The Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS), the Department of History and the Chief of Information Office have partnered with the Toronto-based non-profit TWR which has staged the project annually since 2014. The 2018 display — the final in the five-year TWR project — also includes official war deaths from 1919 to 1922, as thousands later died of wounds or diseases they contracted in the conflict.

Manitoba and the University lost many in the wars. The University of Manitoba has a war history. At the outbreak of the war (1914), it appointed a Committee on Military Instruction to teach military science and tactics and, on March 15, 1915, the U of M officially established the Canadian Officers Training Corps (COTC), with eight companies of 60 men led by Professor Edwin P. Fetherstonhaugh as captain and adjutant to serve as a training ground for both WWI and WWII. The First World War memorial on Chancellor Matheson is testament to the sacrifices of many of its students, faculty and staff.

Display of names

Three screens at the University of Manitoba have been dedicated to the TWR commemoration from mid-September to Remembrance Day, November 11, running for a total of 61 days. On the Fort Garry campus one is on the second floor in UMSU University Centre, near Tim Hortons and the second is located near Starbucks in Dafoe Library. The third, on the Bannatyne campus, is located near the circulation desk at the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library. Over 16,000 names appear each day on screen. The name display is interrupted every fifteen minutes with a First World War photo that displays for 25 seconds.

From Canada, 23,731 soldiers, nurses and military personnel lost their lives in 1918. These names are displayed alongside the names of those from other countries. Every 90 seconds a Canadian name appears. Each day, 398 Canadian names are shown.

“By displaying the names of the military war dead from both sides in nations around the world for the first time in history, we will not only remember but we will also honour shared histories,” reads a statement on the website.

“Manitoba, as a province, has one of the most significant commonwealth grave sites outside of Europe reflective of the selfless sacrifice of so many Manitobans and Canadians who gave their lives to defend principles we take for granted today. It is imperative, especially as the memory of war fades, that we commemorate the millions who died, the indefatigable spirit of those left at home, and the courageous decisions made by many that allow us today, the luxury to remember these souls,” shared Andrea Charron, Director CDSS.

The University of Manitoba display is sponsored by CDSS, Information Services and Technology, the Office of the Chief Information Office, Department of Political Studies, Department of History and the Libraries.

The display will be staged at more than sixty participating locations across Canada including government offices, libraries, museums and several other Canadian universities such as Memorial, Concordia and The Royal Military College of Canada.

Members of the public looking for specific family names or other individuals and times when those names will be displayed can go to the TWR website.

Panel discussion

As part of Remembrance Day activities on campus, CDSS is also hosting a panel discussion on the topic of World War I, Then & Now on Thursday, November 8 at 10:00 am in Room 231 Isbister Building. Panel members include:

• Andrea Charron, Director, Centre for Defence and Security Studies
• Jim Fergusson, Deputy-Director, Centre for Defence and Security Studies
• Stephan Jaegar, Head, Department of German & Slavic Studies
• Adam Muller, Professor, Mauro Centre for Peace & Justice

The panel will discuss how the war has shaped Canada, the way we think about war and our world today.

Bell ringing

In 1918, bells rang to celebrate the end of the First World War. At the setting of the sun on November 11, 2018, bells will ring in communities across Canada to remember. At UM, St. Paul’s College will ring it’s bells at sunset. 

As we lead up to November 11 and the 100th anniversary of WWI, the war to end all wars, partake in Remembrance Day 2018 activities and visit the three UM locations to see the moving TWR tribute.

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Read about the official Canadian launch of The World Remembers in the Globe & Mail (September 14, 2018).

This article was updated on November 2, 2018 to add information on the bell ringing.

A typical university graduation ceremony features hundreds of graduands in their institution’s gowns and hoods, with tasseled mortar boards on their heads. Valedictorians offer words of encouragement and advice to students going outward into the world.

But if you were already “into the world,” in a strange and hostile landscape, facing death and destruction at every turn, how would a graduation ceremony hold meaning?

In 1917, soldiers who left their studies at St. John’s College in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and who had completed their courses, were eligible to be granted their degrees in absentia from Canadian universities. But some of their comrades decided to “reproduce in France the solemn ceremonies that were being carried out in Western Canada.” 

“It was a creative way of keeping morale up, especially considering what circumstances these people were dealing with constantly”

The mock convocation was held in their camp, with degrees “conferred” upon five University of Manitoba students who were members of the Eleventh Canadian Field Ambulance. The men had left Winnipeg exactly one year earlier, and would have been graduating at home had they not been called up for duty. These included: Albert Roland Hall (BA/1917), John Gordon Andison (BA/1917, MA/1920), John Edward Cooper (BA/1917, BD/1923), Herbert James Tomkins (BA/1917), and George Gordon Grigg (BA/1917).

The “Convocation at the Front” was described by St. John’s College alumnus Albert Roland Hall in the college magazine in August 1918. It came from a wartime diary discovered by Raymond Currie, dean emeritus of arts, while researching his father’s military career.

“It was a creative way of keeping morale up, especially considering what circumstances these people were dealing with constantly,” said Currie. “Education was important to them and their education was so terribly interrupted. I think it is quite poignant.”

On May 14, 1917, not far from the battlefield and “well within the sound of the guns,” the author of the diary recorded a “side-splitting procession of soldiers marching round the camp, camouflaged in scholars’ gowns and hoods manufactured out of everything from a sandbag to a canvas waterbucket.”

The ersatz formal event included speeches, of course. “The opening address by the Chancellor, Dr. Fletcher, delivered in the finest Latin, though Greek to most, will not soon be forgotten,” the diary reads. “The speech of the monocled Minister of Education, the right Hon. Howard Winkler, BSA, was an excellent example of what a public servant can do in the line of manipulating the truth when he really tries.”

“a side-splitting procession of soldiers marching round the camp, camouflaged in scholars’ gowns and hoods manufactured out of everything from a sandbag to a canvas waterbucket”

The diary went on to note: “The granting of the honorary degrees (fictitious in this instance) afforded an evening’s entertainment in itself. Dr. Hyslop in presenting Albertus Edwardus Johnson very humourously indicated that gentleman’s worthiness to receive the degree of LLD (Dispenser of Light Literature). The regretted absence of Nobbus Clark Esq., necessitated the holding over of his degree of MSO (Master of Steak and Onions). It is believed that the gentleman was too busy cooking them to attend.”

Alas, the war could not be forgotten for long. The diarist described that following the festivities: 

“’Old Fritz’ did not fail to greet us almost nightly by way of the air. The proximity of the Villers aerodrome, to where the hun used to follow our returning bombers, made for unpleasant interruption in the dreams of Chateau sleepers. Picture the scene: a Nissen hut, the floor of which is covered with sleeping soldiers rolled in blankets. Soon every man is awake from the horrid, rhythmic droning of a boche-bombing plane… Every man is awake with the noise and, make no mistake, quite fearful.”

The article about the Convocation at the Front is on the Archives & Special Collections website.