On
6 October 1914
, three days
after the First Canadian Contingent had set sail, the Governor
General telegraphed the Secretary of State for the Colonies an
offer by the Dominion Government "to place and maintain in
the field a second oversea contingent of twenty thousand
men". He explained that since
Canada
had already
parted with nearly all her 18-pounder guns, she could not
supply a complete division, but that besides infantry she was
prepared to "furnish mounted rifles and units fighting or
administrative required for special purposes". Correctly
anticipating a favourable reply, Ottawa immediately ordered
the mobilization of a second contingent. Fifteen new
infantry battalions were to be raised, and to ensure a steady
stream of reinforcements it was decided to keep thirty
thousand men continuously under arms in
Canada
in addition to
forces required for home defence.°1 In November the
Government authorized a number of divisional, line of
communication and unallotted units and increased the training
quota in
Canada
to 50,000.
At
the end of October 1914 the
United Kingdom
confirmed its
acceptance of a second Canadian contingent, which would form
with the balance of the Canadian troops then in
England
a full division
complete with L. of C. units. The War Office warned, however,
that if it had to provide guns for the division, these could
not be available "for at least 9 months or possibly more.
Recruiting had begun in mid-October. Volunteering was brisk,
particularly in the west, where quotas were filled as soon as
clothing and equipment became available.8’ The new units
remained in their respective Military Districts until just
prior to embarkation in the spring of 1915. The Minister of
Militia had come to prefer local preliminary training under
District arrangements to the "call to arms" method employed
in the case of the First Contingent; moreover, the lack of
adequate winter quarters and training facilities prevented the
concentration in
Canada
of even a
brigade. Because of a shortage of accommodation in the
United Kingdom
, and the demands
on shipping space for the movement of reinforcements for the
1st Division, the War Office preferred that the new force
should not cross the
Atlantic
until the 1st
Division had gone to
France
.
We
have noted that it was first intended that the existing units
of the 4th Infantry Brigade (which had accompanied the First
Contingent to
England
) should form
part of the 2nd Division, so that only eight of the new
battalions would be required to fill the other two brigades.
The remainder would be used as reinforcements. But, as we have
previously seen (above, p. 39), the 1st Division was to need
all the 4th Brigade’s personnel; furthermore three of the
battalions newly formed in
Canada
(the 23rd, 30th
and 32nd) sailed in February as additional reinforcements for
that division. The other twelve were brigaded as far as
possible territorially. The new 4th Brigade had the 18th,
19th, 20th and 21st Battalions, all mobilized in Ontario; the
5th Brigade, from Quebec and the Maritimes, comprised the 22nd
(French Canadian), 24th, 25th and 26th Battalions; the 6th
Brigade was made up of the 27th, 28th, 29th and 31st
Battalions, all from the west. After December 1914 all
battalions, like those of the 1st Division, were organized on
a four-company basis. Until the new brigades could be
concentrated in the
United Kingdom
, only temporary
commanders, drawn from officers serving in
Canada
, were appointed.
Troops
of other arms and services were drawn from Military Districts
across
Canada
. The 2nd
Divisional Cavalry Squadron was formed at the end of March
1915 by detaching "A" Squadron from the 7th Canadian
Mounted Rifles—one of thirteen such regiments raised in
Canada
during November
and December. On 26 November the War Office had accepted the
Militia Department’s offer of the first four C.M.R.
battalions, announcing its intention to "use them for
service in Egypt", and inquiring how many more such
regiments could be mobilized. But neither these four nor any
of the other nine regiments ever saw the
Middle East
. They reached
England
between June
1915 and July 1916.66 There the 7th to 13th C.M.R. battalions
were broken up as reinforcements. The first six regiments
crossed to
France
in September and
October 1915 and were subsequently converted to infantry
(below, p. 134).
As
had been foreseen, lack of guns delayed completion of the
Divisional Artillery. Batteries of the 4th, 5th and 6th
Brigades C.F.A. trained in
Canada
on obsolete
12-pounders. A 7th Brigade was authorized in February when the
6th was sent to
England
to furnish
artillery reinforcements for the 1st Division. Only the 4th
Field Brigade, which crossed the
Atlantic
with the
infantry brigades, accompanied the 2nd Division to
France
; headquarters
and the 5th and 7th Brigades, held in the
United Kingdom
to complete
equipment, and the 6th Howitzer Brigade (formed from
reserves in September 1915) followed in January 1916. The
Divisional Artillery’s first commander was Brig.-Gen. H. C.
Thacker; but at the end of September he became C.R.A. of the
1st Division and was succeeded by Brig.-Gen. E. W. B.
Morrison. Until all its artillery joined it the 2nd Division
was supported first by borrowed British units and subsequently
(from 4 October) by the 55th (
West Lancashire
) Divisional Artillery.
The
Divisional Engineers (the 4th, 5th and 6th Field Companies)
were quickly mobilized from Militia field companies. The major
medical units, Nos. 4~ 5 and 6 Field Ambulances, were formed
respectively in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal.°’ Following
the authorization of the Canadian Army Dental Corps or 17 May
1915, dental surgeons were attached to field ambulances,
hospitals and combatant formations.°° The line of
communication units formed surplus to the divisional
establishment consisted of eleven Army Service Corps units of
various types, four medical units (including No. 3 General
Hospital and No. 3 Stationary Hospital), a mobile veterinary
section and an infantry base depot.
