Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was raised in 1914 by Montreal businessman and Militia officer Andrew Hamilton Gault. The regiment was named for the current Governor General’s Daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught. It was apparently the last privately raised regiment in the British Empire. Initial recruits were mostly made up of British ex-servicemen.
The Regiment preceded the rest of the Canadian Expeditionary
Force overseas and joined the 80th British Brigade and were the first Canadian unit to see action in the Great War. A year later in
1915 the regiment joined the newly formed 3rd Canadian Division as
part of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade.
This was the last unit I had to
paint to finish up the brigade. Also in the Brigade were Royal
Canadian Regiment, 49th
(Edmonton) Battalion, and 42nd
Canadian Infantry Battalion (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada). As I
already have the 8th
Brigade finished, I need only finish up three more regiments in the 9th
Brigade to finish the 3rd Canadian Division!
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version):
As with all the units in the 7th Brigade, these
figures representing the PPCLI in my collection are manufactured by Great War
Miniatures
Detail of the formation patch.
The formation patch was a grey
rectangle for the 3rd Division, surmounted by a green semi-cirle
(green for the senior brigade in the division, semi-circle for the second
battalion within the brigade). The PPCLI was one of few battalion of the
Canadian Expeditionary force that wore a cloth shoulder title to distinguish their
unit – the little red arc above the formation patch which would have the white
letters “PPCLI” on it.
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
I’ll probably post a picture of the entire 7th Brigade.
Next I’ll get to work on the three remaining battalions of
the 9th Infantry Brigade to finish off the 3rd Division
and maybe some of the guns I have...?
I guess I should work on some Germans at some point!
Posts
They're looking fantastic! Love the football player.
ReplyDeleteThanks - I love fun little character figures like that as well. When I was deciding which unit to put him in I recalled in Scapegoat: How the Army Betrayed Kyle Brown by Peter Worthington, when Kyle first joined the PPCLI he was assured that the it was not a "sports battalion"... but I think it seemed clear to him that it really was... It's been a LONG time since I read it...
DeleteGreat characterful figures nice covers on the helmets and I like the shovels shoved between packs as always very good paint job as well. My view of ww1 Canadian military is coloured by reading Donald Jacks Bandy papers when I was an early teen , good funny and occasionally poignant.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain! the shovels and picks and details like that make these my very favourite of all the Great War figures out there. As you say - full of character!
DeleteI am not familiar with Donald Jack Bandy... I will google that shortly!
Oh - Three Cheers for Me - a I remember a friend of mine reading those. I never did read them myself.
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