Archie Lumsden at Camp Shilo
At the museum, we commonly get requests for information on soldiers that trained at Camp Shilo during the Second World War. We rarely have data on recruits, but sometimes we do. In the case of Archie Lumsden, we have his photo album. Most recruits did not take photos of their experiences, making Archie’s album all the more unique.
Canada had a network of recruit training sites during the Second World War, including A3-Canadian Artillery Training Centre (CATC) at Camp Shilo and A4-CATC in Brandon. The other leading artillery site was Camp Petawawa which housed A1 and A2-CATC. Our collection contains many photos of A1 and A2 in Petawawa. We have a minimal number of pictures on A3 or A4 in Shilo and Brandon, respectively. However, we have the photo album of Lieutenant J. A. (Archie) Lumsden, shown to the right, who trained at A3-CATC at Camp Shilo in 1940 and 1941.
At first glance, the photo album looks average. However, the direct connection to A3-CATC Camp Shilo makes the album unique and part of Manitoban history. I can relate to this binder because my grandfather also trained at A3 Camp Shilo in 1940/41, and he would have seen many of the same sights and had many of the same experiences. Indeed, thousands of Canadians had grandparents training at A3 Camp Shilo or A4 Brandon during the Second World War.
Our archival records do not list Archie Lumsden as the original owner; instead, we list the original owner as unknown. With a bit more checking, I found a concealed newspaper clipping that included a photo of Archie, with the caption, “Leaves for West.” After determining who owned the photo album, we reviewed our collections database for other artifacts belonging to Archie Lumsden. We located one additional artifact: a Camp Shilo Pass for No. 3313 Gunner J. A. Lumsden, dated 28 August 1940. Note the pass below; we only have 3/4 of the receipt. The photo album and leave pass likely came from the same anonymous donation in 1984.
The first photo in the album shows Gunner Archie Lumsden in uniform, captioned on the back, “en route to Shilo Camp,” dated 15 August 1940, shown below. Archie’s leave pass came two weeks later. He then included photos of attending an Armistice Parade with fellow soldiers, followed by more photos of Archie in uniform and on sentry duty at Fort Garry in Winnipeg. Based on photographic evidence in the album, Archie was probably a student at the University of Manitoba and returned to classes in the fall of 1940. After university classes, the Canadian Army commissioned Archie Lumsden as a junior officer.
The young officer photographed artillery training at Fort Garry before returning to A3-CATC Camp Shilo in 1941. The first photos of Camp Shilo include the Lieutenant and fellow soldiers testing a new Field Artillery Tractor on Shilo’s hills and prairie terrain, shown to the right. Other images include newspaper clippings of military vehicles, such as a Field Artillery Tractor and a 15-CWT Truck.
Archie Lumsden included photos of himself undergoing everyday recruit training experiences, including standing to attention, digging gun pits, partaking in field exercises wearing an operational uniform, and firing WW1-era artillery. One of the best artillery-related photographs shows a vintage 4.5-inch howitzer post-firing in honour of visiting Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King. Note the image of Archie and the gun team dated July 1941, below.
Archie is in about 1/3 of the photographs. He relished taking pictures of small groups of soldiers, likely his friends, and tagged their names on the back of many images. Archie included pictures of himself and others riding an Indian motorcycle with a sidecar. Note the photo to the right. In the album, he added a unique photo of No. 12 Troop A4 Brandon Sports Champions from the summer of 1941. A4-CATC recruits trained in Brandon, Manitoba, and completed their artillery range training in Shilo. Recruits from across western Canada trained at A3 Camp Shilo and A4 Brandon. Both centres participated in team sports; the photo below is an example of the recruits that participated.
After training at A3-CATC Camp Shilo in the summer of 1941, the new Lieutenant headed west to British Columbia for a coastal defence role. Archie took many photos of himself and other soldiers in B.C. He included pictures of an 18-pounder guarding the Pacific coastline and an assemblage of soldiers with Canadian Military Pattern trucks and motorcycles, shown below. The last image in the album is from late 1942. The photo album and the leave pass are the only supplementary information we have on Archie Lumsden. We do not know if he went overseas to fight with the First Canadian Army after 1942.
Archie Lumsden was one of 1.1 million men and women who wore a Canadian military uniform during the Second World War. His experiences and images probably match with many other recruits at A3 Camp Shilo, yet only a fraction had cameras and took personal photographs of the training camp. Thankfully, Archie enjoyed taking snapshots and made a keepsake album of his Canadian war experience. His album is a fascinating glimpse of Camp Shilo and recruit training during the war. Many of these photos are now on our website in the photo gallery section.
By Andrew Oakden