Sir Robert Borden with the Canadian Troops 2 04 min 51 s War
Office Cinema Committee These images were filmed at Shorncliffe,
a town on the south coast of England. The town became the base
for the Canadian Reinforment Depot in 1915. Canadian troops had
spent the unusually cold winter of 1914-15 living in tents on
Salisbury Plain, and the barrack accommodations at Shorncliffe,
visible in the footage, would have been a great improvement. The
footage documents a visit to Shorncliffe by Canada’s Prime
Minister, Sir Robert Borden, and Minister of Militia and
Defence, Sam Hughes. We see Borden and Hughes as they review a
parade of Canadian cavalry, infantry and hospital units. The
three infantry units, together numbering 1000 officers and men,
were the 3rd, 8th and 11th Reserve Infantry Battalions.
Following the infantry are ambulances and trucks from the
Queen’s Hospital in Beechford. The word “Canada” appears on some
of the vehicles. We then see the Canadian cavalry regiment,
tasked with training Canadian cavalry