Lady Patricia Mountbatten formally opened the Gault Memorial Park during a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on 20 June 2003.
Canada’s quick response to the First World War was partly due to the actions of Hamilton Gault, a wealthy and distinguished Montreal businessman and Captain of the Royal Highlanders of Canada. As a Veteran of the South African War, Gault remained personally involved with the Canadian political responsibility to Britain as part of the Empire. In early August 1914, Hamilton ventured by train to Ottawa with a proposal. He would personally raise and equip a mounted unit of Canadians for the Imperial service. The proposal was set in front of Colonel Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence. Colonel Hughes was attracted to the offer, but thought that an Infantry unit, as opposed to cavalry, would be more useful to Britain.
Lieutenant Colonel Farquhar approached the Duke of Connaught for permission to name the Regiment after his daughter, Her Royal Highness, Princess Patricia of Connaught. Princess Patricia had already become a much-admired figure in Canada because of her appreciation of the country’s vast wilderness and people. The request was made to the Princess, who was delighted. On 6 August 1914 the Canadian Government provisionally accepted Hamilton Gault’s offer.
Authority for the Regiment was granted on 10 August 1914, through a charter embodied in a report of the Committee of the Privy Council of Canada, to raise and equip an infantry battalion. As detailed in the charter, Hamilton Gault would contribute $100,000 to finance and equip the regiment, with the remainder of expenditures being covered by the Department of Militia and Defense.
Hamilton Gault would serve in the Regiment during the First World War, first as the second in command and at wars end as the commanding officer bringing the battalion home to Ottawa.
He was seriously wounded in the Battle of Frezenberg (1915) and lost a leg at Sanctuary Wood (1916). He was the first Canadian in the war to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry in the field. Lieutenant-Colonel Gault brought the regiment home as its commanding officer in March 1919. During the Second World War, he commanded a Canadian Army reinforcement holding unit, was promoted to Colonel in 1940 and to Brigadier-General in 1942. Ill health forced Hamilton to retire, and he returned to Canada in 1944. Gault founded the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Association in 1947 and served as its first national president. He served as the Regiment’s Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel from 1920 to 1948 and then as Honorary Colonel of the Regiment until his death in 1958.
