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Algonquin Regiment
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The Algonquin Regiment was mobilized for active service on May 24, 1940. It was re-designated 1st Battalion, The Algonquin Regiment on November 7, 1940. The Regiment served in Canada in a home defence role as part of the 20th Infantry Brigade, 7th Canadian Division and in Newfoundland from February 7, 1942 to February 6, 1943. The Regiment embarked for Great Britain in June 1943 and landed in Normandy, France as part of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Armoured Division. Soldiers of the Regiment fought as vanguard infantry through Falaise, fighting to secure many bridgeheads over canals in Holland and into Germany, earning the following battle honours: Falaise Falaise Road The Laison Chambois The Seine, 1944 Moerkerke The Scheldt Breskens Pocket The Lower Maas The Rhineland The Hochwald Veen Küsten Canal Bad Zwischenahn North-West Europe, 1944-1945 The overseas Battalion was disbanded on February 15, 1946.
Algonquin Regiment Photo Collection
The following photos are from a wartime collection of Sherry Garvin. Her father Private Gilbert Bell served in “D” Company of the Algonquin Regiment and the Bugle Band of the Regiment. The photos are for the most part from his training time in Port Arthur, Ontario and Shilo, Manitoba.
Remembering Private Gilbert James Bell (Service No. B55251) Born in Bracebridge, Ontario August 31, 1917, Private Gilbert James Bell was the son of Gilbert Archibald (Archie) and Marie Marie Carmel (Hubbard) Bell. Enlisting in Timmons, Ontario on August 8, 1940, he served with “D” Company of the Algonquin Regiment and was a member of the Bugle Band. He played both drum and bugle. While stationed in Shilo, Manitoba in 1941, he met Winn Brown and they were married shortly before Gilbert’s Company was moved to Port Arthur, Ontario. Just as the Company was to be shipped overseas, Gilbert was in hospital. His kit went overseas with the Company, but he remained in Canada. He was transferred to the Home Guard when he was released from hospital. Private Gilbert Bell was very proud of his time in the band. In the years following the war Gilbert worked as a skilled carpenter and building contractor. He died on September 9, 1991 in Brandon, Manitoba.
Regimental Bugle Band
Port Arthur, Ontario - December 14, 1940
Regimental Mascot
372 members of the Algonquin Regiment lost their lives in the Second World War. On the Parry Sound’s waterfront trail a monument now recognizes members of the Algonquin Regiment who lost their lives in the Second World War. Unveiled September 23, 2012 “Stand easy boys, you are back home at last … Carved in stone are the names of 372 young Canadian boys who voluntarily stepped up to the plate and joined up to fight and destroy the insidious Nazi tyranny that threatened to destroy our motherland, our country and our freedom … Whatever their reason for enlisting underlying, was the thought that there could be a price to pay, a sacrifice to make and a determination to pay that price for a principle of ridding our world of evil, of protecting our country, family and friends.” Words spoken at the unveiling by Algonquin Veteran Jack Patterson of Parry Sound
Photo: Huntsville Forester
The Algonquin Regiment War Memorial Algonquin Avenue, North Bay, Ontario. Unveiled on August 31, 1961
Plaque commemorating The Algonquin Regiment, Wierden, Netherlands, July 2, 1945. Wierden To the Algonquin Regiment Commemorating The Liberation of Our Town 9 April 1945 (Major Robert George Saville standing on left)
Gilbert Bell - 1946
Gilbert Bell - top left bugler Algonquin Regiment
Various Photos Private Gilbert James Bell