A Quick Lesson In Regiment’s History

Interviewer: What did you know about the PPCLI at that time? Nothing. Absolutely nothing until I got to be recruited and they taught us the history and all that. Interviewer: And what did you learn about the history then? Well, I learned that we'd been formed by, in Montreal in 1914 and was composed mainly of students from McGill University with a leavening of old Vets to show the newcomers what to do. And its first Colonel, Brigadier Hamilton Gault, and Lady Patricia Ramsay, of course, donated our colours she made them, with, by herself, and donated our colours, and they became known as the "Ric-a-Dam-Doo" colours. And they fought in World War I, of course, and had a number of battles, battle honours, and then they were chosen to be one of the three infantry regiments that formed Canada's permanent forces after the war, the RCR's, the Van Doos, and the Pat's. And they were a pretty famous regiment. Interviewer: So you knew very shortly that you were joining a storied regiment. An elite regiment, oh yes, didn't take long to find out.