Our Written History.

  • The Cowboy Cavalry: The Story of the Rocky Mountain Ranger

    When Native and Métis unrest escalated into the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, white settlers in southern Alberta`s cattle country were terrified. Three major First Nations bordered their range, and war seemed certain. In anticipation, 114 men mustered to form the Rocky Mountain Rangers, a volunteer militia charged with ensuring the safety of the open range between the Rocky Mountains and the Cypress Hills. The Rangers were a motley crew, from ex-Mounties and ex-cons to retired, high-ranking military officials and working ranch hands. Membership qualifications were scant: ability to ride a horse, knowledge of the prairies, and preparedness to die. The Rangers were resolutely prepared to fight, as mounted cavalry, should the rebellion spread.

    This is their story, inextricably linked to the dissensions of the day, rife with skirmishes, corruption, jealousies, rumour, innuendo and gross media sensationalizing . . . all bound together with what author Gordon Tolton terms "a generous helping of gunpowder."

    https://www.amazon.ca/Cowboy-Cavalry-Story-Mountain-Rangers/dp/1926936027

  • History of Thirty-First Battalion C.E.F. From Its Organization November, 1914 to Its Demobilization June, 1919.

    For more than six long years, from late 1931 to 1938, Major Horace Cecil Singer, late of the Royal Canadian Artillery, patiently labored to write this outstanding account of the 31st Battalion’s fighting record in World War One. Armed with little more than pencil and pad of paper, and assisted intermittently by two stenographers operating a manually-operated Number 5 Underwood typewriter, Major Singer travelled extensively at his own cost to flesh out the records, and to secure the information he required for the text from numerous sources in western Canada, from the Department of National Defence in Ottawa, and from other sources in London, England. Year by year, the text was slowly compiled, edited, typed—and then read and reviewed for final edit again by A.A. Peebles, of Lethbridge, Alberta—before being collated and re-typed as a final manuscript.

    The original book is reproduced in its entirety, with additions of comment, pictures, and minor alternations.


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  • Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. McGill attempted to have his memoir published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, but, unfortunately, due to fi

    Medicine and Duty: The World War I Memoir of Captain Harold W. McGill, Medical Officer, 31st Battalion, CEF

    Medicine and Duty is the World War I memoir of Harold McGill, a medical officer in the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. McGill attempted to have his memoir published by Macmillan of Canada in 1935, but, unfortunately, due to financial constraints, the company was not able to complete the publication. Decades later, editor Marjorie Norris came upon a draft of the manuscript in the Glenbow Archives and took it upon herself to resurrect McGill's story.

    Norris's painstaking archival research and careful editing skills have brought back to light a gripping first-hand account of the 31st Battalion and, on a larger scale, of Canada's participation in World War I. A wealth of additional information, including extensive notes and excerpts from letters written "from the trenches," lends a new sense of immediacy and realism to the original memoir and provides a fascinating, harrowing glimpse into the day-to-day life of Canadian soldiers during the Great War.

    https://www.amazon.ca/Medicine-Duty-Battalion-C-F/dp/1552381935

  • The 31st Battalion Association Directory 1933

    The 31st Battalion Association Directory 1933

    Directory of members of a Calgary-based veterans’ association. Description based on the issue for 1933. This edition - which indicates that it is the Association’s fourth official publication - contains both a listing of members and a report of the organization’s activities.

    http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/10250.html

  • The Journal of Private Fraser: 1914 - 1918

    A detailed journal of the actions of the Canadian expeditionary force as seen through the eyes of Private Frasier. 1914-1918.

    https://www.amazon.ca/journal-Private-1914-1918-Canadian-Expeditionary/dp/0919203620

  • South Albertas - A Canadian Regiment at War by Donald E Graves

    This revised edition of the history of the famous South Alberta Regiment includes some minor corrections. The book tells the story of the celebrated regiment that played a key role in the Battle of the Falaise Gap and was in the forefront of the sweep across northern Europe that culminated in the liberation of the Netherlands.

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  • Peewees on Parade: Wartime Memories of a Young (and Small) Soldier by John A. Gallipeau

    Through an organizational quirk, 12 Platoon of the South Alberta Regiment received the shortest men and was promptly dubbed the "Peewee Platoon." John Galipeau was an inexperienced lad from northern Alberta whose family had suffered in the Depression, and initially was turned down as too short. Eventually he was accepted into the famed "South Albertas." Galipeau recounts his wartime experiences, training in Western Canada and England, and in action. The regiment was in hard-fought action in Normandy, including the Battle of the Falaise Gap, and the rapid sweep across northwest Europe that culminated in the liberation of the Netherlands

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8092172-peewees-on-parade

  • Me and George by David G Marshall

    A historical account of the South Alberta Regiment, and their heroic actions during the European theater of operations in World War 2

    https://www.biblio.com/book/me-george-marshall-david-g/d/769434276

  • Century of Service: The History of the South Alberta Light Horse by Donald E Graves

    This is the story of Alberta's senior militia regiment, which celebrates its centennial in 2005. Although it was authorized in 1905, the SALH traces its origins to the 1880s when cavalry units were raised to protect Alberta during the Northwest Rebellion.This fascinating study takes "Her Majesty's Cowboys" from the 1880s to the 21st century. It describes how the predecessor units of the modern Light Horse fought for their nation in wartime and struggled to stay alive in peacetime.The reader will accompany the Light Horse as they fight in the Rebellion of 1885, South Africa in 1899-1901, the Western Front in the First World War and Northwest Europe in the Second World War. More recently members of the regiment have helped to keep the peace in Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.The story of the SALH includes that of the World War II South Alberta Regiment, whose story was told in more detail in SOUTH ALBERTAS (by the same author), described by more than one reviewer as among the best regimental histories ever published.

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