Col. Sir Sam Hughes
- Shilo's Founder (sort of....) -
The man who organized Canada’s forces at the outbreak of WW1, Col. Sir Sam Hughes, was as colorful as he was unpredictable. Canada’s Minister of Militia and Defence styled himself "general", but it wasn’t clear if he even had any military experience. Hughes was merely an MP when he traveled to South Africa during the Boer War. Yet when he found himself in the middle of a Boer attack, he attempted to take charge of the Canadian line. Pistol in hand, he rallied the troops with the cry "Never mind me, boys, give them hell." The British generals in charge certainly did mind and Hughes was packed off home, without the two Victoria Crosses he claimed he deserved.
What Hughes lacked for in credentials he made up for in bombast. Appointed Minister of Defence in 1911, he badgered the Laurier government into accepting a $14 million military spending package: a large sum for those times. When war came he ordered the flag above National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa to be lowered to half mast. Not to mourn the failure of peace efforts, but because Hughes thought the British had been too darn slow in declaring war! As the man in charge of Canadian mobilization, Hughes was a disaster. Instead of following the official war plan, which called for Canadian forces to be assembled at an existing camp in Petewawa, Hughes instead sent thousands of troops to Valcartier, ostensibly because it was closer to the planned embarkation point at Quebec City. An old friend was subsequently given the contract to build a camp capable of accommodating 32,000 soldiers. Camp Sewell, established in 1910, was renamed in his honour in 1915 and was to become Camp Shilo in 1934.