Image of the University Company of the 28th Battalion. Members, back row (l to r): Arthur G. Gruchy, C. Day, H. Barr, C.A. Scott, Louis Brehaut. Second row: Harry Berry, W. Garrod, Herbert Olding, John Bolton Allen, William Burd and Corporal William Exton Lloyd. Front row: Sergeant Arthur Stephen Kenyon Lloyd, Sergeant J. Eadon Reaney, Lieutenant B. Smith, Sergeant H. Spackman and Sergeant Reginald J. Bateman.

Bio/Historical Note: The 28th Battalion (Northwest), CEF, was an infantry battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I. The 28th Battalion originally recruited in Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Fort William and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario and was mobilized at Winnipeg, Manitoba. The battalion was authorized on 7 November 1914 and embarked for Britain on 29 May 1915. It disembarked in France on 18 September 1915, where it fought as part of the 6th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division, in France and Flanders until the end of the war. The battalion was disbanded on 30 August 1920. The battalion had five officers commanding: Lieutenant-Colonel J.F.L. Embury, CMG, 29 May 1915 – 17 September 1916; Lieutenant-Colonel A. Ross, DSO, 17 September 1916 – 1 October 1918; Major G.F.D. Bond, MC, 2 October 1918 – 6 November 1918; Major A.F. Simpson, DSO, 6 November 1918 – 16 December 1918; Lieutenant-Colonel D.E. MacIntyre, DSO, MC, 16 December 1918-Demobilization.The 28th Battalion was awarded the following battle honours: Mount Sorrel, Somme, 1916, 1918; Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval, Ancre Heights, Arras, 1916, 1918, Vimy, 1917, Scarpe, 1917, 1918, Hill 70; Ypres 1917; Passchendaele; Amiens; Hindenburg Line; Drocourt-Quéant; Canal du Nord; Cambrai, 1918; Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders, 1915-1918.

From The Sheaf, vol. 5, no. 1, December 1916. Text begins on photo A-10940. Essay on increasing casualty lists; images and biographies of R.C. Grant, Robert Sifton (Bobby) Turriff.

Graduation biographies for Fred Nesbitt and John Charles Scott from the Sheaf, [Graduation Number], vol. 5 no. 3, p. 170-171.

William Allen pictured with other wounded soldiers and the hospital staff on Ward 5. [Christmas decorations] hang from the ceiling.

Bio/Historical Note: William (Bill) Allen was born 9 May 1892 in Bristol, England. He emigrated to Canada with his family in 1911, setting up a homestead near Smiley, Saskatchewan. Allen joined the Army in 1916 and was wounded at the Somme, which resulted in the amputation of most of his left arm. After he was discharged in 1917, he enrolled in the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1922 Allen received his BSA and went on to do graduate work at Harvard and Cornell, where he earned a PhD in Agricultural Economics in 1925. He married Gwendolen Woodward in 1926. He returned to the U of S and established the Department of Farm Management, of which he was head until his resignation in 1938. During his time at the University, Allen directed a provincial soil survey in 1935 and was in charge of the first major debt survey of rural Saskatchewan in 1936. During World War II, Allen’s duties included keeping Britain supplied with Canadian food and to negotiate trade agreements covering the sale of Canada’s agricultural products to Britain. Allen was a passenger on the S.S. Nerissa when it was sunk by a torpedo off the west coast of Scotland on 30 April 1941. Allen was listed as missing and presumed dead. Allen is memorialized with a plaque in Convocation Hall and an annual award in the College of Agriculture.
Bio/Historical Note: Beaufort War Hospital was a military hospital in Stapleton district, now Greater Fishponds, of Bristol, England, during the First World War. Before the war, it was an asylum called the Bristol Lunatic Asylum, and after the war it became the psychiatric hospital called Glenside Hospital. By the time the first wounded soldiers arrived in late 1914, the asylum had undergone a major conversion. Like many hospitals across the country, it had been requisitioned by the War Office, which had demanded some 15,000 beds to be supplied nationally for war wounded.

From the Sheaf, vol. 5, no. 2, February 1917. Split image at left of Lieutenants John G. Diefenbaker, Hugh Aird and M.A. MacMillan; image at right of Sergeant [John] Cameron convalescing at Dalston Hall, England.

William Allen pictured with other wounded soldiers and the hospital staff; outdoor scene.

Bio/Historical Note: William (Bill) Allen was born 9 May 1892 in Bristol, England. He emigrated to Canada with his family in 1911, setting up a homestead near Smiley, Saskatchewan. Allen joined the Army in 1916 and was wounded at the Somme, which resulted in the amputation of most of his left arm. After he was discharged in 1917, he enrolled in the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1922 Allen received his BSA and went on to do graduate work at Harvard and Cornell, where he earned a PhD in Agricultural Economics in 1925. He married Gwendolen Woodward in 1926. He returned to the U of S and established the Department of Farm Management, of which he was head until his resignation in 1938. During his time at the University, Allen directed a provincial soil survey in 1935 and was in charge of the first major debt survey of rural Saskatchewan in 1936. During World War II, Allen’s duties included keeping Britain supplied with Canadian food and to negotiate trade agreements covering the sale of Canada’s agricultural products to Britain. Allen was a passenger on the S.S. Nerissa when it was sunk by a torpedo off the west coast of Scotland on 30 April 1941. Allen was listed as missing and presumed dead. Allen is memorialized with a plaque in Convocation Hall and an annual award in the College of Agriculture.

Bio/Historical Note: Beaufort War Hospital was a military hospital in Stapleton district, now Greater Fishponds, of Bristol, England, during the First World War. Before the war, it was an asylum called the Bristol Lunatic Asylum, and after the war it became the psychiatric hospital called Glenside Hospital. By the time the first wounded soldiers arrived in late 1914, the asylum had undergone a major conversion. Like many hospitals across the country, it had been requisitioned by the War Office, which had demanded some 15,000 beds to be supplied nationally for war wounded.

University of Vimy Ridge signage.

Bio/Historical Note: Khaki University (initially Khaki College or University of Vimy Ridge) was a Canadian overseas educational institution set up and managed by the general staff of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Britain from 1917-1919 during the First World War. The system, named for the khaki-coloured uniforms of the CEF, was set up by the efforts of Dr. Edmund Henry Oliver, Professor of History and Economics, University of Saskatchewan, and others and was supported by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The University, with makeshift colleges mainly in central England, was intended to be “a school of efficiency and citizenship, a sort of combination of an Agricultural High School and a Technical School.” Courses were offered in Agriculture, Business Efficiency, Elementary Practical Science, and Citizenship. Classes were scheduled so that battalions could attend during their rest periods. Certificates given were accepted by Canadian universities. An important part of the University’s services was a network of thirty libraries that served more than 50,000 soldiers. Operations were suspended in April 1918 because of the massive German offensive. The war was over by November and Oliver returned to Canada. The term was used again for Canadian educational programs for veterans from 1945-1946 after the Second World War.

Progress shot of construction of the most westerly gate of the Memorial Gates. Thorvaldson (Chemistry) Building in background.

Bio/Historical Note: The Memorial Gates are a military memorial that is part of the University campus. Sixty-seven University students and faculty lost their lives while on service during World War I. The impact of the war on the University was immense: 330 students and faculty served during the War, a number equivalent to nearly all of the students who had registered the year prior to the beginning of the conflict. The desire to honor the staff and students who had fallen during the Great War was strong within the University community. As early as August 1918, 3 months prior to the formal Armistice, University President Walter C. Murray began making enquiries into the cost of a suitable memorial. What was settled upon were gates made of solid bronze, imported from England; the remainder, made of local greystone. Architect David R. Brown estimated the cost of what would come to be known as the Memorial Gates to be $30,000, with an additional $10,000 required for the memorial. The cement work was done by Richard J. Arrand in 1927-1928. A concerted fundraising effort among students and alumni helped cover the costs. The Memorial Gates were unveiled by President Murray and dedicated by the Bishop of Saskatchewan on 3 May 1928. A stone tablet, positioned between the bronze gates, bears the inscription: "These are they who went forth from this University to the Great War and gave their lives that we might live in freedom." For many years after, the site was used for the university’s Remembrance Day services at which wreaths are still laid every November 11th. These Gates were originally the entrance gates to campus and flanked University Drive. In the 1980s, due to increased traffic to the southwest portion of the campus, primarily Royal University Hospital, a new road entrance was built to the west. The gates remain, with the remnant of University Drive passing through them renamed Memorial Crescent. The gates are now primarily used by pedestrians, though the roadway is open to vehicles.