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Topic: Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953 (Read 735 times)
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Regt Adjt
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Posts: 196
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The Regimental Store has begun to receive copies of the new volume of the regimental history; Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953 by Colonel Bernd Horn. The hardcover edition is available now (see pricing below).
Order your copy from the Regimental Store at (519) 660-5332.
The first 100 copies ordered will receive free shipping. While supplies last, a free copy of regimental uniform prints will be included with every copy of Establishing a Legacy.
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Regt Adjt
Regimental History; Volume 3, Part I
Establishing a Legacy: The History of The Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953
By Colonel Bernd Horn
Colonel Bernd Horn (The RCR) has completed the first volume of the much anticipated two volume set on the History of the Royal Canadian Regiment. Part I starts with the creation of the Regiment in 1883, as an infantry school corps tasked to train the Militia. It then goes on to chronicle the major events in the Regiment’s history up 1953, including the Northwest Rebellion, South Africa, both World Wars and the Korean Conflict.
In preparing this 384 page volume, Colonel Horn has cleverly blended primary source material from official reports, with the personal files, diaries, letters, and interviews with some of the participants to create a fast moving populist history that quickly grabs and holds the reader’s attention. In the process, he has written a concise history of the Royal Canadian Regiment through the daring actions of its men and women. In many ways, this volume pays tribute to the bravery and tenacity of the soldiers who ultimately created the legacy of courage and professionalism that is the foundation of today’s Regiment.
Ordering Your Copy
Written in a fast flowing and easy to read narrative, Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953, is a must have for anyone interested in understanding the first 70 years of the Regiment and the beginnings of its proud tradition of service to the nation. The book will be available through the Regimental Kit Shop at the following competitive pricing:
- Paperback - $22
- Hardcover - $30
- Leather Bound - $48
While supplies last, a free copy of regimental uniform prints will be included with every copy of Establishing a Legacy.
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richard turcotte
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i am interested in ordering the book thankyou richard f.turcotte
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tedhudson
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Yes I am interested in a volume a leather bound
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Regt Adjt
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Veteran 100+ Member
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Gentlemen, if you would like to order a copy of Establishing a Legacy: The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953, please contact the Regimental Store with your credit card information and mailing address.
Thank you
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Perhaps the colonel will be on hand during the reunion with some copied for the book to sell and, of course, sign for us? Pro Patria.
A soldier's history
Col. Bernd Horne pens the story of Royal Canadian Regiment
Posted By BY IAN ELLIOT WHIG-STANDARD STAFF WRITER
Posted 2 hours ago
A new history of one of Canada's oldest and most decorated regiments will hit the shelves today and the Kingston author ofEstablishing A Legacy -The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883- 1953is adamant that he was not going to produce yet another weighty yet never-read regimental history.
To borrow a phrase, official military histories are to writing what military music is to music. Having spent his academic life around such histories, Col. Bernd Horne, a deputy commander with Special Operations Forces Command who lives in Kingston and who is an adjunct professor at Royal Military College, wasn't going to add another weighty recitation of commissions, changes of commands and hoary ready-aye-ready battlefield lore to the pile.
"From the start, this was going to be a soldier's history," he said of the book, published this year to mark the 125th anniversary of the regiment, which is based in London and Petawawa. The regiment has been in battles ranging from the Boer War and the Northwest Rebellion to modern-day Afghanistan.
"The generals are important, but I didn't want to write another top-down book that is given away as a gift at regimental functions but never actually read. I wanted to write something that a soldier of today could pick up and be interested in."
Official histories tend to rely on official communiques -things such as battlefield dispatches and after action reports of the time -whose writers knew they would be read by both historians and generals and so they tended to paint things in the best possible light.
A career soldier, Horne knows reality is much more complicated and chaotic than that. He tried to present a more rounded picture -the grunt's eye view of battle, so to speak, which is different than what appears on the tidy maps of generals.
"Unless you can relate to the dynamics of war, it's difficult to understand," he said.
"People are scared, they're wet, they're hungry, they may not know what's going on 10 feet away from them and they don't see the bigger picture."
"Whether it's mosquitoes or bullets, for them the biggest things are the immediate things -it's the heat, it's the hunger, it's the basic dog s--- existence of being a soldier, and all that is perfectly natural -you shouldn't have to create this mythology around it."
One of the pictures in his book is an 1898 photograph of a miserable-looking RCR member on patrol in the Yukon, rifle cradled in his arms and a heavy pack on his back. The only thing missing is the buzzing of the omnipresent blackflies. The cut-line notes the man was "facing the soldier's timeless struggle -heavy loads and a hostile environment."
However, the regiment, the country's oldest regular infantry regiment, has carved out a distinctive fighting history, among other things bringing about the first British victory of the First World War at Paardeberg -although again, not quite in the manner described in the official histories - and accumulating 57 battle honours by 1953.
Horne, who got his BA from the University of Waterloo, joined the military as a direct-entry officer and obtained his masters and PhD from RMC. He is the author, co-author or editor of 26 books, many focusing on the Canadian way of war. It's a subject with a long history but one that is overlooked, even by today's academics and officers, in favour of lessons learned by American or allied forces, and many are aimed as much at a civilian audience as a professional military readership.
He said Canada's military history is still often neglected, and said one of his lifelong goals is to raise that profile.
"We still study American campaigns or British campaigns, but as Canadians, we have such a rich history ourself, and our way of war is completely different than that of the Americans or the British and that is rarely acknowledged."
The book also looks at the peculiarities of the regiment itself. Each regiment has its quirks, and the RCR has traditionally been known for spit-and-polish military professionalism, with units in combat zones whitewashing rocks that lined walkways and even polishing barbed wire until it shone.
However, Horne draws a bigger picture of the citizen army, arguing that military and regimental history is a reflection of the history and evolution of the country, and regiments are not merely colours in a display case but a reflection
"I was looking at the bigger audience, beyond just members of the regiment or members of the military, and there is a thirst for understanding the military among the public."
-Kingston's Col. Bernd Horne, deputy commander with Special Operations Forces Command
"The history of a regiment is really the story of its members -their trials challenges, disappointments and achievements," he writes.
"... For these reasons, when recounting the history of a regiment, it is necessary to tell the stories of its members."
Horne also notes that with the war in Afghanistan, the military has been thrust into the public eye in a way it has not been in more than a generation, and said there is a genuine appetite for populist military history.
"I was looking at the bigger audience, beyond just members of the regiment or members of the military, and there is a thirst for understanding the military among the public," he said.
"As Canadians, we have made a lot of history, and you have to look to the past if you want to understand why we are the way that we are today."T
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E S TA B L I S H I N G A LEGACY
WHAT:Kingston author and Royal Military College professor Col. Bernd Horne has written Establishing A Legacy -The History of the Royal Canadian Regiment 1883-1953. WHERE:Available at Novel Idea, 156 Princess St., Chapters, 2376 Princess St., and Indigo Books and Music, 259 Princess St. Cost:$39.95.
Article ID# 1073635
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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