Warpoet.ca seeks Canadians with relatives in "Artists Rifles"

[The Bread Guy]

Canada's "war poet", Suzanne Steele, has asked me to share this canvass here.  She's doing PhD work in the U.K., and is looking for anyone in Canada who may have had a relative who was a member of the Artist's Rifles (known since 1947 as 21 SAS (Artists) (Reserve)).  She's looking for copies of letters, diaries or other such documentation for her research.

A tiny bit of history from the Association's web page:

.... The first idea for the Artists, wrote Col. H A R May CB, VD (Artists' Rifles 1882-1921 and CO in 1912 and 1920) occurred to Edward Sterling, an art student and ward of Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish historian, who in 1859 convened a meeting at his studio of fellow students in the life class of Carey's School of Art, Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury, at which a special corps for artists was discussed.

In 1860 this 'Corps of Artists' was formed consisting of painters, sculptors, engravers, musicians, architects and actors. Other meetings followed at which officers were elected. The badge, designed by Wyon the Queen's medallist, consisting of two heads: Mars - God of War, and Minerva - Goddess of Wisdom, was chosen to represent war and fine arts. The badge bore the motto 'Cum Marte Minerva' which was also the title of the first Regimental March, the words of which were written by an Artist, George Cayley. A regimental rhyme records: "Mars, he was the God of war, and didn't stop at trifles. Minerva was a bloody whore. So hence The Artists' Rifles."

(....)

In the Second World War the moment hostilities began, the Artists, which since 1920 had been an officer producing unit involved in officer training but with no obligation to take or be granted commissions, became an OTC and by the end of 1939 the battalion as a battalion was now no more.

Its successors were 163 and 164 aCTUs (in 1941 163 was merged with 167 and 168 aCTUs). Most members of the Artists Rifles had by that time been commissioned and dispersed throughout all the Services and there are no corporate records of casualties suffered or distinctions won, but evidence suggests that they acquitted themselves in the best 'Artists' tradition .... The Battle Honours of The Artists Rifles represents its service in both the Boer War and the Great War: South Africa 1900-01, Ypres 1917, Passchendaele, Somme 1918, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Albert 1918, Drocourt-Queant 1918, Hindenburg Line, Canal du Nord, Cambrai 1918, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1914-18 ....

If you happen to have a relative who served in the Artists Rifles, and are willing to share some of their history, you can contact Suzanne via e-mail at sznn@shaw.ca or via her web page here.