1915-06-03ee

As June 3, 1915  birthday of King George V approached, the king made it very clear that there should be no public celebrations. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers from throughout the British Empire had died or had been seriously wounded in the preceding 10 months of the Great War making any joyful celebrations very inappropriate.

The formal dissemination of the king’s wishes was made by a cable from the Honorable Lewis Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies, which read:

“It is His Majesty’s wish that on occasion of His Majesty’s birthday this year flags should be flown, but no dinners, reviews, salutes or other celebrations should take place.”

In respect to the wishes of the King, the Hamilton Times, along with many other newspapers across Canada, decided to help local citizens show their patriotism and acquire flags.

This is the advertisement which the Hamilton Times published regarding the idea that the showing of flags, rather than the usual celebrations should happen on the King’s Birthday:

That advertisement was followed by another in the Times which gave details as to how flags could be acquired by Hamiltonians.

The ad began with the following encouragement to acquire a flag from the Times:

“Don’t delay – come today and get your Union Jack outfit. There’s one especially provided for you, one for every home, for every patriot, every loyal Son and Daughter in Canada. No better way exists to show your loyalty to Canada’s sons on the firing line than by hoisting your Empire’s emblem on your home on the Natal Day of your Sovereign.”

Readers were given the option of just purchasing a flag or acquiring a full outfit consisting of the flag, plus a flagstaff with an ornamental ball, and a case for storing  the flag

Readers were required to cut out a coupon which was to be taken to the Times’ office :

1915-04-27uu

A letter was received from a Hamilton soldier at the front in which he noted that soldiers on leave from duty were in need of sports equipment to help them pass the time before they were required to return to the trenches:

The letter was from a member of the Fourth Field Battery, a unit which had been under fire in Flanders for two months:

“By the way, I see they are getting up a fund for the soldiers in Hamilton, so I wish someone would call their attention to the only unit that so far have come from Hamilton. Some of our English friends have sent packages to us, but so far we have never received anything from Hamilton, outside of our individual families. Some articles were sent at Christmas, but we never got them, and most of the English regiments get footballs, and all sorts of presents regularly. We have had to buy all of ours, and at present we are playing baseball with a ball made out of binder twine, which we doubt ‘pinched’ from some farmer. It makes us feel rather cheap at time. For instance we never had a football when we were playing the Royal Horse Artillery Battery the other day. Their ball broke, but they had several others.”¹

¹ “Want Football and Baseball : Hamilton Soldier Writes a Complaint from Flanders.”

Hamilton Times.   April 27, 1915