The Canadian Grenadier Guards (CGG) is a reserve infantry regiment in the 34 Canadian Brigade Group, 2nd Canadian Division, of the Canadian Army. The regiment is the oldest and second-most-senior infantry regiment in the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Army. Located in Montreal, its main role is the provision of combat-ready light infantry troops in support of Canadian regular infantry. It is a Household Foot Guard regiment and also provides soldiers for public ceremonial duties (Ceremonial Guard), performing similar ceremonial duties as the Guards regiments of the British Army. This primarily entails mounting the guard at Government House (Rideau Hall), the King's and Governor General's residence, and performing the "Changing the Guard" ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, a task it shares with Canada's senior Household Foot Guard regiment, the Governor General's Foot Guards of Ottawa. The Canadian Grenadier Guards is an allied regiment to the British Grenadier Guards.

Lineage

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File:CGG Colour.jpg|The regimental colour of the Canadian Grenadier Guards.

File:CGG Camp Flag.jpg|The camp flag of the Canadian Grenadier Guards.

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The Canadian Grenadier Guards

The Canadian Grenadier Guards originated in Montreal on 17 November 1859 as the First Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada. It was redesignated as The First (or Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Volunteer Rifles of Canadian Militia on 7 September 1860. On 2 May 1898 it amalgamated with the 6th Battalion "Fusiliers" and was redesignated the 1st Battalion "Prince of Wales' Regiment Fusiliers". It was redesignated as the 1st Regiment "Prince of Wales' Fusiliers" on 8 May 1900; as the 1st Regiment Canadian Grenadier Guards on 29 December 1911; as The Canadian Grenadier Guards on 29 March 1920; as the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion, The Canadian Grenadier Guards on 7 November 1941; as The Canadian Grenadier Guards on 15 February 1946; as The Canadian Grenadier Guards (6th Battalion, The Canadian Guards) on 1 September 1954 before reverting to The Canadian Grenadier Guards on 1 August 1976.

Perpetuations

The War of 1812

  • 1st Militia Light Infantry Battalion
  • 2nd Battalion, Select Embodied Militia
  • Corps of Canadian Voyageurs
  • Montreal Incorporated Volunteers
  • Montreal Militia Battalion
  • Provincial Commissariat Voyageurs
  • 1st Battalion (City of Montreal) "British Militia" The system of temporary battalion formations was quite disruptive for the regulars of the permanent regimental establishment.

The 245th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards), CEF was authorised on 15 July 1916 and embarked for Britain on 3 May 1917 where it was absorbed by the 23rd Reserve Battalion, CEF on 14 May 1917 to provide reinforcements to the Canadian Corps in the field. The battalion was subsequently disbanded on 17 July 1917.

On 12 March 1764, Colonel Frederick Haldimand ordered, from Trois-Rivières, the formation of a volunteer unit to aid in the defence of Canada. In response, the 1st Company, District of Montreal Militia was raised, under the command of Captain de Montizambert; the company was drawn from the traditional militia of the , and was predominantly French-speaking. This company was raised in status to a battalion in 1807, becoming the 1st Battalion, Montreal Militia under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James McGill, founder of McGill University. Elements of the 1st Battalion fought at the Battle of Châteauguay (26 October 1813) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry; as a result of their conduct, the 1st Battalion was awarded a pair of Colours after recommendation by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir George Prevost, to the Prince Regent.

alt=Soldiers from the CGG in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.|left|thumb|231x231px

Although the responsibility for public duties in Ottawa was assumed by the Canadian Guards, the regiment provided individuals for this purpose until the formation of the Ceremonial Guard in 1969. Since that date, No.&nbsp;2 (CGG) Company has participated in the Changing of the Guard on Parliament Hill and Rideau Hall during the summer months. As a result, the City of Ottawa granted its Freedom to the regiment in 1979; a similar grant was made by Montreal in 1990 in commemoration of 225 years of service to the city since the formation of 1st Company, District of Montreal Militia, in 1764.

  • Headquarters
  • Active Battalion
  • No. 1 Canada Company - Contains actively trained personnel.
  • No. 2 Prince of Wales Company - Charged with providing a Public Duties Company for the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa.
  • No. 3 Hochelaga Company - Charged with providing administrative, financial and logistic support
  • No. 4 Quebec Company - Charged with training untrained personnel and recruitment activities.

Freedoms

The regiment has received the Freedom throughout its history at the following occasions:

Victoria Cross recipients

  • Private John Francis Young

:87th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force

:Dury-Arras Sector

:2 September 1918

Memorials

  • An M4 tank at Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre in Ottawa was dedicated by the 22nd Armoured Regiment (The Canadian Grenadier Guards) to the memory of its soldiers who fought in Northwest Europe from 1944 to 1945.
  • Coudehard-Montormel Memorial – In 1965 on the battle's 20th anniversary, a monument to the Polish, Canadian (22nd Armoured Regiment (The Canadian Grenadier Guards)), American and French units that took part in the battle was erected on Hill 262. Marking the occasion, former President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower commented that "no other battlefield presented such a horrible sight of death, hell, and total destruction." The Mémorial de Coudehard–Montormel museum was constructed on the same site on the battle's 50th anniversary in 1994.
  • Place Léo Gariépy, Courseulles-sur-Mer – Sergeant Gariépy, a former Canadian Grenadier Guard, (1936–1940), was one of the Canadians who landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. At the end of the 1960s, Gariépy led the initiative to fish out of the water a DD tank named Bold, which had sunk off Courseulles on D-Day. The tank was raised, restored, and offered to the town. It is displayed in Place Léo Gariépy, visible from the Juno Beach Centre. Gariépy died on 8 May 1972. He was an "honorary citizen" of Courseulles-sur-Mer and is buried in the military section of Courseulles' municipal cemetery.

Armoury

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|Canadian Grenadier Guards' Armoury 4171 Esplanade Avenue

|1913-14

|Canada's Register of Historic Places; Recognized – 1994 Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings

|Montreal, Quebec

|Large, two-storey, brick drill hall with a low-pitched gable roof on a residential streetscape in Montreal.

|200px|Canadian Grenadier Guards Armoury

|-

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Order of precedence

See also

  • Household Division
  • Governor General's Horse Guards
  • Governor General's Foot Guards
  • Military history of Canada
  • History of the Canadian Army
  • Canadian Forces
  • List of armouries in Canada
  • Canadian Grenadier Guards Band

Notes and references

Secondary sources

  • "A brief outline of the story of the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the first months of the Royal Montreal Regiment in the Great War; told in an anthology of verse and prose." (Montreal, Gazette Print. Co., 1926)
  • Canada in Khaki South Africa 1899–1900: Nominal Roll Casualties etc. – Eugene Ursual 1994
  • Canadian Grenadier Guards Regimental Association
  • Cérémonie du crépuscule du Canadian Grenadier Guards