Number of Canadians ever to server in the military

[Guest Dalton]

I was wondering if somebody can provide me with the number of Canadians who have served in the military from 1867 until the present. This must include war and peace times if possible. Or if 1867 is too far back then like 1900? Thank you in advance. Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I was not sure where to post this. Even a website that could help me find this answer would be greatly appreciated. I am planning my Highschool's rememberance day ceremony and would really like to have this number.

[John Gilinsky]

As a reasonable ball park estimate I would say combing both World Wars, the nominal figure of 75,000 active militia during 1900 - 1914 and an extrapolation of the period of time between 1946 to say 2000 considering the size of the armed forces that at least 2.5 million Canadian men and women have served between 1900 to 2000 in the Canadian armed forces. You still might wish to get a far better answer from DND itself if you are located in Canada. Contact your nearest Public Relations officer and request that DND HQ PR or communications try to get if they don't already have the answer for you. It might be that they in turn will contact personnel officers at DND HQ who may know the more accurate number(s).

John

[Guest Dalton]

As a reasonable ball park estimate I would say combing both World Wars, the nominal figure of 75,000 active militia during 1900 - 1914 and an extrapolation of the period of time between 1946 to say 2000 considering the size of the armed forces that at least 2.5 million Canadian men and women have served between 1900 to 2000 in the Canadian armed forces. You still might wish to get a far better answer from DND itself if you are located in Canada. Contact your nearest Public Relations officer and request that DND HQ PR or communications try to get if they don't already have the answer for you. It might be that they in turn will contact personnel officers at DND HQ who may know the more accurate number(s).

John

Thank you so much, I appreciate the help greatly.

[laughton]

If you buy a POPPY from the Royal Canadian Legion this week, ask for a "Poppy Campaign Information Card" and on that you will find the following information for number of Canadians who SERVED in these wars or actions:

Great War 1914-1919 (WWI): 652,437

World War II: 1,136,316

Korea: 25,583

They do not have the peacekeeping forces on the card but you may find that on the web site here:

http://www.legion.ca

Thanks for your interest,

Richard

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Welcome to the forum,

A complication to your question is that Canadians often served in the British forces not just specifically Canadian units.

So for example William Hall VC served in the Royal Navy, as there was not a Royal Canadian Navy during his service.

Raymond Collishaw served in the Royal Naval Air service as there wasn't a Royal Canadian Airforce.

[laughton]

Complication on the complication when the Canadian served in both the CEF and the BEF in the Great War. Both my grandfathers served in both armies - as Privates in the CEF and as Officers in the BEF - both survived.

As they each had attestation papers and assignments in Canada they would have been counted in Canada. I am not sure if the British counted the Canadians who served in their forces in the master count?

If I am but one family with two grandparents who served in both armies, the totals could be out by many tens of thousands of men.

[skinumb]

A goodly proportion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force were British. See this national archives site:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/

I found out at the weekend that my gr gr uncle, born in Aldershot, living in Raunds, skipped over to Canada in September 1914 and signed on and was on his way back in uniform a couple of days later. He was a year overage, but in his Attestation cut 6 years off his age and claimed prior military service.

When searching other CEF recruits with his surname (Arnold) to see if any of hus brothers had gone with him I noticed that more than half were born in England and most of those with England-based next-of-kin. That's not to say they weren't mainly emigrants though.

Rich