Battalion sent away on embarkation leave from 2nd December until 0830hrs 8 December 1939. Went home. Unit lost their kilts and brass buttoned tunics except for the band and we were allowed to keep ours. It was quite a novel experience to appear in public in battle dress. The only exposure the public had to this uniform previously was in pictures in the newspapers. The Toronto Scottish left for England this week and it looks like we are to follow shortly.
10-16 December 1939
Church parade this Sunday to St. Andrews and this was the first time that the unit paraded as a unit in battle dress. At this time the Regiment resented the fact that the kilt was being taken away from them and I remember the controversy well. The main argument for retaining the kilt was the fact that the 15th Battalion wore the kilt at all times in the Great War in the trenches. I remember one sign erected in the barracks that stated "No kilt-No War." The regiment had a huge dinner- dance at the Maple Leaf gardens for the battalion and their dependents and over 5000 people attended. I do not recall, now, many details and it was not until I read the War Diary that I recalled it. I had quite forgotten it. On Thursday the 14th the Regiment had a final parade through the streets of Toronto from the CNE and East of fleet to York, North on York to Front and East in Front to Yonge, North on Yonge to Gerrard and West on Gerrard to University, South on Univeristy to King, West on King to Spadina, South on Spadina to Fleet and West on Fleet to the CNE and the Horse Palace. Confined to barracks.
The CO and two other officers left for Halifax as advance party. We left for overseas on December 16th. Confined to barracks all that day. Spent the day turning in bedding stores and generally cleaning up. Unit held open house from 630pm until we left. My mother and grandmother, father and grandfather, Edward, Milton and Patricia, Mildred (Edward's girl) Uncle Sam, Aunt Alma and Vern Clarke all came down to see me off. They stayed with me in the barracks until we left. Boarded the train and pulled out from the rail siding at the CNE at 10pm and you can well imagine the vast horde of people that came to see us off. It was a very emotional time I had no way of judging anything better and I certainly was not aware that it was not the usual type of sleeper car. The sleeping arrangements consisted of padded boards between the seats. That is how we left Toronto and started the great adventure of the war.
HALIFAX AND THE NORTH ATLANTIC
17-31 December 1939
The weather was cold and clear and we arrived at Montreal at 8am in the morning. We exercised at the West Junction at 11am and then we traveled through Quebec until 4pm when we got off the train for an exercise march ar Riviere-Du-Loup. We paraded through the town but had to abandon the march due to the icy condition of the streets. The reception we received from the people, as I recall was far from enthusiastic. On Monday the train stopped in Turo NS for another exercise march. This time the reception was a little friendlier. We arrived at dock side in Halifax at 5pm and immediately boarded the troop ship HMT Riena Del Pacifico. We were issued hammocks and allocated a space over the mess hall table to sleep. We slept in the same place as we ate. The other units on board were:
2 Field Park Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, Toronto
57 Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, Quebec City
90 Field Battery (Anti-Tank) Royal Canadian Artillery, Frederiction NB
4 Field Ambulance, RCAMC, Port William Ont.
Tuesday morning we cast off from the dock and drew into Bedford Basin where we anchired for the next three days. As the ship was at anchor I was an excellent sailor. When it sailed on the ocean I was serious trouble with sea sickness. We left Halifax at 1000hrs on 22 December 1939 and the band played on the upper deck.
Gale force winds and rough seas started in 23 December and this weather worsened through Christmas and ir made the celebrations very difficult as there was so much sea sickness. I simply laid down and tried to forget I was sick. The weather started to improve on Thursday 28 December 1939 and I was finally able to get about. The ship was still rolling and pitching but I had become accustomed to it. I also think it was sheer desperate hunger which gave me the incentive to get around. Bill Elms seemed to take the rough weather a lot better than I did. Sometime in the past three or four days the Canadian Navy Destroyers left us and we only had the battleships as escort. We were met on the 28 December by an escort of 12 Royal Navy Destroyers and it was quite a sight to see them scurrying about the convoy. We had our first sight of land on 29 December when at night we sighted the lights which we were told came from the coast settlements in Southern Ireland, where there are no black out regulations in force as they are officially neutral. There was a flurry of activity and some rather pronounced bumps on Saturday morning and we were supposed to have been attacked by a U Boat. It turned out only to be a rumour, which can be quite convincing on a closed ship.
We stopped at the mouth of the Clyde River and it was here that the destroyers left us. General McNaughton came aboard to welcome us. We were held up by the tide but started up the Clyde River in the early afternoon. It was quite a site to see the various shipyards and factories and the funny little trains. We passed the liner "Queen Elizabeth" which had been launched and was sitting in the fitting dock. We tied up at the King George docks in Glasgow at 1430hrs and no one was allowed off the ship. Anthony Eden and Vincent Massey, our High Commissioner visited the ship in the afternoon. I seen them on the dock. We disembarked at 1030hrs on Sunday and the city of Glasgow Police Pipe Band played us off the ship. We boarded the train at 1100hrs and it was not until we got to Carlisle that we got any heat in our carraige. The meals served on the train are plain but adequate. The carriage is diveded into compartments and is quite different to those in Canada.
New Years Eve was spent on the train somewhere in England on our way to Aldershot.
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