Browse "Military"

Jens Eriksen Munk, navigator, explorer, naval officer (b at Barbo, Norway 3 June 1579; d at Copenhagen, Denmark 3 or 24 June 1628).

Joseph-François Hertel de La Fresnière, soldier (bap at Trois-Rivières, New France 3 July 1642; buried at Boucherville, New France 22 May 1722). As a youth, he was captured and adopted by the Iroquois (1661), escaped, and took part in retaliatory raids, accompanying FRONTENAC to Lake Ontario (1673).

Josué Dubois Berthelot de Beaucours, military officer, engineer, governor of Trois-Rivières and Montréal (b in France c 1662; d at Montréal 9 May 1750).

In 1792 he took charge at the Nootka post and negotiated with Captain George VANCOUVER over implementation of the 1790 Nootka Convention. Bodega y Quadra was polite but firm in defending Spanish sovereignty. He returned to Mexico in 1793, where he died suddenly.

Juan Josef Pérez Hernández, naval officer, explorer (b c 1725 at Majorca, Spain; d 2 Nov 1775 off California). Pérez served as a pilot and marine officer in Spain's Pacific trade between Mexico and the

Leif Newry Fitzroy Crozier, soldier, policeman (b at Newry, Ire 11 June 1846; d in Oklahoma, US 25 Feb 1901). He was appointed an inspector in the North-West Mounted Police in 1873.

In the final months of the Second World War, Canadian forces were given the important and deadly task of liberating the Netherlands from Nazi occupation. From September 1944 to April 1945, the First Canadian Army fought German forces on the Scheldt estuary — opening the port of Antwerp for Allied use — and then cleared northern and western Netherlands of Germans, allowing food and other relief to reach millions of desperate people. More than 7,600 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen died fighting in the Netherlands. Today, Canada is fondly remembered by the Dutch for ending their oppression under the Nazis.

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Comte de Bougainville, soldier, sailor (b at Paris, France 12 Nov 1729; d there 20 Aug 1811). After studying law and mathematics, he published a Traité de calcul intégral (1754-56) and was elected to the Royal Society (London).

Vain and contemptuous of colonial authorities and their preference for guerrilla tactics, he developed open hostility to Vaudreuil and labelled the whole administration corrupt.

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King guided the country through six painful years of conflict, oversaw a massive war effort and made surprisingly few errors in a period of tremendous turmoil, change and anguish.

Manuel Quimper, naval officer, explorer (fl 1790). At the outbreak of the Nootka Sound Controversy, Quimper and 6 other young naval lieutenants were transferred from Europe to bolster Spain's Pacific strength.

Masumi Mitsui, MM, farmer, soldier, Canadian Legion official (born 7 October 1887 in Tokyo, Japan; died 22 April 1987 in Hamilton, ON). Masumi Mitsui immigrated to Canada in 1908 and served with distinction in the First World War. In 1931, he and his comrades persuaded the BC government to grant Japanese Canadian veterans the right to vote, a breakthrough for Japanese and other disenfranchised Canadians. Nevertheless, Matsui and more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians were displaced, detained and dispossessed by the federal government during the Second World War (seeInternment of Japanese Canadians).

Montagu Wilmot, British army officer, governor of Nova Scotia (d at Halifax 23 May 1766). An officer from 1730, Wilmot served almost exclusively in Nova Scotia 1746-66 and was at the siege of LOUISBOURG in 1758 as a regimental commander.

Women have cared for wounded soldiers throughout Canada's wartime history. "Nursing sisters" carried out official duties with the military during the North West Rebellion, the South African War, the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War.

We celebrate the heroism and mourn the sacrifices of our military through two world wars, and assorted other foreign conflicts and peacekeeping missions. Yet less attention has been paid to the related efforts of women — in particular, the nurses who have built their own proud tradition of service and sacrifice.

Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer, known as the hero of Lake Erie (b at South Kingston, Rhode Island, 23 Aug 1785; d at sea near Trinidad and Tabago, 23 Aug 1819).

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, officer, founder of Montréal (bap at Neuville-sur-Vanne, France 15 Feb 1612; d at Paris, France 1676).

Paul Mascarene, born Jean-Paul, military officer, colonial administrator (b in Languedoc, France 1684/85; d at Boston, Mass 22 Jan 1760). A Huguenot émigré, Mascarene served throughout New England and Atlantic Canada 1710-40 as a military engineer and fluent negotiator with the Acadians and Indians.

In the early 20th Century, most North End residents of Halifax perceived themselves as being collectively disadvantaged, compared to wealthier South End residents. However, within the North End certain groups — notably racial minorities, the elderly, non-British immigrants, members of the military, and unmarried women with children — stood out as being particularly vulnerable. They were among the hardest-hit in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion of 1917.

Riall arrived in UPPER CANADA in August 1813 and was placed in command of the Right Division, a geographic entity in the NIAGARA PENINSULA.