Eastern Townships

The Immortalized

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel Harry Baker, M.P. †
5th Canadian Mounted RiflesBaker

It has been the lot of other nations to have their legislators, their parliamentarians, even their kings put on the uniform of soldiers and go forth to battle and meet a patriot’s death, but so far it has been the lot of Canada only once.

(Arthur Meighen, Debates, 3 Mar 1924, 49)

George Harold Baker was the only sitting Canadian Member of Parliament killed in action during the First World War. Born in Sweetsburg, Quebec on 4 November 1877, Baker was Conservative MP for Brome (1911—1916) and commanding officer of the 13th Scottish Light Dragoons. He died in the battle of Sanctuary Wood on 2 June 1916. He is commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue in the Centre Block of the House of Commons.

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The Good Neighbour

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Lieutenant Colonel Levi Jerome Gilbert
117th (Eastern Townships) BattalionGilbert

A CALL TO ARMS

There is not a neighborhood in the Townships where it should be impossible to raise a section, and a section so raised would be a “CHUM SECTION.” Each MAN would be a neighbor, would share the same tents, drill and march side by side, befriend each other throughout the campaign and, let us trust, come home again together rejoicing in perils safely passed, but shared in common, and in a common participation which is surely coming if we all do our Duty.

(117th Citizens Recruiting Association pamphlet, 1 December 1915)

Born on 2 June 1870, Levi Jerome Gilbert was a civic leader in Sherbrooke, Quebec and a gentleman militia officer with the 58th Compton Regiment in the 7th Hussars. As commander of the 117th Battalion, Gilbert recruited volunteers from the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, which included Sherbrooke, Magog and Cowansville.

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