Tuesday 18 January 2022

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 the direction of CFB Kingston, 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 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.

2 comments:

  1. Well done Eric. I enlarge the picture with your Dad taking the shot ... wish he was facing the camera! Enjoyed your pictorial.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, that's not my Dad out in the street. Sorry if that caption is a bit unclear. He would not jump out there like that, he's firmly behind the camera taking these shots!
    Thanks for your comment and your suggestion,
    Eric

    ReplyDelete

I'm happy to hear from you. Got a comment about the Hanley Spur? Please sign your first name so I can respond better.