Toronto Militia Forces, 48th Highlanders of Canada in white shell tunic with kilt on right centre and Queen’s Own Rifles on the left at riot scene in Sault Ste. Marie in Sept 1903.

Sault Saint Marie, 30 September–2 October 1903

On 25 August 1903, The Consolidated Lake Superior Company, a conglomerate of iron and steel plants, mining properties, transportation factories and pulp mills (and a precursor company to today’s Algoma Steel Corp.), announced that it had failed to obtain the financing necessary to continue operations and that 3,500 workers would be paid off. The workers, after failing to get confirmation that they would be paid as promised, began to riot on 28 September. They smashed all windows in the workshops before retiring after the Riot Act was read. Hearing that 600 more workers were coming by train, officials requested Ottawa to send militia troops.

On 30 September, in the early morning, the first of two trains left under the command of Colonel L. Buchan, Commanding Officer of Military District No. 2. In the first, from Stanley Barracks near old Fort York, were 60 regulars, comprised of 27 infantry in fighting order from the 2nd RCRI, 30 mounted Dragoons and 3 officers including Buchan. In the second, were 227 volunteers from militia units, comprised of soldiers from the 48th Highlanders, The Queen’s Own Rifles and the 10th Royal Grenadiers, and 20 from the Army Medical Corps. At 8 a.m., the 48th were first to report “ready”; they had turned out more than the requested 3 officers and 70 men. Order of dress was: “Greatcoats folded over the left shoulder with capes inside, leaving sidearms bare and Oliver equipment.” Ammunition issued was of two kinds, gallery (practice ammunition with a low powder charge “which stings but does not bite”) and regular. In Sault Ste. Marie the troops were quartered in the steamer Ossifrage, a company vessel. The threat of larger riots proved to be inflated and the men of the 48th returned to Toronto on 2 October.

(Prior accession No. P1655)