Bugle Major

48th Highlanders Bugle Band

1936-1939

Warring C. Tooze (1895-1986) joined the 48th Highlanders reserve battalion in 1914 as a bugler while also Bugle Major in the T. Eaton Company Cadet Corps. Proceeding overseas in 1916 as a bugler in the 134th Battalion, he was soon in the front lines with the 15th Battalion as drummer/bugler in the pipe band. He was wounded once on active service. Warrie was assigned the privilege of sounding “Cease Fire” at 11:00 on the morning of 11 November 1918. Warrie recalled that the battalion was in a rest area and  many of the soldiers did not know what the call meant. He was dismayed when they lined up at the cookhouse with mess tins expecting an early meal. After the war, he remained with the 48th as corporal drummer in the pipe band. Following a few years in the early 1930s as Trumpet Major for the RCASC, he returned as Bugle Major in 1936 to reenergize his Regiment’s Bugle Band. During the Second World War, he established the 48th Cadet Bugle Band and an RCAF Reserve Cadet Trumpet Band.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cam Fraser, recalling his days as a bugler said:“Those of us in the bugle band at that time will never forget how quickly Warrie reorganized, and in no time at all the 48th had a bugle band to rate among the best in Canada.” When war came again in September 1939, the band was dissolved once more, many of the buglers and drummers transferring to the Pipe band. On 11 November 1939, the buglers sounded Last Post at the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Toronto City Hall. It was their last official act. 

At age eighty-nine, Warrie proudly plays Last Post for the veterans at the Old Comrades Remembrance Day dinner on 5 November 1983.