The following story, Western at war: A century of answering the call, originally appeared in the Fall 2006 edition of the Alumni Gazette, which editors dedicated to the subjects of war and peace. It is reprinted here in honour of Remembrance Day 2012. To view the full issue, click here.
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Wars both ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ played a significant role for more than 60 years in the affairs of Western, specifically in the life plans of its faculty, staff, students and alumni, but also through the impact on growth and capabilities of the university.
Western’s people went to war over the century in one of three ways: they volunteered in the military unit of choice or participated in training contingents established on campus, while others, mostly faculty, contributed to vitally needed research and development for the war effort.
The outbreak of war in 1914 – when Western had fewer than 200 arts and medical students –threatened the very continuance of the university as enlistments and decreased numbers of new students caused serious disruptions on the campus. Returning veterans in 1919 swelled enrolment to more than 500 increasing the need for construction of the new campus at the present site. A similar enrolment surge, this time subsidized by government, occurred in 1946 when Western’s then-2,200 students more than doubled over the succeeding decade.
The first Western students to don uniforms were in 1900 when four went to South Africa as soldiers in the Boer War.
There was no significant organized military presence at Western until, as also took place at other universities, a Canadian Officers Training Corps (COTC) was established in 1915. The COTC trained officers for the army and 62 undergraduates promptly signed up.
During the First World War, unlike larger universities such as Queen’s, which contributed two infantry battalions made up of its students and alumni, Western raised no fighting units of its own. Through the course of the war, 450 Western students served in various regiments and many were killed in action.
But Western, despite its modest size, did raise a 400-bed medical unit which served with great distinction in England and France. The No. 10 Stationary Hospital, known as the Western University Unit, was formed of medical faculty and students along with London doctors and 26 nurses from Victoria and St. Joseph’s hospitals. A support team of 118 non-commissioned officers and other ranks was made up of medical and arts students from Western. The hospital cared for more than 30,000 military patients before being demobilized in 1919, and was Western’s biggest single contribution overseas.
The COTC, re-established with two companies in 1920, was a regular feature of campus life through the 1920s and 1930s, as young men trained for the Army reserves.
The Corps contributed colorfully, beginning in 1929, when its military band, in addition to cadet parades, played for the first Mustang football games as Western entered the senior intercollegiate league. By 1930-31, the COTC band had become one of the best in Canada and was led by then 2nd Lt. Don Wright. Wright, after whom the Faculty of Music was named in 2002, was instrumental following graduation in 1933 in founding the Mustang Marching Band. During the Second World War he served as an officer in the Western COTC and subsequently in the Royal Canadian Air Force where he wrote and conducted three different units in troop shows.
Many faculty members, some veterans of the First World War, served as ROTC officers on campus.
With the world back at war, Western’s officers’ training corps took on vast new responsibilities. When students returned to campus in 1940, it was decreed by President Sherwood Fox that all fit males over the age of 18 were required to take military training. This swelled the corps to 785 members. Detachments were also manned at the Assumption and Waterloo affiliated colleges.
The Western campus was designated a military area between 1943 and 1945 complete with a firing range beside the former J. W. Little Stadium. One hundred and ten hours of military training were required followed by a two-week summer camp. Fifty-three former Western COTC members were killed in the Second World War.
In 1942 the No. 10 Canadian General Hospital unit was mobilized and brought up to strength in London. While it attracted many Western medical faculty members and students as well, as medical alumni, it was not a university unit as in the First World War. This 1,200-bed hospital went first to England, transferred to Normandy shortly after the invasion and ended the war operating in Belgium.
In addition to the Army university corps, separate units were established for the Air Force in 1942 and the Navy in early 1943. All three service units were reorganized in 1947 to select students for training as officer candidates in the army, navy and air force. Western volunteers took 68 hours of paid training during the academic year, and during summer holidays served full-time as officer cadets with the regular forces in Canada and abroad.
A number of other war initiatives involved a wide spectrum of Western and London people, including the future president of the university. In 1940, the London Association of War Research was established led by V. P. Cronyn and publisher Walter Blackburn with the mandate to focus the attention of Western’s scientific faculty on the war effort. One of the key projects was construction of a pressure chamber at the medical school to explore the implications of high altitude effects on air force flying crews. This brought to London Dr. G. Edward Hall who was immersed in medical studies with the RCAF.
Through his visits to Western he was identified as the future dean of medicine, which he became in 1944, and he was named Western’s fourth president in 1947, serving for 20 years.
Much of the work by Western scientists was top secret and no more so than the research of Dr. R. C. Dearle of the physics department who led work with newly developed radar in conjunction with the National Research Council. Western honors physics students had an accelerated fourth-year graduation in 1940 and went directly into the Royal Navy. One of them was said to be operating a radar set on the new battleship Prince of Wales as it stalked the German battle cruiser Bismarck in the historic north Atlantic sea battle.
Post-Second World War, the three campus contingents graduated many officers for the army, navy and air force who served through the Korean conflict and the Cold War. In 1968, at the time of the somewhat ill-fated unification of Canadian military services, the units were de-established ending 54 years of close associations with the Canadian forces on the campus. Today, Western graduates continue in the ranks of the military reserve and active forces in Canada and many parts of the world.
A university by its nature abhors war and seeks peace, but the record of Western faculty and staff members, students and graduates is a proud part of our country’s history.
Jim Etherington, BA’61, was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s University Reserve Training Plan during his four years at Western. He served summers in Canada and France and on graduation was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer (Reserve).