The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

10A THE OSHAWA TIMES, Tuesdey, Mey 31, 1966 Hardy Volunteers In 1856 Formed First Military Unit For County "Saturday night soldiers" jibed the indifferent when the Ontario Regiment first came | into being as the colorful 34th. Ontario Battalion of Infantry. The date was September 14, | 1866; all but a few months of 100 years ago. Indifference to the badly equipped, but-enthusiastie mili- tiamen was, apparently, short- lived. The familiar insult, notes Capt. Lex Schragg in his book "History Of The Ontario Regi- ment'"' was a sad mistake 'as the volunteers were apt to teach their loose-tongued derog- ators with well directed fists." The 34th. Ontario Battalion was made up of nine separate militia units operating in On- tario County at that time. Its' headquarters Whitby, this being the county seat. The Regiment, in fact, did not move to Oshawa until after the First World War. FIRST UNIT ' The county's very first mili- tary volunteer unit was formed in 1856 by an_- enterprising gentleman named Capt. James Wallace. The editor and publisher of "The Watchman," a _ Whitby weekly newspaper, Capt. Wal- lace called his volunteers the Highland Rifle Company. Fighting strength, of all Tanks, was 90; and a rough, | Battle During First Recorded In due time the Highland, Rifle Company separated from the Second Battalion, now known as Queen's Own Rifles. By this time the militia units had sprung up all over Ontario County. Whitby had two units while | Oshawa managed the same number. Single units were) formed in Prince Albert, Green- wood, Uxbridge, Columbus and} Brooklin. | The first recorded battle by | the Ontario volunteers was in| June of 1866 during the Fenian threats. The battle, which took place at Ridgeway in the Niagara Peninsula, is remembered for | very little. Ridgeway tradition, in fact is rather scornful of the whole affair. The suggestion is that most of the bullets fired were stopped by trees. RIDGEWAY CONFLICT Nevertheless the Ridgeway conflict was the Ontarjo volun- teer units first taste of action. In September of 1866 came the formation of the 34th. On- tario Battalion under the com- mand of Lt. Col. S. B, Fair- banks, of Oshawa. A full bearded, handsome gentleman, Col. Fairbanks, was te command the Battalion until 1872, Except for the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 the 34th. saw no action until the turn of the century when the call went out for volunteers to serve in the South African war. The Regiment was given a quota; and that quota was promptly met. In early August of 1914 the men of the 34th. crowded into the Oshawa Armoury eager to enlist in t he Great-War. They came, it is recorded, by horse and wagon, by train, and afoot, some of them tramping, doggedly a score of miles to be enlisted in the first drafts. the were at! ; tough, hardy bunch they were | too. The volunteers were unpaid; 'they joined apparently for the | excitement of it all. ' The men were clothed and /equipped principally by the Company officers. | The Government paid little or no attention to the Company's ambitions. Their only contribu- | tion was the provision of small numbers of firearms. Uniforms were of the tradi- tional rifleman's green, the cloth being ordered from Eng- land and made up by Whitby | tailors, | TARTAN TROUSERS Trousers were of tartan. Un- fortunately there is no record of which clan the Company | honored. On April 26, 1860 the Second Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada was formed in |Toronto. The Highland Rifle Company was a part of this | Battalion. The Company's first cére- monial appearance of any im- portance took place in Septem- ber, 1860 when the Prince of Wales passed through Whitby en-route to Whitby. The Highland Rifles, under Capt. Wallace, formed a guard of honor as an escort from the Grand Trunk Railway station to Port Whitby harbor, at which point, the Prince embarked for Toronto. Fenian Threat For Volunteers through its training and over- seas. The newly . formed _ 116th. fought with valor .and distinc- tion in both France and Bel- gium, After the war the tario Regiment became | 34th. On- in 1920. At this time too,. regimental |} headquarters was moved from Whitby to Oshawa. it-was- not-until-1936,-during the re-organization of Canadian Militia, that the Ontarios first 'became a tank regiment. The changeover, for a long period of time, was on paper the | "Ontario Regiment," the num- | bers being dropped by General | Order 66 which came through | ! | Second World War did the regi- ;ment get a chance to train with | tanks. | It was not until the Regi- ment moved overseas that they took charge of their own 30-ton | Shermans, | As Capt. Schragg writes in his | history of the Regiment: "Since | soldiers dearly love a new LT. COLONEL S. B. FAIRBANKS The Ontario Regiment's first Commanding Officer only. It was not until 1942 that | weapon, the anticipation of be- |the Regiment first came face| coming in fact as well as in to face with an awesome beast theory a tank regiment main- known as the Sherman tank. | tained the spirits of the On- In only one period before the | tarios. SINCERE BEST WISRES . .. -- To The -- ONTARIO REGIMENT ROYAL CANADIAN ARMORED CORPS on the occasion of their 100th ANNIVERSARY In Septembér, 1915, Major Sam Sharpe, then Second in Command of the 34th,.was au- | famous | thorized to raise the 116th. Battalion. A well organized unit was de- CE ue VithoF 43 KING STREET WEST, OSHAWA veloped and its Lieutenant Col- onel, Sam Sharpe, took it GENOSHA HOTEL takes pleasure in extending CONGRATULATIONS to the ONTARIO REGIMENT of the ROYAL CANADIAN ARMOURED CORPS on their 100th ANNIVERSARY GENOSHA HOTEL King St. E. dt Mary St. -- 723-4641