WW1 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles officer's 26mm gilt button by Firmin & Sons

WW1 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles officer's 26mm gilt button by Firmin & Sons

A fine First World War officer's gilt button for the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Large 26mm tunic size.

The design is crisply struck in high relief. A King's crown sits above a spray of maple leaves. In the centre is a large numeral 5 with a beaver resting on it, surrounded by scrolls reading OVERSEAS, MOUNTED RIFLES and CANADA. The gilding is bright and the detail is sharp throughout. The reverse is marked FIRMIN & SONS LD LONDON, and the original wire shank is intact. 

The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles

The 5th CMR was authorised in November 1914 and recruited mainly in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It was raised as a mounted regiment. In January 1916 it was converted to infantry as the 5th Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, and served with the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division.

On 2 June 1916, at the Battle of Mount Sorrel, the battalion was devastated. Its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Harold Baker, a sitting MP, was killed. Around half the battalion was killed or badly wounded. The unit was rebuilt and went on to fight on the Somme and at Vimy Ridge.

At Passchendaele, on 30 and 31 October 1917, the battalion lost around 60% of its fighting strength in a single day. Major George Pearkes won the Victoria Cross there. He was wounded in the thigh just before the attack, but he captured a German strongpoint and then held his objective with only a handful of men. Pearkes later commanded the battalion and became Canada's Minister of National Defence.

The 5th CMR fought on through the Hundred Days offensive until the Armistice. After the war its memory was carried on by the Eastern Townships Mounted Rifles.

A scarce Canadian unit button with a strong fighting history, and a fine addition to any CEF collection.