Heritage Papers

The Heritage Papers

The Library of the Royal Canadian Military Institute, which came into existence in 1890 by inheriting the 200 volume Militia Institute Library, has come to be the largest privately owned library and archive of military history in Canada. Among its 30,000 volumes are many unique primary sources contained in the RCMI Archival collection, which include regimental histories and other documents that exist in typescript form, or were privately published, and exist in few, if any, other libraries in Canada. The Institute has, therefore, undertaken a Heritage Publishing initiative – as part of the Defence Studies's Canadian Military Heritage Studies research agenda – to make these unique Archival resources available to Canadian and foreign researchers through their publication in The Heritage Papers series.

Three projects are currently underway:

(i) The Search for Colonel Turner

The Institute has been fortunate to have been given access to a unique Canadian heritage item, the transcript of "A Diary of My Service" by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Barker Turner KH, who had fought in the Peninsular Campaign and ended his service with two Canadian appointments: Inspecting Field Officer of Militia in New Brunswick, and then as Commander of the Eastern District of Upper Canada immediately after the Rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada.

The Institute is conducting additional research in the Institute Library collections sources regarding Colonel Turner's career in the British Army after the Peninsular campaign; and in the National Archives of C anada, and the Provincial Archives of Ontario and New Brunswick concerning his military career and subsequent civilian life in Canada.


(ii) The History of the 6th LAA Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery

The second is the preparation for publication, in e-book form, of “The History of the 6th LAA Regiment,” which is one of the unpublished documents, except in mimeographed form, in the Institute Archives related to the history of the Canadian Army during the Second World War.

(iii) The History of the 2nd Survey Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery

The Institute has also acquired the draft manuscript of this history, which was a unit of the Canadian Army deployed in Europe during the Second World War, written by Colonel Donald Cambridge, a former Honorary Colonel of 7th Toronto Regiment RCA, a current Reserve unit which perpetuates 2nd Survey Regiment. Colonel Cambridge was also a past President of the Royal Canadian Military Institute

This document, which will require additional editing before publication, will make a valuable addition to the Institute’s Heritage holdings, as there has been no other history ever written on this artillery regiment.