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Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills
Page created 12 November 2001. Corrected and updated 08.06.2005
 
 

The Royal Rifles
of Canada
 
Québec, Canada  
  Titles & Lineage
  History & War Service
  Battle Honours
  Colours, Standards and Guidons
  Badges and Uniforms

  Colonel-in-Chief
  Honorary Colonels
 Traditions
 Alliances
 Bibliography

Note: This is a battalion history of the part-time Reserves, which are normally liable for full-time active service only in an emergency
How to find information about individuals who served in this corps
 
  Titles and Lineage
1862.02.28 8th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada
formed at Québec, PQ, by regimentation of independent companies:
 
  • No. 1 Company at Québec, raised 30 Aug. 1861 as 2nd Volunteer Militia Rifle Coy of Quebec
  • No. 2 Company at Québec, raised 10 Jan. 1862 as 4th Volunteer Militia Rifle Coy of Quebec
  • No. 3 Company at Québec, raised 10 Jan. 1862 as 5th Volunteer Militia Rifle Coy of Quebec; disbanded 28 Apr. 1864
  • No. 4 Company at Québec, raised 10 Jan. 1862 as 2nd Volunteer Militia Rifle Coy of Quebec
  • No. 5 Company at Québec, raised 10 Jan. 1862
  • No. 6 Company at Québec, raised 22 Jan. 1862; disbanded by 1865
1862.03.28 8th Battalion, or "Stadacona Volunteer Militia Rifles, Canada"
1864? 8th Battalion "Stadacona Rifles"
1867.02.08 companies reorganised:
   
  • No. 1 Company at Québec
  • No. 2 Company at Québec
  • No. 3 Company at Québec; redesignation of No. 4 Coy
  • No. 4 Company at Québec, redesignation of No. 5 Coy
  • No. 5 "Highland" Company at Québec, redesignation of No. 5 Coy, 9th Battalion
  • No. 6 Company at Québec, raised 17 Mar. 1865
  • No. 7 Company at Québec, redesignation of No. 6 Coy, 9th Battalion
18uu 8th Stadacona Rifles
1877.04.06 8th Battalion "Royal Rifles"
1878.03.15 new No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 Coys formed at Québec
1900.04.01 No. 7 Company and No. 8 Company formed at Québec
1900.05.08 8th Regiment "Royal Rifles"
1914 8th Regiment (Royal Rifles)
1916.01.15 reorganised in four-company establishment
1920.04.01 The Royal Rifles of Canada
1920.12.01 reorganised to perpetuate CEF:
 
  • 1st Battalion, perpetuating 12th Battalion CEF
  • 2nd (Reserve) Battalion, perpetuating 171st Battalion CEF
1940.07.08 moblised 1st Battalion, including 400 men from 7th/XI Hussars
1965.02.22 disbanded (placed on Supplemental Order of Battle)
  History (Links) & War Service Introduction to Regiments
History:
pip Royal Rifles of Canada in WW2, by Ron Parker.
Deployment and Service:
 
Colour Key: War service Overseas service Home service
1940.07.08 mobilised from Royal Rifles of Canada and 7/XI Hussars
1940.09 New Brunswick  
1940 Newfoundland  
  1941.08 New Brunswick: St. John  
  1941.10.23 entrained at St. John, NB  
  1941.10.27 at sea (embarked at Vancouver) ship: Awatea
  1941.11.16 Hong Kong Hong Kong Bde
  1941.12.08 Hong Kong Hong Kong Bde
  1941.12.25 captured by Japanese  
       
Biography and Gallantry Awards:
Major Maurice A. Parker, by Ron Parker.
Alfred Babin's Story, [WW2] as told to Ron Parker.
Dark Side of the Sun: George Palmer's Journey From P.E.I. to Hong Kong & Japan in WWII, by Michael Palmer.
Royal Rifles of Canada in Defence of Hong Kong Dec. 1941, by Tony Banham.
 
Associations, Forums and Re-Enactors:
swords [no external sites have been found]
Museums, Monuments, Memorials and Chapels:
monument [no external sites have been found]
  Battle Honours Index of Battle Honours
Index of Wars

South Africa 1899-1900

The Great War: construction sign

The Second World War: Hong Kong, South East Asia 1941
  Colours, Standards and Guidons Introduction to Colours
flag construction sign
Record of Colours:
construction sign
  Uniforms and Badges
   
Badges: Armorial Description: An eight-pointed star surmounted by the Crown; superimposed upon the star the garter with the motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE flanked by sprays of maple leaves; below the garter a scroll inscribed READY AYE READY; above the garter a scroll inscribed NEC ASPERA TERRANT; within the garter, the badge of the Heir Apparent (three feathers enfiled by a coronet with a scroll inscribed ICH DIEN. The whole resting upon a scroll bearing the designation THE ROYAL REGIMENT OF CANADA.
Uniform: rifle green; facings: scarlet
   
   
     
   
  Colonel-in-Chief Index of Royal Colonels
[none]
  Honorary Colonels
construction sign
     
  Traditions
 
Motto: Volens et valens
Nicknames: construction sign
Anniversaries: construction sign
Freedoms: construction sign
Marches: quick: I'm Ninety-Five
  slow: Money Musk
Musicians: construction sign
Mascot: Newfoundland dog "Gander" (posthumously awarded Dickin medal in 2000 for saving lives during defence of Hong Kong in 1941)
Miscellaneous Tradition Links:
  Alliances Introduction to Alliances
UK flag The King's Royal Rifle Corps
-1965
UK flag

The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own)

1953?-1965
 
  Bibliography How To Find Books
Regimental Journal:
book  
Full Histories:
book The Royal Rifles of Canada, allied with The King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1862-1937. Quebec : T.J. Moore & Co., 1937.
Short Histories:
book Penny, Arthur Guy. Royal Rifles of Canada, 'able and willing', since 1862 : a short history. [Quebec : Royal Rifles of Canada], 1962.
book Würtele, Frederick C. Record of the Eichth [sic] Royal Rifles. [S.l. : s.n.], 1886. "Reprinted from the Canadian militia gazette of the 3rd and 10th March, '86."
 
First World War:
book [see perpetuated CEF battalions]
 
Second World War:
book Garneau, Grant S. (Grant Smyth). The Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong, 1941-1945. Sherbrooke, Quebec : Progressive Publications,1970.
book Garneau, Grant S. (Grant Smyth). The Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong, 1941-1945. [Sawyerville, Quebec] : Hong Kong Veterans' Association of Canada, Quebec-Maritimes Branch, 1980. [Pt. 1 reproduced from a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of Bishop's University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts.]
book Garneau, Grant S. (Grant Smyth). The Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong, 1941-1945. Carp, Ont. : Baird O'Keefe Pub. on behalf of the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association, 2001. ISBN: 1894439058