2020.9.5

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Details

ID Number

2020.9.5

Category

Communication Artifacts

Sub-category

Documentary Artifact

Item Type

commemmorative

Item Name

stamp

Maker

Canada Post

Title

No.2 Construction Battalion

Date

2016

Materials

PAPER;

Measurements

3-1/4inx5in

Description

book of stamps (10); commemmorative stamps in honour of No.2 Construction Battalion from Canada Post;

History

Commemmorative stamp made in honour of the 100th anniversary of the formation of the No.2 Construction Battalion. The stamp was illustrated by Dennis Budgen, through a photogram from the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, and designed by Lara Minja. Th No.2 Construction Battalion was the first and only Black Canadian unit during the First World War. The Construction Battalion was built around a nucleus of Nova Scotia born railway workers and included men from New Brunswick, Ontario and western Canada. Recruiting centres for the unit were Windsor, Ontario and Truro, Nova Scotia. At full strength the Battalion had a total of 605 men, however only one of the battalions 19 officers, Honorary Captain, William A. White, was black. The company was led by Lieutenant Colonel D. Sutherland. The battalion headed to France in May, 1917 to serve with the No. 5 District Canadian Forestry Corps. As a non-combatant unit, it was denied opportunity for distinguished service, however the unit spent the war building roads, railways, bridges and defences, often on terrain studded with unexploded ordnances and areas dangerously close to the front line.

Collection Name

Museum Windsor

Subjects

Anniversaries / Anniversaires

Black Canadians / Population noire canadienne

Blacks

Canada Post Corporation

No. 2 Construction Battalion

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

WWI