Soldiers' Tower Committee
A U of T graduate and war veteran examines the
legacy of the generation that grew up fast
By Chris Miller (BASc 1948)
From 1942 to 1944, the University of Toronto was host to two
groups of soldiers. The Canadian Army established a program to
recruit high school graduates and provide them with academic training
equivalent to first-year engineering. All were volunteers, aged
17 to 19.
The Army's objective was to enlarge its pool of officer material,
especially in technical services. Candidates were screened for
academic eligibility by Professor E. F. Burton, head of the department
of physics — and the developer, a few years previously, of
the electron microscope.
The first group was known as the No.1 Canadian Army University
Course. About 160 young men from across Canada had their army
basic training in the summer of 1942 and then studied at U of
T in the 1942-43 academic year. Many went on to take officer training
and later served in British regiments.
The following year, the Army organized similar programs at several
universities across Canada. This group, comprising 1,200 students,
became known as No. 2 CAUC.
I was among 250 students who took basic army training at Brampton,
Ont., in the summer of 1943. After that we moved into Burwash
Hall and Knox College, two U of T residences, for eight months
of engineering studies. Our time on campus was very happy, informative,
rewarding and memorable.
Our unit then dispersed into the armoured corps, artillery, engineers,
infantry, paratroops, and other branches of the army. Most of
us waived the prospect of formal officer training in order to
go overseas and get into action, despite some efforts by the military
authorities to persuade us to sit still and take the training.
The following are some of the campaigns and units in which U
of T's CAUC students served:
- Italy
2nd Regiment of Field Artillery, Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment
and Loyal Edmonton Regiment of the Canadian 1st Division. - Holland and Northwest Europe
2nd, 4th, 11th and 15th Regiments of Field Artillery, 7th Regiment
of Medium Artillery, Algonquin Regiment, Argyle and Sutherland
Highlanders, 1st Canadian Hussars, Essex Scottish Regiment, Hastings
and Prince Edward Regiment, Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Loyal
Edmonton Regiment, Royal Canadian Dragoons, Royal Hamilton Light
Infantry, and Royal Regiment of Canada. - Rhine drop and the drive across Germany
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
One of our members who had lived in France returned there before
D-Day as an Allied agent to work with the Resistance. After VE
Day, many of our members volunteered to go to the Pacific theatre
of war.
Following the war, Canada offered veterans free university tuition
and an allowance towards living expenses. Many CAUC members took
advantage of the offer to continue their education. We were grateful
to U of T for its wartime hospitality, which is why most of us
chose U of T rather than another university.
We have identified 175 of our veterans who joined professions.
They are mostly engineers, but the list also includes doctors,
dentists, lawyers, architects, chartered accountants, foresters,
scientists, professors, teachers, executives, financial advisers
and clergy.
In round numbers, of the original 250 members of the CAUC, we
know that 90 have passed away. We still remain in touch with 145
of our members. We met in 2003 (appropriately enough, at Burwash
Hall) to mark the 60th anniversary of our enlistment. Since our
25th anniversary in 1968, we have been having major reunions every
5th year, as well as annual luncheons.
Public Service Projects
Some of our members returned to Holland in 1995 for the 50th anniversary
celebrations of its liberation, and then led in organizing and
raising funds for the establishment of the Canada-Netherlands
Memorial Park, commemorating the liberation.
CAUC members arranged for the production and distribution to
Canadian high schools of the video Frontline: The Liberation
of the Netherlands, in which the men involved tell their own
stories of wartime feelings and memories, when they were not much
beyond high school age.
In the words of Jim Knowles, who fought in the Netherlands in
1945 at the age of 19, the film depicts real life at the front
for Canada's youthful volunteers. "In the process of surviving
this hell they change from awkward schoolboys, charged with enthusiasm
and immortality of youth, but flush with uncertainty about their
abilities and appearances, into veterans and men…. It shows the
current generation that they have similar demands to meet and
have the same excellent chances of success."
CAUC members recently established a fund for U of T's Faculty
of Applied Science and Engineering under the name "The No.2 Canadian
Army University Course Endowment Fund." So far, the veterans have
donated more than $30,000 to this fund, to help make some future
students' lives a little easier. Lest we forget.