P6110

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Details

ID Number

P6110

Item Name

Image

Maker

Mackintosh, E.

Title

Afro-Canadian Unit, No. 2 Construction Battalion / Unité Afro-Canadienne, No.2 Construction Battalion

Title (Fre)

Unité Afro-Canadienne, No.2 Construction Battalion

Date

1916/11

Description

Black and white photograph of the officers and men of the No. 2 Construction Battalion; there are five rows of men in the photograph, the majority of who are black; two of the men in the first row are leaning in toward a drum; four white men are seated in the centre of the second row from the bottom; the photograph was taken by E. Mackintosh. "November, 1916" is hand printed in the bottom left corner of the photo.

History

Built around a nucleus of African Nova Scotians, the No. 2 Construction Battalion included Black men from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and western Canada. There were also a number of members from the United States and the Caribbean. Recruiting centres for the unit were located in Windsor, Ontario (at 840 Mercer in the heart of Windsor's traditional Black neighbourhood, the McDougall Street Corridor) and Truro, Nova Scotia. To train recruits from Ontario and western Canada, a detachment operated in Windsor, Ontario from September 1916 to March 1917. At full strength the Battalion had a total of 605 men, however only one of the battalion’s 19 officers, Honorary Captain, Rev. William A. White, was Black. The company was led by Lieutenant Colonel D. Sutherland, from River John, NS. The battalion headed to France in May, 1917 to serve with the No. 5 District Canadian Forestry Corps. As a non-combatant unit, they spent the war working in the harvesting, transportation and processing of lumber in the Jura forest, near the French - Swiss border. They build a small-gauge railway there to haul logs, and also repaired roads in the local area. A small detachment was sent to Cartigny, not far from the Somme, in December 1917. They worked in a Canadian Forestry Corps operation there. Canada Post made a commemorative stamp in honour of the 100th anniversary of the formation of the No.2 Construction Battalion in 2016. On July 2, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology on behalf of the federal government for the systemic racism the members of the battalion endured. The same year, it was also announced that the Royal Canadian Mint would create a commemorative coin in remembrance of the members of the battalion which was released in February 2023. In November 2024, the records of the No. 2 Construction Battalion were added to the Canada Memory of the World Register. The Canada Memory of the World Register recognizes documentary heritage of national significance and is administered by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO in accordance with UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, which aims to safeguard and promote access to documentary heritage of universal value.

Place made

Canada - Ontario - Windsor

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subjects

Bicycles & tricycles / Bicyclettes & tricycles

Black Canadians / Population noire canadienne subject

Canadian Army organization

Drums / Batterie subject

Jones, Deacon Sydney person

Mackintosh, E. person

Military officers / Officiers militaires

Military personnel / Personnel militaire

No. 2 Construction Battalion organization

Traffic Engineering Department / Ingénierie et gestion du trafic routier

Uniforms / Uniformes subject

World War, 1914-1918 / Guerre mondiale, 1914-1918