Helping “nos chers conscrits”: The Knights of Columbus Catholic Army Huts and French-Canadian Nationalism, 1917-26

Abstract

This essay discusses efforts to provide recreation centres for Canadian Catholic soldiers during the First World War. More specifically, it compares the efforts of two organizations, the Catholic Army Huts (CAH), operated by the Knights of Columbus and the Chez-nous du soldat, operated by the Aide aux conscrits canadiens. Both were established late in the war, and attempted to provide comforts for volunteer and conscript alike. The CAH fundraising drive in September 1918 in Ontario and Quebec elicited different reactions within French-Canadian nationalist circles in the two provinces. French-Canadian nationalist opposition to the Knights of Columbus’s efforts in Ontario reveals that, during a period of supposed French-Canadian solidarity over conscription and Regulation 17, sharp differences of opinion persisted between French Canadians in the two provinces.