Naming conventions for Canadian units
The purpose of this page is to record and explain our current practices for naming units and pages. It's not a set of rules that you have to learn. If you want to create a page that doesn't exist, just create it. Don't worry about whether it has the right name. We can easily move it later.
See Canadian units in World War I for more examples.
Page names should generally have a suffix unless they already contain the word "Canadian".
The word "The" is usually omitted from regiment names.
Official Lineages of Canadian regiments gives name histories for Permanent and Non-Permanent Militia regiments but only mentions CEF battalions incidentally and isn't always clear about their correct names.
Contents
Canadian Expeditionary Force
The page names of divisions and corps are the same as their full names, so unit_name1 etc. isn't needed.
- Canadian Corps
- 1st Canadian Division
- 2nd Canadian Division
- 3rd Canadian Division
- 4th Canadian Division
- 5th Canadian Division
Most other page names use the suffix ", Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)".
For example:
- 1st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
- 1st Infantry Brigade, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
- 1st Machine Gun Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
- 1st Machine Gun Company, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
- 1st Brigade Trench Mortar Battery, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
There might be some exceptions where the unit name is closely related to a division or corps name.
The full names of infantry battalions often have a geographical or regiment name in brackets. These seem to have changed in some cases. Full names can go in unit_name1 etc. in {{infobox military unit}}. We don't yet know a canonical source for these names so they're mostly taken from Wikipedia. The Official Lineages of Canadian regiments only give CEF battalions in the form '1st Battalion, CEF' without showing the names in brackets.
Pioneers
We don't yet have pages or naming conventions for pioneer battalions.
Reserve infantry battalions
We don't yet have pages or naming conventions for pioneer battalions. Some of the red links for these might be alternative names of other battalions that already have pages.
Permanent Force
Full names are as shown in the 1914 British Army List. Page names will usually match full names (for example, Royal Canadian Regiment), but there might be some exceptions.
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was a new regiment raised in 1914. It originally formed part of the CEF. The CEF component was disbanded in 1920 but a Permanent Force component had already been formed in 1919. For the purposes of this site only the CEF part needs to be covered, so no suffix is needed for disambiguation.[1]
The situation is more complicated for cavalry. See the next section below.
CEF and Permanent mounted units
There were two cavalry regiments in the Permanent Force:
| Page name | Full name |
|---|---|
| Royal Canadian Dragoons, Canadian Permanent Force | Royal Canadian Dragoons |
| Lord Strathcona's Horse, Canadian Permanent Force | Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) |
Each of these formed a duplicate regiment in 1914 for overseas service with the CEF:[2]
| Page name | Full name |
|---|---|
| Royal Canadian Dragoons, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) | Royal Canadian Dragoons, Canadian Expeditionary Force |
| Lord Strathcona's Horse, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) | Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), Canadian Expeditionary Force |
The Fort Garry Horse, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was formed in France and was only distantly related to the similarly named militia regiment.
Canadian Mounted Rifles
Canadian Mounted Rifles units were originally mounted infantry regiments but were converted into infantry battalions in France. They will have separate pages for their mounted and infantry incarnations. For example:
- 1st Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
- 1st Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
Non-Permanent Active Militia
We don't yet have pages or page naming conventions for these units. Full names will be as shown in the 1914 British Army List.
