Reflections on Philipps’ Regiment, the 40th Regiment of Foot and the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment

Reflections on Philipps’ Regiment, the 40th Regiment of Foot and the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment

Hon. John G. Leefe DCL H. Colonel West Nova Scotia Regiment

Read at the Annual Regimental Association Dinner

September 8, 2012

When Bill invited me to speak to you I immediately began to ruminate over an appropriate topic. Over the past many years when Nancy and I have been your guests both at Aldershot and in Bridgewater, there have been many excellent after dinner talks offered by a variety of speakers. Understandably most have focused on the vital role our regiment – as your honorary colonel I can now say “our regiment” – played in the Sicilian, Italian and Northwest Europe campaigns. I decided I had to plough new ground.

I knew of course that we are affiliated with The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. I pondered this connection briefly in the knowledge that this British regiment is the modern incarnation of Philipps’ Regiment which was raised in Nova Scotia in 1717. It is an interesting footnote that it and its successor regiments have served in most major conflicts and on all continents save Antarctica, most recently in Afghanistan where many members of our regiment have also served. Rather than focus on the “Lancs”, I decided to make its Nova Scotia roots the object of my desire. I then had to determine a context. Consequently I thought it useful to focus to a greater extent on its activities in North America.

In 1710 Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, was invested by a largely New England army under the command of Colonel Samuel Vetch with support from the Royal Navy. By the Treaty of Utrecht 1713 Acadia was ceded by France to Britain though as the consequence of most imprecise boundaries, the British claimed Acadia included modern New Brunswick and eastern Maine perhaps even including the Gaspé, while the French claimed it was confined to the peninsula of Nova Scotia terminating at the Missaguash River, the modern border between the two provinces.

The Annapolis Royal garrison assigned responsibility for Nova Scotia’s security consisted largely of four Independent Companies of New Englanders. The bald truth was that whatever security existed stretched little if at all beyond the pale or banlieu of Annapolis Royal itself. The fort and its attendant community was a very small British puddle in a very large French, Acadian and Mi’kmaq lake.

Colonel Erasmus Philipps was appointed governor of the province in 1717 although he did not arrive in the province until 1720. In advance of his arrival he established a regiment which was to bear his name and that of successive governors until it became the 40th Regiment of Foot in 1751. Philipps’ Regiment consisted of eight companies, two assigned to Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, two to protect the Canso fishery and four posted to Fort Anne at Annapolis Royal.

To speak of Fort Anne as a bastion of empire is egregious error. John Doucett who was appointed Lieutenant-Governor in 1717 opined that he found the fort in an advanced state of disrepair with ramparts collapsing in the dry moat and two bastions hosting enormous breaches which he noted were “perfect roads into the Fort that Several men Might March in a Briest” sic and which was a “highway for our deserters”. The garrison was ill-supplied with such necessities as bedding clothing, guns, swords and medical necessities. Indeed, seventy members of the garrison were invalided. The situation was so deplorable that the officers feared a mutiny and only allowed the soldiers their firelocks when on guard duty. When Governor Philipps arrived in April 1720, perhaps employing some degree of hyperbole, he reported that, “The Fort of Annapolis Royal is quite done to Decay, more than one third of the Ramparts being at this Time level with the Ground, and the Garrison exposed to the Danger of being surprised by the Enemy without, and of being buried in the Ruins of their Barrack within”.

Co-incident with Philipps’ arrival was that of another officer of the regiment, Paul Mascarene who was to play a central role in the life on Nova Scotia’s government and defense until the arrival of Governor Cornwallis three decades later. Mascarene was a Huguenot who had fled from religious persecution in France and who had settled in Boston. His observations of the situation at Fort Anne were not dissimilar to Philipps. Respecting the relationships between the Royal Regiment of Artillery and the soldiers of the regiment, he complained that the gunners “minded trading more than the doing of their Duty”. Philipps expanded on this observation saying that the gunners were subject to “idleness, want of discipline & strong Liquors”. A later criticism of Lieutenant John Washington the fort’s artillery officer alleged that he spent too much time with “the meanest and vilest Company of both sexes”. No doubt Philipps regiment by contrast were choirboys in their deportment.

In spite of entreaties from a host of military officials, only the most modest amounts were expended on the fort up to the commencement of hostilities during the War of the Austrian Succession also known as the War of Jenkins Ear and King George’s War 1744 -1748. One can only suppose that during the years of peace from 1713 to 1744 the government hoped to realize a “peace dividend” by cutting the defense establishment to the core. The all too recent “Decade of Darkness” in Canada suggests this is not a phenomenon peculiar to the early eighteenth century.

The War of the Austrian Succession while most consistent in its European footprint, provided platforms for Britain and France to joust with each other in the Indian subcontinent and in North America. Retrospectively, it set the stage for the much wider Seven Years War from 1756-1763. France declared war against Britain March 18, 1744, the news arriving at Louisbourg on May 3rd, a few weeks prior to the news reaching Boston. The French at Louisbourg made a surprise attack on Canso on May 24th. Three hundred French soldiers and sailors under the command of Francois DuPont Duvivier descended on Canso and succeeded in forcing the surrender of the 120 soldiers of Philipps’ Regiment without firing a shot. Fortunately for the captives, the authorities at Louisbourg could not provide them with food and they were repatriated to New England on September 1st.

Duvivier now set his sights on Annapolis Royal which he knew well having been born there in 1705. The Governor of Louisbourg arranged for the priest Jean-Louis LeLoutre to assist Duvivier by organizing a siege of Fort Anne in mid-July by 300 Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq and a few Malecite from the St. John River. The failure of Duvivier to arrive in a timely fashion – he didn’t appear before the walls of Fort Anne until September 7th – resulted in many of LeLoutre’s parishioners giving up the siege and scattering to their forest homes. Duvivier however, pressed on.

The fort as we know, was in deplorable condition. Its commander, Paul Mascarene had only 75 soldiers fit for duty, most from Philipps’ Regiment. What stood between sure success and failure for Duvivier was Mascarene’s intelligence, dogged determination and consummate capacity for leadership with several strokes of good luck. After a four week siege during which a few houses were burned and the local population terrorized, two New England vessels arrived with re-enforcements. Duvivier held on until October when it was learned there would be no help from the French navy. Duvivier alienated the local Acadian population threatening them with reprisal if they did not actively support him. This only resulted in no support for his detachment either at the siege or for a possible over-wintering at Minas. Consequently he quit Nova Scotia for Ile Royale and Louisbourg on October 5 describing his departure thus: “It is flight, not retreat”. While many factors resulted in French failure, the clearest evidence is that the determination of Mascarene and his little garrison trumped Duvivier’s indecision.

In spite of the astounding success of the New Englanders assisted by Sir Peter Warren’s Royal Navy squadron in capturing the Fortress of Louisbourg, the threat to Nova Scotia remained real. In June 1746 France launched a massive effort including an invasion fleet manned by over 7000 sailors and 3500 soldiers. The instructions to the expedition’s commander, the Duc d’Anville, were to come to the aid of Canada if necessary, otherwise to retake Louisbourg, Annapolis Royal and Placentia in Newfoundland and/or launch a full scale assault on Boston and the New England coastal settlements.

It is beyond the scope of this talk to describe the disaster that befell this initiative. Where we must go is to the intended simultaneous arrival in Nova Scotia of a very determined Captain Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas Roch de Ramzay, a highly qualified and equally determined soldier son of New France. He too would test British resolve and the capacity of the regiment defending the little fort at Annapolis Royal and far more effectively than Duvivier had done the previous year.

Mascarene was notified of d’Anville’s fleet from Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. Sound intelligence, advised him of the French debacle on the shores of what today we call Bedford Basin. Given warning he prepared Fort Anne far more effectively than it had been when Duvivier attacked. He was able to neutralize the Acadians who themselves were well aware of the situation at Chebucto. He had them take their boats out of the water and beach them under the fort’s guns. Rear Admiral Peter Warren assigned the 50 gun HMS Chester for protection of Annapolis Royal and the provincial frigate Shirley was sent from Louisbourg to assist. An additional force of 250 men was sent from Boston to augment Mascarene’s meager resources. With army and naval personnel Mascarene had available to him a force of some 1100 fighting men. Utilizing his expanded manpower the commander proceeded to strengthen and expand the fortifications.

By mid-October de Ramezay’s force of two to three hundred mustered in the vicinity of Annapolis Royal. For three weeks they laid siege to the fort all the while expecting more Mi’kmaq warriors and French naval vessels for further support. Fortunately for the British the ships never materialized as the consequence of a host of factors, the most recent being contrary winds and storms off Cape Sable. The French commander La Jonquière had had enough. He ordered the siege lifted and set course for France. On November 3rd de Ramezay vacated Annapolis Royal with a sick, wounded, dispirited command. He fought a rearguard action against New Englanders who were in hot pursuit, made Minas and then on to Chignecto for winter quarters.

Through the winter of 1747-48 life was anything but dull at Annapolis Royal. Six independent companies of New Englanders were sent to bolster the garrison. They joined Colonel John Gorham and his company of Rangers who fought as irregulars employing Native American hit and run tactics in their raids. Additionally Philipps’ Regiment was given permission to recruit in America, but in spite of best efforts the initiative bore little if any fruit. In December Governor Shirley learned that the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle had been signed in October and promptly began withdrawing New England troops from Fort Anne. Peace was finally proclaimed by Mascarene at Annapolis Royal May 20, 1749.

If anyone in this small Nova Scotia outpost thought this signaled a welcome slide into the quietude of peace, they were soon to be disabused. Events were rapidly unfolding which would forever change the evolving story of Nova Scotia and which within the decade would witness the disruption of four decades of intermarriage with locals both British and Acadian, relationships between Philipps’ Regiment and merchants of Annapolis Royal and the removal of the regiment itself to the shores of Chebucto Bay under the command of a new and very hands-on colonel.

June 21, 1749 Colonel the Hon. Edward Cornwallis founded Halifax. The purpose of the Board of Trade and Plantations was threefold: to be a counter to Louisbourg which had been returned to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, to serve as a statement to the inhabitants of the province, particularly the Mi’kmaq and Acadians that British dominion was permanent and to be a springboard for British settlement on the Nova Scotia peninsula. As governor, Cornwallis became commanding officer of Philipps’ Regiment which now became Cornwallis’s Regiment. The new governor wasted no time in assigning his regiment new duties. One company was sent to Halifax, Captain Handfield was sent to Minas to establish a picketed fort and others garrisoned the post at Pisiquid (Windsor). The new fort at the head of Bedford Basin, Fort Sackville, was garrisoned by the regiment. Essentially the regiment was responsible for securing the line of communication from the old capital at Annapolis Royal to the new capital of Halifax.

July 1, 1751 signaled the numbering of regiments in the British Army, Cornwallis’s (previously Philipps) being designated the 40th Regiment of Foot. It was to retain this citation for 130 years. The 40th continued to be what might be termed the “go to regiment” in Nova Scotia. In 1750 Captain St. Loe’s company assisted Gorham’s Rangers in dispersal of a Mi’kmaq attack at St. Croix. During the first few years of the “new order” the regiment was frequently called upon several times to deal with Mi’kmaq attacks almost invariably inspired by their spiritual leader, Father Jean LeLoutre. Elements of the 40th were at the founding of Fort Lawrence in the summer of 1750. The French response was the construction of Fort Beauséjour thereby making the Missaguash the de facto boundary between France and Britain. LeLoutre ordered his Mi’kmaq to set the torch to the Acadian village of Beaubassin on the south side of the Missiguash and deport the Acadian population to French territory around Beauséjour.

Headquartered in Halifax, the 40th provided security in blockhouses and the Patrol Road around the fledging capital. In 1754 Captain Scott of the 40th commanded Fort Lawrence and it was he who carried on the clandestine correspondence with Thomas Pichon, the infamous “spy of Beauséjour”. Captain Matthew Floyer of the 40th was ordered to dismantle the fort at Minas and was later seconded to the ill-fated Braddock campaign that ended with disastrous defeat at the Monongahela River in 1755 and where he died of his wounds. In 1755 the 40th played a central role in the investment and capture of Fort Beauséjour under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Monckton. One casualty was that of Ensign Alexander Hay who had been captured by the French and imprisoned in the fort where he had the ill luck to be incarcerated in a casemate that took a direct hit from the Royal Artillery; killed by friendly fire as they say. Beauséjour, renamed Fort Cumberland was in part garrisoned by the 40th. The regiment also assisted in the deportation of the Acadians, Major John Handfield and the company at Fort Anne being specifically charged with removal of those living in the vicinity of Annapolis Royal, but more about this a little later.

Excepting in Nova Scotia, the Seven Years War 1756-1763 and its preliminaries at Monongahela and northern New York found Britain in a bad way. It was only with the arrival of William Pitt the Elder as prime minister and the reorganization of the entire war effort including promotion of bright young officers that the tide began to turn. Needless to say the 40th was in the hunt throughout hostilities.

In 1757 eight companies of the 40th were concentrated in Halifax and were intended to be in the vanguard of Lord Loudon’s attack on Louisbourg planned for that year. Instead of investing the fortress, Loudon had the soldiers plant cabbages about Halifax to improve their diet hence the whole affair came to be known as the “Cabbage War”. 1758 witnessed a gale of change. Jeffrey Amherst was assigned responsibility for managing the assault on Louisbourg. Among other competent young officers appointed for the campaign was Brigadier James Wolfe. The ultimate success of the operation was to turn on the cooperation of the army and navy under General Amherst and Admiral Boscawen, a classic example of the success of combined operations.

The Grenadier and Light or Flank companies of the 40th were chosen to be on the sharp end with Wolfe at Gabarus Bay. After establishing a beachhead the regiment continued in the heat of things. The grenadiers of the 40th, 45th and 47th were posted at the strategic Lighthouse Point while the remainder of the 40th under Wolfe’s direction threw up batteries and performed other services during the siege. By the time of surrender, the 40th had sustained thirty casualties, eight of whom made the supreme sacrifice. The Light Companies under Lord Rollo were sent to Ile St. Jean (now Prince Edward Island) to reduce the French garrison there. The 40th with the 22nd, 23rd and 45th under command of General Whitmore were left to face the rigors of a bitter winter in the ruin of the once proud fortress. It is well worthy of note that the first Battle Honour awarded by the 40th and today carried by its descendant regiment is “Louisbourg”.

The departure of the 40th from Nova Scotia to Cape Breton marked a watershed for the regiment. For 40 years from its foundation in 1717 to 1757 the regiment had served in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. As Thomas Raddall, a former officer of the West Nova Scotia Regiment and author of the regiment’s history once noted, that like Moses and the Israelites, the 40th had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness!

But the army was not yet done with the 40th, not by a long shot. The grenadier companies of the 40th, 22nd and 45th were combined into a special unit named the “Louisbourg Grenadiers” who played an essential role in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759. Wolfe commanded from the right next to the Louisbourg Grenadiers and it was one of their own, Lieutenant Brown, who is said to have cradled Wolfe in his arms as he bled to death from his mortal chest wound. “Quebec” is the 40th’s second battle honour. Upon departing Quebec after its capitulation, the regiment returned to Louisbourg for another lovely winter in the cold and the damp and swirl of snow and fog that are recurrent features of our coastal climate. In 1760 they were redeployed to the Upper St. Lawrence and participated in the capture of Montreal. France was done in America.

Britain now turned its focus from north to south. An expedition including the 40th was sent under the command of Brigadier General Monckton to the West Indies. Stopping first at Staten Island for re-enforcements, it proceeded to Barbados. In the winter of 1762 Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada fell to British forces. Spain having entered the war of the side of France, an expedition including the 40th was fitted out to attack Havana. A landing was effected on June 7, 1762 and the city fell on August 13. The 40th remained as part of the Havana garrison. One is left to conjecture over the banter of soldiers as they undoubtedly complained about having to serve the king during winter in Louisbourg and the summer in Cuba. One may assume that the Caribbean winter and the Caribbean rum and perhaps even the Caribbean women found greater favour with them!

Redeployed to New York in 1763 they found orders to proceed to Halifax. By August the 40th were stationed throughout Nova Scotia. Five companies were at Halifax, one company at Annapolis Royal, one company at Fort Frederick at the mouth of the St. John River and two companies at Fort Cumberland. Captain Ross’s company that had surrendered to a much larger French force at St. John’s in June 1763 had been repatriated to England.

The Seven Years War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Britain had been emerged the ultimate victor in what had become very much a global conflict. France was gone from America, British possessions in the Caribbean had been expanded and France had lost her foothold in India. From meager beginnings in a little and very insecure outpost in western Nova Scotia, the 40th had become a fighting force to be reckoned with.

After leaving Nova Scotia in 1764, the regiment served 10 years in Ireland. Recalled to America in 1775 the 40th added to its reputation at the battles of Brooklyn, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. In 1778 it returned to the West Indies then back to New York where it was among the last of British troops to leave that city, stopping briefly at Halifax on the way home to England.

The regiment served through the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars as far afield as Holland, Egypt and the Iberian Peninsula. During the War of 1812 the 40th formed part of the ill fated New Orleans expedition under General Sir Edward Packenham where contrary to Johnny Horton, they did not run through the briars and run through the bushes, but rather retired in orderly fashion.

During the long peace from 1815 to 1914, the 40th and its successors served in a myriad of venues. For 22 years it traveled New South Wales in Australia, India, and the 1st Afghan War. In 1852 it returned to Australia, from 1862-64 it served in New Zealand where in 1861 it fought in the Maori War. From 1872-1886 it was redeployed to India. It was during this time in 1881 that the regiment lost its designation as the 40th becoming the First Battalion the Prince of Wales Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment). The regiment rounded out the 19th century and entered the 20th with service in South Africa during the Boer War.

The century just past witnessed successor regiments in the thick of things in the Great War and the Second World War and during the period between these global catastrophes, serving everywhere from Europe to Russia, to the Near and Far East, North Africa and India. After service in Korea, support was rendered British authorities and emerging nations as the British Empire morphed into the Commonwealth of Nations. In more recent times Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan have been on the regimental map. It is worthy of note that the West Nova Scotia Regiment and our affiliated regiment, now the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s, Lancashire and Border) have both served in Italy and Northwest Europe. In more recent time members of our regiment have served in the Balkans and Afghanistan as has our affiliate regiment.

So there we have it, a brief history of our affiliated regiment whose roots like ours, can be traced to the early beginnings of Nova Scotia and to that little fort at the head of Annapolis Basin. Both have served and served well. Though we have been called upon less often, we have served with the same distinction and suffered the same sacrifice. While the 40th fought for security and enlargement of empire throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, both our regiments have been present in the service of freedom in the century just past and the one in which we currently reside. Our common early and more recent histories make sensible the affiliation that binds us one to the other.

But wait, there’s more – well just a little more!

The garrison at Fort Anne, the town of Annapolis Royal and the Acadians living within its immediate influence did not live in isolation from each other. The Acadians provided foodstuffs, wood and labour. The town folk provided consumer goods brought from New England and social amenities one would expect for that time, principally lodging and taverns. The soldiers provided security, cash (when they were paid which was not regularly) and when off duty, labour for the government and civilian residents of the town. The government consisted of the Council which provided executive, legislative and judicial remedy and was composed of the military and prominent residents of the town. Remembering that the 40th in greater or lesser numbers, was a presence in Annapolis Royal for some 4 decades, one should not be surprised to know that there was a great deal of cross-pollination. There also was important intermarriage between some members of the garrison, the New England residents and the Acadian community within the bainlieu. Let us consider the two most prominent examples.

Marie-Madeleine Maisonnat was born in Port Royal in 1695. Her father, Pierre Maisonnat, was a renowned Acadian privateer who was well, but not favourably known by New Englanders. Marie-Madeleine was 15 when Port Royal capitulated in 1710. Within a year the Protestant chaplain at Fort Anne united her in marriage to Lieutenant William Winniett, a Bostonian of Huguenot descent. Winniett left the army and became a successful merchant, ship owner and member of the province’s governing Council. They were blessed with 13 children three of their daughters marrying men of prominence, namely Alexander Cosby and John Handfield of the 40th and Captain Edward How who was destined to be treacherously murdered by LeLoutre’s Mi’kmaq parishioners in 1752.

Madame Maisonnat outlived her husband by some 30 years during which she is reputed to have been a force to be reckoned with in the town and in the Council itself! Captain John Knox in 1757 referred to her in his diary noting her as “an old woman of the Romish persuasion whose daughters, granddaughters and other relations, have intermarried with Officers and other gentlemen of this garrison” and that “ the ladies soon acquired an influence, the spirit of the soldier and the characteristic of a good Officer” but “were gradually changed and succeeded by rusticity”. Knox noted that if one of the garrison was incarcerated for paying more attention to M. Maisonnat’s employ than his military duties, “the old gentlewoman ordered him to be released by her own authority, which was deemed sufficient…I am also ensured that this good lady has actually presided at councils of war in the fort, when measures have been concerting to distress the common enemy, her good kindred and countymen” Her son-in-law Major John Handfield is the very one who was ordered to preside over the deportation of 1664 Acadians from Annapolis many of whom would have been known to him, many of whom were his friends and many of whom would have been related to his wife Elizabeth including her sister-in-law, nephews and nieces, uncles, aunts and cousins. It is little wonder that he wrote a note of commiseration to Colonel John Winslow who was in charge of deportation from Grand Pré observing, “I heartily join with You in wishing that we were both of us got over this most disagreeable and troublesome part of the Service.”

Let us now turn to another Acadianne of note.

Agathe de Saint-Etienne de La Tour was the granddaughter of the irrepressible Charles La Tour and his second wife, Jeanne Motin who was the widow of La Tour’s arch enemy d’Aulnay Sieur de Charnisay. She married Edward Bradstreet of Philipps’ Regiment by whom she had two sons. The younger, was baptized John by the Anglican chaplain and then Jean-Baptiste by the local Roman Catholic priest. The LaTour policy of covering all exigencies continued as a family tradition! John and his brother both served as volunteers in the regiment.

John was destined to have a distinguished career in Nova Scotia at the 1745 siege of Louisbourg. Throughout the Seven Years War he provided active leadership in northern New York and Lake Ontario. He worked closely with Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and then as a captain in the 60th Regiment of Foot (Royal Americans) he became aide-de-camp to Lord Loudon, then in command of British forces in America. In 1757 he urged British planners to adopt a three pronged assault against the French. One army would reduce Louisbourg, a second would assault Quebec and a third would eradicate French military presence in upper New York, Lake Ontario and then attack Montreal. This caught the attention of Lord Ligonier who was commander-in-chief of the British Army who most certainly brought it to the attention of Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder.

Bradstreet was awarded the rank of lieutenant-colonel and assigned as Deputy Quartermaster General for America. After Abercromby’s disastrous campaign against Fort Carillon (Fort Ticonderoga), Bradstreet again proposed an attack on Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario) which he pressed forward to good effect thereby truncating France from the Great Lakes. Jeffrey Amherst was now appointed commander of British forces in America and he too, soon came to respect Bradstreet’s abilities.

After the capitulation of France and the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Pontiac’s Rebellion broke out in 1764 and set the frontier in flames from the Great Lakes to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Amherst appointed Bradstreet to the task of securing the area from Niagara to Detroit. While at Detroit he offered tentative peace terms to a delegation of Indians at Fort Presque Isle, Pennsylvania and later at Detroit. He moved on to Sandusky in the Ohio country where he was ordered by the new commander-in-chief General Gage, to cease any negotiations with the Native Americans and instead attack Shawnee and Delaware forces in the area. Although this campaign was less than successful largely due to logistics and bad weather, he nonetheless could be credited with relieving Detroit, reopening British posts on the Upper Great Lakes and indirectly assisting Major Henry Bouquet’s war against Pontiac and his allies on the western frontier of Pennsylvania. After the war, he continued to prosper financially, but as is so often in peacetime, his military career ground to a halt. He died at New York City on September 25, 1773 and was buried in Trinity Episcopal Church. No doubt Bradstreet’s great-grandfather would have smiled on his successes. The La Tours always strove to be with the winners!

In recounting military history whether of the West Nova Scotia Regiment or the 40th, now the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, we speak of armies and regiments, of theatres and battles, of comrades invalided and comrades lost, of wives widowed, of sweethearts mourned and of children bereft of fathers, of honours won and of honours emblazoned, of garrisons and postings near and far and all the other facets large and small, in war and in peace, that speak to army life. What we must not forget is that the people of the regiments of yesterday and of today, Officers, NCOs, enlisted personnel, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, parents and grandparents were and are real flesh and blood - people just like us. They lived, they worked, they had hopes and ambitions and fears too, they played, they fought, they were heroes, they were scallywags, they loved, they mourned, they died of wounds, of disease, of old age: they were reflections of the society that nurtured them just as you and I are today and it is only meet, right and our bounden duty to remember them, so many of whose names we will never know, but whose deeds live on embraced in the stories bequeathed us by them.