Regimental Headquarters

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11th Field Artillery Regiment
Guelph, Ontario

The first Guelph Artillery unit was created on July 20, 1866, with the founding of the Guelph Battery of Garrison Artillery, which was allocated as No. 1 Company of the 30th Wellington Battalion of Rifles. On 7 August 1866, the Battery commanded by Captain Barclay, met their first drill under the direction of Lieutenant Armstrong of the Wellington Rifles. In 1871, the Battery detached from the Battalion and became the Wellington Battery of Artillery.

The first reorganization of the Battery occurred in 1880 when it became No. 1 Field Battery of the 1st Provincial Brigade of Field Artillery. No. 1 Field Battery was later redesignated No. 11 Battery and on February 2, 1920, the Battery was reorganized and redesignated the 29th Battery CFA. It continues today as the 29th Field Battery.

In 1899 a number of gunners from the Wellington Battery, including Lieutenant John McCrae, together with gunners from Ottawa, London and Port Hope, joined the newly formed “D” Battery in order to serve in the South African War. In one skirmish, his right section silenced the Boer guns near Rustenburg. During his service with “D” Battery, he established a close friendship with Lieutenant (later Major General Sir) E.W.B. Morrison, from Ottawa, who commanded the left section which saw action at the famous battle of Leliefontein in support of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. During WWI, the now Lieutenant-Colonel E.W.B. Morrison, in command of the 1st Artillery Brigade C.F.A, asked McCrae to join him as his medical officer. In the Spring of 1915, during the heaviest fighting of the second battle of the Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders, McCrae and his dressing station were within sight of the Canadian cemetery. As the fighting continued, McCrae had his hands full caring for the wounded, and he watched with dismay as the little wooden crosses daily grew more numerous. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom around the graves. After seventeen exhausting days, and the loss of a close friend, he sat down and wrote his immortal poem “In Flanders Fields”, which was published by Punch magazine that December. After McCrae’s death in England in 1918, Morrison gathered his belongings, including one of the original lead printing plates used by Punch magazine to print his poem. This plate now resides in the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum.

Another field battery still proudly serving is the 16th Battery, which traces its origin to the Ontario Battery of Field Artillery, organized on 22 March 1878. With the formation of the 1st Provisional Brigade of Field Artillery in 1880, the Ontario Battery became No. 2 Field Battery. No. 2 Field Battery was later redesignated No. 16 Battery, retaining this number today.

In April 1913, the brigade was redesignated as the 1st (Howitzer) Brigade CFA with the batteries becoming the 11^th and 16th (Howitzer) Batteries CFA.

In the reorganization of 1920, the Brigade was redesignated the 11th Brigade CFA. The 11th (Howitzer) Battery became the 29th Battery; the 16th (Howitzer) Battery became the 16th Battery; the Ammunition Column was redesignated the 11th Brigade Ammunition Column CFA; the 43rd and 63rd Batteries were added to the Brigade and the 13 Siege Battery CA was attached. This was the largest establishment on record for the Regiment.

In July 1925, the brigade was redesignated the 11th Field Brigade CA and in March 1935 the Ammunition Column disbanded.

At the outbreak of war in 1939, the 29th Field Battery CASF was mobilized and became part of the 3rd Army Field Brigade commanded by LCol C.D. Crowe, who had been a commander of the 29th Battery. The Brigade went overseas in 1940 and shortly afterward had its name changed to the 11th Army Field Regiment at the request of General A.G.L. McNaughton who had commanded the 11th Brigade in the First World War. The 29th Battery remained with the 11th Army Field Regiment throughout the campaigns in Sicily, Italy and Northwest Europe, where they claim to have been the first Regiment of the 1st Canadian Corps from Italy to be in action on German soil.

The 16th and 43rd Batteries were mobilized together as the 16/43 Battery in May 1940 under command of Major O.M. McConkey, a veteran gunner of the First World War. This Battery was allotted to the 12th Canadian Field Regiment but later separated into the two constituent batteries. The 12th Field Regiment later became part of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division and took part in the D-Day assault on “Fortress Europe”. On that famous 6th of June 1944, the 16th Battery was commanded by Major J.D. Ross and the 43rd by Major A.G. Goldie.

The 65th Battery was mobilized in the summer of 1941 under command of Major R. Ozburn. It went overseas during July 1943 as part of the 19th Field Regiment (SP) and supported the landings on D-Day of the 3rd Infantry Division using 105mm self-propelled guns, and later was equipped with 25-pounder SPs. As an Army Regiment most of the work was with the 3rd Division and the 4th Armored Division.

In 1942 and army reorganization, redesignated the 11th Field Brigade as the 11th Field regiment, and on April 12^th 1960, the present name of the unit, the 11th Field Artillery Regiment, became the official designation.

1970 was a significant year for the Regiment. Additional army reorganization called for the amalgamation of the 8th Field Artillery Regiment of Hamilton with the 11th Field Artillery Regiment of Guelph. The 8th Field Artillery Regiment had its own contribution to make to the already fine traditions of Guelph.

Before it was formed in 1855 as the Hamilton Field Battery, it was known as the Hamilton Volunteer Field Artillery and was then what in the early days was called a “cannon company”, that was an independent Corps with a single field piece. (It is one of the oldest Militia Units in Ontario.) The Battery went on to become the 11th Field Battery, senior battery in the Regiment. Before World War I, one of the Lieutenants of the Battery was H.D.G. Crerar, better known as General Caesar. During World War II, the 11th Field Battery was one of the batteries to land on D-Day as part of 12 RCA of the Third Division.