure, the number of those taking active part in the

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LOYOLA Page 15 COLLEGE REVIEW The history of the Alumni of Old Loyola, as it is known, who died in the | Service of the British Empire during the last War, graduates from as far back as | 1896, and graduates up to, in some cases, 1917, shows that Loyola was certainly not found wanting in all that is courageous and unselfish. The Larei of Students and Alumni who served, in proportion to the size of the College then, was the reatest of any educational institution, and the fine record set by Old Loyola is feine ably carried on in the present crisis. That is the Loyola Tradition, and, com- memorating it today, for the full recognition and due glory that Loyola owes them, the Old Loyola men, are the Memorial Tablet in the Junior Building, with its long list of those who fought and died, the Irish Canadian Ranger flags, that hang above the Sanctuary of the Loyola Chapel, and the Memorial Window in the rear of the Chapel. Loyola students, looking at them, can have some significance of the tra- dition of Loyola College borne upon them, can realize in some part the role the Irish Canadian Rangers, and their successor, the Loyola C. O. T. C., have played and are playing, and can gain courage and reassurance and just pride from them. Data :— 1. Two hundred and seventy-seven Loyola men volunteered in the Great War. 2. Decorations:— М.С. and Cross of Legion of Honor:—then Maj. Geo. Vanier, later Canadian Consulate to France. Old Loyola, '06. M.C. Capt. H. O'Leary, 14 М.С. Capt. Е. O'Leary, 07 M.C. Capt. W. Morgan, '07 M.C. Lt. J. De Gaspé Audette, 13 Military Medal. Cpl. Stanton Hudson, '14 Croix de Guerre. Ft.-Lt. Arthur Dissette, '08 D.C.M. Pte. Leo Le Boutillier, '15 5. Charles Gavan Power, '07, returned from overseas, with a credit of 22 wounds. Returned as Liberal Member—Opposition—for Quebec South. Now Canada's Air Minister. 4. Air Commodore G. V. Walsh, '14, O.B.E. O.C. No. 3 Training Command R.C.A.F. H.Q. Montreal. R HISTORY OF THE UNIT... Preliminary to the actual formation of a C. O. T. C. Unit at Loyola College, was the existence of a Cadet Corps at Old Loyola. On April 24th, 1915, the Cadets joined the Irish Canadian Rangers in a review by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, and on May 16th, they took part in the Irish Canadian Rangers' Church Parade. It was after this that Old Loyola ceased to be. The former building was leased as a Military Hospital and Lo yola College began to take shape as we know it today. In June, 1918, Capt. the Rev. William H. Hingston, S.J., who was to brin into actual existence the C. O. T. C. Corps, and to give it its first impetus, age from ten months’ overseas battle-front service, where he had accompanied the Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish Canadian Rangers in England and France. Under the auspices, then, of Fr. Hingston, and as a furtherance, of a kind, of the Cadet Corps already in existence, but intended primarily as a perpetuation of the Irish Canadian Rangers, on February 18th, 1919, the Loyola College Contingent of the C. O. T. C. was established.

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Page 17 Loyola College Revi ew — O + Hon: Chas. G. Power, '07 Lt. William G. Tellier, R.C.N.V.R., '29 Awarded George Medal for courage and coolness ' Minister of National Defence for Air PROMINENT ALUMNI Thomas Guérin, 07 M.L.A. St. Ann's a ——— м. Lt.-Col. Gavan Power, '29 Chaudiére Regiment Hon. Wilfrid Girouard, 13 Judge of Superior Court