One Reliable Place to See What Is Happening 

Good News! The 48th Highlanders website now has a much more useful Regimental Calendar. We have set it up so that we can all more easily (i) let others know of planned events, and (ii) actually plan to attend them! Its success in achieving those objectives, though, depends on all of us doing two things: checking it regularly and helping to fill it with events. 

The calendar is available at https://48thhighlanders.ca/events/ 

Put Regimental events on your own calendar 

Your fellow Highlanders tell us that an email announcing an event is useful when it arrives … but that a week later, it may be buried under dozens of other messages—or forgotten completely. 

The Regimental Calendar provides a permanent place to find the current information. If something changes, the calendar entry can be updated so everyone has one dependable source of information. 

Visitors can: 

● add an individual event to a personal calendar; or 

● subscribe to the Regimental Calendar using Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook or another supported calendar. 

Downloading an event places it on your device calendar. Subscribing is even more useful: events on the regimental calendar appear alongside your personal calendar automatically, with changes synchronized by your calendar service. 

Please check the calendar regularly—or better still, subscribe to it. 

Regimental history on the calendar 

The calendar also marks important dates in Regimental history. These Historic Date entries provide an account of what happened on a particular day and why it matters to The Regiment (and therefore to you). As a result, the calendar serves as both a guide to upcoming activities and as a tool through which we can all learn about the history of the 48th Highlanders. 

What belongs on the calendar 

Almost anything that could interest some part (big or small) of the extended 48th Highlanders community should be considered. An event does not need to be something like a a major parade or formal dinner. 

Possibilities include: 

● mess dinners and luncheons; 

● Museum exhibitions and programs; 

● military or Regimental history lectures; 

● battlefield presentations and tours; 

● book launches and author talks; 

● reunions and homecomings; 

● memorial services, funerals and celebrations of life; 

● cadet events; 

● IODE events; 

● St. Andrew’s Society events; 

● pipe-band and military-band concerts; 

● Highland games; 

● ceilidhs and Burns suppers; 

● military institute lectures and conferences; 

● charitable and fundraising events; 

● volunteer opportunities; 

● recruiting and public-information events; 

● golf tournaments and other sporting events; 

● online lectures, webinars and livestreams; 

● informal luncheons and pub nights; 

● reunions (formal or informal, big or small) of people who served together; 

● opportunities to reconnect former members; and 

● anything else that might bring members of the 48th family together. 

We note that publicizing small events by way of the calendar is valuable and encouraged. A gathering of six people can be just as worthwhile to those six people as a dinner attended by two hundred. 

We also want to publicize, through the calendar, suitable events organized by related organizations. If the 48th Cadets, IODE, St. Andrew’s Society, a veterans’ group, a military museum, a Highland society or another organization is holding something that may interest our community, please submit it for consideration. 

The rule of thumb that we recommend be applied is “When in doubt, submit it”. Don’t worry about the possible level of interest in the event you are thinking of. The most important consideration is that we want to get the news out there regarding events that are going on. Making people aware of an event through the use of the calendar gives them the ability to choose whether or not they wish to attend. The calendar administrator will review every submission before publication, so don’t worry about grammatical or spelling errors!. 

Help us build the calendar 

Registered website members can use Submit an Event to propose an entry. The easy-to-complete form guides you through the information required. 

If details change after publication, a Calendar Revision Request can be submitted so that the calendar entry remains current. 

We encourage event organizers to treat the calendar entry as the complete and authoritative source of information regarding an event. Emails and social-media posts can draw attention to an event and direct people to it, but people lose, delete or forget emails. The calendar is always there, 24/7/365. 

The more complete the calendar entry, the more useful it will be. Don’t worry, though, about waiting for all available details to be finalized before you submit an event for inclusion. For example, an initial submission can simply serve a “Save the Date” function. Further detail can be provided by subsequent updated submissions. In the meantime, though, people will be aware of the upcoming event. 

RSVP is easy 

When an event requires an RSVP, no website login is needed. To RSVP, you simply need to complete the short RSVP form on the event page and follow the instructions you will automatically receive. Completing the RSVP form helps the organizer maintain an accurate attendance list for catering, seating, capacity and other arrangements. As well, if your plans change, cancelling your RSVP is easy. 

Help us to make the calendar the useful tool it can be! 

The Regimental Calendar will be most useful when it consistently contains worthwhile information. You can help make that happen! All you need to do is to think about, and then submit, information regarding upcoming events … military, social, professional, sporting … indeed, anything … which may be of interest to members of the Regimental Family. By telling us (through your submissions for the calendar) what is happening, you can play a valuable role in strengthening the bonds and bridges among all of us. 

More submissions produce a better calendar. A better calendar attracts more readers. More readers produce better attendance and stronger Regimental connections. 

Please visit https://48thhighlanders.ca/events/, add or subscribe to the calendar, use RSVP when required and submit events that others might otherwise miss. 

The Regimental Calendar should become the first place our community looks to answer one simple question: 

“What is happening that I might be interested in attending?” 

Let’s all work towards ensuring that the calendar always provides a quick and easy … and complete … response to that question! 

Save this date for your next day on the Borden ranges with fellow veterans, family and friends. Building on the interest from our previous range days, we have booked bays at Langemark Range to enable us to use 5.56 mm rifles and 9 mm handguns. This event is being run by the Royal Regiment of Canada Association, and there will be folks from the Queen’s York Rangers Assocuation attending as well.

Our recent range days have been resounding successes, offering among other things a chance to meet up with friends you may have served with over the years. For those not familiar with handgiuns, we will provide familiarization and coaching while on the firing line. Coffee will be available to start your day, and we remind you that there is a Tim Horton’s on the base. At conclusion of our day on the range, you can have a drink and something to eat at a local restaurant/bar on base. It’s the perfect time and place to share memories and exaggerate your shooting scores! Feel free to bring snacks, water, etc. so that they are available to you while you are on the range.

WHERE: CFB BORDEN, LANGEMARK RANGE 

COST: $20.00 per person plus 50 cents a round (for 9 mm pistol) and $1.00 a round for the rifle. Please bring cash or cheque or both (cash is preferred). 

WHEN: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2026, starting at 0900 HRS … please be on time. In compliance with range guidelines, all participants must receive a Range Safety Briefing. 

DRESS: Dress for the weather. If you have hearing protection, please bring it with you. We will have some available as a backup. Bring a poncho or similar rain protection (especially for prone shotting), as dictated by the weather. 

RSVP/QUESTIONS: Please e-mail WO Peter Ross, CD (ret’d), Special Events Coordinator, 48th Highlanders of Canada Regimental Association,
[email protected]

CLICK HERE FOR THE CALENDAR LINK

Celebrate 135 years of faithful service by The Regiment and its members on Friday, October 16 at Moss Park Armoury. Enjoy open messes, a commemorative 135th anniversary coin, regimental traditions and some birthday cake. Reserve a spot for yourself on the Regimental website today so that we can track numbers for attendance and ensure that we have anniversary treats for everyone. We encourage you to take public transit to the Armoury, as on-site parking will not be available. Come on out for a fun evening with old friends and renewed acquaintances.

CLICK HERE to indicate that YOU WILL BE ATTENDING

CLICK HERE for more info about October 16, 1891

All active and retired warrant officers and sergeants of The Regiment are invited to attend the 135th Anniversary Mess Dinner to be held at Moss Park Armoury on Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 1700 hrs. Tariff (Editor’s Note: ‘Tariff” seems like an unfortunate choice of words!): $120 per person

RSVP, by 10 October, on the Regimental Calendar. There you will find full details. You will also be able to record your menu choice. The Regimental Calendar is available at https://48thhighlanders.ca/events/ For more information regarding the dinner, contact WO Kyle Kowalenko at [email protected] or at 647-201-5546.

Details will follow in a future issue of Dileas Despatches, but mark your calendars now for both the commemorative Service at the Regimental Memorial in Mount Pleasant on Saturday, November 7 and at the Regimental Monument at Queen’s Park on Sunday, November 8. All members of the Regimental Family and members of the public attending the Sunday, November 8 Service of Remembrance at the Regimental Monument at the north end of Queen’s Park are invited to, and welcome at, a reception immediately following the Service. We encourage all Highlanders to attend these important and solemn occasions honouring our Fallen.

CLICK HERE for more info about the 7 November event

CLICK HERE for more info about the 8 November event

Saturday, November 21, 2026 1800 hrs – 0130 hrs (22 Nov)

Fairmont Royal York

The annual St. Andrew’s Charity Ball is hosted by the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto in partnership with The Regiment. In accordance with tradition, The Regiment’s Pipes and Drums will provide all the music for the evening’s dancing. 

The evening will begin at 1800 hrs with a cocktail reception. This will be followed by dinner (including haggis) between 1900 hrs and 2100 hrs. Guests will retire to the lounge area for drinks and socializing at the dinner’s conclusion. Dancing will begin at 2200 hrs after the room is changed over from dinner to dancing. Festivities will continue until 0130 hrs.Tickets may be purchased online through the Eventbrite ticketing platform.

Dance practices this year will be held as follows:

Tuesday, October 27 2000 hrs – 2200 hrs Moss Park Armoury 

Tuesday, November 3 2000 hrs – 2200 hrs Moss Park Armoury

Saturday, November 7 1500 hrs – 1700 hrs Glenview Presbyterian Church (1 Glenview Avenue, Toronto (near Yonge and Lawrence)) 

Tuesday, November 17 2000 hrs – 2200 hrs Moss Park Armoury

Please note that you have the option of buying a “Dance Only” ticket for this event. A dinner and dancing ticket may be purchased for $275. An $80 Cèilidh (i.e., “Dance Only”) is available for those who wish to arrive after 2100 hrs, once the dinner has concluded. 

Questions about the Ball? You can direct them to

[email protected]

Now that we have your attention (love letters are always an attention grabber), we want to let you know about “The November Project”, a theatre production focused on the triumphs and tragedies of Canadians at home and at war during WW II. Particular attention is paid to the 48th Highlanders’ role in the conflict. It is based on over 300 love letters written by a 48th Highlander to his wife in Toronto.

The production is part narration and part musical. It has been put together to reflect the personal and military sacrifices during the conflict. The show is scored with 1940s music, featuring a ukulele orchestra. All the music is based on tunes from the era. Apparently, members of The Regiment would sing many of these tunes together during their downtime. It is a remarkable and moving show. It’s also a show that highlights the oddities and unusual challenges associated with living through wartime. For example, if you leave for service overseas without any available form of communication with your pregnant wife apart from snail mail, how is it that the two of you name the child when it takes six weeks for letters to travel each way across an ocean? And how do you tell your wife that a beautiful beach on the Sicilian shoreline reminds you of a Lake Ontario beach you visited while honeymooning with her, when three of your fellow Highlanders were killed on that beach the previous day? The November Project explores these and other extraordinary stories through letters that kept a Toronto couple connected during World War Two. Francis (aka Frank) Horgan served with The Regiment in Europe from 1943 to the end of the war, eventually being patriated to Canada in 1946. Throughout Frank’s service, his wife, “Peachie”, remained at home

in Toronto with their child. Despite the fighting, Frank faithfully and regularly wrote home to Peachie in Parkdale. He sent more than 300 letters that captured the love, uncertainty and hardship of life during the conflict. 

This event is presented by the St. Andrew’s Society of Toronto and is open to the public. Advance tickets are $20 for members of the Regimental Family. Door tickets will be $30 pending availability. 

We encourage all members of the Regimental Family to attend this event. It will be held at the Rivoli Theatre, 332-334 Queen Street West (north side of Queen Street, just east of Spadina Avenue). Showtime is 8:00 pm on Wednesday, October 7 (Doors open at 7:30 pm). Come on out with your fellow Highlanders and experience life for a Highlander at the front and for his wife on the home front during The Regiment’s campaigns in Italy and Northwest Europe from 1943 to the end of WW II. 

For tickets call Brendan Fyfe at 416-432-7082.

As Highlanders, we are very familiar with the brave and determined stand by the 15th Infantry Battalion, C.E.F. (The 48th Highlanders of Canada) at St. Julien, Belgium on April 24, 1915. The 15th Battalion, entrenched at the apex of the Canadian Line in the St. Julien sector, faced and withstood the first German chlorine gas attack of the war. Only 150 men were able to answer roll call in the immediate aftermath of the attack. For its bravery and collective heroism in response to that attack, The Regiment was awarded its St. Julien battle honour.

That summary, however, doesn’t do justice to the true horror experienced by the men of the 15th Battalion that day. The war diary entry for April 27, 1915 provides a stark indication of the terrible battle conditions endured by our predecessor Highlanders during that fateful gas attack:

In Trenches _ _ _ April 27/15 _ _ _ Enemy shelled village and trenches

W1EJ2E _ _ _ 0730 _ _ _ Battalion relieved from trenches and marched to Transport

Total casualties for April 22nd – 23rd + 24th/15

Killed _ _ _ 1 Officer _ _ _ 16 Other Ranks

Wounded _ _ _ 5 Officers _ _ _ 19 Other Ranks

Missing _ _ _ 11 Officers _ _ _ 639 Other Ranks

Total _ _ _ 17 Officers _ _ _ 674 Other Ranks

Warm and Fine

[signed] W.R. Marshall

A/ LCol

Some sobering numbers indeed. The numbers make it much easier to understand why the men who were there were not inclined to talk about it. Think of them and commemorate them when you next see a presentation of our St. Julien battle honour (click for more info).

Dileas gu brath

In recent issues of Dileas Despatches, we have outlined various common Gaelic expressions, the use of which can help to build our unique Highland traditions and increase our regimental identity and esprit de corps. 

You may not be aware, though, of the story of how three Scottish soldiers, serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the Battle of France in 1940, used their command of Scottish Gaelic to actually escape German captivity. 

In 1940, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were a component of the British Expeditionary Force’s 51st Highland Division. The Battle of France was not kind to the 51st Highland Division. Of an original strength of approximately 10,000 men, the division lost at least 5,000 men either killed, wounded or captured during the Battle of France. 

Three captured Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were Private William Kemp, Cpl Sandy MacDonald, and Lance Cpl James Wilson. The men came from Ballachulish (just west of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands), and were all native speakers of Scottish Gaelic. 

After their initial capture by the Germans, the three Scots managed a brief initial escape, during which they managed to ditch their military uniforms and were able to switch to civilian clothes supplied by a sympathetic local French family. Once rounded up by the Germans for a second time, though, the soldiers used their Gaelic language skills to befuddle the Germans and eventually win their freedom. 

As told in William Kemp’s memoir published after the war, Kemp, MacDonald and Wilson responded to all questions from their captors in Gaelic, eventually convincing the Germans that they were Ukrainians who had been working as labourers in France. This subterfuge was achieved by the soldiers pointing to Ukraine on a map presented by the Germans; the three captives assumed that by showing them a map, the Germans were trying to determine where the men came from. By pointing to Ukraine, the soldiers convinced the Germans that they were actually from Ukraine. Although Ukraine was at that time a part of the Soviet Union, Germany was not yet at war with the Soviet Union, since the German invasion of the Soviet Union did not commence until the summer of 1941. The Germans therefore released the three men. 

The three Scots then travelled through France to Spain, where they were eventually able to contact a British consulate and make their way back to the UK. MacDonald and Kemp were subsequently awarded the Military Medal for their bravery and ingenuity in using their Scottish Gaelic skills to confound and ultimately prevail over their German captors. 

So don’t be afraid to pick up some Gaelic skills from this column going forward … you never know when you might be able to put your newly-acquired Gaelic skills to good use! 

Caber Feidh (pronounced “KAH-bur FAY”), Scottish Gaelic for “”Stag’s Antler”, is one of the great traditional pipe tunes of the Highland regiments, including the 48th Highlanders of Canada. Interestingly, the stag’s head and antlers are the emblem of the Clan MacKenzie, the motto of which is Cuidich ‘n Righ (pronounced “koo-jich un REE” ) … “Help the King”.

The tune itself dates back to the early 1700’s, when it first appeared as a fiddle tune. Highland pipe settings of the tune first appeared in the nineteenth century. By the time of the First World War, the tune was a standard element of nearly every Highland regiment’s pipe tune repertoire.

The tune gained fame during WW I when it was regularly played in battle conditions. For example, at the Battle of Loos in 1915, Caber Feidh was played by a piper of the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders (Piper McLean), who exorted his fellow Highlanders with the battle cry “At them, lads” before piping his battalion over the top and into no man’s land during an attack.

You will regularly hear this tune being played by the Pipes and Drums. Its origins as a fiddle tune give it a distinctive structural rhythm with an aggressive, driving momentum. It’s that momentum which traditionally led to the use of the tune as a signal to charge the enemy in battle.

You can listen to this tune at the following link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCOEufYavhw

When you next hear it being played by the Pipes and Drums, perk up, steady yourself, and get ready for the attack!

⛶

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