Here's something to listen to on this Remembrance Day. My eldest brother belonged to the PPCLI for most of his military career, so it is fitting that I add this to the family blog. Next August the regiment will be celebrating its 100th anniversary, and this song was commissioned by the Colonel in Chief of the Regiment, the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, to commemorate the occasion.
It features some of the wives of serving members of the PPCLI singing in this. The title of the song, "Ric-a-dam-doo", is the name of the Regimental Colours, reportedly from the Gaelic for "cloth of your mother", and Princess Patricia herself made the flag.
Thank you for posting this. Princess Patricia was the daughter of the Earl of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria. Her father was the Governor-General of Canada in the years leading up to and for the first part of WW I. Her mother was not often seen in public and so Patricia was often seen attending public functions with her father. History records that she was young and attractive and quickly captured the imagination of the Canadian public. When the Regiment was founded (it was raised privately and given to the Government of Canada), she made the ric-a-dam-doo herself and presented it to the Regiment to be used as a Camp Colour. The original is on display at the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. The camp colour was reputedly taken to every battle fought by the Patricia's in WWI. In the picture you have selected above, Patricia is attaching a brass adornment in the shape of a laurel wreath to the top of the pole. It was March 1919 and the war was over, but the Regiment had not yet sailed back to Canada from Britain. The laurel wreath was suitably inscribed to commemorate the service in WW I. For the students of history, fixtures such as this to a unit colour (or standard) dates back to the Roman armies, but had been discontinued for many years. Patricia added this device to her colour and replicas of it are still mounted atop the Regimental colour of each battalion today. (From the vast cavern of Regimental trivia of your oldest brother)
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