Robert Rennie

3rd Infantry Battalion

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3rd (Toronto Regiment) Battalion
1st Canadian Division

3rd Bn 1

Robert Rennie was the first 3rd Battalion CO, from September 1914 to November1915, when he was promoted to command the 4th Infantry Brigade.

3rd Bn 2

William D. Allan commanded the 3rd Battalion until September 1916 when he feel deadly ill following a shell splinter wound. His parents returned with the body for burial in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery, making him one of the few Canadians buried at home even though he died overseas.

3rd Bn 3

An original officer with the 3rd Battalion, Robert B. Rogers took over after Allan’s death. He remained in command until the end of the war.

The Prisoner

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Major A. J. E. Kirkpatrick
3rd (Toronto Regiment) BattalionAJEKirkpatrick

With ammunition gone, bleeding and bent,
With hunger, thirst, and weariness near spent,
With foes in crowds on every side to hem
Them in, to capture these, God pity them.

Their day was done, their suffering still to come.
They were to know the full and total sum,
Wearily marching to captivity,
How long? God knows! An eternity

(A. E. Kirkpatrick, Toronto Globe, 22 Apr 1931, 4)

A native of Toronto, Arthur James Ernest Kirkpatrick was born on 29 April 1876. He was a graduate of Upper Canada College, twenty-one year member of the Queen’s Own Rifles and married to the daughter of prominent Liberal Party leader William Mulock. Kirkpatrick fought at Second Ypres as second-in-command of the 3rd Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rennie.

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The Clear Grit

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Major General Robert Rennie, M.V.O.
3rd (Toronto Regiment) BattalionRennie

As a candidate, I seek election not on my personal record so much, but on that of those who were associated with me in the great war. I am now more a civilian than a soldier, but—and please let there be no frills about this—if war should threaten again, I am ready to offer my services.

I stand on a Liberal platform because I am a Liberal and always have been. I believe in the great principles of Liberalism…

(Rennie’s speech, Toronto Globe, 21 Nov 1921, 1)

Robert Rennie was a Toronto seed merchant and thirty-four year member of the Queen’s Own Rifles. He joined as a rifleman in 1880 and rose to become lieutenant colonel by 1914. Born on 15 December 1862 in Markham, Canada West, Rennie was an expert marksman, respected businessman and prominent sportsman, with a specialty in curling.

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