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or the city of Toronto, as for the rest of the country, 1914 to 1918 F had been four long and hard years. From a population estimated to be just under 400,000 in 1914, 50,000 men from Toronto and surrounding area had enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force for overseas service – and 10,000 did not return. Their families and loved ones at home eagerly awaited the arrival of the mailman, hopefully carrying a letter or postcard from overseas. But they did not want to see telegram boys coming down the street because telegrams were bad news, particularly the ones that began with the phrase “Deeply regret to inform you that …” a loved one was dead, wounded or missing in action. Life on the home front was not easy. Although there were more jobs and higher wages, the cost of living nearly doubled and there were shortages of milk, bread and eggs. During the last year of the war, Torontonians also experienced fuel shortages that resulted in frequent blackouts or brown-outs. In February 1918 all public buildings in the city, including schools, as well as many businesses were closed for three days to conserve fuel. In the late summer of 1918 news of substantial Allied advances on the Western Front cheered everyone up. Then, a new and terrible enemy appeared. Popularly known as the Spanish flu – which it was not – this was an H1N1 virus that had appeared in Europe that summer. It grew so rapidly that it became a full-fledged pandemic. By October it had reached Toronto and spread through the school system; by mid-month 50 people a day were dying in the city. By November, when the pandemic seems to have run its course, 200,000 Torontonians – almost half the city’s population – had contracted the virus and 1,300 people had perished. Globally, the pandemic is thought to have killed between 25 and 50 million people. It is small wonder that when news of the Armistice of November 11 reached the city, Torontonians went wild with excitement. By the following summer of 1919,
people were in the mood to celebrate. The management of the Canadian National Exhibition, sensing that spirit, declared the Ex that year to be “Canada’s Victory Celebration” – an “Incomparable Programme Eclipsing All Former Triumphs.” It was the hope of the management that attendance in 1919 would reach 1,250,000 visitors, surpassing the million-ticket total of the 1913 Ex, the last year the fair was held in its entirety. They therefore put a lot of effort into advertising the “Victory Celebrations,” commissioning a very fine poster from J.E.H. MacDonald, originally a Toronto graphic designer and soon to be one of the founders of the Group of Seven painters. His mission was to illuminate the military themes of that year’s fair. His poster (on Armistice Day, Toronto, an oil painting by Joseph Ernest Sampson, our front page) features was one of the most popular works in the war art collection. The a woman as an image of crowd preferred the sentimental to the realistic, while the critics were Canada, wearing the breast unkind to anything unfamiliar to the academy. Strangely little was written about the most disturbing pictures: the endless mud, the plate of the Dominion, slouching prisoners and the piles of corpses painted in Flanders by carrying the Union Jack Maurice Cullen, A.Y. Jackson and Fred Varley. Courtesy Beaverbrook and riding a mount draped Collection CWM 19710261-0655 with maple leaves and the a surrendered German U-boat, a display of laurels of victory. Escorted by a soldier Canada’s war trophies, paintings of the war of the 3rd Battalion CEF (The Toronto (“hundreds of masterpieces”), daily concerts Regiment), who is wearing a wound stripe, by the band of the Grenadier Guards of she is about to trample a German helmet the British Army, and the “Enormous of the ostentatious type favoured by Kaiser Spectacle” of the grandstand show – called Wilhelm. The Festival of Triumph – guaranteed to Listed below this patriotic Amazon are be “Uncommonly Picturesque, Inspiring the highlights of the Victory Year CNE. and Colorful.” In even larger type is the The featured displays were all related to promise that Edward, Prince of Wales, the world war that had officially ended would officially open the exhibition. on June 28 – five years to the day after On the first day of the Ex, August 23, it the assassination of Arch-Duke Francis was soon apparent the war trophies were Ferdinand that began it all – when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. They include the most popular attraction. “All roads of
Six months after he was badly wounded and shot down by William Barker, by now in business with a swarm of Fokker D-VIIs, Major William Barker is seen pulling engine of his Fokker D-VII in August 1919 one into a loop high over Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on April When a squadron’s worth of these leading-edge 20, 1919. It’s a rare photo of an air ace in flight, piloting the most pieces to Canada, they were re-assembled modern of aircraft. LAC (DND) PA-006073 a race that Barker entered, unsuccessfully.
Six months after he was badly wounded and shot down by William Barker, by now in business with a swarm of Fokker D-VIIs, Major William Barker is seen pulling engine of his Fokker D-VII in August 1919 one into a loop high over Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on April When a squadron’s worth of these leading-edge 20, 1919. It’s a rare photo of an air ace in flight, piloting the most pieces to Canada, they were re-assembled modern of aircraft. LAC (DND) PA-006073 a race that Barker entered, unsuccessfully.
10 The Fife and Drum July 2020
the C.N.E.” led to the exhibit, one reporter the Victoria Cross which, added to the impressive number of medals he had already declared, and it was “the one place you have earned, made him one of the most decorated to go.” This collection was largely the work soldiers of the British Empire. of Arthur Doughty, the Dominion Archivist, Barker himself was at the 1919 Ex – or who had been appointed Director of War at least in the skies above it. When he Trophies in 1916. After three years of hard left the service in the spring of 1919, he work Doughty had amassed an amazing went into business with fellow VC winner accumulation of 800 artillery pieces, 4,000 Major William A. Bishop to form the heavy and light machine guns, 10,000 rifles Bishop-Barker Aeroplane Company. Its and a multitude of other items. On display, according to The Toronto Daily Star, were “field guns, surrendered and the war trophies were the captured; planes, flags, uniforms, helmets, most popular attraction sundry posters, proclamations, photographs, and every conceivable item connected with the science of war.” Unable to contain himself, the Star’s man risked repetition headquarters was at the Armour Heights by describing the “uniforms, machineguns airfield, then just north of the city (and now of all descriptions, swords, decorations, and the site of the Canadian Forces College). British publications and proclamations This was fortunate because Doughty from enemy countries; rifles of all kinds, had brought back 44 German aircraft big guns, revolvers of every description, from Europe; 17 of them were Fokker water torpedoes, air torpedoes, mines, D-VIIs, the most advanced fighter aircraft ammunition and all kinds of equipment.” in the world in 1919. They had been taken The field telephone supposedly used by apart before being shipped to Canada and General Ludendorff to conduct the massive Doughty, looking for technical assistance to German offensives of the spring of 1918 make them flyable, contracted the Bishopwas also on display. Of great interest to Barker Company to undertake the task. visitors was the cockpit section of a Sopwith Considering the company was formed by Snipe fighter aircraft: it was the one flown two fighter aces, and had a large number of by Canadian Major William G. Barker of former fighter pilots on staff, the result was the Royal Flying Corps when he fought an inevitable. The first planes to be assembled epic battle against a dozen enemy aircraft were the cutting-edge D-VIIs and, as soon the previous October. Barker shot down at as they were flyable, they were up in the air. The fighter jocks did some dogfighting to least two of his opponents but was himself “wring them out.” badly wounded and forced to crash land. The next idea was also inevitable: Barker – For this epic aerial duel, Barker received
Six months after he was badly wounded and shot down by William Barker, by now in business with a swarm of Fokker D-VIIs, Major William Barker is seen pulling engine of his Fokker D-VII in August 1919 one into a loop high over Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on April When a squadron’s worth of these leading-edge 20, 1919. It’s a rare photo of an air ace in flight, piloting the most pieces to Canada, they were re-assembled modern of aircraft. LAC (DND) PA-006073 a race that Barker entered, unsuccessfully.
Six months after he was badly wounded and shot down by William Barker, by now in business with a swarm of Fokker D-VIIs, Major William Barker is seen pulling engine of his Fokker D-VII in August 1919 one into a loop high over Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on April When a squadron’s worth of these leading-edge 20, 1919. It’s a rare photo of an air ace in flight, piloting the most pieces to Canada, they were re-assembled modern of aircraft. LAC (DND) PA-006073 a race that Barker entered, unsuccessfully.
a businessman as well as a pilot – suggested giving a daily demonstration over the Ex. Doughty was agreeable to the idea because he was keen on promoting the War Trophy Collection. The fair’s managers must have been ecstatic. Thus was born the CNE’s first airshow. A reporter from the The Globe described Barker and two other pilots flying the Fokker D-VIIs on opening day: After maneuvering some time in battle formation, one of the airplanes suddenly swooped toward the earth. At a height of about 2,000 feet it then began to “stunt.” When its occupant had exhausted his repertoire of dips, loops, spirals and the other intricacies of trick flying, he ascended and joined his companions, and his place was taken by another. As the Ex progressed, the aerial displays became more elaborate, usually culminating in mock dogfights above the crowd. The military and unapologetically triumphal ethos of the 1919 Ex was pervasive. Each day of the fair was named after a battle the Canadians had fought: Mons, Passchendaele, St. Julien, Vimy Ridge and the rest. A Victory Tower was erected which, surmounted by the Union Jack, listed them again. One huge diorama purported to illustrate, with lights and electrical mechanisms, a Canadian attack at Ypres. As well as the war trophies, there was a vast display of the Canadian War Memorials Fund collection of art. Added
Surrendered German submarine UC-97 manouvres alongside a US Navy tug in front of the Toronto Harbour Commission, where a crowd gathers to greet it on June 10, 1919. The minelaying U-boat was on its way to Chicago and didn’t make it back for the CNE. The Beaux-Arts building is today about 300 metres from the water’s edge and set to become the centrepiece of a skyscraper. Photo by the Canadian Post Card Company, LAC PA-030314 – newspaper coverage of the fair didn’t mention it – and the city was ready for a celebration, especially now that almost all of the men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had finally come home. A record 1,210,000 visitors went to the CNE that first summer after the war, just thrilled to be alive. A frequent contributor to the F&D, Donald Graves is one of Canada’s leading military historians. Among more than 20 books and monographs under his byline are many on the War of 1812, including Where Right and Glory Lead: The Battle of Lundy’s Lane, 1814 (RBS 2014). His new history of The Lincoln and Welland Regiment is being prepared for publication. Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading
wo histories of The Royal Regiment T of Canada were used for this article: D.J. Goodspeed, Battle Royal, A History of the Royal Regiment of Canada, 1862-1962 (Toronto, 1962); and D.E. Graves, Always Ready. A History of the Royal Regiment of Canada (RBS 2017). The unit perpetuates 3rd Bn CEF and has been based at Fort York Armoury, just outside the Princes’ Gates, since 1935. The background of Canada’s trophy collection is drawn from several articles, including D.E. Graves, “Booty! The Story of Canada’s World War I Trophy Collection,” Arms Collecting, No.1 (1985), and Jonathan Vance, “Tangible Demonstration of A Great Victory: War Trophies in Canada,” Material History Review No.42 (1995). Edward Soye, himself a pilot of vintage aircraft, is the authority on those German fighters; see his 2009 War Studies thesis for the Royal Military College of Canada, or “Those Elusive Canadian Fokkers: War The Fife and Drum 11
Trophies in the Nascent Canadian Air Force” on the Vintage Wings of Canada web site. The fair was well covered by The Toronto Daily Star (notably on August 23 and September 6) and The Globe (notably August 23, 25 and 26). Ian Miller’s book Our Day of Glory and Grief: Torontonians and the Great War (UTP 2000) ends abruptly with the Armistice but comprehensively describes the society of Toronto at the end of the war. Alan Bowker’s A Time Such as There Never Was Before: Canada After the Great War (Dundurn 2014) picks up the story for the country as a whole. Tim Cook and Jack Granatstein have just released a collection of 19 essays as Canada 1919: A Nation Shaped by War (UBC 2020). Practically every scholar active in the field is represented and the topics range from
reintegration to politics, paintings, venereal Canadian War Memorials Fund collection, disease and the Spanish Influenza. including public reaction to the show at For an insightful look at the pandemic the CNE, is told by Maria Tippett in Art of 1918, see Vivian McAlister, “Myths and at the Service of War: Canada, Art, and the echoes: the 1918 pandemic and today,” in Great War (UTP 1984). SITREP (May-June 2020), the journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute. It can be found here. Jonathan Vance’s magnificent Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning and the First World War (UBC 1997) explores Canada’s evolution away from the triumphalist milieu of 1919. The story of the art in the extraordinary
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