The Canadian Scottish Regiment

The regiment originated on 3 September 1912 when the 88th Regiment, Victoria Fusiliers, was authorized. When the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion, CEF, was created in 1914, it drew on soldiers from four separate regiments – the 50th Regiment (Gordon Highlanders of Canada) in Victoria, the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in Vancouver, the 79th Regiment (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) in Winnipeg, and the 91st Canadian Highlanders (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) in Hamilton. The desire was to not perpetuate specific regimental identities and so the new battalion was simply referred to as "Canadian Scottish"..

The 16th Battalion served in the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Canadian Division. Since its early beginnings, the battalion had a high standard of conduct on the battlefield and was commanded by outstanding leaders. One such was Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie who rose to command the Canadian Corps during the First World War. Currie was a master tactician whose skills led the Canadians to victory at Vimy Ridge, the Amiens, and the intense Last Hundred Days campaign, which ended the Great War. The Regiment won 23 Battle Honours during the Great War.

Four members of the 16th Battalion were awarded the Victoria Cross. Private William Milne single-handedly attacked and destroyed two enemy machine gun nests at Vimy Ridge on 9 April 1917 and was killed the same day. Lance Corporal William Henry Metcalf and Lieutenant Colonel Cyrus Peck, MP won their VCs on the same day: 2 September 1918, during the Canadian Corps capture of the Drocourt-Quéant Line.

The Canadian Scottish were unusual in 1939 in having two battalions on the strength of the Canadian Militia. The 1st Battalion was mobilized for overseas service in 1940 and trained in Debert, Nova Scotia, until August 1941, from where it moved to the United Kingdom as part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. On 6 June 1944 C Company was in the first wave ashore in Normandy on Juno Beach, the rest of the battalion following in the second wave. The battalion proceeded to advance a total of six miles inland – farther than any other assault brigade of the British Second Army that day. The regiment went on to earn 17 battle honours, including one for the liberation of Wagenborgen, a Dutch village; this last honour was not awarded until the 1990s