The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The Second Section Sports News District News Entertainment By TERRY CARTER Era Managing Editor NEWMARKET The army unit which has be identified most strongly with York County i like many of our early settlers trace its antecedents The Queens York Rangers who now practice their military drill at the Aurora Armory and Fort York In regulation military browns still proudly wear a patch Rogers Rangers green Tory green It was called dur ing the American revolution when they put on their dress uniforms The history of the regiment really starts in the I under Sir William Johnson against the French retired to their homes n was sent north to gar- William Henri the custom these frontier were allowed to elect their own captain and they chose Robert Rogers Rogers and his men spent the winter not on garrison duly as was expected of them but ranging the lake system the French In their strong forts spying taking prisoners burning supplies and not going unnoticed at home and headquarters In the 18th century winter ended military cam paigns and any activity received undue attention Rogers coolly executed expeditions excited unprecedented notices throughout the English colonies and as a result on March of that year he received orders to report to William Shirley governor and commander in chief of the British army In North America Shirley later gave an account of the meeting in a letter to Henry Fox it is absolutely necessary for his Majestys Service that one Company at least of Rang ers should be constantly In different Parties upon Lake George and Lake Iroquois alias Lake Champ- lain and the Wood Creek and Lands adjacent His outline of their duties summarized Rogers i activities to date to make Discoveries of the proper Routes for our own Troops procuring Intelligence of the Enemys Strength and Motions destroy their out THE RANGERS OF TODAY FIRST ORDERS I Do therefore Hereby Constitute and Appoint you the said Robert Rogers to be Captain of an Independent Company of Rangers to be forthwith raised He was authorized to enlist GO privates only courageous men experienced in hunting tracking and long marches three sergeant an ensign and two Independent Company of Rangers was and yet was not a part the regular army Formed by the commander in chief of the regulars and paid from roj funds it was subject to regular army discipline and orders This raised it from lowly provincial status and undoubtedly contributed to its espit dc corps On the other band it had no permanent status Rogers Rangers as the unit came to be known unofficially emerged as one of the most famous units of the French Wars in North America General James Wolfe preparing for an assault on Quebec asked that Rogers and his own company of rangers be included in Ihe forces supplied him and Robert Rogers and two Ranger companies were chosen by Gen Jeffrey Amherst afer Quebec fell to head west to call for the surrender of the French western posts Detroit and No British force had ever ventured The York Rangers New market squadron was recently disbanded and duties during history to day occupies a role in the Canadian Armed original ly formed to perform for Ihe high command in the war with French is an armoured reconnni- unit he of the army i the men went their own way but he reputation they had established on the frontier was such that when war again broke out on the North American both sides negotiated with Rogers by AMERICAN REVOLUTION In August of the British empowered Rog ers to raise a battalion of Rangers and although from the first they carried the name Queens American Ran gers they were inevitably known as Rogers Rangers as long as Robert Rogers by then a colonel was their com mander When first raised the unit had up to men all American Loyalists and it saw considerable service both regular British officers Later the unit was given the exclusive privi lege of enlisting oldcountrymen and deserters from the Revolutionary Army but Loyalists formed the bulk of the regiment throughout the war One of the regiments proudest battle honors one still marked in the Rangers mess today is The Battle of Brandywine In June of 1777 while the unit was still under the command of Ma the British under Gen Sir William Howe landed on the Chesapeake River and Philadelphia the seat of Congress Washing- Regimental records tell of the British army mak ing a 19mile forced march at night to outflank Washing tons troops but finding upon their arrival that the Rang ers were there ahead of them had already crossed the Above fixed are from bottom left corner Rangers John Andrew Lam- Nelson Uhle Colin Rosenberg Kevin Mike lhip- Frank Jim Tom He- Unman Iaine Below troopers Jim Ward left and Bob lirooks install a plate to protect a jeeps tra nsmission Unit vehic les must be able to stand hard driving and rough country or Lain op- the 11 Itbro ning heavy much- iin to he rcKlmcnl The wen- a for cry days the regiment vhen man was expected to provide his own On- lv and tunc lead were issued II lend was vail- stones or oh jet s were used Itm- carried and tomahawks had reputation with these pons PHOTOS BY ROBERT WHITE Howes General Orders of September con tained the following commendation The Commander- inChief desires to convey to the officers and men of the Queens Rangers his approbation and acknowledgement for their spirited and gallant behaviour in the engage ment of the 11th last and to assure them how well he is satisfied with their distinguished conduct on that day His Excellency only regrets their having suffered so much in the gallant execution of their duty TAKES OVER In October 1777 Captain John Graves one day to be governor of Upper Canada was given the rank of major and the command of the Queens Rangers The unit then had It companies a company of kilted Highlanders complete wilh piper from Ihe Scot settlers of North Carolina grenadier and light infantry com panies and eight other companies and Iheir ordinary uni form was green for purposes of concealment also formed a mounted body from among his own men Little attention was paid to paradesquare drill in the regiment Of that day hut the men were carefully rallied in firing and the use of the bayonet The unit participated In many more battles dur ing the revolutionary war and in 1779 as a mark of hon or for its service was designated the 1st American Regi men a British regiment of line an honor it still wears proudly In May 1779 the Rangers joined the illfated army of Lor Corn an I later serve General Benedict Arnold the former revolutionary general who switched sides The unit was a in October when Cornwall is ca lulotcd aril although many of its officers ami men were Loyalists with prices set on Iheir heads by ihe revolutionary government they were not protected in surrender agreement When Ihe Bri tish Army marched out Ihe Hangers were left behind Some did fall into enemy hands but most are reported Us away bad broken took as many as he could with him to New York The units color- were smuggled away under the coat of an tradition says Whether this story Is true or not the fact remains the colors were saved for they bung in Simcocs English home until 1921 when they were pur chased by Torontos Public Library The unit was again disbanded when peace came many of the officers and most of men settled on lands in Nova Scotia RAISED BY days in mill exercises and have two days to work for themselves on the theory that at the end of their hitch they would be established settlers and the backbone of a fine militia They arrived in Canada in and were dis banded in 1802 having done no actual i ling but having been engaged for the most part in clearing the forest and In constructing roads bridges The unit probably first arrived in Toronto July when Capt Aeneas Shaw took men to York to prepare a camp for and the remainder of he Men of the Rangers are said to have fought under General Isaac Brock at Queens ton Heights In 1812 and during the troubled times of the Queen Rangers were reorganized under the command of Col Samuel Peters whose father William Jarvis had served in the original corps This force part in the encounter a Montgomerys Tavern where the ragamuffin settlers expedition under William Lyon Mackenzie was routed IN FENIAN RAIDS The Regiment was represented in the Fenian Raids of 1866 by the Aurora Infantry Company the Scar- boro Rifles and later by the King Infantry Company and Lloyd town Company These units combined to form the Battalion of Infantry as a part of the Militia reor ganization stimulated that year by the raids These York County representatives in the mil itia of that day all of todays Rangers be gan a friendly relationship the Simcoe Foresters in 1885 which led to men from both units forming a composite unit called the York to lake part in the North west Rebel ion Between that period and World War I the 12th York Rangers carried out militia training some members joining the Canadian Contingent in the South African War after an offer by the unit to serve as a was turned being the first troops to leave Toronto Members of the regiment had their baptism of fire in that war at the Second Battle of Coincidently Lt Col Rogers a descen ded of Col Robert Rogers the Rangers great command er of 160 years before commanded one the Ranger battalions sent overseas in World War I In the West Toronto Regiment formerly a battalion of the York Rangers and the other battalion at Aurora amalgamated and once again the unit was able to claim its historic title The Queens Two years later Ihe regiment was allowed to assume its full title The Queens Rangers 1st American Regiment At the same time members were allowed to wear the ancient badges and woodland green with ame thyst blue facings and former members helped build under Governor Simcoe In it amalgamated with the old York Rangers and from then on became the Queens York Rangers 1st American IN WAR II During World War the Rangers provided for active forces overseas and at the end the war were disbanded Back to peacetime militia status the Rangers were designated an armoured unit In their status was again changed this lime to an armoured reconnais sance unit a change that once again made the Queens York Rangers the first in the advance and cover force ia the just as Col Robert Rogers had used them The regiment is once again the eyes and ears of the army as Lord Amherst described the Rangers many years ago