Photostory #309: Spring Training Starts at Camp Petawawa: Canadian Guards Prepare for Summer Pageantry

Photographers
Photo Features
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
April 17, 1962
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
Bellowed commands chopped short with axe-like sharpness, metal-tipped boots thudding asphalt with split-second riming, rifles carried with fence-post precision -- this is the 2nd Battalion, The Canadian Guards training for summertime ceremonies on Parliament Hill. While Ottawa driveways, 90 miles to the east, are coming ablaze with crocus and tulip, khaki-clad guardsmen in short-sleeved shirts on the parade ground at Camp Petawawa are put through their paces in the bright spring sunshine. The regimental band, the battalion's pipes and drums, practise through the long daylight hours; officers and N.C.O.s supervise drill formations, regulate marching men with pace sticks, rehearse fine points of traditional Trooping the Colour and Changing the Guard ceremonies. After weeks of training and two final dress rehearsals on the Hill itself, the Guards will be ready to resume daily guard changing on June 30. Until the end of August the Guards, in dress uniforms bright with colour and shining brass, will thrill visitors come to watch the elite of Canada's combat infantry on parade in the nation's capital.