Topic: Drill and Training
Many Soldiers at Training School
Revived Interest in Militia Service Shown by Enrolment for Canada
Officers and Non-Coms.
Classes for Infantry, Cavalry, Machine Gun and other Work Are Offered
The Montreal Gazette; 14 January 1924
Major & Brevet Lt.-Col. R.O. Alexander, D.S.O. (1933)
More officers and non-commissioned officers are being trained for the various branches of the militia service at the present time than at any period since the conclusion of the war, with the subsequent drop in interest in military training, it was stated yesterday by Lt.-Col. R.O. Alexander, D.S.O., who, as general staff officer for Military District No. 4, is in charge of all this work.
Lt.-Col. Alexander said there was every indication of a recrudescence of interest in militia work, since all the schools for the qualification of officers and non-coms. in the district were crowded to capacity, with waiting lists. Indications pointed to a strong list of officers of all ranks during the coming year to supply the various battalions, with the number of young officers and non-coms. who are now qualifying for their certificates and commissions.
A school for qualifying officers and non-coms. will open tomorrow at the armouries of the Carabiniers Mont-Royal and the Grenadier Guards, with 40 provisional officers and non-coms. in attendance, to qualify for rank. This school is in command of Major H.L.M. Salmon, M.C., of the Royal Canadian Regiment, the attendance being as high as the lists will stand.
Capt. & Brevet Major W.J. Home, M.C. (1933)
A machine gun school is being conducted for officers and non-coms. to qualify for rank at the armory of the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade on Jeanne Mance Street, and also at the armory of the 8th Machine Gun Brigade, Verdun. These classes are being conducted under Capt. W.J. Home. M.C., of the Royal Canadian Regiment, with 25 officers and non-coms. studying to qualify for rank.
A school of signalling will start today at the Craig street armories, under Company Sergeant Major Instructor Carruthers, of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signallers (sic), with a full class of subalterns and non-coms. working to qualify.
At Sherbrooke on January 21 an infantry school for officers and non-coms. will open, under Lt.-Col. S.W. Pope, C.M.G., commanding "D" Co. of the Royal Canadian Regiment in Montreal, for which a full list of entrants has been made.
Another infantry school will start at Three Rivers on February 11, under Capt. Home, of the R.C.R., for the officers and non-coms of the Three Rivers Regiment.
The militia staff course is progressing at militia headquarters here, with eleven officers taking the course. This is a particularly severe course, and will not end until April, when the final series of examinations and tests in actual work will be held. This course has been proceeding under Lt.-Col. Alexander's direction since November, and the candidates for staff certificates have been doing a lot of hard work in order to qualify for the highest honors of the service.
C.O.T.C. Course
The Canadian Officers Training Corps course for lieutenants and captains is going on with a large number of entrants, and the examinations in theory will be held about February 20, with a number of provisional officers from McGill University, Loyola College and the University of Bishop's College, Lennoxville. The practical examinations will take place for this course in February, with the written examinations on theoretical work in March. A number of instructors are engaged in this special training work, under Lt.-Col. Alexander.
A school of cavalry instruction is also being conducted at the St Johns barracks of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, with fifteen officers and non-coms. in attendance to qualify for their certificates in the cavalry service. A similar school for the training of infantry officers is proceeding at the Drummond Street barracks of the R.C.R., with six in attendance, this being a six weeks' course.
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