Rear Admiral Paul Maddison was reading a newspaper last summer when he came across an article that piqued his interest.
A career navy man, he was keenly interested to see an article about a facet of Canada’s military history he had never heard about before, a battalion made up of black volunteers who were not allowed to join regular forces during the First World War.
Maddison admitted it was embarrassing for him not to have known about the Black Battalion and the memorial ceremony held every year in conjunction with the Pictou Lobster Carnival.
He was determined to correct the matter immediately.
“I am not proud to admit that until recently, I knew nothing about the Black Battalion, other than their name,” Maddison said.
“I told my aides the following day that the next year, we would be there.”
Maddison followed through on his promise, on Saturday packing the deCoste Centre where the ceremony was held.
He brought with him three warships — the HMCS Glace Bay, Goose Bay and Moncton — and hundreds of military officers and his army counterpart, Brig.-Gen. Dave Neasmith.
Whether told bluntly that “this was a white man’s war” or more politely that, “we’ll call you if we need you,” countless black Canadian volunteers were flooding recruiting stations at the outbreak of war in 1914 — and being summarily rejected.
Few, if any, blacks were being permitted to serve their country.
But many persisted, lobbying tirelessly to be given the chance to do what they considered their patriotic duty.
Eventually they were told that they could join the war effort if they could gather together enough men to form a segregated battalion.
Five hundred men from Nova Scotia, 60 from Toronto, 350 from Ontario, and 50 from western Canada enlisted to form the No. 2 Construction Battalion on July 5, 1916, based out of Pictou.
Theirs was the only volunteer unit to engage in non-combative work before proceeding overseas.
On April 3, 1918 battalion members were recommended for transfer to the Western Front but the war ended shortly afterwards and troops started coming home.
The batallion was disbanded in September 1920.
Maddison, who has Nova Scotia roots, said he didn’t realize the racism that black Nova Scotians faced until he was older.
He says growing up he remembers his parents saying it was mostly an American problem, rooted in the history of slavery in that country, and that black Canadians were the descendants of freed slaves, so the problem was isolated to the south of the border.
“I took a long time to realize that wasn’t true,” Maddison told the people who filled the deCoste Centre to remember.
Keeping the memory of the men he called trailblazers alive was one of the reasons Maddison wanted to participate in the 16th memorial ceremony, but he also wanted to deliver a message of hope.
“Just as it’s important for us not to forget, it’s also important to look forward optimistically,” he said.
“We are working to build bridges within the African Nova Scotian community. We have the opportunity, the commitment and the trust to ensure that there is no impediment to African Nova Scotians who wish to better understand the military.”
Canadian Press
