1 CSR Freedom of the City - August, 1984

On Friday August 3, 1984 1 Canadian Signal Regiment was granted the Freedom of the City of Kingston. The regiment approached Confederation Park on Ontario Street at 7 p.m. (where we stood - top photo), with bayonets fixed, flags flying and drums beating. Greeted by Deputy Police Chief Wilfred Kealey at the foot of Brock Street, regimental commanding officer Lt-Col J.A. Tappin read the Freedom declaration granted to the regiment in 1975 and 1979 before the parade was allowed to 'enter the city'. Colonel of the Regiment P.H. Sutton took the salute before beating the hilt of his ceremonial sword three times on the doors of City Hall as part of the ancient English ritual. The door swinging open and the regiment was warmly received by Mayor John Gerretsen, who accompanied him on an inspection.

The regiment had been established in Kingston as early as 1958, and was the only Mobile Command (Army) unit in this area. A British exchange officer (above) and one-half of the huge (by today's standards) Drums following the colours:

In the distance, the first half of the FHG Drums leads the parade past the foot of Clarence Street, before they turned right to circle the block.

The Vimy Band trails, performing in front of City Hall before a roll-by of vehicles.

The roll-by included Bombardier-built MLVW's:

Headquarters including despatch riders:

Returning to Barriefield past Empire Life on King Street East:

And the first shall come last:

A Whig-Standard clipping of the Freedom of the City published July 31 (below). A follow-up account by Lyndon Jones was published on August 9. By comparison, last weekend's Freedom for the now-titled Canadian Joint Signal Regiment received zero publicity until being shown on Global Kingston nightly news. Who knew?! Security reasons? Foiling protesters? Whatever the reason, public participation was resultantly scant.

2024-style: Two pipers, not two bands(!) and one drummer made keeping in step difficult.

The regiment again exercised its Freedom of the City in 1989 with 263 members on parade for the unit's 75th anniversary; RMC in 1976; the PWOR in 2013; 2 RCHA was granted the privilege in 1983, 1991 and 1996; the entire Kingston Garrison in 2006. Other units such as HMCS Cataraqui also had poorly-publicized Freedoms in recent years.

The next day, Saturday August 4, static setups of camouflaged regimental signals vehicles were on display for members of the public in City Park:

Active displays. Line trucks and despatch riders (above) and weapons in engineer APC:

Generations from now, decontextualized viewers of this photo of the active firearms display will surmise that our county seat of justice was the subject of a coup by armed soldiers!

Personal anti-tank weapon, FN C2, FN C1, Sterling SMG and pistol (above).