Throughout Calgary's history the feeling for the "Old Country," as Britain was popularly termed, was very strong. Most Calgarians considered themselves British-Canadians and attachment to the Mother Country was directly manifest in their enthusiastic response to every viceregal visit as well as each imperial crisis. The outbreak of World War I was greeted with much excitement in Calgary and the city and district's young men quickly enlisted in substantial numbers. Assembled before city hall in this photograph of their final parade before departing overseas are the men and officers of the 31st Battalion (Alberta) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. By the fall of 1915 the war was a year old and the dreadful impact of the conflict was just beginning to be felt, bringing a more sombre if still determined mood. In April, 1915 Calgary and Southern Alberta's 10th Battalion had had its "baptism of fire" at St. Julien Wood, Ypres. Facing the first poison gas attacks, the Albertans held firm and the Allied press praised their valour, but the cost was incredible. Of the 816 officers and men of the 10th Battalion who went into the Second Battle of Ypres, over 700 were killed or wounded. As the war went on and more battalions were raised, there was hardly a family in the city that did not have someone overseas and Calgary, like the nation at large, bore the profound imprint of the war for a generation.
