Tag: Toronto Police

Old Soldiers

An Excerpt from “Recollections of a Police Magistrate”.

Written by Col. George T. Denison III in 1920.

A Victorian Era British Army Veteran and his Wife
(Public Domain)

I have many recollections of old soldiers. I commanded for about forty years the Governor-General’s Body Guard, which formed the cavalry of the Toronto active militia, and commanded it at the Fenian Raid of 1866 at Fort Erie, and again in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. On the 1st April, 1885, I had just finished my court, when I received telegraphic orders to turn out my corps for active service in the Northwest. I issued orders at once, and left Toronto with my Command three or four days later, and was away from Toronto for nearly four months. On our return, the Corps was released from duty, and the next morning I took my seat on the Bench.

To my surprise, I found that the barristers and officials of the Court had prepared a special reception for me. The Courtroom was decorated with flags, and with a quantity of flowers, very tastefully arranged around my seat and desk. Addresses were made by one of the barristers, and the Chief of Police, warmly welcoming me back to my duties, and I expressed my thanks in a short speech. I then began trying criminals in surroundings which I believe were very uncommon in a police court. Although it was somewhat embarrassing, I was nevertheless much pleased at the kindly feeling manifested by my friends.

The old soldiers and pensioners had an idea, which was well founded, that I had a friendly feeling for them. The old pensioners some years ago were all long-service men, who had put in the best part of their lives in the army, and had generally followed the Colours all over the world. They were a very interesting class, and about pension day there was considerable fraternizing and jubilation, which often brought them before me for drunkenness.

Col. George Taylor Denison III, Police Magistrate of Toronto from 1877 to 1921.
(Toronto Public Library/Baldwin Collection of Canadiana)

I generally made any excuse I could for letting them off, for they had done no harm to anyone but themselves. On one occasion I told a fine-looking old soldier that he was charged with being drunk, and asked him if he pleaded guilty or not guilty.

“Guilty, Colonel,” he replied, “of course I was guilty. Why wouldn’t I be guilty? Didn’t I get my pinsion yesterday? What would be the use of my toiling and slaving in the British Army all my life, all over the world, if I couldn’t get drunk on pinsion day?”

There was an earnest air of indignation in his manner, which amused me very much. I said: ‘‘You may go, but don’t come here again before next pension day!”

The methods used by these old soldiers to let me know they were soldiers were often very clever. They generally tried to give me a hint that would not be understood by the crowd. Sometimes they would stand rigidly at attention, and plead guilty, generally addressing me as Colonel, as in fact do most of my customers. I could detect the old soldier at once. Sometimes I would ask:

“Have you been here before?”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“What was done with you?”’

‘‘I was admonished, sir.” There could be no mistake then.

Sometimes they would give me a military salute, and sometimes a pretended soldier would salute to cause me to believe that he was a pensioner. I did not like fraud, and I could detect a bogus salute, and I would tell him that a man who could not salute better than he did, should not get drunk and I would fine him.

Court in Session, 1899. Adelaide Street Courthouse, Toronto. Magistrate Denison tried countless cases here until the Police Court moved to what is now Old City Hall at the turn of the century.
(Toronto Public Library / Baldwin Collection of Canadian)

One fraudulent customer of that kind attempted to deceive me, so I said, “Were you ever in the army?”

‘‘Yes, sir,’’ he replied.

“In what regiment?” I said.

“In the 61st Hussars.”

“Are you sure it was not the 51st Hussars!”

“No, sir, the 61st Hussars.”

‘‘In the British Army?”

“Yes, sir,” and he told me he had served in it seven years.

“Well,” said I, “I am quite interested in seeing you, for I never saw a man of that regiment before, there are only twenty-one regiments of light cavalry in the army, and I must be the only man who ever saw a man of the 61st Hussars. I shall keep you awhile as a curiosity.” And I promptly fined him.

Another fraud of this type told me that he had belonged to the Dublin Refuses. He evidently had heard of Fusiliers, and was intending to mention them, but did not remember the name. He was fined.

Another man told me he was drunk but he had met an old friend whom he had not seen since they were on the “Rock” together. He knew, I would understand that they had served at Gibraltar. Of course under the circumstances, he got off without a fine.

Another old pensioner excused himself by saying he had met an old comrade that he had not seen for some time, and he had taken more than he should.

‘‘Was he an old soldier?’ I said.

“Yes, sir.’’

“Well you can go this time, but you take my advice, and keep away from old soldiers, they are a bad lot.” He laughed and went off.

Heydon Villa, the home of Magistrate Denison, pictured in 1920.
(Toronto Star Photograph Archive, TSPA_0112982F)

I would never allow litigants to come to discuss cases out of Court, or discuss anything at my house, and there were often attempts to gain my ear in various ways. People coming to my house to see me, were always told to wait in the vestibule, until I went to them. The moment I found it was about Police Court business I would open the door and show them out. One day a man summoned by another for some offence, came to my house to explain matters to me, but knowing my reputation for not talking over cases, he brought along with him another Irishman, an old soldier, a man of experience to aid him, and to endeavour to get me to discuss the case with him.

He began by telling me he had a summons. I asked to see it, and I pointed out to him that he was to be at the Police Court the next morning at 10 o’clock, and for him to be there, and I would hear all he had to say.

“Yes, sir,” he said, “but I want to explain it so you will understand it.”

“You can explain it in Court when the other side is present. I will not discuss a case with one man behind the other man’s back.” The old soldier with a wise look that was most impressive, said:

“That seems the correct principle, Colonel.” “Of course it is,” said I. “Now how would you like the other man to come here in half an hour, and tell me all about you behind your back? You must go,” and I showed him out.

The old soldier turning to me as if we understood each other, said, “You are quite right. Colonel, that is the correct principle, not only ‘in jurisdiction to yourself, but also in jurisprudence to others’.”

“Certainly,” I said. “You understand it,” and they went off.

One noted character who came before the Court thirty years ago was a big Irishwoman who stood nearly six feet in height and was strong and heavy. The police had great trouble whenever they attempted to arrest her for drunkenness. One alone would rarely attempt it. She was often fined for drunkenness, and would serve her time in jail. Sometimes she would be arrested for vagrancy, for wandering about the streets without a settled home, and was several times fined for that. Then she rented a small house, and having friends who like herself appreciated stimulants it happened that the house was the scene of drunken rows; and fighting and bad language could be heard, until the place became a nuisance. While a row was going on one night the police came down and arrested everyone in it. The woman was sentenced to a fine or sixty days in jail and before she left the dock to serve her sentence, she turned to Sergeant Ward in charge of the police division, and said:

“Sergeant Ward, dear, before I lave I want to spake to you. You have brought me here often, and had me sent down for being drunk. Then when I would not get drunk, you brought me in for being a vagrant and had me sent down for not having a home. Thin I get a house, but there is no plasing ye, and ye bring me up for keeping a disorderly house. Now Sergeant dear, there is no place left for me, except a balloon, like a good fellow have a balloon for me when I come out’’.

The police were obliged to let her have her say before they could take her to the cells, for great bodies move slowly. Ward was often chaffed about the balloon. In those days when airships and aeroplanes were unknown, the joke was much more effective.

This reminds me of another story of the same type. An Irishman who was a member of the House of Commons for an English constituency, some years ago called on me, and I asked him to sit on the Bench with me, and he afterwards told me a story brought to his mind, evidently by the fact that I was a Magistrate, and a Colonel of Militia. He said a friend of his who had been a Major of Militia, and was a Magistrate in Ireland, was one day trying his cases, when he had to send an Irishwoman, of the same type as the one I have just described, to prison for a term, when she addressed the Magistrate in these words:

‘‘Well, Major, I want to say this to ye, that me feyther was hanged for murther, me husband was hanged for murther, me eldest son is sarving a term of penal servitude for life, for shooting a landlord, [note the fine distinction] and my two daughters are earning a disgraceful living in Dublin, but I thank the Good Lord, and the Holy Blessed Virgin Mary, that there was none of my people ever connected with the Militia!”

“The Canadian Militia, 1898” by Arthur H. Hider – Library and Archives Canada

Postscript

George Taylor Denison III was born in Toronto on the 31st of August 1839 to a prominent military family.

He made his own mark as a Cavalry Officer in the Governor General’s Body Guard (today the Governor General’s Horse Guards) rising to be its commanding officer. He served in Fenian Raids of 1866 and in the Northwest Rebellion. He was world renowned for his important literature on cavalry tactics, particularly for his 1877 work “History of Modern Cavalry”. As a prominent member of the Canada First movement and Royal Society of Canada, he was influential in Canadian identity politics in the nation’s formative years.

Largely forgotten today is the fact that he was also the Police Magistrate for the City of Toronto for almost 40 years. During that era, he was a household name in the city and his courtroom was reported on daily in the newspapers. His “Recollections of a Police Magistrate” was published in 1920 and is available for download here.

Lieutenant Colonel George Taylor Denison III died on June 6th, 1925.

The Death of a Hero

The Line of Duty Death of Toronto Police Constable Charles Franklin Hainer MM

Researched and written by Matthew Scarlino, September 2024.

Toronto Police Constable (457) Charles Franklin Hainer MM, pictured at the 1934 Canadian Corps Reunion in Toronto. (The Globe Newspaper.)

As an 18-year-old plumber from Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario, Charles Franklin Hainer was one of the first men of his town to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of the First World War.

He would serve 26 months on the Western Front with the 9th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery – the military unit in which horses and men from the Toronto Police Mounted Unit had served during the war. With them he was twice wounded at Ypres.

In April 1916, both of his legs were fractured by the blast of an enemy shell. He never lost consciousness and his description of being carried off amid bursting shells, of being dropped many times by his bearers as they rolled into holes for safety, then the arrival at an aid station only to find it shelled out, was a vivid portrayal of what was endured.

Field Artillery on the Western Front (National Library of Scotland, item L.1180.)

Wounded again the following year at Passchendaele it was “nothing much this time,” he said, “only the jaw fractured, shrapnel in the face and arm.”

“He was with me over there, I am glad to have you. If you are half as good a rider as your brother, you are all right. Hainer was a good man and when anything was to be done, he was the first man to volunteer.”

 – Unknown Recruiting Sergeant, to Charles’ brother Harvey in 1916.

After recovering in Hospital in England, he was denied a request to return to France, so instead volunteered for a secretive mission to North Russia, where Allied forces sailed to secure a large stockpile of military equipment previously donated to Imperial Russian forces, once an ally to the Western Powers. The mission was hatched to prevent the equipment from falling into Bolshevik hands in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the 9 months of fighting Hainer again distinguished himself there, so much so that the Provisional Governor decorated him with the Russian St George’s Medal “in recognition of your gallant conduct in the field when fighting with the enemies of Russia.”

He would also be decorated with the Military Medal through his own chain of command, “For Bravery in the Field” in both campaigns he fought in.

“Charles Hainer was very brave, brave almost to a fault. He was a fine fellow, quiet but ready always to do his share.”

– Captain Charles Bell

After returning to Canada, Hainer applied to the Toronto Police Force and was sworn in as Police Constable 457 on November 16th, 1920. No doubt influenced by his time in the 9th Battery, Hainer joined the Toronto Police Mounted Unit, and was reunited with fellow veterans of the 9th, Charles Chalkin and Ernest Masters. The skilled horseman would serve many years there.

1929 Royal Winter Fair. “Mounted Cops, Police Sergeant Chalkin, PC Hill, PC Hainer, PC Harvey, Patrol Sergeant Masters.” (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 18753.)

By the early 1930’s, the combat veteran sought a new adventure. He traded in his trusty steed for an iron horse, and joined the adrenaline-filled world of the Toronto Police Motorcycle Squad. In these early days of motor transport, roads were chaotic and traffic fatalities were rising high. The early motor squad was responsible for enforcing traffic laws and apprehending criminals. They were agile, travelled at high speeds, and required hypervigilance and split-second decision-making skills in this era before riding helmets and safety equipment.

Hainer and his new squad were based out of the Toronto Police Central Garage in what is today Liberty Village. The area had already been a bustling industrial hub, which after the outbreak of another World War in 1939 only intensified in scale.

Chief Draper (at right) and men of the Toronto Police Motorcycle Squad, circa 1926-1930. (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244 Item 1014).

One Saturday evening, on September 18th, 1943, Hainer was riding his motorcycle down Fleet Street heading back to Central Garage. His shift was ending, and he would soon be going home to his wife Myrtle and their three daughters (a son, Albert, was away serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery). Hainer noticed his engine needed adjustment. He leaned forward to tune it but lost control. In an instant, his handlebar caught the door of a passing automobile and Hainer was violently thrown into the side of the vehicle and onto the road. Responding officers were horrified to find Hainer’s jugular vein severed, his leg and arm broken.

Despite their best efforts, Charles Franklin Hainer was pronounced dead on arrival to Toronto General Hospital.

He lies in peace at Pine Hills Cemetery, Toronto.

Sources:

  • S. Dickson. Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for 1922: Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Force, Page 75. The Carswell Co. Ltd, Toronto, 1923.
  • B. Wardle – The Mounted Squad : An Illustrated History of the Toronto Mounted Police 1886-2000, Page 83.
  • C. Creed. The Niagara Historical Society, No. 34: “Whose Debtors We Are.” – “GUNNER CHARLES FRANKLIN HAINER, M.M. (No. 42691)”. The Advance Office, Niagara, 1923.
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War. Service File of No. 42691 Charles Franklin Hainer.
  • The Globe. 1934, Aug. 6th, Page 4: “Scenes as Seventy Thousand Canadian Veterans Passed in Review”.
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1943, Sept. 20th, Page 3: “Two Deaths Over Weekend Bring Traffic Toll to 58”.
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1943, Sept. 21st, Page 13: “Comrades On Force Act as Pallbearers”.
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1943, Sept. 21st, Page 24: “Deaths”.

An Everlasting Bond: The Birth of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association.

Written and Researched by Matthew Scarlino. Toronto, 2021. Revised 2022.

It was on the evening of a mild September 14th, many years ago, that a group of Toronto police officers who had returned from the Great War met downtown at the County Orange Building. That social club, better known as Orange Hall or the Victoria Hall, was already the meeting place of the newly formed Toronto Police Association. Now the site of a drab grey office tower, the red-bricked hall was situated on the southwest corner of Queen Street East at Berti Street, opposite the Metropolitan Church, and just down the street from the old No. 1 (Court St) Police Station.

The Orange Hall, seen behind these workers, was the birthplace of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association.
[City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1231, Item 426; Goad’s Fire Insurance Plan 1924].

These police war veterans met to form an association similar to that of the pre-eminent Great War Veterans Association, the largest such veterans association at the time. Formed in 1917 while the war was still ongoing, the influential “GWVA” was held in high esteem by returned men. Therefore, during the policemen’s meeting one imagines these men adapted their aims similar to those of the GWVA.

  • To preserve the memory of those policemen who suffered and died in war for the nation and the empire; to erect and preserve monuments to their valour and sacrifice; and to establish annual memorial services.
  • To ensure proper care for their fellow police war veterans, their widows and families, and other returned soldiers, facing ill-heath, financial difficulties, or other hardships.
  • To promote pride and loyalty to Canada and the Empire and service in their interests.

With the objectives settled, the men voted to elect its first officers. The Toronto Daily Star reported the following day:

Police Soldiers Form Association
Ex-service men connected with the Toronto Police Force have formed a Police Veterans’ Association. The organization meeting was held at the Orange Hall, Queen street, last night, when officers were elected as follows: President, John Faulds; Vice-President. P. S. Sherd [sic]; Secretary. Geo. Eagleson.

Toronto Daily Star

Elected President was Constable John Faulds, a Scot, 6’2, fair skinned with brown hair, blue eyes, and with a tattoo of a woman’s bust on his wrist. He had previously been a police officer in the United Kingdom, and a soldier in the British Army’s 3rd Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. Faulds emigrated to Canada and joined the Toronto Police Force in 1913, assigned to the rough and tumble old No. 4 (Wilton St) Station in Cabbagetown. Later, at 28 years old and married with a 9 month old son, he answered the call to arms and enlisted in Toronto’s 34th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. Known as the “Aquatic Battery”, it was primarily comprised of men who were also members of the Toronto Canoe Club, the Toronto Rowing Club or the Balmy Beach Canoe Club. Training on 18-pounder guns, the natural leader quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. He arrived in France in July 1916 as part of the 9th Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, before participating in the Somme offensive. Shortly after arriving at the front, was promoted to Warrant Officer I and appointed Regimental Sergeant-Major. He would lead his men in Canada’s major battles until December 1917 when he was awarded a temporary commission and sent to Witley Camp in England to train recruits. His friend Constable Pover wrote in a
letter to the Star that his commission was due to his bravery in the field. He returned to France in September 1918 as RSM of the 9th Brigade Artillery to fight in the final offensives of the war.

Patrol Sergeant Samuel “Tommy” Third was elected Vice President. Another tall Scotsman standing 6’2, with black hair and blue eyes. Third had been a Toronto Police constable since 1907, and was 33 years old, married and with a 10 year old son when he enlisted in the 180th (Sportsmen) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in January 1916. The unit was made up of local amateur athletes and was the choice of many TPF officers who joined the army. Third was admitted into the unit despite the medical officer’s note about a previous hernia operation and hammer toes – both ailments related to his police service. In October 1916, during “PT” (physical training) Third seriously re-aggravated his hernia, and had to be fitted with a truss, while his foot problems also worsened. Despite this, Third sailed overseas to England with his unit in November 1916, and was promoted to Sergeant due to his leadership abilities. However, his medical status saw him removed from the drafts headed to France, and he was instead posted to the 3rd Reserve Battalion (Central Ontario) at West Sandling, England in January 1917. There and for the remainder of the war, he engaged in the rigorous training of infantry soldiers destined for the front, despite his painful ailments.

Constable George Eagleson was elected Secretary. Hailing from Belfast, Ireland, Eagleson was freshfaced, tall and slim with grey eyes and had light brown hair. Eagleson joined the Toronto Police barely 20 years old, in the fall of 1914. Prior to becoming a police officer, he served in the Saskatchewan Light Horse and the Mississauga Horse of the Canadian Militia. On 13 January 1916, Eagleson enlisted with the 169th Battalion (109th Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force. Eagleson was quickly made acting Sergeant for the duration of their training in Canada, and sailed to England in November 1916 for further preparation. Eagleson landed in France in August 1917 days before the Battle of Hill 70, as a replacement in the 116th Battalion (Ontario County), a unit with ten former Toronto constables under their colours. Just prior to the Battle of Passchendaele, Eagleson was promoted to Corporal and later, during the Hundred Days’ Offensive was promoted to Sergeant. In October 1918, Eagleson was appointed Company Sergeant-Major during the final push.

The First Executive: tough and proven leaders. President John Faulds (left), Vice President Samuel Third (top right), Secretary George Eagleson (bottom right).
[City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 6818; Toronto Daily Star 2 Feb 1916; Toronto Daily Star 26 Mar 1927]

With its aims and objectives settled and its officers elected, the precursor to today’s Toronto Police Military Veterans Association was born. Forgotten over generations, the meeting in that bygone hall actually took place on September 14th, 1920 – two years earlier than it has long been believed to have occurred. The newly formed Toronto Police War Veterans Association (TPWVA) wasted no time in one of its first orders of business – the erection of a monument to the service and sacrifice of members of the Toronto Police Force in the Great War.

On October 23rd, 1920, five weeks after the Association’s creation, page 9 of The Globe newspaper announced that “members of the Toronto Police Veterans’ Association have purchased a brass tablet containing the names of members of the force who enlisted, and of those killed in action during the war. The tablet will be placed in the City Hall.” Permission for this was granted shortly after Armistice Day 1920, when on November 15th the Civic Property Commission authorized the monument in the portion of City Hall (now Old City Hall) which contained the police headquarters – which occupied the Ground Floor, facing north to Albert Street, from the midsection of the building over to James Street. The next step would be to unveil the monument under suitable and dignified circumstances.

On Friday, January 21st, 1921, the first Toronto Police war memorial service took place, another aim of the TPWVA quickly achieved. It was held under partnership with the Toronto Police Amateur Athletic Association, known as the “T – P – triple A”, the senior-most association in the force. The ceremony was held in the Council Chamber of the City Hall. The Council Chamber was “crowded with relatives and friends of the men whose names were on the tablet” and also had in its audience Toronto’s Mayor Tommy Church, the Reverend Canon Dixon, and several prominent judges. The focus was on the new memorial tablet, which was set up on the Mayor’s dais, surrounded by silken flags, potted ferns and plants. Deputy Chief L.R. Geddes, President of the TPAAA, began the proceedings with a speech acknowledging this “most solemn hour” in the history of the force. The tablet was then unveiled by none other than Col. George Taylor Denison III, the renowned Victorian Age cavalry officer, and one of the most important figures in Toronto’s military history. Denison was the Police Magistrate for the Police Court at City Hall and a member of the Board of Police Commissioners. He remarked his pleasure that a permanent memorial would record the names of the Toronto Police Force’s war dead for all time, and compared the importance of the occasion to the unveiling of Brock’s Monument at Queenston Heights. Of the TPWVA, he said they acquitted themselves heroically and noted many of them had received honours and decorations. More speeches, prayers and song followed. Police Chief Samuel Dickson then spoke describing the men named on the tablet as “splendid men, every one of them,” whom he all knew personally. Deputy Chief Geddes then read aloud the names on the tablet listed under the heading “Our Gallant Dead”, before Last Post was sounded – a tradition that still holds today.

The Memorial Tablet today, in the Grenville Lobby of Toronto Police Headquarters, 40 College Street (left) and the man who unveiled it, Col. George Taylor Denison III (right).
[Toronto Police First World War Memorial Tablet, Author’s Photograph; 1920 Portrait of G.T. Denison – Recollections of a Police Magistrate, The Musson Book Co. Ltd.]

With its aims of a monument and memorial services completed, the Association moved to cement its camaraderie. Two months after the first memorial service, at a meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners held on Wednesday, March 23rd, 1921, the TPWVA was granted permission to hold their first “at-home” (a 1920’s term for a party), to take place the following month. On the evening of Thursday, April 21st, the Association’s soirée took place at Oddfellow’s Hall. A “splendid crowd” enjoyed a night of dance, cocktails, and euchre, held in the adapted Gothic Revival style building, which still stands on the northwest corner of Yonge and College Streets. Perhaps the April timing of the social had some significance. In the coming decade, the TPWVA would host a yearly “Vimy Night” every April which drew large numbers and prominent guests at elaborate ballrooms in the city. These events became a major source of income for the Association’s charitable donations and even war-time fundraising. More recently, the Vimy anniversary has been the setting for mess dinners of the modern Toronto Police Military Veterans Association.

Oddfellows Hall, pictured here in 2008, is the site of the first TPWVA social, steps from the current
Toronto Police Headquarters.
[City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1581, Series 2196, Item 26]

It is clear now that September 1920 to April 1921 saw the formation of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association and its traditions. Those events – the formation of the association, the election of an executive, the first memorial service, and the first social affair – forged an everlasting bond, to each other and to the fallen, which would last over a hundred years. The centenary is a significant achievement, and marks the Association as one of the oldest continuously serving veterans groups in all of Canada – senior even to the country’s most prominent veterans group, The Royal Canadian Legion (1925). It also marks the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association as the most resilient of City of Toronto’s municipal veterans associations in Toronto, many of which are now defunct – such as the Civic Employees War Veterans Association, the Toronto Board of Education War Veterans Association, the TTC Returned Men, and the Toronto Hydro-Electric System War Veterans Association.

Though the establishment date of the Association had long been obscured, and the actual centenary passed, the global COVID-19 pandemic would have made appropriate celebrations impossible. Therefore, official celebrations of the Centennial Anniversary of the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association continued to be scheduled for 2022.

Centennial Celebrations

In 2022, several letters of congratulation were received by the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association, including those from Chief of Police James Ramer, Mayor of Toronto John Tory, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell and Governor General of Canada Mary Simon.

On August 20th 2022, the Association marched in its first parade since its centennial, fittingly at the centennial Warrior’s Day Parade. The TPMVA won the Goodyear Remembrance Trophy for best marching formation (with 16 or more members).

On September 14th 2022, an Anniversary Barbecue took place marking the birthday of the Association.

The biggest undertaking was the “MVA22” pilgrimage to the battlefields and war cemeteries of Europe. A delegation of the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association visited thirty-six gravesites spread over six countries and thousands of kilometres. A small Act of Remembrance service was performed at each site and embodied the Toronto Police Military Veterans Associations core values of Service and Remembrance.

MVA22 Delegation at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial (Photo: John Lo Bianco)
Sources and Further Reading:
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1920, Sept. 15th, Page 5: “War Veterans Doings – Police Soldiers Form Association”
  • The Globe. 1920, Sept. 16th, Page 9: “Police Veterans Organize”
  • City of Toronto Archives. James Salmon Collection – Fonds 1231 Item 0426: “April 29 1917 Car Track Reconstruction at Bond Street”
  • City of Toronto Archives – Fire Insurance Plans. “Goad’s Fire Insurance Map – Toronto 1924”.
  • The Great War Veterans’ Association of Canada. Constitutions and By-Laws. Ottawa, 1917.
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War. Service Files of No. 300742 John Faulds; No. 862015 Samuel Third; No. 679253 George Alexander Rennicks Eagleson.
  • The Globe. 1920, Oct. 23rd, Page 9: “Police to Remember Those Fallen in War”
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1920, Nov. 15th, Page 2. “Honor Police Who Fell”
  • The Globe. 1921, Jan. 22nd, Page 21. “Inscribe Names on Honor Roll”
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1921, Jan. 22nd, Page 3. “Police Honor Dead Comrades in Arms”
  • Denison, George T. Recollections of a Police Magistrate. The Musson Book Co. Ltd. Toronto, 1920.
  • The Globe. 1921, Mar. 24th, Page 6. “Board Suspends Four Interpreters”
  • Toronto Daily Star. 1921, Apr. 22nd, Page 30. “Local Briefs – Police Hold Dance”
  • City of Toronto Archives. Peter MacCallum Collection. Fonds 1581, Series 2196, Item 26: “Looking north-west at College Street” 2008.
  • The Globe. 1935, Apr. 10, Page 11. “Celebrate Quarter Century on Police force on ‘Vimy Night’”

Coppers and Gunners

The links between Toronto Police and Toronto Artillery

Note: The following is a prepared speech from Matthew Scarlino, Historian – Toronto Police Military Veterans Association on occasion of a charitable donation to the Toronto Artillery Foundation, 9 May 2022. Unfortunately, a COVID-19 infection kept the author from delivering the speech, though it was ably presented by Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Dana Gidlow, CD.

Good evening distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The intertwined history of the Toronto Artillery and the Toronto Police is a rich one. Forged over a century, including two world wars, other conflicts and domestic service, our two organizations have shared members and values for a long time.

I’m going to speak to our closeness by looking at our service in conflict and key individuals that unite our organizations and our associations.

Gunners have served in the Toronto Police from the earliest days. A look at our Nominal Roll from 1886 shows that our Deputy Chief, William Stewart, was himself an artillery veteran. As for the regular beat constables, the nominal rolls simply marked prior military service as being with the “Canadian Volunteers”. Undoubtedly, there were gunners among them.

PC George Watson, late The Royal Horse Artillery, listed on the 1886 Nominal Roll.

One key figure was Constable George Watson, who had served twelve years in the Royal Horse Artillery. PC Watson was an important figure in the foundation of the Toronto Police Mounted Unit, that same year. Selected for his police talents and his expertise riding the tough draft horses of the RHA, he was promoted to Sergeant and was instrumental in the early success of the Mounted Unit, which continues to serve the citizens of Toronto to this day.

It was during the First War that our two organizations really forged their bonds. The guns still being horse-driven, four mounted policemen joined Toronto’s 9th Battery when the war broke out in the autumn of 1914. They escorted the police force’s donation of 19 police horses to the Battery.

Of our men in 9 Battery, there was:

Constable Thomas Hugh Dundas, atop police horse Bunny, who rose to the rank of Battery Sergeant-Major. He would be wounded repeatedly and was the most decorated Toronto Police officer serving in the First World War. He won the Military Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and was Mentioned-in-Despatches.

Constable Ernest Masters, was commissioned from the ranks due to bravery in the field.

And Constable Charlie Chalkin, atop police-horse Mischief, served in the battery until halfway through the war, when he served as a Mounted military policeman patrolling the streets of France, no doubt keeping gunners out of trouble.

Constable William Connor, atop police-horse Charlie, served in the battery until being commissioned from the ranks. As a “FOO” [Forward Observation Officer], he was wounded severely by a trench mortar while directing fire onto the enemy in the Ypres Salient. He was evacuated and died shortly afterwards.

Of the 19 police mounts in the Battery, St Patrick, or “Paddy” was among the first to fall, killed in action during the fierce fighting at St Julien in 1915. Mistake and Juryman, Vanguard and Crusader and thirteen others would perish by war’s end. The only horse to survive the war was Bunny. A popular letter-writing campaign erupted in Toronto for the safe return of Bunny – but since Bunny wasn’t an officer’s mount he was sold off with the others to Belgian farmers rebuilding their country.

Police Mounts on the Western Front with the 9th Battery, CFA, from the painting Toronto Police Mounted Unit 1886-1986 (inset) by Eileen Bordessa.

Aside from the 9th Battery, 44 Toronto police officers served in various Artillery units, including subsequent Toronto batteries, and as far afield as the British Army. This number constitutes 28% of the Toronto Police contribution in the First World War. Three of these gunners made the ultimate sacrifice and many more were wounded. For Gallantry, they accounted for one Distinguished Conduct Medal, Two Military Medals, a Meritorious Service Medal and Mention in Despatches.

It was shortly after the war that Constable John Faulds, who had served as a gunner in France, was elected first President of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association. Faulds served with Toronto’s 34th Battery. It was known as the “Aquatic Battery” as membership was made up of members of the Toronto Argonaut Club, The Toronto Canoe Club or the Balmy Beach Club. Faulds had risen to the rank of Regimental Sergeant-Major of the the 9th Brigade Canadian Field Artillery. He was awarded a temporary commission that the Toronto Daily Star reported was for bravery in the field.

This gunner, John Faulds was instrumental in founding of our association, in the summer of 1920. He was instrumental in the erection of our memorial tablets at police headquarters; the creation of our annual memorial service; and the establishment of our yearly socials.

John Faulds (right), former RSM of 9th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery and first President of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association.
City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1266, Item 6818.

During the interwar period policemen who had served as gunners swelled the ranks of our association, and many were members of the Toronto Artillery associations in existence at that time. Men such as Charles Hainer MM who would later die in the line of duty while serving in the Motorcycle Squad.

Unfortunately for a historian, personnel records of the Second World War remain largely private and undigitized, so our records from that time are less detailed. Our contribution to the Artillery this time would be smaller, with many policemen joining the Air Force and Navy unlike in the last war.

At least 10 of our officers are known to have served in the Royal Canadian Artillery. It was a small but solid contingent where half held leadership positions – with a Captain, two Battery Sergeants-Major, and two Sergeants among them.

While their exact contributions during the war still largely unknown, they would serve the city with distinction after the war.

One gunner, Constable Roy Soplet, led a daring rescue during the SS Noronic disaster. In 1949, the pleasure cruise burst into flames overnight in Toronto Harbour with 524 souls on board. Soplet was one of the first officers on scene and without hesitation jumped into the lake and rescued countless panicked swimmers in the darkness. While over a hundred people died in the disaster, not a single one was lost to drowning thanks to Soplet and a few other rescuers.

“Noronic Burns”. City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1244, Item 1518.

Another gunner, Constable David Cowan, was celebrated in newspapers for a daring fire rescue in February 1951. Cowan came upon a building engulfed in flames and charged into the upper floor apartments kicking in doors and rescued an elderly woman. When reaching the street with her, he was overcome by smoke and collapsed, spraining the poor woman’s ankle after saving her life.

Later that year, former Battery-Sergeant Major and Acting Patrol Sergeant Joseph Battersby, would be killed in the line of duty. The survivor of two world wars died while trying to secure a downed hydro wire scene.

The soldiers of 7th Toronto Regiment, additionally tasked with Light Urban Search and Rescue, would do well to remember these men.

Postwar, many gunners again joined the ranks of the Toronto Police, including two big personalities that would be active in the Toronto Police War Veterans and Toronto Artillery Associations.

Captain Francis Burtram “Bert” Saul CD was one such character. He was a veteran of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Canadian Artillery. He survived the Dunkirk evacuation, and was wounded during the Normandy Campaign. Starting as a police officer in Forest Hill after the war, he retired as the Staff Inspector of Metro Toronto Police’s Internal Affairs Unit. Bert had also continued service in the militia and was known as the no-nonsense RSM of 42nd Medium Regiment. He was firm, but fair, with a unique sense of humour. He used that experience while drilling cadets at the Police College as a Staff Sergeant in the 1960’s. One now-retired member can still remember a dressing down he got from Saul on the parade square. “Craine!” he barked, “You will be s*** upon from a great height … with incredible accuracy!”

Captain Burtram Francis “Bert” Saul, CD.
RCAA Annual Report 2001.

Bert was a founding member of the Toronto Artillery Ex-Sergeants Association and an active member of the Toronto Police War Veterans, who often led our Warrior’s Day Parade contingent. Bert passed in 2001.

Also active in both of our organizations at this time was John Bremner. John served in the Korean War driving ammunition for the guns. After the war he joined the North York Police and was later amalgamated into Metro Toronto Police where he rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant at downtown’s 52 Division. John was involved with the Toronto Artillery Ex-Sergeants association and a was a key member of the Limber Gunners, where he drove his beloved FAT (or Field Artillery Tractor). John passed in 2016.

Bringing us to today, we have in our organizations Dieter Lorenz, who served with the guns in Germany during the Cold War – or should I say the “First” Cold War? Also among us is young officer Kelvin Chu who represents the next generation of police gunners.

I’m now going to close with an excerpt from a letter written by Constable Hugh Banks, a fellow mounted officer who was serving with the 53rd Battery, RCA in England in that tense summer of 1940.

“… I gave up my position to enlist and was finally sent overseas. I left behind my wife and three children. While overseas I received the sad intelligence that my wife had died. I shall never forget as long as I live the kindness bestowed to me by the Officer Commanding and the Chaplain of my unit.

Captain Rae McCleary, the chaplain, has linked himself to me for life by his great understanding sympathy. When he told the lads of my battery of my loss, a movement was started among the troops to raise money to send to Canada for the erection of a headstone on my wife’s grave […] and the stone was carved as directed by a veteran of the last war.

When it appeared that the right thing for me to do was to come home on compassionate grounds to my motherless children, I was eventually paraded before Major-General Victor Odlum. He extended to me a very manly sympathy. His words of counsel and advice I shall never forget. He told me to sit down for a moment or two; he turned to his desk and taking his pen, began to write. In a moment or two he came toward me, evidently touched by my great sorrow, and said, “you will have extra expense when you get home, and I want you to accept this little gift from me,” and he handed me a cheque for $25”.

One thing missing from the letter however, is that back home in Toronto, the head of the Battery’s Welfare Committee, a Mrs. Medland, cared for the three young children herself until Banks returned. It is clear from this letter that all members of the Artillery family – including officers and other ranks and auxiliary associations – come together to take care of one another in times of need.

It is in the spirit of this letter, that the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association makes our donation to the Toronto Artillery Foundation. May your soldiers and their families always be taken care of, and their memories never die.

Thank you, and “Thank Gawd the Guns”.

Postscript

After writing this, a few more details came to light of one Toronto Police Officer, PC Geoffrey Rumble, who joined the Royal Canadian Artillery in the summer of 1940. He would fight in the Italian Campaign and Northwest Europe. By April 1945, Rumble was now a Captain serving as a Forward Observation Officer in the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade. After tough fighting against paratroopers and Hitler Youth in the Dutch town of Zutphen, Captain Rumble was briefly interviewed by war correspondent Douglas Amaron.

Amaron wrote that Rumble had sent a man forward during this fighting to see what was happening. He heard a shout which he interpreted as meaning that it was all right for him to move up, but when he arrived he found the Canadian wrestling with a German in a slit trench.

“I dealt with the German: then we all got into the trench,” Rumble said. “Did you kill him?” asked his Colonel. “I don’t know” Rumble replied “…he was underneath.”

After the war, Rumble rejoined the Toronto Police Department and was promoted to Sergeant. By the end of the 1950s, Rumble was in charge of Drill and Deportment at the Toronto Police College, a role he would turn over to none other than Bert Saul.

Major (Ret’d.) G. A. Rumble ED.
Rumble served a total of 42 years with the Toronto Police and died in 2008.
Dignity Memorial, 2008.

Research Sources and Further Reading:

  • F. Draper – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto For the Year 1886.
  • H. Grassett – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto For the Year 1918.
  • D. Draper – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto For the Year 1945.

  • B. Wardle – The Mounted Squad : An Illustrated History of the Toronto Mounted Police 1886-2000. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd; Markham 2002.
  • C. Mouatt et al. – The 155 year History of the 7th Toronto Regiment, Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery 1866-2021.

  • The Royal Canadian Artillery Association. Annual Report 2000-2001. Pages 20-22.
  • E. Beno [Ed.]. “Take Post”: The Journal of The Toronto Gunner Community. Edition 10, 11 March 2016. Pages 28-30.

  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War
    • Service File of No. 42459 Charles Chalkin.
    • Service File of No. 42480 Thomas Hugh Dundas.
    • Service File of No. 42619 William Joseph Sanderson Connor
    • Service File of No. 42691 Charles Hainer
    • Service File of No. 42538 Ernest John Masters
    • Service File of No. 300742 John Faulds
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the Second World War
    • Service File of No. B9174 Hugh James McKay Banks
  • Library and Archives Canada – Military Honours and Awards Citation Cards 1900-1961
    • No. 311373 T.D. Crosbie
    • No. 42480 T.H. Dundas.
    • No. 316952 A.J. Mitcham.
  • Library and Archives Canada. Circumstances of Death Registers Card s
    • No. 42619 William Connor
    • No. 83763 David Hammond Johnson.
    • No. 304442 George Brewin Stannage.

  • Toronto Public Library. Historical Newspapers Database.
    • Toronto Telegram. 1916-06-?? “Death of Lieut. WJS Connor”
    • The Globe. 1917-06-30 Page 20. “Policeman’s Bravery.”
    • Toronto Daily Star. 1920-09-15 Page 5. “Policemen Form Association.”
    • The Globe and Mail. 1941-11-18 Page 6. “Glowing Tribute Paid to Splendid Officer”.
    • The Globe and Mail. 1944-10-11 Page 4. “Two Sons Manning Guns Wounded Like Father.”
    • Toronto Daily Star. 1945-04-09 Page 1. “Hitler Baby Soldiers Worse Than SS, Canadians Learn.”
    • Toronto Daily Star. 1951-02-26 Page 2. “Four Carried to Street, 21 Flee from $4,000 Fire”.
    • The Toronto Star 1987-12-15 Page D5 “Policeman Hero of Ship Disaster Ends 45-Year Career.”
    • The Globe and Mail 1989-09-16 Page D5. “The Fiery Death”.
    • Toronto Star. 2012-02-10. “Untold Story of Toronto’s Real Canadian War Horse.”
  • Toronto Police Association – Honour Roll. [https://tpa.ca/honour-roll/] Retrieved 6 May 2022.
    • Constable Charles F. Hainer, Badge No. 4457
    • Sergeant Joseph R. Battersby, Badge No. 860

Special thanks to the members of the MTP Retirees and MTPF Photographs Facebook groups for their added insight.

Victory at a Cost: Toronto Police’s World War 2 Fallen

Written and researched by Matthew Scarlino

Seventy-seven years ago, Nazi Germany was defeated after almost six long years of war.

PC Harry Connall celebrates the end of the war with citizens on Bay Street.

On May 8th 1945, Torontonians of all backgrounds came together in this city to celebrate “Victory in Europe Day”. The Fourth Reich who had invaded and occupied large swaths of the globe and committed unspeakable atrocities was no longer a threat. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who ended the menace, including the 236 members of the Toronto Police Service who took leave to serve overseas.

The Second World War Memorial Tablet which hangs in the Grenville Lobby of Toronto Police Headquarters.

They served aboard Corvettes crossing the deadly Atlantic; flew on murderous missions over the skies of Europe; and fought up the hills of Italy, through the bocage of Normandy, and slogged through the polders of the Low Countries and into the Rhineland. Many were wounded, and nine members of the Toronto City Police and two members of York Township Police would make the ultimate sacrifice.

We must never forget the debt we owe for our freedom. We will remember them.

Please click the link below to learn more about our Second World War fallen.

Honour Roll of the Toronto Police Service in the Second World War 1939-1945Download

Robert Alexander, DCM

Researched and written by Matthew Scarlino.

Note: This article was originally written in September 2020 for the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association

On the 2nd September 1918, 102 years ago today, a young Toronto Police Constable, Robert Alexander (badge no. 264) of the Old No. 9 Police station at Keele & Dundas, performed actions during the First World War that led to his award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal – a gallantry award for enlisted ranks second only to the Victoria Cross.

The Distinguished Conduct Medal. (Photo Credit: eMedals.com)

PC Alexander was on leave from the department and serving with the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada) on the Western Front, holding the rank of Corporal. The Canadian Corps was engaged on the attack on the Drocourt-Quéant Line, a major German fortified position which dominated the area. It was a system of bunkers covered by interlocking arcs of artillery and machinegun fire, protected by fields of barbed wire. Alexander’s Battalion had arguably the hardest task, attacking a main strongpoint known as the “Crow’s Nest”. The fighting was heavy, and there was some doubt whether the position could be taken. The men clashed up and down hills and through woods. “In the confusion of things, several men of the 15h Battalion were too far to the right, amongst the Imperials. Cpls. Robert Alexander and G. Taylor helped on that flank spectacularly and were recommended for honours by the British” writes Kim Beattie, author of 48th Highlanders of Canada 1891-1928.

By the end of the battle, Canada suffered over 5,000 killed and wounded. German losses are unknown but significant, and the German army was forced to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line.

German Wire at Quéant. (Photo Credit: Imperial War Museum ©IWM 3392)

The attack was successful in part due to the daring actions of PC Alexander and others like him. His citation for the Distinguished Conduct Medal appeared in the London Gazette on 16 January 1919, and reads as follows:

“For conspicuous gallantry and initiative in the attack on Drocourt-Queant line on the 2nd September, 1918. When one of the companies was held up by a strong machinegun post, he led his platoon forward and bombed the occupants, over sixty of whom surrendered. He showed conspicuous ability in handling his platoon and keeping the men under control in the face of machine-gun fire from both flanks and point-blank artillery fire. ”

Sgt. Alexander DCM returns to Canada aboard the SS Baltic, 1919 (Photo Credit: 48th Highlanders Museum)

Alexander would return to the Toronto Police Force after the war, was quickly promoted to Patrol Sergeant, and continued climbing the ranks to Inspector, before finally becoming Chief Constable of the neighbouring York Township Police.

Alexander was an original member, and President (1926-27) of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association.

Inspector Alexander leads the Toronto Police War Veterans at the 1929 Warrior’s Day Parade. (Photo Credit: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 17638)

Sources and further reading:

  • H. Grasett – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto, Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Force for 1914. Toronto: Carswell publishing, 1915.
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War (799372 Robert Alexander); Honours and Awards Citation Cards 1900-1969 (799372 Robert Alexander); War Diaries of the 15th Battalion CEF.
  • K. Beattie – 48th Highlanders of Canada 1891-1928. Toronto: 48th Highlanders of Canada, 1932.
  • G. Young – 15th Battalion CEF Memory Project: The Battle for Crows Nest (video), 2020.
  • J.L. Granatstein – Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War 1914-1918. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.
  • Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Database. Toronto Daily Star 1916-01-26 “Policemen Don Khaki for Blue”; The Globe 1919-09-09 “Police Board Honor Heroes”; The Globe 1927-03-25 “Suggest Memorial for Police Soldiers”; The Globe and Mail 1938-09-01 “New Police Chief”
  • The London Gazette. Supplement 31128 to the London Gazette, Page 847. London: King’s Printer, 1919.

Alvin Sproule: Black Devil

Researched and Written by Matthew Scarlino.

Sergeant of Detectives Alvin Sproule’s name on the Second World War memorial tablet at Toronto Police Headquarters.

The Black Devils, officially the First Special Service Force, was a unit that struck fear into the hearts of the enemy during the Second World War. One of the original members of this elite unit was a Toronto Police constable.

Alvin Armstrong Sproule joined the Toronto Police Department in 1939 as an 18-year old Police Cadet. Once reaching the minimum age requirement of 21 years, Sproule was sworn in as Police Constable #333, but in May 1942 he took leave to enlist in the Canadian Army, joining The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. Sproule went on to pass selection into the First Special Service Force, an elite joint American-Canadian commando unit with specialist training in hand-to-hand fighting, parachuting and mountain warfare.

Iconic arrowhead shoulder flash of the FSSF.
(Photo Credit: Bill Ellis and canadiansoldiers.com)

Sproule served in the 5th Company, 2nd Regiment of the FSSF. While exact details of Sproule’s service are still classified, one could look at the unit’s history to know what kind of finding he was involved in.

Private, First Special Service Force; Anzio, Italy 1944 by Ron Volstad.
(Photo Credit: Osprey Publishing)

The FSSF first saw action during Aleutian Campaign of 1943 in the Pacific theatre, and were then used extensively in the Mediterranean Theatre, fighting throughout Italy and Southern France. Their assault on the German-held Monte La Difesa was made into a Hollywood film The Devil’s Brigade (1968). During the infamous Anzio campaign, where they were in combat for 99 continuous days, the enemy nicknamed them “The Black Devils” due to the commandos’ tenacity and use of boot polish as face paint. After the fierce fighting in Italy, they would make a combat jump into Southern France, during a lesser-known seaborne invasion dubbed “Operation Dragoon”. They fought on in the south of France towards the Axis-held Alps, and after suffering an irreplaceable attrition rate of over 600%, were eventually disbanded. Sproule was wounded in action, but it is unclear when. The remaining Canadians were mostly dispersed to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion as replacements.

The First Special Service Force is perpetuated today by the Canadian Special Operations Regiment and the United States Army’s 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne).

Sproule picture in the American-style FSSF uniform, where he wears US jump wings.
(Photo Credit: First Special Service Force Association)

Sproule would end the war as a Staff Sergeant.

After the war, Sproule returned to the Toronto Police Department, and would soon be “wounded” again, according to The Globe and Mail newspaper. “Annoyed at having his premises searched,” they wrote, a 43 year-old John D’Angelo “became enraged and bit the constable’s right hand”. Assaulting a former commando in such a way could not have ended well for the man.

In 1949, Sproule earned his first Good Conduct badge, earlier than the usual 7 years of good police conduct, due to merit. It carried with it an extra 10 cents pay a day. Sproule soon moved to plainclothes investigations, and in 1952, was made an Acting Detective. In 1954 he received another Good Conduct Badge.

Fellow plainclothesman Jack Webster, who would later author a memoir and establish the Toronto Police Museum, described Sproule as a “fearless police officer with a reputation for bravery.” Webster also shared an anecdote demonstrating Sproule’s fearlessness and proficiency at arms.

On the evening of October 26th, 1955 the pair were partnered together when each other’s regular partners were on leave. As they were making their way back to headquarters at the end of their shift, the police dispatcher broadcast that an armed man was firing shots through his hotel door near Bay and Dundas streets. Webster and Sproule were first on scene at the Ford Hotel (demolished in 1974). Terrified staff reported that the man was still barricaded inside Room 411 after shooting at an employee. Sproule called for reinforcements while Webster made unsuccessful negotiations with the male over the room phone. The gunman continued to fire his shotgun sporadically through his door.

PC Lister, also a war veteran, shows Room 411’s bullet-riddled door to photographers. (Toronto Daily Star)

After uniformed officers arrived, “Detective Sproule volunteered to go along the hallway armed with a machine gun that had been brought to the scene, and kick the door in, while spraying the room with gunfire.” Sproule, however, was overruled by Detective Inspector William Matthews, who had arrived and taken charge of the scene. Matthews was concerned that their could be hostages hidden inside.

While waiting for further direction, Sproule and Webster periodically exchanged gun fire with the man while they contained the hallway. “After one of these gunfire exchanges, the man screamed and re-entered his room. We were sure that one of us had wounded him…” The gunman, however, continued to fire through the door – “all the time shouting unintelligible words”.

Suddenly a lone shot rang out, followed by complete silence.

Suspicious of a trap, the officer-in-charge called for tear gas (new at the time at the police department) be brought to the scene. When the “large, artillery-shell-like gas canisters […] designed to be fired from a short stubby-barreled rifle” arrived, there was no one there with the experience to use them. Alvin Sproule volunteered, and re-positioned himself in the courtyard of the hotel, with a clear view to the shooter’s window. This also left him exposed.

While covering the window, contemporary newspapers reported that Inspector Matthews threw a gas grenade from an adjoining room’s window into the gunman’s. Webster however, in his eye-witness account remembers it this way: “This detective [Sproule], who was an experienced infantry soldier from the war, took careful aim and fired the canister. It was an accurate shot and went directly through the window into the room.” In any event, smoke poured out of the room within seconds.

A breaching team of Sproule, Webster and two other detectives “wearing Second World War gas masks” entered the gassed out room only to find the shooter dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach.

“Experienced tear gas handlers later explained to [us] that a single tear gas bullet, about the size of a .38 calibre shell, would have been sufficient to accomplish our task, and that the canister used was large enough to clear that famous ice hockey arena, Maple Leaf Gardens,” said Webster.

The gunman was identified as Zorano Borg of Malta. He had been described as a “usually quiet, friendly twenty-two-year-old European immigrant, who had become despondent with his new life in Canada.” Thanks to Sproule and his colleagues’ swift action, no one else was hurt, though the hotel was a little worse for wear.

Borg’s body is taken away, as Inspector Matthews wipes his eyes with a handkerchief due to the tear gas. (Toronto Daily Star)

Sproule excelled in the Detective branch, and eventually rose to the rank of Sergeant of Detectives, a bygone rank forgotten by most officers today. “The Sergeant [of Detectives] was a rank between Detective Sergeant and Inspector. Like an Army Sergeant-Major his job was never really spelled out in hard and fast terms, but he was the senior Detective, the guy who knew and had done it all and got extra pay for it.” explains retired member Mike Holland.

In 1966, Sproule had the distinction as serving as the liaison to the RCMP during the 1966 House of Commons bombing attempt by Toronto resident Paul Joseph Chartier. Sergeant of Detectives Sproule would last serve at the old 21 Division in the Keele St & Eglinton Ave W area.

The following year, on the 13th of January, 1967, Sproule collapsed and died suddenly at his home on Balaclava Avenue in Scarborough. Just 45 years old, Alvin Sproule left a wife and six children.

Sources and further reading:

  • D. Draper. Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the Year 1944, Toronto: The Carswell Co Ltd City Printers, 1945.
  • J. Webster. Copper Jack: My Life on the Force. Pages 103-105. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991.
  • R. Chartrand and R. Volstad. Canadian Forces in World War II. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2001.
  • RD Burhans. The First Special Service Force. A Canadian-American Wartime Alliance: The Devil’s Brigade. Ed Conroy Books Ltd, 1948.
  • First Special Service Force Association website. History. http://www.firstspecialserviceforce.net/history.html 2022.
  • Canadiansoldiers.com. First Special Service Force. http://canadiansoldiers.com/organization/specialforces/1ssf.htm 2022.
  • Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Database. The Globe and Mail 1946-08-12, p.5 “Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Database. The Globe and Mail 1946-08-12, p.5 “Man Bites Police, Police Arrest Man“; The Globe and Mail 1952-12-19, p.1 “Worked on Boyd Case Two Toronto Detectives Get Higher Positions”; The Globe and Mail 1955-10-27 p.1“Hotel Shooting Battle Ends With Crazed Gunner’s Suicide” p.3 “Tense Fearful Crowd Gathered Near Scene”; Toronto Daily Star 1955-10-27 p.1 “Buckshot Barrage Keeps Tear-Gas Police at Bay Man Kills Self in Hotel,” p.3  “Defies Tear Gas, Riot Guns, Dies in Shot-riddled Room”; The Globe and Mail 1962-02-24, p. 1 “Slapped Rabbi to Stop Hysterics Sergeant Declares at Inquiry“; The Globe and Mail 1967-01-14, p. 2 “Alvin Sproule: Sergeant, 45, Joined Police as Cadet in 1939″.

A Whirlwind Week: A Toronto Policeman in the Battle of France

Researched and written by Matthew Scarlino.

This article was originally written in June 2020 for the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association.

Police Constable (709) James “Tiny” Small, Acting R.S.M. 48th Highlanders of Canada

Eighty years ago this week, a small number of Canadian soldiers landed at Brest to participate in the Battle of France, in what is now an obscure and little-known operation that took place in June 1940.

Just days before the Canadians landed, the nearly-destroyed British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. The German army then pressed their attack against the remaining French Army south of the Seine and Marne rivers.
In a desperate bid to keep up a foothold in France, Britain committed its last two fully-equipped infantry divisions, the 1st Canadian and 52nd Lowland, as well as the 1st Armoured Division in a force now known as the “Second” British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The mission was to be kept secret to avoid detection by German forces. The 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade would spearhead their division, and advance parties landed at the French port city of Brest, on 12 June 1940. The orders for the operation, somewhat unclear, were to drive toward and reinforce the new French defensive position dubbed the Weygand Line. Or, “failing that, to join in the defence of the Breton Redoubt as a last fortified foothold on the continent” [Copp].

As could be expected, owing to the Toronto Police Department’s large and widespread contribution to the war, Toronto policemen were among the contingent. One such officer kept a brief diary during the campaign, which offers a rare first-hand look. Police Constable (709) James “Tiny” Small, joined the Toronto Police Force in 1921, walking the beat out of the old No. 6 Police Station (Queen & Cowan Ave) and later, motorcycle patrol. Small was also the Drum Major of the Toronto Police Pipe Band, which is still active today.

Small left the force for military service at the outbreak of war in Autumn 1939. Now, the 6’6” “Tiny” Small was a Warrant Officer and Acting Regimental Sergeant-Major of the 48th Highlanders of Canada. Small and his fellow Canadian soldiers stood by helplessly in Britain while Germany’s Blitzkrieg rolled over the British and Western European allies in France and the Low Countries in May and June of 1940. The men were elated when they received orders to proceed to France. Small’s 48th Highlanders of Canada were inspected by King George VI and then moved from Camp Aldershot to the embarkation point at Plymouth. On the way, they found out that the 51st Highland Division (which contained their allied regiment, the Gordon Highlanders) had just been encircled and destroyed near St Valéry, France. With happy memories of last winter’s snowball fights with the Gordons still fresh in their minds, the gravity of their situation must have started to sink in.

Let us look to his diary.

11 June 1940 1p.m. entrained for Plymouth. Stayed under canvas – sailed on Ville D’Alger – shores of Plymouth packed with people. Wonderful send off – 2 troopships & good escort. First Canadians to land in France.

Small’s journey begins on a “scruffy French channel craft”, the Ville d’Alger. It appears he was a member of the battalion’s Transport Section, which along with the (Bren Gun) Carrier Section led the way to the continent ahead of their regiment’s main body.

12 June 1940 Landed at Brest at 10a.m. – good trip. Looked the town over – got paid (French Francs).

Small’s advance party landed in France. It must have been an emotional feeling for him, as Small had fought in France as a 17-year-old rifleman with the 19th Battalion during Canada’s Hundred Days Offensive of 1918. There would be little fanfare however. Upon arrival the men found a “dismaying atmosphere” at Brest. There was no official welcome. French soldiers indifferently lounged around while civilian refugees carrying all they could crammed the streets. Small went to work unloading his section’s trucks and motorcycles in the busy port. It would be exhausting non-stop work as thousands of men, vehicles and equipment would be disembarking behind them.

13 June 1940 Left Brest about 1p.m. after unloading transport – slept in bush at Mur-de-Bretagne – tired out

Small’s party set off toward the planned Rennes-Laval-Le Mans assembly area (headquarters being established at the city of Le Mans). The 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade’s Carrier and Transport Sections took the roads, while the main force traveled by rail. The route was clogged with refugees, whom local authorities had given the right-of-way, causing the convoys to move fitfully. At the end of the day Small would camp at Mûr-De-Bretagne, having moved 130km inland from Brest.

14 June 1940 Started on road again – rode all day – stopped in bush for the night at Bouessay. Havent seen the Regt. yet,

After a long day’s drive, Small would camp at the small town of Bouessay, outside of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, now about 360km inland from Brest, and 60km from Le Mans.

While on the road, the situation had changed drastically – that morning German troops reached Paris, and to save the historic city from destruction, the French would not defend it. German soldiers marched down the Champs Elysées under a swastika-covered Arc de Triomphe. They would not stop for long. The French armies were now cut off from each other and unable to put up a coherent defence.

The British War Office, fearing total collapse in France, issued orders to recall the BEF. They would be needed for the next battleground – Britain.

The situation on 14 June 1940. (Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, Vol 1.)

15 June 1940 4:30a.m. British Retiring – also us. Got back as far as Landesvous(?). Walking in circles – what a life! Still haven’t found the Regt.

In the confusion, the 48th‘s Transport and Carrier Sections were not able to rendezvous with the main force. They began their withdrawal to the port among fears of aerial attack and rumours of a sweeping German advance.

Small’s party managed to drive 325km to the town of Landivisiau, about 40km outside of Brest.

“None of us will forget that drive. We passed thousands of refugees, in fact most of the roads were choked with them, poor devils. I don’t know where they wanted to go; anywhere away from the Germans, I supposed. They were all ages, and all were carrying bundles… The only greetings we received now were black scowls…” – Basil Smith, Transport Sergeant, Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment. Part of the same brigade, the “Hasty P’s” Carrier and Transport Sections also came to France on the Ville d’Alger, and would have traveled in conjunction with Small’s party.

16 June 1940 Took up positions in bush outside Londesvous(?). Extra ammunition. Hiley(?) shot through hand – Resneven(?)

Things are becoming chaotic. An edgy night was spent in defensive positions, on high alert for attacks from the air or by land. The man shot would have been from friendly fire or a negligent discharge, for the German army, unbeknownst to the men, were still hundreds of kilometres away.

Small’s section was now paused at the town of Lesneven, outside of Brest. That afternoon, a German reconnaissance plane appeared over the port at Brest – flying low and observing the withdrawing Allied forces. Canadians on board the Canterbury Belle let loose with their deck-mounted Bren Guns, joined almost instantly with “every rifle, pistol, anti-tank rifle, or other weapon upon which three thousand men could lay their hands on” [Mowat]. The plane retreated, smoke trailing from one engine.

Any secrecy the men thought they may have had was now gone.

17 June 1940 Ordered to wreck transport – took 4 trucks & Bren Guns, bombs & ammunition (?). On Brigitte at Brest – 4:30p.m.

Basil Smith continued: “We arrived on the outskirts of Brest … and there must have been a solid mile of British vehicles ahead of us, bumper to bumper. We joined them, and in a little while there was a mile of them behind us too. What the Luftwaffe was doing on that day I’ll never know, but we sure expected the same treatment the boys got at Dunkirk.”

Vehicle convoys were arranged in makeshift parking lots on the outskirts of the town, and it appears the Carrier and Transport Sections were now split up as they awaited space on ships. Small and his party settled in and waited. According to Smith it was “some of the most nervous hours I can recall. The tension was worse than being under shell-fire later in the war. We were momentarily expecting a Panzer column to come sweeping down the road.”
Their fears were valid. A week ago the entire 51st Highland Division had been wiped out at St Valery before they could evacuate, by Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division.

The 7th Panzer Division had now turned their attention to Cherbourg, where other components of the Second BEF were now evacuating (as it was not practical for all units to go back to Brest – others went to St Malo). The Germans penetrated to within 3 miles of Cherbourg’s harbour as the last Allied troopship left there.

At Brest the enemy was not actually in the vicinity, but anxious British authorities at the port ordered the Canadians to destroy their vehicles and other equipment. They wanted to evacuate as many men as possible, as quickly as possible, and the hardware took up too much space. Lest it fall into enemy hands, they were ordered to destroy their equipment by fire.

Upon receiving the order, a disappointed Small went to work wrecking his lorries which he had shepherded through France. Once again Basil Smith’s account shows how this was done: “we couldn’t burn the trucks because it would have […] drawn every German plane for a hundred miles, so we did the next best. We went to work on all those lovely new trucks with pickaxes; punctured the tires, gas tanks and radiators; jammed up the bodies, sheared off engine parts and cracked the blocks. Then we destroyed the equipment in them…”

By late afternoon Small’s party had found space on a ship bound for England.

18 June 1940 Landed at Plymouth at 7a.m. – off boat 6p.m. Slept on Swan Pool Beach all night.

The Brigitte carried the men “back to England in style” as the Transport Officer, Lieutenant Don MacKenzie put it. It was “a crowded little pleasure launch which would have looked home on Toronto Bay.”

After stopping at Plymouth, where the main force was disembarking, the Brigitte continued on to Falmouth (about 90 minutes away by road) for reasons unknown.

An exhausted Small disembarked and then slept on Swanpool Beach.

He still had not seen the rest of the Regiment.

An exhausted Highlander catches up on sleep at sea after evacuation from France, June 1940. (© IWM F 4878 )

19 June 1940 Left beach & left Falmouth for Aldershot. Arrived at 8:30p.m. – dead tired.

As it happened, the scattered sub-units of the 48th Highlanders had all returned to the Canadian Camp at Aldershot by June 18th, save for the Transport Section. Worry grew among the regiment, and the outstanding men’s names were being entered into a list titled “The following are SOS, missing believed prisoner’s of war” to be published in Orders. When Small and his party returned arrived late on the 19th, they were “greeted like men escaped from a prisoners’ cage”.

The dead tired Small would have little time to rest. As Winston Churchill put it the day before in a rousing speech: “The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.”

Postscript

Small would learn of the journey of the main force of the 48th Highlanders who had traveled by rail. They had been in the lead train with Brigade Headquarters. This group likely included other Toronto policemen who had joined the 48th in the early days of the war. Constable Frank Godley (49), was now serving as a Sergeant in the Battalion HQ. Also with the 48th were Constables “Army” Armstrong (9), Clarence Collins (332), William McMillan (237), and David Sutherland (507). The 48th train penetrated the furthest of any Canadians, reaching Sablé-sur-Sarthe. Once there they received the order to reverse from a British Railway Transport Officer (RTO). The seemingly nervous RTO insisted they flee but could not produce the order to do so nor his credentials. The Canadians thought he was a German Agent and quizzed him on his name, “Oates”. A man of the same name was famous at the time as a member of Scott’s Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13. The RTO knew enough about this bit of trivia to pass as a true Brit and the Canadians were satisfied the order was genuine.

A few of the Toronto Police constables serving with the 48th Highlanders (Toronto Daily Star & The Globe)

However they now had an issue with the trains French engineer. “Finie la guerre!” he cried, refusing to move his train in the opposite direction. He happened to live in Sablé and wanted to go home. He became irate and would only comply at gunpoint. The trains crew had mostly managed to leave. Luckily, Platoon Sergeant-Major Jack Laurie had been a railwayman before the war and said he could run the train back, and pressed other soldiers into service as stokers. The men posted Bren gunners at the doors, smashed out windows to reduce potential shrapnel, and placed an AA gun on a flatbed car. “The entire battalion was aboard, crowded at the windows and staring at the early sky, nervously watching for Stukas”. Before setting off the “recalcitrant engineer” again tried to get off the train, supposedly to have breakfast. “Someone tell the goddamn Frog he’ll eat here or else!” Laurie shouted.

The train then took off for Brest with a “defiant little toot” of its horn. But at some point in the journey, the French engineer outwitted the Canadians and switched course for St Malo, a port closer to his home. When the 48th arrived at the harbour, there was just one ship left with orders to evacuate British troops, the SS Biarritz. It was already loaded but stuck in low tide. Room was made aboard for the Canadians and they spent a long night waiting for the tide to come in. “Enemy air attack was expected all night long; several other French ports were being heavily bombed, and there was no reason why St. Malo should be immune, but the night passed undisturbed.”

The Biarritz carried them off just as Royal Navy demolition parties blew the outer locks. France would surrender days later.

For their part in the Battle of France, Canadians were awarded the 1939-1945 Star. It would be years before they would return to French soil. All in all, the men acquitted themselves well in the chaotic campaign. Though 216 vehicles and much equipment were lost, Canada’s human losses for the operation were incredibly light, with only 1 killed, and 5 missing – taken prisoner. The fatality was due to a motorcycle collision on the frenzied roads; and of the 5 men captured only one would remain a prisoner at the end of the war – the other four escaping back to England (notably, one of the escapees would account for the war’s first Military Medal awarded to a member of the Canadian Army).

The 1st Canadian Division’s ability to make it back to Britain almost entirely intact (minus the scrapped equipment) was necessary for any planned defence of the British Isles.

They would soon be under attack from the air, and Small’s diary again provides a glimpse into that time. To be continued…

Sources and further reading:

  • J. Sarjeant. The Secrets in the Chest: The Life of James Edward “Tiny” Small. Rose Printing, Orillia. 2016.
  • K. Beattie. Dileas. History of the 48th Highlanders of Canada 1929-1956. The 48th Highlanders of Canada, Toronto. 1957.
  • F. Mowat. The Regiment. Dundurn, Toronto. 1955.
  • T. Copp. Legion Magazine – The Fall of France Part 2. October 1995.
  • C.P. Stacey. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, Vol. I Six Years of War. Queen’s Printer for Canada, Ottawa. 1955.
  • D.C. Draper. Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the Year 1940. Toronto, 1941.

A note on quotations: Diary entries are duplicated from Sarjeant’s “The Secrets in the Chest” with permission from the author. All uncredited quotations are taken from Beattie’s “Dileas”, except for Basil Smith’s account, which appears from Mowat’s “The Regiment”.

Profiles in Courage: Toronto Police on D-Day

Researched and Written by Matthew Scarlino.

This article was originally written in June 2019 and versions were published in Blue Line Magazine and featured on TPS News.

It was spring 1944. The Second World War had been raging for four and a half years. Most of Europe lived under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.

Canadian troops headed toward Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3205254)

Millions of Jews, visible minorities, queer people, political dissenters, and people with disabilities were being rounded up and sent to death camps. Rights and freedoms disappeared and occupied peoples were forced to work towards the Nazi war effort. The Western Allied armies of Great Britain (including Canada and other Commonwealth nations), France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and other European nations, had been pushed out of mainland Europe since 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded in their blitzkrieg – “lightning war”. The Western Allies escaped to Britain, where they remained under attack from the air, but persevered. When the Americans joined the war, they too would sail to England and prepare to fight.

Meanwhile, the Nazis fortified Europe using slave labour to build the Atlantic Wall, coastal defences made of concrete bunkers, weapons pits, landmines and other defences to make re-invasion impossible. The Western Allies instead invaded through Italy in 1943, but the narrow and mountainous terrain heavily favoured the defenders – casualties were high and progress was slow. In the east, the Soviet Union was also taking heavy losses pushing Nazi forces out of Eastern Europe. The situation was bleak and there needed to be a breakthrough elsewhere.

A plan was made to form a massive armada of ships, planes, and troops and invade Occupied France across the English Channel at Normandy. Five beaches would be assaulted, the Americans and British responsible for two beaches each, and the Canadians responsible for the last beach – code-named “Juno”. It wasn’t clear if the plan would work and casualties were expected to be extremely high. After bad weather postponed the attack, it was finally settled that it would take place on June 6, 1944, code-named “D-Day”.

On June 6, 2019, Canadians across the country are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the daring invasion, which marked the beginning of the end of World War II. The successful Normandy Campaign commenced a drive to Germany that would see the war end in less than a year. And just like the many Toronto policemen who fought in the First World War, 235 members (men and women) of the Toronto City Police Force, would leave to serve in the Second World War(1). Many of them took part in the D-Day invasion.

This is the story of a half-dozen police officers, just a small sample of the many Toronto Police members who contributed to victory in the Normandy Campaign at sea, on land, and in the air.

At Sea

Some of the first Toronto Police members in action on D-Day were three burly constables aboard the HMCS Skeena. Fred Davies, Len O’Hara and Ken Peglar were all towering policemen who had joined the Royal Canadian Navy together as stokers – whose main duties were to feed coal into the ship’s boilers – in 1940. Deputy Chief Charles Scott described them as “outstanding” track and field athletes in the Toronto Police Force Amateur Athletic Association, who would be “an asset to any ship.”(2)

Constables Frederick Davies (#284), Leonard O’Hara (#55) and Kenneth Peglar (#108) in their Royal Canadian Navy uniforms, as they appeared in a 1942 edition of the Toronto Daily Star

The men had survived terrifying sea battles in the years leading up to this momentous day, including being involved in the first sinking of an enemy submarine by Canadian forces. While on convoy duty, on the night of September 8 & 9, 1941, the ships they were protecting were attacked by a “wolfpack” of German submarines known as U-Boats. In the epic 66-hour battle that ensued, the Skeena launched depth charge after depth charge in chaotic fighting in which Constable Peglar was wounded by a powerful blast that launched the 6’4”, 245-pound policeman through the air into a bulkhead. (3) When the smoke settled two U-Boats were sunk at a loss of 16 merchant ships. 

Now veteran seamen, they were on board one of the 63 Canadian warships participating in the greatest sea-borne assault in history. In the hours leading up to the D-Day invasion, the trio toiled below-deck stoking the steam engines in the sweltering boiler rooms of the Skeena. Their destroyer was paving the way for the invasion force by clearing the sea lanes of enemy ships, and starting at 5:45 a.m., bombarding the coastal defences where enemy machine guns and artillery were laying in wait, zeroed-in on the landing beaches. (4)

About two hours later, Canadian assault troops landed at Juno Beach into murderous fire from the entrenched enemy who by now were expecting an attack.

While the first waves of Canadian infantry and tanks fought through the beaches and into the town, the SS Sambut was just sailing out of England’s River Thames, carrying reinforcements for the blood-stained sands of Normandy. It was taking an indirect route to avoid detection. Among the vehicles, munitions, and troops on board was a 28-year-old Lance Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) named Clarence Verdun Courtney. (5) Following in the footsteps of his father, Courtney joined the Toronto Police Department, graduating as a constable in 1938. After three years of service, he put his career on hold and answered the call to arms to defeat tyranny. He rose quickly up the military ranks and passed specialized training including advanced infantry training, platoon support weapons, mine detection and clearing and military motorcycle riding. He was posted to No. 84 Company RCASC, part of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, and was tasked with providing logistical support to tanks in battle.

A rare colour photo of special Tank Landing Craft moving toward Juno Beach on D-Day. Patrol Sergeant H.L. Smuck came ashore aboard these ships (Library and Archives Canada)

While crossing the Straits of Dover, the Sambut encountered fire from German coastal batteries in the nearby French city of Calais, and at 12:15 p.m. she was hit in the side by 15-inch shells. Shrapnel tore into Courtney’s abdomen, and the fuel and trucks on deck around him were set ablaze, shortly followed by the explosion of an ammunition cache in the ship’s hold. In a chaotic scene, soldiers began throwing ammunition off the side of the ship, while secondary explosions sent shrapnel flying around them. (6) A British medical officer found Courtney and began dressing his wounds. Within 15 minutes, however, the order was given to abandon ship.

While thoughts surely flashed through Courtney’s mind of his wife Margaret and their peaceful home on Glendonwynne Road, he was helped to life rafts by his comrades. He then clung to the side of a crowded raft as long as he could, but the young Lance Sergeant succumbed to his wounds and slipped into the sea,(7) robbed of any chance to fight back.

Courtney was one of the hundreds of Canadians who died that day. He is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial in France.

A Toronto Police constable stands with citizens during an impromptu D-Day prayer service at Old City Hall (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 90982)

ON LAND

In the following days, the Allied soldiers established their toe-hold into occupied France and pushed out from the beaches, fighting through the towns, fields and hedgerows of Normandy. The weaker German coastal defence troops were being reinforced by crack tank divisions from further inland. 

Amidst the Canadian forces fighting their way inland was Harry Lee Smuck, a captain in the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) – a tank unit. The 41-year-old was a Patrol Sergeant in the Toronto City Police Force, who joined back in 1926 and served at the Belmont Street and Claremont Street stations as well as the Mounted Unit. At 5’10 and ¾”, the fair-haired blue-eyed policeman was short compared to his colleagues in an age of height requirements on the force. (8)

To ‘do his bit’, Smuck enlisted in the 1st Hussars soon after the war broke out, and said goodbye to his wife Hettie, and children William and June. As a young man, Smuck had served seven years in the Canadian militia with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, another armoured outfit. Due to his police service and prior military service, he rose quickly through the ranks and was commissioned as an officer.

Patrol Sergeant Harry Lee Smuck, in military uniform (Canadian Virtual War Memorial), and Constable (#302) Clarence Verdun Courtney in winter dress (1938 Toronto Police Recruit Class Photo– Author’s Collection).

Harry Smuck and his troops had made the hellish assault on Juno Beach, in specially equipped Sherman tanks that could operate while partially submerged underwater. Landing near Courseulles-sur-Mer in the second wave of the attack, he and his “C” Squadron tanks put their 75mm cannons and machine-guns into action to the relief of the battered infantrymen on the shore. They fought hard breaking out from the beach, through intense street battles in town and into the fields beyond. (9) The 1st Hussars, through skilful deployment of tanks led in part by Smuck, were the only element of the entire Allied invasion force to meet their final D-Day objective. But there would be no time to rest.

After five days of fighting, Smuck received orders on the morning of June 11, 1944, that his tanks would support the Queen’s Own Rifles in an assault on German troops occupying the town of Le Mesnil-Patry. Unbeknownst to them, their radio codes had been captured some days earlier and the enemy was listening. When the attack set off in the afternoon, the Germans held their fire until the Canadians were halfway into the town. (10) The Hussars and Queen’s Own were suddenly met by tremendous machine-gun and mortar fire from a great number of troops lying in wait in the hedgerows, haystacks and buildings of the town. In response, Smuck’s tanks unleashed devastating fire (11)on the enemy and the survivors were beginning to flee. The tanks pressed on toward the village, where they found another trap waiting. As they approached, “B” Squadron started taking fire from 7.5cm anti-tank guns, which were knocking out the Canadian tanks. Then, powerful German Panzer IV tanks took the field and engaged them – the 2nd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, a fanatical Nazi unit made up of experienced fighters and members of the Hitler Youth, was counter-attacking. A fierce tank battle ensued. Smuck and his ‘C’ Squadron tanks were ordered forward into a field of burning tanks,(12) and continued the fight.

Canadian tanks fighting in a Normandy field June 1944 (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3524524)

In the chaos that followed, the Canadians were ordered to withdraw. Of the over 50 tanks from the 1st Hussars that went into action, only 13 made it back. Many men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Some, like Harry Smuck, were simply listed as missing. In the first six days of the Normandy campaign, over 1,000 Canadians would be killed, and over 2,000 wounded. (13)

IN the air

Pressing on the attack in the air was a motorcycle cop from East York,(14) Constable Norman Crook, flying with No. 433 “Porcupine” Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Crook joined the air force in the summer of 1942 and by D-Day, was a navigator on a Halifax bomber plane on an overnight mission to drop sea mines into the English Channel to protect the invasion fleet. 

After the Allies established a foothold in France, Crook’s squadron went to work bombing enemy troops, positions, railways and other infrastructure that could be used to send reinforcements against the Canadians.

One such mission took place on the night of June 28, 1944. Crook’s Halifax Bomber, tail number LV-839, took off on a bombing run to Metz, France, piloted by Hamilton McVeigh of Port Arthur, Ontario. En route to the fortified city, Crook and his crew suddenly encountered tracer fire coming out of the darkness – three German Ju-88 night fighters were attacking the slower bomber plane. After evading three waves of attacks from the fighter planes, the bomber was finally hit while flying in an evasive corkscrew manoeuvre. “The one shooting at us was just a decoy,” recounted Crook, “we were too busy watching him to see the guy behind. All of a sudden we got walloped. The first shell missed the rear gunner by inches and lopped off one of the rudders. Another shell went through the wing – then another, and finally one wing tip was chipped off.”(15)

The crippled aircraft, with its massive bomb load still on board, went into a tight spin at 13,000 feet in the air. The engines were failing and the pilot ordered the crew to bail out of the aircraft, which some started to do. Crook, however, made his way to the pilot, McVeigh, wanting to say goodbye to his friend before parachuting out. At that point he changed his mind and decided to stay on board – meanwhile McVeigh levelled off the aircraft at 6,000 feet. Crook, the plane’s navigator, set a course for England, to an alternate airfield with long dirt runways suitable for a crash landing. Two minutes after midnight, the aircraft made a hard 155-mph landing at Woodbridge, England, the remaining crew safe and their ordeal over. (16)

Crook’s action that night would later be recognized by the second highest award of bravery an airman could receive. His recommendation read, in part: “ …when attacking Metz his aircraft was attacked three times by fighters and was very severely damaged. So much so that two members of the crew abandoned on order of the Captain, and the aircraft lost 7,000 feet before control was regained. At that time the port outer engine cut so the bomb load was jettisoned and a course set for England. Pilot Officer Crook cooly and skilfully navigated his damaged aircraft back to a diversion base, avoiding the heavily defended areas en route, and a high-speed landing was made at an emergency landing field.” For this action and his overall flying record, he would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Halifax bomber on a raid. (Library and Archive Canada MIKAN No. 4002568) Top Right: Toronto Daily Star newspaper photo of Constable Norman Crook (Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspaper Database). Bottom right: The Distinguished Flying Cross

towards freedom and justice

The fighting in Normandy, France would go on until the end of August 1944. It marked the turning point in the war and from there Canadians pushed on through Belgium, the Netherlands and finally into Germany. The Nazis would surrender unconditionally in May 1945, and the true extent of their evil deeds became known – concentration camps were discovered, liberated and their victims freed. Millions who had lived under oppression would start to rebuild. The rule of law was re-established and war criminals were put on trial.

SS General Kurt Meyer on trial for war crimes in a Canadian military court. (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3191556)

One such war criminal was the Nazi General Kurt Meyer, who was tried by a Canadian War Crimes court. It was during these proceedings that the fate of Patrol Sergeant Harry Lee Smuck was discovered, thanks to the Canadian War Crimes Investigation Unit. During the battle for Le Mesnil-Patry, Smuck’s tank had been knocked out by enemy fire and he and his crew, some wounded, managed to bail out and make a break for their lines. They became separated in a firefight and Smuck and one of his men hid under another destroyed Canadian tank to re-group. 

Suddenly, the pair were swarmed by enemy troops and they decided to each make a run for it. Captain Smuck was captured and marched off to a secluded area with other Canadian prisoners of war, including some of his own tank crew, also captured in the chaotic battle. Once there, Smuck and the other men were lined up, callously shot, and buried in a shallow grave. (17) It was an unjust end for a brave man.

General Meyer was found guilty of ordering the killings, and other atrocities. Though sentenced to death, another unjust turn of events would see him only serve five years in a Canadian prison before returning to Germany, and ultimately being freed by 1954. Smuck’s remains were re-interred at the peaceful Ryes War Cemetery in Bazenville, France.

The sacrifices that many Toronto Police members made during the Normandy Campaign should never slip from our memory. On this 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, let us pause to remember those who came before us and risked it all so that we could be free.

Sources and further reading:

(1) D. Draper. Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the Year 1939, Toronto: The Carswell Co Ltd City Printers, 1940.

(2) Toronto Daily Star 1940-09-14, p.15 “Policemen Join Up and Stick to Blue”

(3) R.H. Gimblett. The Naval Service of Canada p.90-91; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-10, p.9 “Many Toronto Men Helped Skeena Beat Off Wolk Pack”; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-03, p.7 “PC Fred Davies, et al”; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-03, p.3 “Says 20 U-Boats in Pack of Which Skeena Sinks 3”

(4) Cobourghistory.ca/stories/hmcs-skeena; The Naval Service of Canada p.71-72

(5) Library and Archives Canada. Personnel File of B80413 Clarence Verdun Courtney.

(6) T. McCarthy. True Loyals – A history of 7th Battalion, The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) / 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery 1940-1946. Regimental History, Chapter 8: Disaster on the Sambut (Trueloyals.com/new-page-18)

(7) Library and Archives Canada. Personnel File of B80413 Clarence Verdun Courtney; Statement of Pte. J.S. Poulton, No 84 Coy, RCASC

(8) City of Toronto Archives. 1926 Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Department.

(9) J. Marteinson & M.R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps – An Illustrated History. D-Day: The 1st Hussars and 7 Infantry Brigade. p.232-236.

(10) T. Copp. A Well Entrenched Enemy: Army Part 92 (Legion Magazine). Kanata: Canvet Publications Ltd, 2011.

(11) Library and Archives Canada. War Diary of the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment(1H), June 1944.

(12) J. Marteinson & M.R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps – An Illustrated History. The Hussars at Le Mesnil-Patry. p.245-248.

(13) Veterans Affairs Canada – Normandy 1944 (veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/normandy-1944)

(14) Toronto Daily Star 1944-11-28, p.13 “4 for a Fight, 3 for a Trip, Need 120 Points for Leave”

(15) Toronto Daily Star 1944-11-28, p.13 “4 for a Fight, 3 for a Trip, Need 120 Points for Leave”

(16) Collections Canada. Operations Record Book of No 433 Squadron RCAF – June 1944 Summary of Events, p.6

(17) H. Margolian. Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. Pages 111-115, 235-237. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

Service and Sacrifice: The Toronto Police Service and the First World War

Researched and Written by Matthew Scarlino.

This article was originally written in November 2018, with a version featured on TPS News.

One hundred years ago, the people of Toronto and its police service would experience the crucible that was the First World War. It was perhaps the most trying time the Toronto Police Service has experienced in its history. Canadians far and wide are reflecting on the experience of that war, the human cost of the victory, and what it meant for Canada going forward. In anticipation of Remembrance Day 2018, the centennial of the victory of that war, we would like to honour the memory of the men and women of the Toronto Police, and the part they played serving the residents of Toronto at home, and serving Canada abroad.

Part 1: The Home Front – A City at War, a Force under Strain

A lone constable directs traffic around a busy recruiting centre.
(City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1244, Item 734)

When the biggest war the world had yet seen broke out in August 1914, the Toronto Police Force, as it was then called, was policing Canada’s second-largest city with 626 sworn officers of all ranks, two pioneering “police women” (Mary Minty and Maria Levitt), 3 surgeons, 3 stenographers, two matrons and a censor. When Canada declared war on the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary after Belgium and France were invaded, dozens of officers went on leaves of absence to enlist. Staff shortages forced a further slew of volunteers to resign completely from the department in order to join the colours (graciously, the Police Commission would re-hire them after the war, including many wounded men). By war’s end 155 members had enlisted. This constitutes close to 25% of the pre-war strength of the department. And with the average age of a 1st Class Constable in Toronto being 42.9 years old in 1910, it is clear that a huge proportion of the force’s young, fighting-aged males were away.

Fortunately, while short-staffed, crime in the city went down in the months after war was declared in an apparent sign of civic unity. Concerned about the “home front”, the force immediately trained its officers in the use of military rifles, hired new special constables to help protect critical infrastructure, and stepped up patrols standing on guard against enemy spies and agents believed to be operating in the city. In 1915, when armouries in Windsor and railroads in New Brunswick were bombed by German spies, patrols, and anti-German and Austro-Hungarian sentiment and suspicion only intensified. There were 3 cases of high treason in the city, and in December 1915, Mayor “Tommy” Church announced German spies had been discovered applying to the Toronto Police Force. No attacks would materialize in Toronto.

Toronto Police Recruits in the winter of 1914-1915, training with military-grade Ross Rifles.
(Author’s Collection)

Canada’s national policy at the time, under the War Measures Act, was to unjustly intern thousands of recent immigrants and labourers from enemy countries on arbitrary grounds due to these suspicions. In Toronto the internees were housed at Stanley Barracks and guarded by the military. Though most would be “paroled” by 1916 in order to work, they were still required to report to local police.  Therefore, the Toronto Police Force participated in the registration and monitoring of the so-called “enemy aliens” by Detective staff, and the arrests of those who contravened the Act. The Force also seconded some officers to the Enemy Alien Office. The perhaps less-than-impartial P.C. Angus Ferguson, back from the war after having been gassed, imprisoned and having his leg forcibly amputated by his German captors after the fighting at St Julien, was accommodated with such a desk job.

Liberty Street, looking east from Dufferin Street. Artillery shells produced in Liberty Village’s factories line the streets where the Toronto Police Service’s Central Garage and Traffic Services units stand today.
(City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 848)

As the years went on, the officers who remained on the home front found themselves policing an increasingly rough and crowded city, now swelling with soldiers, nurses, newsboys, war industry workers and others. “The presence of a large number of soldiers in training” – Chief Henry J Grassett reported – “is taken advantage of by street walkers for solicitation”. Around the city, military camps and hospitals as well as munitions plants, shipyards and airplane factories sprang up. Roads were clogged with everything from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles, streetcars and military trucks.  In January 1916, the Chief would be knighted by King George V, for his efficiency in policing the city in this challenging environment.

Keeping the peace between over-worked labourers, elites, soldiers (both raw recruits and battle-hardened veterans), malingerers and criminals was no easy task for the constables on the beat. Officers would be injured patrolling these chaotic roads – such as Constable Percy Fleming, severely injured in August 1916 when launched from his motorcycle so hard in a head-on collision that the soles of his boots were ripped off. Other officers would be wounded in assaults, civil unrest, and even shootings – officers such as Mounted Constable George Tuft, dragged from his horse and beaten during a March 1916 riot between soldiers and prohibitionists, or Constable John May, shot through the forearm in May 1918 while confronting car thieves in Sunnyside. There was also no shortage of courage at home, like Constable William Garrett who, in January 1915, arrested Private Douglas McAndrews, a local soldier on a shooting rampage around Yonge Street; or P.C. Medhurst promoted for bravery in June 1915 for daring attempts to rescue victims of a fiery industrial explosion in West Toronto.

A constable and a Tank at a Victory Bond rally at Old City Hall. Toronto Police officers donated a minimum of one-day’s pay per month to the Patriotic Fund, raising tens of thousands of dollars.
(City of Toronto Archives. Fonds 1244, Item 969A)

By 1917, losses from the Somme offensive the previous year had created a significant manpower shortage among the Canadian Expeditionary Force, only to be worsened after costly victories at Vimy Ridge and beyond. The Chief reported that the strength of the force had decreased by 24 compared to the previous year (with most of the men joining the military for overseas service), and that the vacancies would not be filled. The Toronto Police Commissioners gave the officers a temporary raise – but then cancelled their weekly day off. To make matters worse, after reducing their shifts to 8 hours, their work days were again increased to 12 hours. Also, in order to support their colleagues fighting in the trenches, all officers voluntarily donated one days’ pay a month to the Patriotic Fund – which in one ten-month period had raised $20,000. The officers even found time around their long shifts to plant Victory Gardens around their police stations. In 1917 alone they cultivated 22 acres of land, and by war’s end they had donated 1,820 bags of potatoes to military hospitals in the city, as well as other hospitals and charities.

A public scandal about hidden issues on the Force hit the pages of the Toronto Globe.
(Toronto Public Library, Historical Newspapers Collection).

Due to the mounting losses overseas, the Canadian government enacted the Military Service Act towards the end of 1917, allowing for conscription of military-aged men. While at first it seemed the police force was an essential occupation, it too would have to provide a list of names of eligible men “most easily spared”, from which twenty would be drafted. When screening out officers who were sole providers for their families, had medical conditions or were over-age, had siblings killed or wounded overseas, or other considerations, this left about 40 officers to choose from. A scandal soon erupted in the religiously divided city of the time. Constables of Irish Catholic backgrounds alleged in the newspapers that the list of names forwarded was overwhelmingly Catholic, though they only made up a small percentage of the largely Protestant police force. Constable James Lee, who had already been granted an exemption by the military tribunal, even had his exemption papers seized by a Deputy Chief in order to be named to the list of available men. Tempers flared over the sectarian problems in the department. A Board of Inquiry was to be established, but cooler heads prevailed, and only 5 of the 18 men on the force’s final list who would eventually called to serve were of the Catholic denomination.

Returned soldiers near one of Toronto’s many military hospitals pose in front of graffiti, 1917. Tension between soldiers and “slackers” would soon erupt into violence.
(City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 726.)

Later, in early August 1918, what would be dubbed the Toronto Anti-Greek Riots broke out. It raged for three days and to this day is the largest riot in the city’s history. It began on a hot summer weekend when many veterans descended on the city for the first-ever national congress of the Great War Veterans Association, with grievances of returned soldiers a main topic of discussion. When a disabled soldier was denied service at the Greek-owned White Star Café on Yonge Street for being drunk and abusive to staff, he was removed and police were called. This area was home to a veteran’s hospital and many boarding houses in which returned soldiers lived. Tensions had already existed there, as a number of Toronto’s Greek immigrant population refused to join the Canadian forces due to their home country being officially neutral, fearing a scenario where they would be interned or have to fight their own countrymen if Greece joined the Central Powers. However many Toronto Greeks did serve, and Greece did join the Allies after all in mid-1917. Many of the local Greek business owners contributed regularly to the Patriotic Fund.

None of this mattered to the angry mob of soldiers who gathered and destroyed the business after hearing about the incident. The group of soldiers and sympathetic civilians continued to grow into hundreds, and later thousands, and went on to attack the many other Greek-owned restaurants downtown. The police attempted to disperse the crowds but believed the military police had jurisdiction over their soldiers and asked for help which never came. Many businesses were destroyed and the police were under scrutiny in the press for their ineffective response.

Damage from the 1918 Toronto Anti-Greek Riot as reported by the Toronto Daily Star on August 4th 1918. (Toronto Public Library, Historical Newspapers Collection.)

The following evening, soldiers with bugles played the “Call to Arms” and crowds gathered for another night of Anti-Greek destruction. After ringleaders of the mob were arrested, a crowd formed around No. 1 Police Station near King and Church Streets where they were held. The crowd tried to storm the police station and free the men. Constables ran out of the station and led a baton charge to disperse the crowd, while mounted officers staged nearby did the same, trapping the rioters and any onlookers that had gathered. While the Toronto Daily Star reported that the “officers used their batons mercilessly on everybody within reach,” the soldiers fought back, arming themselves with bricks and other missiles. The soldiers-turned-rioters regrouped at “Shrapnel Corner,” Yonge and College Streets, but were again charged by the Mounted Squad. More crowds would attack the No. 2 Police Station at Bay and Dundas Streets, where officers repulsed three separate attempts to storm the station. Everywhere the soldiers re-formed they were met by baton-wielding police. Pitched battles were fought into the night, the largest of which was a decisive engagement at Yonge and Queen Streets. A little after 2 a.m., all was finally clear. The police had suppressed the riot in which thousands had taken part. Twenty businesses were destroyed, 500 people were injured, and at least ten were arrested. The damage was so extensive that the area was mostly abandoned by the Greek people who then re-settled along Danforth Avenue. 

As 35 people had been seriously injured during the police response, an inquiry was held. Many policemen were injured too, such as Patrol Sergeant Hobson who received a brick to the head while on his horse. Many complaints of excessive baton use were heard and two inspectors, a patrol sergeant and a constable were dismissed from the force. However, five officers were promoted and seven received Merit Marks for their exemplary performance in the chaos. Daily headlines would keep this incident in the minds of Torontonians for months to come. News of mounting victories overseas known as “Canada’s Hundred Days” offensive, however, would bring welcome relief.

Jubilant crowds celebrate Armistice, November 11th 1918, at Queen Street West and James Street.
(City of Toronto Archives, Series 372, Item 0540)

At 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month – November 11th, 1918, church bells rang out and newsboys sang headlines of an Armistice. The guns in Europe fell silent and the war was over. Canada and her Allies were victorious. Crowds packed the streets shoulder-to-shoulder, and Chief Grasett observed: “The armistice was celebrated with great rejoicing by the entire population, whose behavior in the streets was admirable, giving the police little trouble with the good natured crowds who did not go home till well on through the night.” Police and citizens celebrated openly in the streets and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

            All was not yet well however. Merely a week later, on the night of November 18th, 1918, Acting Detective Frank Albert Williams was shot through the heart while investigating a suspicious person in a stable near King and Bathurst Streets. The killer gunman, Frank McCullough, argued at his trial that he shot Williams out of self-defence because the officer was armed with his baton, referencing the rhetoric that had been playing out in the media. It didnt work, and he was sentenced to hang eight months later – where yet another riot broke out, by a large group of supporters of McCullough who agreed the man was justified. It can therefore be said that the Toronto Police Force’s first line of duty death also had its roots in the war.

In December 1918, with the war in the rear-view mirror, the membership of the Toronto Police Force – scrutinized in the press; overworked, understaffed and underpaid due to the war shortages; and having felt the sting of its first line of duty death – wanted to unionize. This was denied, and a sizeable contingent of the department went on an unheard-of strike. The strike lasted for four days. Though a failure in the short term, negotiations in the following year would see the Toronto Police Association born, in 1919. Together with the reforms to the Toronto Police Commission (the precursor to today’s Police Services Board), made after the previous year’s riot inquiry, permanent changes were made that would secure a better future for the working conditions of the constables on the beat. With many experienced Toronto Police officers returning from the front and rejoining the ranks of the department, together with the injection of many new recruits, the last strenuous chapter of the war on the home front was over. Membership in the Toronto Police Association, the Amateur Athletic Association, and War Veterans Association were growing. Morale was restored. Swagger returned to the step of the constables on the beat just in time to face the Roaring 20s and new challenges ahead.

Patrol Sergeant Robert Alexander D.C.M (centre), hero of the attack on the Drocourt-Queant Line, trains the next generation of Toronto Police recruits, 1920’s. (Author’s Collection)

PART 2: From blue to khaki: remembering the sacrifice overseas

Apart from the important work the force did on the home front, the 155-member strong Toronto Police contingent that enlisted in the military for active service overseas punched well above its weight. They were spread throughout many different units in the Canadian and British forces – mostly in the infantry and artillery, but also the cavalry, the military police, and logistical and medical units.

Soldiers undergo bayonet drill at Exhibition Camp on the CNE grounds.
(City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 759.)

The police officers made natural leaders, and many held important leadership positions. Seventeen would end the war as Sergeant-Majors, the highest position for an enlisted soldier. Fifteen others would have the honour of being commissioned as officers from the ranks, many for bravery. For their valour, Toronto Police constables were awarded three Distinguished Conduct Medals (DCM), a rare warrant officer’s Military Cross, seven Military Medals, a Meritorious Service Medal, two Mentions-in-Despatches, and a Serbian Silver Medal for Bravery. The citation for Mounted Squad officer Thomas Crosbie’s D.C.M., received for actions during the Second Battle of Arras while serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery, is representative of the courage of the police contingent:

“For gallantry and devotion to duty. About 9am on 28th August 1918, a large enemy shell landed in [an ammunition] dump located at the Arras-Cambrai Road between Arras and Faub St. Sauveur killing seven men and wounding five of the dump personnel. He was blown twenty to thirty feet by the explosion and wounded slightly, but with great gallantry and utter disregard for personal safety he immediately got water and put out the burning ammunition and prevented more casualties. Notwithstanding his wounds and the severe shock he had received he continued to issue ammunition until relieved. His example throughout was most inspiring to the men.”

Thomas Douglas Crosbie D.C.M., seated, pictured in the Toronto World Newspaper in 1917. 
One of three Toronto constables to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria Cross. Crosbie would rise to become the Inspector of the Mounted Squad after the war.
(Toronto Public Library, Historical Newspapers Collection)

Twenty-seven members of the Force would be killed overseas. All but one of the nineteen police horses donated for service with the Canadian Artillery, such as Canada and Crusader, St. Patrick and Vanguard, would die too. Fifty-seven Toronto policemen were wounded in battle, some twice or even three times – Constable “Len” Bentley, was wounded two times in the chest and later shot through the nose. Seven men would be diagnosed with Shell Shock (an ancestor of today’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), like Constable James Farlow, whose doctor noted he was “broken by dreams of France” after he was buried alive by a shell on the Somme and later gassed at Vimy Ridge. Two others would be captured and sent to Prisoner of War camps after falling wounded at the Second Battle of Ypres, like Old No. 4 Station’s Harry Rainbow who languished behind barbed wire for years.

Constable Russell Stanley Dodds after trading in his police blue for army khaki. The future detective would be wounded twice while serving with the 58th Battalion of Canadian Infantry.
(City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 21057.)

The surviving men that returned to the Toronto Police Force, as well as new veterans hired after the war, formed the Toronto Police War Veteran’s Association to support each other and honour the fallen. The memorial plaque in the lobby of Toronto Police Service Headquarters was erected so the names of the fallen would never be forgotten. Over time however, details were lost and the life stories of the Toronto Police war dead have mostly slipped away from our collective consciousness. Thanks to the veterans’ foresight in erecting the plaque, and recently digitized military personnel service files at Library and Archives Canada, their stories can finally be told. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of victory in the First World War, we re-commit to remembering their lives and honouring their sacrifice.

Read more about the Toronto Police First World War fallen:

Honour Roll of the Toronto Police Service in the First World War 1914-1918Download

Sources and further reading:

  • H. Grasett – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto, Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Force. (1914, 1915, 1916, 1917,1918 and 1919 editions).
  • Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War; Circumstances of Death Registers; Honours and Awards Citation Cards 1900-1969
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Casualty Details.
  • Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Collection: 19140803 The Globe – Toronto Policemen May Go To Front; 19140923 The Globe – Drill and Shooting for City Officers; 19150123 Toronto Daily Star – Soldier Ran Amuck, Wounded Small Boy; 19150514 Toronto Daily Star – Toronto Policeman Missing; 19150621 Toronto Daily Star – Windsor Armouries and Walkerville Plant Attacked; 19151101 The Globe – Have Leg Amputated, or Be Shot; 19151115 The Globe –  Foe Deny Atrocity; 19151201 Toronto Daily Star – Mayor Says German Spies Try to Get on Police Force; 19160101 The Globe – Many Canadians are Included in the King’s New Years Honor; 19160126 Toronto Daily Star – $20,000 from the Police; 19160314 The Globe – Soldiers as Police for Men in Khaki; 19160405 The Globe – Gave Way to Fear of  Being Killed by Mob; 19160808 The Globe – Policeman Hurt Badly When Auto Hits Cycles; 19170110 Toronto Daily Star – Toronto Soldiers Given Commissions; 19170207 Toronto Daily Star – Letters: Policemen’s Pay; 19171116 Toronto Daily Star – 14 City Policemen Ordered to Put on Khaki; 19171117 Toronto Daily Star – Of 57 Policemen Up on Friday, 36 Must Serve; 19180123 The Globe – Says Austrian Tried Bribery, Selects Police to Put on Khaki; 19180207 The Globe – Charge Plot on the Force: Irish Catholics say there was Discrimination in Selecting Police Draft; 19180501 Toronto Daily Star – Policemen Get in Spuds; 19180928 The Globe – Policemen Tell Their Story; 19181003 The Globe – From Inquiry to Inquiry Mounted Officer has to Explain to Chief as well as Police Board; 19181101 The Globe – Youth Fires At Constable; 19190301 Toronto Daily Star – Eight Hour Day for Policemen.
  • B. Wardle – The Mounted Squad : An Illustrated History of the Toronto Mounted Police 1886-2000.
  • J.M.S. Careless – Toronto to 1918: An Illustrated History.
  • J.L. Granatstein – Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War 1914-1918.
  • M. G. Marquis – Working Men in Uniform: The Early Twentieth-Century Toronto Police
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia [online] – Internment in Canada
  • J. Burry/A Burgeoning Communications Inc.  – Violent August: The 1918 Anti-Greek Riots in Toronto. [ Documentary Film]