In the Great War students, past and present, of St. Francis Xavier University served in every branch of the Forces of Canada, and in the armies and navies of Great Britain, France and America. But it is the especial pride of St. Francis Xavier to have furnished a complete Unit, if a small one, of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. The Unit was officially known as No. 9 Stationary Hospital, C.A.M.C.
This Unit was organized in November, 1915, and was for some time quartered in the University itself. It left Canada for the United Kingdom in June, 1916, and proceeded to France in November of the following year. Till April, 1918, it was stationed at St. Omer, but the great German offensive of that spring made necessary its withdrawal to Etaples, where it became part of the hospital system of the main British base.
In the notorious bombardment of May 18, 1918, No. 9 was the first hospital to be attacked, and suffered severely. Its premises were completely destroyed, and more than forty per cent. of its personnel became casualties. Towards the end of 1918, the status of the St. Francis Xavier Unit was raised to that of a General Hospital. It returned to Canada in July, 1919, and upon the reorganization of the Military Forces of Canada, was preserved as an integral part of the Active Militia.
More than three hundred and fifty Xavierians joined the colors. Thirty-three were killed, or died on active service. The following decorations were won by students or alumni of the University:
| C.M.G. | 1 |
| D.S.O. | 4 |
| M.C. | 11 |
| First Bar, M.C. | 1 |
| Second Bar, M.C. | 1 |
| O.B.E. | 1 |
| D.C.M. | 3 |
| M.M. | 5 |
| M.S.M. | 1 |
Three professors of the Faculty of the University saw active service in the Canadian, Imperial and American Forces respectively; two were severely wounded and one received the Military Cross.
In Canada during the War St. Francis Xavier took a becoming part in the forefront of every patriotic activity. A contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps was gazetted in April, 1915. Training had hardly been begun when the Corps lost the majority of its officers by enlistment and with the numbers of students continually dwindling—at one commencement a single individual presented himself for graduation—it became impossible to continue parades.
In every branch of war work pursued in the neighborhood of Antigonish, the locale of the University, the lead was taken by members of the Staff of St. Francis Xavier. The chairman of the local committee for the Patriotic Fund, the Antigonish County Organizer of the Victory Loan Campaign, and the Director of the re-establishment activities of the Knights of Columbus over a wide area of Eastern Nova Scotia, were professors of the University. In connection with the patriotic work of the Knights of Columbus, it may be mentioned St. Francis Xavier did its full share in the launching of the Dominion-wide campaign, which made it possible for this body to perform its splendid services to our troops at the scene of war. In brief in St. Francis Xavier, as in all the universities of the land, it was the aim of all compelled to “carry on” at home to become, by patriotic endeavor and sacrifice, not unworthy of those who went from it to fight their country’s and the Empire’s battles.
Editor’s Note.—No. 9 Stationary Hospital Unit is more fully dealt with in Chapter xxvi.