The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment) is currently a Militia unit of the Canadian Forces based at John W. Foote VC Armouries at 200 James Street North in Hamilton, Ontario.

Its members are colloquially known individually and collectively as Rileys and have earned thirty-nine battle honours. They suffered their greatest losses and acquired their greatest recognition at Dieppe, France in 1942.

Basic facts

Name: The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment),
gazetted December 11, 1862 as the 13th Battalion Volunteer Militia (Infantry) Canada

Motto: Semper Paratus (Always Ready)

Allied Regiment: The Light Infantry, Peninsula Barracks, Winchester, England

Regimental March: "Mountain Rose"

Regimental Church: Church of the Ascension, Anglican, Hamilton, Ontario

Colonel-in-Chief: Field Marshal His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, PC, KT, OM, GBE, QSO, CD, gazetted 15 July 1978

History

The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry has a rich history in Hamilton and Wentworth County. As its name implies, the regiment has two direct antecedents. However, indirect descendents include the 1st and 2nd Companies of Volunteer Rifles (Hamilton), formed in 1855, and the Volunteer Highland Company (No. 3 Company) formed in 1856.

History 1862-1913

The RHLI’s earliest unit of direct descent is the 13th Battalion of Volunteer Militia established in 1862. Its cap badge still bears the supposedly unlucky number from its oldest official antecedent. The 13th Battalion first saw action at the Battle of Ridgeway in 1866 against a force of Fenian invaders from the United States. In 1870, another contingent from the battalion served in Manitoba during the Red River Rebellion.

Between 1899 and 1902, during the Boer War, many members served in South Africa. However, the unit itself was not mobilized so individuals joined the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment and the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles. At home, the 13th Battalion became the 13th Regiment in 1900 and the 13th Royal Regiment in 1910.

The RHLI’s next oldest unit of direct descent is the 77th (Wentworth) Battalion of Volunteer Militia. Founded under that name in 1872, it was renamed the 77th Wentworth Regiment in 1900.

History 1914-1938

When the Great War began in 1914, Colonel Sam Hughes, Canada's Minister of Militia, scrapped the original unit mobilization plan and solicited individual members of militia units to serve in new units. Significant numbers of proto-Rileys joined the 4th, 76th, 86th, 120th, and 205th Canadian Overseas Battalions in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Many men of the city and county remained buried or scattered in France and Flanders.

In the interwar period, the two militia regiments were subjected to a bewildering series of amalgamations and renamings. In 1920, the two RHLI antecedents acquired new names: The Royal Hamilton Regiment and The Wentworth Regiment. In 1927, the former became The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

Finally, in 1936, all but one company of The Wentworth Regiment amalgamated with the RHLI, and the unit received its current title: The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Wentworth Regiment). Although this name seemed to indicate a greater stature and importance, in fact the amalgamation was a cost-saving measure during the Great Depression. Like the rest of the sedentary militia, it was starved of funding, equipment, personnel and support in the name of austerity even as war clouds gathered in Europe.

History 1939-1945

Unlike the South African and First World Wars, when the Second World War began, Canada decided to mobilize existing militia units for overseas service. Consequently, 1st Battalion, RHLI was raised as part of the Non-Permanent Active Militia (i.e., regular army) unit. The domestic unit, now called the 2nd Battalion, RHLI, remained in Canada.

1RHLI served as part of the 2nd Canadian (Infantry) Division and wore the latter’s blue shoulder patch. As such, it saw combat during the disastrous Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942. Of the 582 soldiers who landed that morning, only 102 or 18% were not killed (197), captured (174) or wounded (194, including 85 also captured). The Dieppe survivors have suffered great physical trauma and psychological distress as a result of the nightmarish battle and the loss of so many of their friends and comrades in only about eight hours.

In an unusual twist, the most highly decorated member of the battalion was the Regimental Chaplain. Hon. Capt. the Rev. John Foote, who remained at Dieppe with his wounded and captured comrades rather than take the available evacuation to Britain, was nominated for the Victoria Cross while still a prisoner of war.

After recovering from the raid and being transferred to the new II Canadian Corps, the RHLI trained in Britain until returning to France after D-Day. It completed its war service as part of the multi-national First Canadian Army which distinguished itself in northwestern Europe. Dieppe itself was liberated in 1944.

History 1945-1999

In the post-war period, the regular battalion was demobilized and the reserve battalion consequently lost its number. It looked like the RHLI would revert to the genteel neglect of the interwar period, until the Cold War interrupted. Some Rileys served in the United Nations Special Force in the Korean War and in 1955 the regiment was represented in the 27th Brigade that served on NATO duty in West Germany.

At home, its barracks were renamed in honour of their VC-winning padre. In 1978, Prince Philip was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment. The RHLI, formerly part of the Hamilton Militia District, became part of Land Forces Central Area’s 31 Canadian Brigade Group in the 1990s.

The town of Dieppe, France, has set aside a small park at the western end of the esplanade in which it has erected a memorial of its own. Standing in the centre of the Square du Canada (Canada Square), the Dieppe-Canada Monument is a testimony to the long and warm association between Canadians and Normans which has existed since Samuel de Champlain sailed to found New France. The names of people and events which have linked Canada and Normandy over the centuries have been recorded on the monument. Mounted on the wall behind it is a plaque that commemorates the Raid on Dieppe:

On the 19th of August 1942 on the beaches of Dieppe our Canadian cousins marked with their blood the road to our final liberation foretelling thus their victorious return on September 1, 1944. [translation from the French]

Recent activities

Members of the regiment have augmented Regular Force contingents serving with United Nation forces in the Balkans since the 1990s. They were also on alert for the feared millennial or Y2K crisis which failed to materialize.

The City of Hamilton dedicated Dieppe Memorial Park in the Hamilton Beach neighbourhood on August 19, 2003, the 61st anniversary of the Dieppe Raid. Among the 250 invited guests and 1,000 onlookers were the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and 18 of the 24 Riley Dieppe veterans known to survive.

Current parade strength is probably 150 all ranks, more in keeping with company size than the battalion or regiment it purports to be. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada , another co-located infantry unit in the army reserves, is of similar size. If they were to amalgamate, they could form a weak battalion of a single-battalion regiment.

Other links

• The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (WR) regimental website
• RHLI Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario
• RHLI(WR) from Commonwealth regiments website
• John Foote, VC, Veterans Affairs website
• William Merrifield, Victoria Cross recipient

Contact information

John W. Foote, VC, CD Armoury
200 James Street North
Hamilton, Ontario
L8N 4C1
(905) 972-4001

This page was begun by the Public Affairs Officer of The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.