TSR and the Hockey Hall of Fame
Many thanks to Craig Campbell, archivist at the Hockey Hall of Fame for providing us with 16, 8 x 10 glossies of Maple Leaf Hockey players who served in the 2nd Battalion The Toronto Scottish Regiment during the war. There is still one player's photo to find but he assures us he will track it down. This is one of the projects we have been working on. Craig provided all of these photos free of charge.
The Leaf hockey club has been contacted to make them aware of the regiment's and team's connection and hopefully something will come of it one evening at ACC. Pictured are four of the 16.
photo 1 - # 2037, Corporal C. H. (Happy) Day
photo 2 - # 2039, Private G. A. (Gordie) Drillon
photo 3 - # 2059, Private R. G. (Red) Heron
photo 4 - # 2061, Private G. R. (Red) Horner
Regimental Sergeant Major Edward (Teddy) Baker, MM
From the Museum: Many are not able to get to the museum, so the thought was to share a few museum artifacts online.
Regimental Sergeant Major Edward (Teddy) Baker, MM & bar, Belgian Croix de Guerre. 138525 RSM Baker an original 75th Battalion member left for overseas in 1916 with the rank of corporal. He was promoted sergeant and then company sergeant major while in France. At Vimy Ridge he was awarded his first Military Medal for bravery. He, "most energetically rallied his platoon while under heavy machine-gun fire and through his courage and executive ability was able to lead his men in the advance on BEER Trench." (For those of you who have had the opportunity of visiting VImy, BEER Trench was up and over the ridge on the downward slope, well behind the German front line).
Read more: Regimental Sergeant Major Edward (Teddy) Baker, MM
Baseball Returned to TSR
As would be expected, most artifacts in a regimental museum relate to a regiment's war service -- uniforms, medals, photos etc. Occasionally, one receives a different sort of item. In April 2010, the museum received a package from Mr. Gerald Baker of Kent, England. Inside was a baseball, but a very special one. He had held off sending it thinking that there would be little interest in such an item because it was not military related.
But the story he told was heartwarming and one that tends to get lost in the fog of WW II. The TSR was billeted in homes in Kent in 1942 and two soldiers Norman Clute and "Mac" McBride taught a 12 year old English boy (Gerald Baker) the game of baseball. When the TSR shipped out, the soldiers left him with a signed baseball and Pte. Clute went so far as to buy young Gerald a Scout hat as he was now a Scout.
Fast forward 68 years and Mr. Baker's baseball arrives. Wow!! What a great item. Correspondence was returned acknowledging this wonderful artifact. Shortly thereafter a letter arrived from Mr. Baker's partner with very sad news that he had just recently passed. She wrote in part, "I know he would have been over the moon knowing that the baseball will be on display in your museum." And so it is.
A wonderful donation from a gentleman who never forgot the kindness of two Tor Scot soldiers.
