This photograph, taken outside the Halifax Garrison Chapel late in the nineteenth century, shows one of the weekly highlights of each garrison town church parade. Every Sunday, lead by their band, the troops were marched from the barracks to church and back. In most cities they attended one of the local Anglican churches, but in Halifax, where so many troops were garrisoned, a special chapel for the troops was built in the 1840s. During the nineteenth century, Roman Catholics and Presbyterians were marched to services held by local members of their denominations.
Every soldier not on duty was compelled to attend church, a Bible was issued to every soldier and the chaplain had other religious books to distribute to soldiers in hospital. Each chaplain also kept an eye on the education of army children until 1857, when they were ordered to confine their efforts to Sunday Schools.
