Seriously Moving Images

The North British Columbians, “Warden’s Warriors,” 102nd Battalion CEF, Historic Departure (film preserved at Library and Archives Canada)

This film is 109 years old and extremely rare. The surviving print is in terrible condition, particularly in its first and last minutes, where the film base has been ravaged by nitrate film decomposition.

The film is an important artifact of Canada’s participation in the First World War, and features one of the many military units recruited from among ordinary Canadians. The 102nd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), mainly comprised men from northern British Columbia. They are shown in camp at Goose Spit on Vancouver Island, before leaving Comox for Vancouver, eastern Canada, Great Britain, and the battlefields of Europe.

In preparation for their departure, there are inspections and a “Grand Review” of the battalion. BC Premier W. J. Bowser visits the camp and presents the battalion’s battle flag to its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel John Weightman Warden. The unit’s unofficial sobriquet was “Warden’s Warriors.”

In a shot beginning at 2:42, the film’s cinematographer walks into the picture and waves his cowboy hat for the camera. He is A. D. “Cowboy” Kean (1882-1961), British Columbia’s first professional filmmaker. During the war, he documented numerous BC units in training and leaving for the front.

On 10 June 1916, the battalion is shown marching from camp, along the beach, and into the town of Comox. But at 6:29, the film cuts away from the march to Comox to show us “Scenes from the Land of the North British Columbians.” This two-minute sequence, assembled by Kean from his stock footage, begins with shots of BC wildlife and big game; two brief segments that follow are of more interest. The first shows a “rough-riding” event at the Vancouver Exhibition, where Kean organized the rodeo competition, “Range Days.” The second depicts a horse race down the main street of Lillooet, in which all the riders are Indigenous women. Both these segments would have been filmed in the summer of 1914 or 1915.

In Comox, the soldiers board the CPR steamship Princess Charlotte. Many farewells take place beside the vessel on the Comox pier. Scenes were also shot on the steamer during the trip to Vancouver, but these have not survived.

At the docks on Burrard Inlet in Vancouver (not shown), Warden’s Warriors would board a CPR train for Camp Hughes, Manitoba. A week later, they would leave the east coast for Great Britain. Kean gave the battalion the exhibition rights to this film, and sent the first print to meet them in England.

The 102nd Battalion arrived in France on 12 August 1916, in time to take part in the First Battle of the Somme, notably fighting in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, September 15-22, 1916.

Kean built his reputation as a filmmaker by filming all the military units that were recruited and trained in British Columbia, and sent to Europe as components of the CEF. He began filming these military activities in the summer of 1914, only a few months after he went into business as a filmmaker. In 1915-16 he assembled various compilations of the unit films, which were screened in Vancouver, Victoria, and the Interior.

Unfortunately, none of these compilations have survived, and only two of the individual unit films appear to be extant. At ten minutes, The North British Columbians . . . is the most complete of these. It is presented here in its entirely, despite the extensive damage which obscures some of the scenes.