100th anniversary of departure of 91st Battalion celebrated
On the late morn
ing of Saturday, June 25, re-enactors marched from St. Thomas City Hall to the Canada Southern (CASO) Railway Station before a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the departure of the 91st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, to fight in the First Great War. On June 25, 1916, over 900 men from Elgin County and St. Thomas, marched to the Michigan Central Railway Station (as it was known then) on Talbot Street in St. Thomas and departed by train for Halifax to be shipped to Europe to fight in the First Great War. During the ceremony, a memorial tablet was unveiled by some of the descendants of those soldiers who left their homes 100 years ago to fight for Canada’s freedom.