Canada: 71st Regiment of Infantry

[Chris_Baker]

Hilton McKnight, a man from Fredericton, New Brunswick, was commissioned into the British Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916. On his application form he says he was at the University of Brunswick OTC, and 71st Regiment of infantry from April 1915 but he was "unable to secure an appointment" with the CEF.

Any thoughts, Canadian pals? What was 71st regiment? I checked the online Canadian service records but could not find him there.

[jhill]

One would expect that this would refer to the 71st Regiment of the Canadian Militia.

More knowledgable members may correct me, but the system worked something like this: The Canadian Militia was organized on the model of the British Army. In the case of infantry, the country was divided up geographically and a regiment was raised in each area. Of course, Canada was not Britain, so the image quickly diverged from its model. Since there was a lot of geography relative to the population, there were a lot of little regiments, and the provision of multiple battalions and depots never got off the ground. Also, as a militia organization, there was no concept of a "regular" army.

Specifically, one list I have refers to the 71st as the "York" Regiment, which presumably means Toronto. How that works out with New Brunswick I do not know. (The 73rd and 74th Regiments, for example, were New Brunswick regiments).

I have no doubt that we have an expert lurking about who will shed more light on the situation.

[Canadawwi]

I use this list to look up Canadian units:

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/cef/cefregions.htm

If you scroll down to the 12th (far left column) - then you will see the 71st among other regiments, and these are attributed to the Maritimes.

[Terry]

Hi folks,

Fredericton is located in York County, hence the 71st York Regt. Next door we have Carleton County, which had the 67th Carleton Light Infantry. In the amalgamations of the thirties a new unit was formed - the Carleton & York Regiment, which served throughout WW2 with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division (Sicily, Italy, NW Europe). In the fifties, yet another amalgamation took place and all the New Brunswick infantry units were lumped together into the 1st Bn.,Royal New Brunswick Regiment (Carleton & York) and the 2nd Bn.,RNBR (North Shore). In all, this unit perpetuates (with pre-1920 number designations in brackets):

1st Bn. = York Regt (71st); Carleton Light Infantry (67th); Saint John Fusiliers (62nd); New Brunswick Rangers (74th)

2nd Bn. = North Shore Regt (73rd)

plus various other odds & ends. Anyone familiar with the various reorganizations in the UK can understand this!

[Chris_Baker]

Thank you very much, all.