Doctor Peter Vronsky is appearing before the Canadian Army Battle Honours Committee to argue the final appeal for the award of a Battle Honour for the 1866 Battle of Ridgeway to the QOR and the RHLI. His study on the battle was the first in nearly 150 years to carry out a complete examination of all the evidence, not just the flawed Booker inquiry. In fact there were only two other studies that did the same, and reached the same conclusion, although of more limited scope. These were done by David Owen, late RHC and Can AB Rest, and me, late RCA. Peter noted that we both were local and ex-military.
The following is from the Ridgeway facebook page:
The Last Stand on Ridgeway 1866 Battle Honours! Next week on Tuesday I am testifying in a Canadian Army Battlefield Honours Committee (BHC) appeal hearing as to whether the Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiments (RHLI) were unjustly refused a Battlefield Honours petition in 1924 for the Battle of Ridgeway 1866. This is a final appeal, filed in 2012 and only coming before the Army's BHC in 2019.
If they don't overturn the foolish decision of 1924, the decision will stand forever. And that's how history gets made or unmade - by committees - and at glacial speed.
Battle Honours should have been awarded back in 2016 -- at the 150th Annivesary of Canada's first modern battle, the first fought and lead exclusively by Canadians with no British participation in the battle, the last battle fought in Ontario, and the battle in which the first nine Canadians - the Ridgeway Nine - from the modern Canadian Army fell in action in the defence of Canada against an invasion across the US border by American-Irish Republican Fenian insurgents. Unfortunately electoral politics at the time put the decision on hold.
Some of the issues at stake was the assertion in 1924 that "we don't award Battle Honours for battles lost." Since the Battle of Hong Kong 1941 and Battle of Dieppe 1942, both of which were also "battles lost" but justly awarded Battle Honours after the Second World War, that assertion no longer stands. Nor the 1924 Committee's assertion that the Canadians broke in "a cowardly retreat" which they based on 'yellow journalism' of the Toronto and Hamilton newpapers, along with pro-Fenian American newspaper reports, and not any Canadian military reports or records.
When I wrote my Ph.d. dissertation on the battle in 2010, I found no conclusive evidence of "cowardice" on the battlefield, and in fact, only a small section of troops who had run out of ammunition fell back in disarray *behind* the front line which itself fought on courageously while outnumbered by superior and better armed and supplied Fenian insurgents, mostly experience US Civil War vetarans, until overwhelmed.
As it frequently happens, the rank and file fighting men were blamed for the inexperience and failure of the colonial Canadian Department of Militia under John A. Macdonald to properly train, equip and supply Canadian troops and assign a competent officer to lead them into battle against a better equipped and highly battle-experienced force of Fenian insurgents.
John Niles say a prayer for us on Tuesday, that the committee will have the wisdom to see its way to recognize the boys that died in 1866 and see to it that they will finally be brought home to honour for the sacrifice they made in the defence of Canada. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
The following is from the Ridgeway facebook page:
The Last Stand on Ridgeway 1866 Battle Honours! Next week on Tuesday I am testifying in a Canadian Army Battlefield Honours Committee (BHC) appeal hearing as to whether the Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Regiments (RHLI) were unjustly refused a Battlefield Honours petition in 1924 for the Battle of Ridgeway 1866. This is a final appeal, filed in 2012 and only coming before the Army's BHC in 2019.
If they don't overturn the foolish decision of 1924, the decision will stand forever. And that's how history gets made or unmade - by committees - and at glacial speed.
Battle Honours should have been awarded back in 2016 -- at the 150th Annivesary of Canada's first modern battle, the first fought and lead exclusively by Canadians with no British participation in the battle, the last battle fought in Ontario, and the battle in which the first nine Canadians - the Ridgeway Nine - from the modern Canadian Army fell in action in the defence of Canada against an invasion across the US border by American-Irish Republican Fenian insurgents. Unfortunately electoral politics at the time put the decision on hold.
Some of the issues at stake was the assertion in 1924 that "we don't award Battle Honours for battles lost." Since the Battle of Hong Kong 1941 and Battle of Dieppe 1942, both of which were also "battles lost" but justly awarded Battle Honours after the Second World War, that assertion no longer stands. Nor the 1924 Committee's assertion that the Canadians broke in "a cowardly retreat" which they based on 'yellow journalism' of the Toronto and Hamilton newpapers, along with pro-Fenian American newspaper reports, and not any Canadian military reports or records.
When I wrote my Ph.d. dissertation on the battle in 2010, I found no conclusive evidence of "cowardice" on the battlefield, and in fact, only a small section of troops who had run out of ammunition fell back in disarray *behind* the front line which itself fought on courageously while outnumbered by superior and better armed and supplied Fenian insurgents, mostly experience US Civil War vetarans, until overwhelmed.
As it frequently happens, the rank and file fighting men were blamed for the inexperience and failure of the colonial Canadian Department of Militia under John A. Macdonald to properly train, equip and supply Canadian troops and assign a competent officer to lead them into battle against a better equipped and highly battle-experienced force of Fenian insurgents.
John Niles say a prayer for us on Tuesday, that the committee will have the wisdom to see its way to recognize the boys that died in 1866 and see to it that they will finally be brought home to honour for the sacrifice they made in the defence of Canada. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
