The Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

was raised in 1840 for service in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Its members were veterans of service in other regiments of the British Army.

Formation

The concern which led to the creation of the regiment was the continuing problem of desertion. Soldiers of the British Army in garrison in Canada were often tempted to flee to the United States from which they would not be deported. At garrisons located close the international border such as

Fort Mississauga Fort Mississauga National Historic Site is a fort on the shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. The fort today consists of a box–shaped brick tower and historic star–shaped ear ...

in Niagara, Fort Malden in

Amherstburg Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is ...

and

Fort Wellington Fort Wellington National Historic Site is a historic Fortification, military fortification located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, St. Lawrence River at Prescott, Ontario. The military fortification was used by the British Army, a ...

in Prescott, the problem of desertion was epidemic during and after the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. In order to combat this problem, the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment only recruited veterans of at least 15 years' service in the British Army. These men were thought to be more reliable than their younger counterparts. In addition, the pay of private soldiers in the regiment was doubled to two shillings per day instead of the normal one shilling per day. They were also offered the prospect of a pension upon completion of 21 years of military service and free grants of land. Starting in 1840, the regiment was spread out in detachments from St. John's in Newfoundland to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

in Manitoba. Another unusual feature of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment was its uniform and tactical employment. While most infantry in the British Army wore redcoats into the 1880s and 1890s and fought with smoothbore muskets into the 1850s, during the Napoleonic Wars the Army had experimented with regiments of rifle-armed infantry who wore green uniforms in an early attempt at camouflage. Deployed as skirmishers, these men of the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

, the 60th Regiment, and the 95th Regiment, performed sterling service throughout the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and the Waterloo Campaign in 1815. After the War of 1812, the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

opined that

light infantry Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought ...

and rifle-armed skirmishers would prove of great value in any future campaigns in North America. Taking this advice, the British Army elected to embody the new, veterans' regiment as a

rifle regiment A rifle regiment is a military unit consisting of a regiment of infantry troops armed with rifles and known as riflemen. While all infantry units in modern armies are typically armed with rifled weapons the term is still used to denote regiments t ...

rather than a more traditional infantry regiment. The initial weapon of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment was the

Baker rifle The Baker rifle (officially known as the Pattern 1800 Infantry Rifle) was a flintlock rifle used by the rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British ...

. In 1841, the Army adopted a percussion lock rifle called the

Brunswick rifle The Brunswick rifle was a large calibre () muzzle-loading percussion rifle manufactured for the British Army at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield in the early 19th century. Its name is derived from the historical German state of Brunswic ...

. In 1862 it absorbed the Royal Newfoundland Companies, formed in 1824 as Royal Veteran Companies and renamed in 1842.

Disbandment

The Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment was disbanded on 30 September 1870 at Kingston.

is a national historic site operated by Parks Canada and depicts the period 1846. At this time, a company of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment was in garrison at the Fort and visitors can see guides in the uniform of this regiment as well as a restored barracks.

Ice hockey within the regiment

In 1941, the

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; french: Association canadienne de hockey amateur) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction include ...

(CAHA) appointed a committee to write a history of hockey in Canada, led by

James T. Sutherland James Thomas Sutherland (October 10, 1870 – September 16, 1955) was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, and founding father of the game in Canada. Sutherland was a pioneer of hockey's early years, helping to develop amateur hockey, and sprea ...

, including

W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''To ...

and Quebec hockey executive George Slater. In 1943, the committee concluded that hockey had been played in Canada since 1855, and that Kingston and Halifax had equal claims to be the birthplace of hockey, since both cities hosted games played by the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment. The report also stated that Kingston had the first recognized hockey league in 1885, which merged into the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

in 1890.{{free access

References

External links

*Encyclopaedic history of the British Army: https://web.archive.org/web/20071017215746/http://regiments.org/regiments/na-canada/inf/840rcrr.htm * Fort Wellington National Historic site: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/on/wellington * http://cmhg-phmc.forces.gc.ca/cmh-pmc/image-407-eng.aspx?page=466 Rifle regiments of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1840