Soldiers returning from the First World War

Following the Allied victory in Europe, the Canadian government turned its attention to the demobilization of half a million troops. In 1918 the work of the Military Hospitals Commission, established in June 1915 in response to complaints about the treatment of repatriated, wounded soldiers, was divided between two departments. The militia department took over most of the military hospitals, while the new Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment assumed the remaining duties of the commission and planned for demobilization and the re-entry of soldiers into society and the economy. One of the government’s main initiatives was a program to provide financial assistance to those veterans who wished to become farmers. Yet many ex-servicemen faced a difficult transition. The Great War Veterans’ Association of Canada was founded in 1917 to help them, and it launched the poppy campaign in 1921.