WW1 CEF 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) sweetheart.

Collar badge now a brooch back sweetheart of the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), CEF.

• Authorized 7 November 1914, recruited and mobilized in Montreal, Quebec

• Embarked for Great Britain on 11 May 1915, arrived in France on 16 September 1915, and fought as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division in France and Flanders for the rest of the war

• Disbanded 15 September 1920

• The badge design draws on the unit’s parent regiment, the Victoria Rifles of Canada — an infantry regiment of the Non-Permanent Active Militia first formed in Montreal in 1862, with service going back to the Fenian Raids

• The Latin motto on the badge, “Pro Aris et Focis,” translates roughly as “for hearth and home” — a common regimental motto of the era

• One notable Commanding Officer: Lt.-Col. William Hew Clark-Kennedy, VC, DSO, who commanded from 22 January 1918 to 28 August 1918 and was awarded the Victoria Cross for actions in 1918

• 1,010 men of the battalion are commemorated in 117 cemeteries, the Menin Gate Memorial, and the Vimy Memorial on the Western Front