1st CSR Freedom of the City - June, 1975

On June 21, 1975 the 1st Canadian Signal Regiment was granted the Freedom of the City of Kingston. After beginning the ceremony by marching to City Hall from Royal Military College's parade square, the parade was ceremonially stopped by the Chief Constable just before City Hall. This ancient custom allowed the duly-permitted military formation to pass through the city with drums beating, beyonets fixed and colours flying. But first, speeches! The furled, encased colours can be seen just above the third soldier's head (top photo).

His Worship Mayor George Speal inspected 315 members of the regiment on its march-past. The flying colours can be seen just above the crouching civilian in the street! A few steps later, the photographer, who was also my Dad, L.C. Gagnon, snaps the same scene in black & white on his Kodak Instamatic cameras, one loaded with B&W, the other with slide film. My brother David kindly scanned many of his slides and provided me with digital copies.

The band of the 709 (Toronto) Communications Regiment provides the music as the march-past continues.

After circling City Hall and the market square block, the parade then went up Brock Street, across Montreal Street, then down Princess Street before returning to the base. In these two photos, they pass our family's vantage point at Market Street on King Street. Note the Kingston Transit bus:

The regiment marches proudly down Princess Street...

...followed by the scarlet-coated band and another Kingston Transit bus:

Such civic-military ceremonies not only enlivened the downtown. They also reinforced the strong ties between the units based in Kingston and its citizenry, with a nod to historical customs reaching back to the early years of the British military presence in Kingston and before.