The headline from a Toronto newspaper dated Oct. 26, 1899 and the drawing from a Quebec City paper, Oct. 29, 1899 showing troops marching to the St. Louis Gate illustrate the fanfare with which the first contingent left for the war. Official farewell ceremonies were held in Quebec for the one thousand men who, doubtless, later remembered the parades, banquets and speeches with some irony. This was Canada's first official contingent for overseas service and over ten thousand friends and relatives accompanied it to Quebec to see it embark aboard the Sardinian. There was such a press on accommodation that some of the soldiers, it was later reported, were billeted in houses of ill-repute.
