The Prince of Wales Armouries’ Origins

Written By Dane Ryksen

  • 10440 108th Avenue

  • Architects: Edward C. Hopkins w/ David E. Ewart of the Dominion Department of Public Works

  • Constructed: 1914-15

  • Designation: Municipal & Provincial Historic Resource

On January 7th, 1914, militia officials announced plans for a new ‘Edmonton Drill Hall’. They couldn’t have come at a better time. It was clear Europe was on the brink of another great war, and as an imperial dominion, Canada would no doubt be drawn in. A piece of Crown reserve land along the sparsely developed Churchill Avenue would be its home.

A special report in the Edmonton Journal called it the “last word in military work” and “Canada’s most modern” armory. “Not only will it be as large as any other armory building in Canada, but it will be fitted up in the most up-to-date and efficient manner.” According to the competing Edmonton Bulletin, its interior would “provide a large drill hall with 20,000 feet of floor space, storage and accommodation sufficient for two battalions of infantry, two squadrons of cavalry, one battery of artillery, and a company of engineers.” 

Work commenced on July 11th. It was fortuitous timing. Seventeen days later — as a contemporaneous book curtly put it — “a quarrel between Austria and Serbia developed into a great European War.” Britain’s declaration against Germany drew Canada into the far-flung conflict on August 4th.

Construction was breakneck. Following the completion of the drill hall and quarters in October, local units began occupying the partially finished structure. At that point, the building’s primary focus centred on recruitment. Contemporary Edmontonians saw the conflict as a chance to “declare [their] patriotism and [their] principle.” As the Canadian War Museum explains, most “rushed to enlist for reasons of patriotism, adventurism, opposition to German aggression, or personal ties to Great Britain. Public attitudes also influenced individual decisions, in particular the widespread view in many parts of the country that those who failed to enlist were cowards.”

Every month, masses of men rushed down to 108th Avenue (née Churchill) and huddled together for blocks waiting to enlist. In the eyes of one reporter, “the armories of Edmonton [were] in a state of siege.” Headlines made it seem that way. “Hundreds ready to enlist when armoury doors are thrown open to recruits: 500 embryonic soldiers led advance on recruiting offices — men of all classes offer services,” one read. In another “Recruits line up all night in endeavour to join local unit: more than five hundred crowd outside armories eager to get to front.” 

Ian Edwards writes that “Twenty-thousand men from the Edmonton area served [between 1914 and 1918], representing ten percent of males, all ages, north of Red Deer.” Many of them came through the Armouries. Of Edmonton’s war-time units, it housed and recruited for the 49th, 51st, 63rd and 233rd Battalions, and 101st Regiment (Edmonton Fusiliers).

But the new building wasn’t without its controversies. Just how its contractors, Lyall & Sons Construction Co. of Montreal, got the job was the subject of intense speculation. The Liberal Party, then Official Opposition, scrutinized the deal with a fine-toothed comb. It was a local Liberal, Alexander Grant MacKay, in particular who made “a telling expose of the Conservative armoury propaganda. The contracts for the new buildings, he said, went to Peter Lyall of Montreal, who deposited a 10 percent cheque with the [Conservative] government, sub-let contracts to local men, who had put up 15 percent cheques, and pocketed the difference.” 

“The moment is preposterous for the local Opposition dailies to launch out one of their familiar protests against the extravagance of Colonel Hughes’ [minister of Militia and Defence] dealings with the militia,” the unabashedly Conservative-aligned Journal opined. In their eyes, since “the founder of the Lyall firm was the Liberal candidate in one of the Montreal divisions at a Dominion election not long since […] it is rather strange that it should be a party to a cutup deal with a Conservative administration.”

The Armouries never were able to truly escape talks of nepotism or corruption, but as the war progressed, calls for action became fewer and fewer. Public support for the Borden government’s handling of the conflict was at an all time high, and Liberal’s likely realized that a dissenting voice was just bad optics. 

That’s not to say no acts of defiance followed. When the ‘Edmonton Drill Hall’ formally opened on November 17th, 1915, the Liberal’s Bulletin decided not to report. The Journal’s verbose piece made up for it: 

“The formal opening go the new armoire last evening was a rather unique event in the hostelry of Edmonton, bringing out as it did, in a social way, the officers and their wives, the soldier men, and hundreds of their friends, both women and men, who were eager not only to see the interior of the splendid new building, but to see the soldiers themselves, in their own home as it were.”

“The halls were vibrating with the liveliest military music and dancing progressed in an animated fashion, both up and down stairs, and there was a motley assortment of dress — full uniform, punctilious evening dress, suits, with and without hats, and some of the women were dancing with hats, muffs, and even babies.”

“But nobody cared — at least apparently — and all were having a happy time, on the surface, though anyone standing aside and looking on at the steadily moving picture could not but feel an undertone of sadness, a very somber side to the picture, and a sob at times in the gay music, when it was remembered what it was all for, and why these men in their shining buttons and shining boots, are taking such good care of themselves physically, with only an occasional relaxation.”

— Edmonton Journal, November 18th, 1915.

For three more years, the Armouries remained the centre of Edmonton’s war-time commitment. With the 1918 armistice came a winding down of recruitment efforts, and the military presence around Edmonton and its rechristened “Prince of Wales Armouries” dwindled. That was until 1939, and again in 1950, when, like before, war, patriotism, enlistment, and training saw it take on an important role during the Second World War and Korea.

By 1977, the brick castle was showing its age and the Department of Defence deemed it surplus not long after. Modern facilities at C.F.B.s Griesbach and Edmonton more than made up the slack. The City, seeing its potential, bargained for the facility as part of a larger three-way land deal between them, the Crown, and the Province, and gained ownership in 1978.

After years of uncertainty, restoration work began in 1991. The old armouries now house the City of Edmonton Archives and the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Museum.

Image & Video Gallery:

Prior to the 1950s, the Prince of Wales Armouries was one of only a handful of buildings in the sparsely developed Kingsway area. In this 1941 student film, It Happened at Vic, the brick castle looms over its surroundings. (Pertinent section begins at 19:29.)

Provincial Archives of Alberta Video No. PR1980.0264

Sources:

  • “Contract Is Let For New Armory; Canada’s Most Modern; Cost $285,000,” Edmonton Journal, January 7, 1914.

  •  “Here and There,” Edmonton Journal, January 8, 1914.

  • “New Armory Contract Let,” Edmonton Bulletin, January 8, 1914.

  • “MacKay and Magrath Speak To Liberals,” Edmonton Bulletin, March 28, 1914.

  • “The Armory Contracts,” Edmonton Journal, March 30, 1914.

  • “New Armoury Building,” Edmonton Bulletin, October 26th, 1914.

  • “Recruits Line Up All Night In Endeavor To Join Local Unit,” Edmonton Journal, November 25, 1914.

  • Hundreds Ready to Enlist When Armory Doors Are Thrown Open to Recruits,” Edmonton Journal, January 4, 1915.

  • “Declare Your Patriotism And Your Principle,” Edmonton Bulletin, August 5, 1915.

  • “Formal Opening of 51st Armories,” Edmonton Journal, November 18, 1915.

Dane Ryksen
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