War Trophies
This Matrix Utility came about because of the work
of CEF Study Group member Bill Smy, who had written on this topic. You
will find his initial works on the CEFSG Forum under the topics of:
For those interested in photographing their local
war trophy, in a museum, park or elsewhere, we have set up a separate
directory on the shared CEFSG Photobucket site as well as a CEFSG Forum
Topic:
At the Photobucket site you can make a separate
directory for your community (or museum) and then upload the
photographs. For information on the User Name and Password for that
site, please refer to the Forum Discussion.
Dion Loach is transcribing the documents showing
where the war trophies were allocated. You will find these on the CEFSG
MediaFire site here:
The Matrix will host separate pages under this
directory for those that wish to provide details on the history of the
war trophy that they are researching. A separate sub-directory will be
created for each facility or location on a PROVINCIAL and then LOCAL
basis. The first example for ONTARIO has been provided to move the
projects along. You will find tabs at that top of this page leading you
to those sub-directories.
Bill Smy's summary document on the origin of war
trophies is a good place to start if you are new to this topic.
The text of that from the CEFSG Forum posting is provided as follows:
Bill Smy's War Trophy Summary Document:
Following the Armistice in November 1918, individual Canadian soldiers and Canadian units began planning to send some type of war trophy back to Canada. In most cases the “trophy” being considered was a weapon captured on the battlefield. Lieutenant Graham Thomson Lyall, for example, wrote the Commanding Officer of the 19th “Lincoln” Regiment, his old Canadian Militia regiment that he had, “great pleasure in sending this gun to my initial regiment, where I first learnt the rudiments of soldiering”. The gun was one of the guns captured in September 1918 during the deed which won him the Victoria Cross.
This type of “ad hoc” initiative was quickly put to a stop. The government of Canada established a “Commission on War Records and Trophies” with B. E. Walker as Chairman and A. D. Doughty and E. A. Cruickshank as Members. One mandate of the Commission was to recommend “the proper policy to be pursued for the distribution of such trophies and it submitted its report on 18 May 1920.
The Commissioners noted that:
 | Only trophies which were of a durable nature should be distributed to municipalities, public institutions, and military units; |
| Before any distribution, special provision should be made for a National War Museum and for Provincial War Museums; and that |
| War trophies were the exclusive property of the Crown, and the receiving institution was responsible for keeping them in good repair and had no authority to dispose of them. |
At the time of the report there were 516 captured German guns and howitzers, 304 trench mortars, 2500 heavy and light machine guns and 3000 rifles available for distribution. From these totals it was proposed that rare specimens such as two 37 mm and 75mm mountain guns, 77mm and 80mm anti-aircraft guns, three 88mm field guns, a 90 mm field gun, a 99mm howitzer, a 120mm gun, a 126mm gun, four 150mm naval guns, a 150mm Russian howitzer and four specimens of the other calibers, four specimens of each caliber of trench mortars, 100 machine guns and 1,000 rifles be reserved for National and Provincial War Museums.
It was recommended that guns of each caliber available, four trench mortars, twelve machine guns and 100 rifles, should be allocated to each Provincial capital city,. 6. In addition eleven guns awarded by competition in raising the Victory Loan of 1919 were to be distributed to each province with Ontario receiving two.
It was then proposed that the remaining trophies available were to be distributed by province based on wartime enlistments in the CEF, and the Department of Militia and Defence provided the following breakdown:
NUMBER OF ENLISTMENTS IN EACH PROVINCE PROVINCE TOTAL PER CENT:
Ontario 245,677 41.6 nearly
Quebec 82,793 14.0
Manitoba 66,319 12.2
British Columbia 61,438 10.4
Alberta 45,145 7.6
Saskatchewan 37,666 6.4 nearly
Nova Scotia and PEI 33,342 5.6
New Brunswick 25,864 4.4 nearly
Yukon 2,327 .4 nearly
Using the figures of enlistment provided by the Department of Militia and Defence, the general distribution was to be
PROPORTIONATE SHARE OF TROPHIES TO EACH PROVINCE
Guns and Howitzers Trench Mortars Machine Guns
Available Share Available Share Available Share
Ontario 398 166 244 101 2280 941
Quebec 56 34 321
Manitoba 45 27 259
British Columbia 35 22 203
Alberta 30 19 174
Saskatchewan 26 15 146
Nova Scotia and PEI 22 14 126
New Brunswick 17 11 100
Yukon 1 1 8
Totals 398 398 244 244 2280 2280
The provincial share according to enlistment was then broken down to municipalities, organizations and institutions, and military units.
The Public Archives of Canada was assigned the responsibility of distributing the war trophies, and it kept detailed records of its work: for example, the City of St Catharines received a 77 mm gun captured by the 4th Battalion on 27 September 1918, on the Arras-Cambrai Road, south-east of Marquion. Schools like Ridley College, Bishops College School and Upper Canada College received a share of the trophies, as did organizations like the Great Warn Veterans’ Association and the 91st Highlanders of Hamilton. The distribution even went to unlikely recipients like the College of Agriculture in Turo, NS, the Bank of Commerce in Montreal, the Anglican Missionary School in Elkhorn Saskatchewan, and the Public Library in Kitchener, Ontario.
In most of the listings, guns and mortars are only described by their muzzle size, i.e. 77 mm or 150 mm, but there are some instances where there reasons significant enough to warrant a further description. Both the 18th and 4th Battalions captured 77 mm guns which had their listings annotated “naval”; the 49th Battalion captured a “Russian” 161 mm gun; and there were a few “Austrian” guns captured.
One of the more interesting of the trophies was a machine gun “brought down in enemy aeroplane in the 1st Battalion area near Mont St Eloy. Handed over with plane to 5th Squadron RAF. Not claimed by 1st Bn” on 9 April 1918. The gun was allocated to the Great War Veterans’ Association, Lambton Branch, West Toronto.
Another machine gun has its entry annotated that it had been captured on 8 August 1918 by Lance Corporal Harry Garnet Bedford Miner, VC, of the 58th Battalion who died later that day. The citation for the award of the Victoria Cross states that he singled-handed rushed an enemy machine gun post, killed all the crew and then turned the gun on the enemy. The gun went to Arthur, Ontario.
Some of the captured guns were turned on their previous owners. A gun captured by the 60th battalion on 13 April 1917 near Petit Vimy was described as “Gas Shell gun used against enemy”, and another captured the next day by the same battalion on Vimy Ridge and one captured nearby by the 43rd Battalion again were “used against enemy.”
Two 77mm guns and a trench Mortar were sent to the British Embassy in Paris. The records also record the weapons destroyed in Europe.
Unfortunately over the last eighty years or so, many of these war trophies which once had been sources of great pride have disappeared and their whereabouts long forgotten. Even some, like the gun sent to Queenston which once stood proudly in front of the village war memorial, are lost to future generations.
Some of the war trophies to Canadian communities and organizations have survived. They are in various stages of physical condition: some have been excellently maintained; others are in despicable repair. Some of the war trophies have a well documented history, others not.
Record Group 37 in the National Archives contains the details of the allocations.
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