In 1885, the Civil Service Rifle Regiment sent a company to Northwest Canada to help quell the Northwest Rebellion. All members of the company were selected because they were expert shots and as a result they were known at “The Sharpshooters”. They formed part of Colonel Otter’s column that relieved the town of Battleford on April 24. Members of the Regiment came under fire on May 2 for the first time at the Battle of Cut Knife Hill. It was here that the Regiment suffered its first fatalities - Privates William Osgoode and John Rogers.
The citizens of Ottawa erected a memorial in Major's Hill Park to the memory of Privates William Osgoode and John Rogers. It was unveiled on the afternoon of November 1, 1888, by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada. The bronze monument, sculpted by British sculptor Percy Guy Wood, is of a guardsman standing in mournful repose with his hands clasped on the butt of a rifle. The sculpture is set on a ten-foot granite pedestal with bronze medallion portraits of Rogers and Osgoode located on each side.
The unveiling was not without controversy. The plaque on the memorial referred to the two men as members of the Guards Company of Sharpshooters. There was no mention of the 43rd Battalion to which Private Osgoode had belonged. Feeling that the Guards had been unduly favoured, the men of the 43rd Battalion initially refused to attend the memorial’s unveiling. In the end the Battalion was well represented when their commanding officer ordered them to join the ceremony.
