249th Battalion

The Public Defender

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel W. H. Hastings
250th (Polish) BattalionHastings

Col. Hastings, in an address to the recruits promised to help out any of them to the best of his ability it ever they got in trouble.

(Winnipeg Tribune, 24 Mar 1920, 1)

William Henry Hastings was a newspaperman, crown prosecutor and barrister in Winnipeg. He had been born in Peterborough, Canada West on 29 December 1858. In September 1916, he attempted to raise the 250th Battalion, supported by the local Polish-Canadian community. The Polish language newspaper in Winnipeg, Czas, lauded the creation of a special unit to fight “the traditional enemies of Poland” as “an historical event.” However, the 250th failed to reach full strength and later merged with Lieutenant Colonel C. B. Keenlyside’s 249th Battalion.

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The Preacher

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel C. B. Keenleyside
249th (Saskatchewan) BattalionKeenleyside

The plain fact is we shall live forever. Please lay down these pages and think of that: We shall live forever.

And the life yonder beyond the tomb will depend upon our life here. This gives the rushing moments dignity and importance. In a brief tale of fourscore years, or half, or quarter of that number, we fix forever our destiny.

(C. B. Keenleyside, What is Your Life? 1906, 23)

Clifford Benjamin Keenleyside was a real estate financier and Methodist missionary. Born in London, Canada West on 9 December 1865, Keenleyside moved west as a young man and settled in Winnipeg. He established himself in the newspaper business and real estate market before moving to Regina where he became a city alderman. He connected his business interests and political philosophy with Christian values by spreading the word of God.

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