Warpath Battlefield Study Tour members from the History Department at Nipissing University spent an evening recently learning about the present day Canadian Army Reserve unit.
The group was invited to the Chippewa Barracks by Captain Tim Feick of The Algonquin Regiment. The students were addressed by The Regiment’s current commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth McClure. He explained his role as an active member of the present-day Canadian Army Reserve and answered questions in regard to his position.
Sandra O’Grady, the daughter of Major Keith Stirling, World War II Algonquin Regiment officer and Prisoner of War, talked to the group about her father’s war experiences. Mrs. O’Grady is known in the community as one of the few guardians of the Algonquin Regiment’s history. Her stories continue to shock and amaze people and the memory of her father and the other men fighting with The Algonquin Regiment live on through her work.
Warpath Algonquin Regiment Battlefield Study Tour 2018 is an experiential learning course facilitated by the Department of History at Nipissing University. The Battlefield Study Tour follows The Algonquin Regiment’s footsteps across the battlefields in Northwest Europe during World War II.
Since September 2017, participating students have organized fund-raising events, attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in North Bay, Latchford, and Haileybury, and visited the Bunker Military Museum in Cobalt. In the coming months, students will participate in an orienteering, map-reading and platoon maneuvering activities to obtain a better understanding of the actions of The Algonquin Regiment at war. The tour members will be presenting their academic findings at the 2018 Undergraduate Research Conference at Nipissing University in March.
In May 2018, the Warpath Battlefield Study Tour will embark to Europe under the guidance of Dr. Stephen Connor, Captain Tim Feick and Dutch military historian and Algonquin Regiment expert Robert Catsburg. Eighteen Nipissing University students will investigate battle and memorial sites in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany as they follow The Algonquin Regiment’s liberation route in 1944-45.
