Fourteen volunteers sailed with the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, four of whom were killed in action. The first King’s man to make the Great Sacrifice was Capt. G. L. B. Concanon, who was killed in the Dardanelles Campaign while serving with the 2nd Battalion of Australian Infantry.
In the Second Contingent were some thirty-five students and graduates of the College and a number of “Old Boys” of the School.
Amongst the notable enlistments from College during the War were the nine who volunteered for service in the Cycle Corps of the 2nd Contingent, and some twenty, mostly students, who enlisted together in the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade. This latter represented an enlistment of about 50 per cent. of the student body then in residence at King’s College and included one of her Professors.
During the period of the War the largest number of male students in attendance at King’s College was forty-eight, and this number was reduced to a few physically unfit men in 1917, and yet sixty-seven students actually enlisted from the College, and ten of them made the supreme sacrifice. In all twenty-three King’s men fell in action on the Field of Honor.
So reduced was the student body that when the Military Service Act came into effect there was not one physically fit student left to come under the provisions of that Act.
Early in 1915 a contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps was organized at King’s College under Professor Sturley as Officer Commanding, and did very useful work not only amongst the students at College, but also amongst the young men of Windsor, the seat of King’s College. Its active life, however was short, for within about twelve months of its organization practically the whole of the personnel of the Corps had enlisted for Overseas Service.
Amongst the honors gained by King’s men during the War were:
| O. B. Jones | D.S.O. |
| J. P. Silver | D.S.O., C.B.E. |
| C. Hill | D.S.O. |
| C. R. E. Willets | D.S.O. |
| H. A. Kaulback | O.B.E. |
| A. E. Andrew | M.C. |
| G. D. Campbell | M.C. |
| R. H. Morris | M.C. |
| C. V. Strong | M.C. |
| C. Campbell | M.C. |
| W. G. Ernst | M.C. and Bar. |
| G. B. Murray | M.C. |
| R. H. Tait | M.C. |
| D. L. Teed | M.C. |
| P. L. Parlee | D.C.M. |
| W. E. Warburton | D.C.M. |
| G. L. Jones | D.C.M. |
| C. Blanchard | M.M. |
| T. W. Maynard | M.M. |
| H. R. Poole | Legion of Honor. |
| R. H. Stewart | Order of St. George of Russia. |
| G. F. Mason | Croix de Guerre. |
Of the many who distinguished themselves by gallant service, whether officially recognized or not, the record of a few of the younger generation must suffice as typical of all.
Two of the first students to enlist were Edward Jeffery and George Mason. They enlisted together in the ranks of the First Contingent, 17th Battalion, and went over to France together with the 14th Battalion, 1st Canadian Division. For sixteen months they fought side by side—all through the terrible winter of 1914–1915 in the Ypres Salient—and came through that fiery ordeal unscathed. They returned to England together for their commissions, training together at Crowborough. Mason returned to France almost immediately after the course, but Jeffery was taken ill and was operated on for appendicitis; and it was not till April, 1918, that he was again sent to France. In June, 1918, he joined his new Battalion, 16th Canadian Scottish, and found himself posted to a Company commanded by Mason, now a Captain. So they were together again in France. On the night of the 26th September Jeffery received his first wound, but it proved fatal, and the next day he was laid to rest at Ligny St. Frochel, near St. Pol. Only four days later, on October 1st, his great chum followed, and so these two, who for four long years had borne the burden and strife of the Great War with what seemed charmed lives, were reunited once more in that land where there is no more parting and no more strife.