THE POWDER HORN

Written By Steven Ye

Monthly Newsletter
July-August 2023

COMMANDING OFFICER’s UPDATE

The month of July saw many members of the Regiment attending courses as instructors or candidates. These courses range from Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) to Infantry leadership courses. Congratulations are in order for Cpl Taylor, who completed the 2-month long Basic Recce Patrolman course that was run by 2 RCR in CFB Gagetown. We would also like to wish good luck to our 5 members travelling to Rhode Island to participate in the Rhode Island National Guard Leapfest.  

I had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands with Captain James Flannery and WO (Ret’d) Phil ten Kortenaar to participate in the Nijmegen Four Days March. The weather was perfect, and all of us completed the March. In addition, we were able to visit Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery to visit our fallen, including Sgt Aubrey Cosens, VC.  We hope to bring a larger contingent next year. 

July also marks the 70th Anniversary of the Korean Armistice, which the QOR played a role in supporting. A great tribute has been created by the Museum that can viewed at this link. The Westlake Brothers Souvenir Association is currently visiting from Normandy, France and conducted commemorations at Moss Park Armoury and the Regimental Church, St Paul’s.

Our 80th Anniversary of Normandy Fundraising campaign is well on its way. A reminder: if you would like to sponsor a Rifleman or donate, please visit this page. In addition, we look forward to seeing many of you at the Regimental Golf Tournament on September 8th, 2023. We are still actively seeking sponsors and the spots are quickly filling up.

Finally, the Change of Command is confirmed at Casa Loma for 1100 on September 17th, 2023; more details to follow. This will mark the beginning of a new chapter for the Regiment. 

In Pace Paratus 

LCol Scott Moody, CD
Commanding Officer
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada

Regimental Newsletters 1959-1970

One of our goals is to provide access to archival materials that may have potential interest to researchers. We have been doing some of this through some pages on this website.

In the past year, however, our collections management database has been upgraded to allow us to add documents such as pdfs which can also be made available in the Public Access view - the one any visitor can see. So, where we have scanned certain documents, we can now provide the scans to researchers rather than just describe that record.

We recently scanned the seventy-three issues of the "Regimental Newsletter" which were published by the Regimental Depot between 25 November 1959 and 30 June 1970. These varied in size from the first issue of 2 pages to the last which was 88 pages. They cover more than half of the cold war period when the regiment consisted of a regular force training depot, two regular force battalions, and a militia battalion. These supplemented the annual "Powder Horn" publications (1960-1970) and provided information about, and often letters from, officers deployed or posted externally to the battalions, various postings, promotions, obituaries, cadet corps updates, museum reports, cartoons, and a host of other tidbits.

Another example of recently scanned material is several scrapbooks of news clippings of the 1910 Trip to England which have recently proved valuable to a researcher writing a book on the trip:

In addition, we can also add URLs to the record and again make them available in the Public Access View. That means if we've already uploaded scans to our website, we can just link to that from the collection record. We'll be working on updating those links in the future.

In the meantime, you can find a variety of materials on our Research and our Archivespage with past issues of the annual Rifleman Magazine and the Powder Horn newsletters (not the annual publication from 1960-1970 yet), nominal rolls, 19th Century Regimental Orders, diaries and memoirs, etc. We hope you'll find these useful and/or at least interesting reads!

You can find more information – and a Volunteer application form – on our museum website. Please visit our YouTube and Flickr page for the latest content.

If you have potential items for our Museum and Archive collection, please read this page and complete the online form, or contact us at museum@qormuseum.org.

16th ANNUAL QOR OF C GOLF TOURNAMENT

The 16th Annual Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Golf Tournament will be held on September 8th, 2023 at the Cardinal Golf Club (West Wing) in King, Ontario. The tournament will include 18 holes with a cart and dinner.  During the dinner, there will be a raffle, team prizes, and recognition of our sponsors. This year’s tournament is being held in support of the D+80 Campaign, which aims to deploy a 65-member contingent to Normandy, France for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day.

Date: September 8th, 2023
Location: Cardinal Golf Club (West Wing), 2740 Davis Dr W, King, ON L7B 0G7
Cost: $175 per player / $700 per foursome

Inclusive of 18 holes, cart, and dinner. 

Tickets now available.

The QOR Association—Toronto Branch

There will be a lot of activity over the summer, including the following events:

Please find below the itinerary of the Westlake Brothers Souvenir Association from Normandy, France. They will be in Toronto over 2 weekends: July 28th to August 1st and August 4th to 6th.  Their home base while in Toronto will be at RCL Branch 31, Mount Dennis (1050 Weston Road).  

  • Friday, July 28th – Visit to Casa Loma (Tour of Museum).

  • Saturday, July 29th will be a busy day. The first ceremony will be at Moss Park Armoury at 11:00am (S/D), followed by the second ceremony at St. Paul's, Bloor St at 1:00pm in front of The Cross of Sacrifice. (S/D)

  • Sunday, July 30th – Ceremony at Westlake Park at 10:00am. (S/D)

  • Monday, July 31st – Niagara Falls.

  • Tuesday, August 1st – York Regional Police Center in Sutton - Rob Cullen has arranged the event. (S/D)

  • Friday, August 4th – Visit to Downtown Toronto near CN Tower.

  • Saturday, August 5th – Luncheon at RCL Branch 258 – Farewell Dinner at RCL 31.

  • Sunday, August  6th – Depart for Home from Pearson Airport in Toronto.

A special Thank You to Doug & Lee MacNeil and members of Branch 31 who have supported the visit.

Upcoming Association Events

  • Peacekeeper Day Angus, Ontario – Aug 9th. See details above.

  • 102nd Warriors Day Parade – Aug 19th at the CNE – Jerry Senetchko is the lead on this event.

  • QORA Golf Tournament – Sept 8th – Cardinal Golf Course.

  • QOR WWII Veteran George Beardshaw (QOR's oldest) event on September 10th from 13:00 to 17:00 at Victory Legion in London, Ontario – more to follow.

Brian Budden
President
Health & Welfare Chairman
QORA (Toronto Branch

QOR of C Kit Shop 

If you are interested in purchasing QOR of C merchandise, you may do so via our online Kit Shop. We now have the ability to issue invoices and accept payment online. We have several new items in stock, including merchandise from the Airborne Reunion.

Please visit the QOR Kit Shop here.

Watch and Shoot (Upcoming Events)   

September 8
QOR of C Golf Tournament

September 17, 2023
Change of Command Team at Casa Loma – 11:00 a.m.

For more events, please consult the calendar of events.

Trust Fund and Fundraising Update 

Since the launch of the 1860 Club, our members have donated over $300,000 to support The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Trust Fund and various Regimental initiatives.  We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your generosity and support. The full list of Founders can be viewed here.

For more information on supporting the Trust Fund, please click here. For any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Online Links

The QOR of C Regimental Association 
More information about The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Association Branches can be found at:

Toronto Branch
https://www.facebook.com/qortorontoassociation 
East Coast Branch
https://www.qor-east.com
Calgary Branch
https://www.qorcalgary.com 
Vancouver Island Branch
https://www.qorvi.com

The Rifleman Magazine (Annual Journal of the QOR of C)
https://fliphtml5.com/insrc/jjni
The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum
https://qormuseum.org/
The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada Website
https://www.queensownrifles.com/

Kit Shop
https://sites.google.com/view/qorkitshop/

Submissions

To submit comments or content to the The Rifles Report or The Powder Horn, please contact Martin Bunch, 1860 Club Communications Director at editor@1860club.ca

Steven Ye
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