Original Photo: 

This photo is part of a partnership between Urban Toronto as part of "Heritage Toronto Mondays".

During the Great War (1914 -1918), Canadian men and women participated in the war effort, both overseas and on the homefront. Patriotism ran high across the country and in Toronto's many neighbourhoods. Earlscourt located at St. Clair and Dufferin was reported to have the greatest proportion of men fighting in the war than any other area in Canada. This was partly due to recent immigration from British Isles. The hard working immigrants living there were still loyal to the Crown, despite having left for a better life in Canada.

In Earlscourt, it was reported that the Hughes school district had among the largest per capita enlistments in the country. Several organizations located in Earlscourt were formed to aid in the war effort including the Earlscourt Trench Comforts League and the Independent Women Workers Association of Earlscourt. During the war, residents of Earlscourt were known to gather each year at the Royal George Theatre to pay their respects to residents of Earlscourt who had fallen during the war. In 1917, it was recorded that on one block in this community, there were 24 widows.

The extraordinary contribution to the war effort by residents of Earlscourt was honoured by a visit of the Prince of Wales in August 1919. During his tour of Toronto, the Prince made a special visit to the area, paying respects to fallen soldiers at Prospect Cemetery on St. Clair Avenue. After planting a tree there, a local councillor told the Prince that: "Earlscourt has earned for itself an undying name for patriotism and loyalty to the Mother Country during the recent war, by having sent more soldiers to the world conflict than any other section of Canada, compared to its area."

As soon as the war was over, commemorative events took place across the country. Seen in this 1920 photo are mothers of soldiers from Earlscourt. Looking seriously at the camera, these women sit quietly in the motor car, as participants of the veterans' parade. By the following year, this annual parade became a central feature of the Canadian National Exhibition's newly named Warriors' Day. Starting in 1927, the Warriors' Day Parade has entered through the Princes' Gates honouring war veterans, and the more than 100,000 people who died in the Boer War, First World War and Second World Wars, and Korean War and peacekeeping missions.

Research by Maya Bibao