Hear about Canada’s oldest continuous serving artillery unit

The unit's lineage is really tied to the city of St. John. When the Loyalists arrived in the 1780s, soon after, about a decade later, there was an order to establish a company of artillery. So in 1793, they set up fortifications on Partridge Island, and they were there to staff that with gunners, and they barged artillery pieces over there. During the War of 1812, we stood up a couple of other companies of artillery, one in Passamaquoddy Bay, and up through that shoreline with Maine. We have a staffing position on the left side with a site where a gunner is going to do apply elevation and bearing. Then we have a loader and a deck commander and a number three that stands here and the barrel is raised up roughly to what it is right now. That took us through the War of 1812 to 1839 and then the Fenian Raids in around 1860-ish. Yes. The regiment was stood up to defend the port and the waterways into New Brunswick from the Fenians. It was critical because the City of St. John was the gateway to Upper and Lower Canada as an all-weather port. Colonel Turnbull, Colonel O'Leary were there and that's my dad. You know, there's a familiar connection. Lots of people that run through the regiment, the regimental family, make long-standing connections that last pretty much forever with serving in the unit. We've had soldiers go overseas. We sent four batteries in the Second World War. A number of prominent New Brunswickers in St. John have served as commanding officers and served in the unit, one being Brigadier Oland was the CO of the unit, and there's been a number of other prominent New Brunswickers that served in the unit. So it's a connection. Back to the past in the service of not only the city, the citizens, the province and the country.