{"id":6879,"date":"2014-06-04T16:31:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T20:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6879"},"modified":"2014-06-18T16:56:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T20:56:25","slug":"duke-of-york-visit-carries-on-historic-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/duke-of-york-visit-carries-on-historic-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke of York visit carries on historic tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Duke of York comes into the area this Thursday, June 5, for a special luncheon at Oakview Terrace to celebrate the Queen\u2019s York Rangers and help unveil the commemorative plaque for Aurora\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Park, it will be off to Toronto for a very special ceremony. <\/p>\n

Prince Andrew, the Queen\u2019s son, will present new battle honours to the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, presenting the Regiment, of which he is Colonel in Chief, with new colours. These new colours, the traditional flag carried by a Regiment in battle, will incorporate four new battle honours granted to the Regiment in honour of their efforts in the War of 1812, as well as for their valiant work in Afghanistan in a conflict which has not even begun to drift into the realm of memory. <\/p>\n

The original colours honoured by the Queen\u2019s York Rangers are thought to be the oldest existent colours currently held by a North American Regiment. <\/p>\n

According to The Colours of the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, published by the Regiment in the 1970s, the \u201cancient colours\u201d of the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, have their roots in the 1770s during the American Revolutionary War. <\/p>\n

Early historians peg the original colours, which now hang in honour in the officers\u2019 mess at the Fort York Armoury, as the very ones hoisted by John Graves Simcoe during the Revolutionary War \u201cto put the fear of God into the revolutionaries.\u201d <\/p>\n

The colours were rediscovered in plain sight hanging in the home of the Simcoe family in the early 1900s by collector and newspaper publisher John Ross Robertson and he began the process of repatriating what he felt was a very important piece of \u201cCanadiana.\u201d <\/p>\n

He purchased the flags from the Simcoe family, and they eventually found their way to the Toronto Public Library, but not before they were restored by the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. Further restoration work was carried out in 1974 by the Royal Ontario Museum. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ROM experts found that neither the King\u2019s Colour nor the Regimental Colour were in one piece,\u201d notes the official history. \u201cEach colour was in many pieces. The first step was to remove the fragile colours from their backing. Then they were measured, photographed and drawn. Each colour was then hand washed between nylon screens to protect them and make it easier to handle the very heavy, wet mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

After drying, the original fabric was remounted and further examination was able to zero in on their true age. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo aspects of the design of the colours help to date them,\u201d notes the history. \u201cThey carry the title \u20181st American Regiment,\u2019 awarded to the Regiment in general orders May 2, 1779. There is no sign of this title being added to the colours, so they could not have been made earlier than mid-1779. And neither colour carries a Cross of St. Patrick, which was not ordered added to the Union Flag until 1801, so the colours are older than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the latest restoration job, the restored and newly mounted colours were officially unveiled at Fort York by Pauline McGibbon, then Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, in April, 1975. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Queen\u2019s York Rangers inherit the regimental traditions of many earlier British and Canadian units, dating back as far as Rogers\u2019 Rangers (1756), the Queen\u2019s Rangers of the Revolutionary War (1776 \u2013 1783), the Queen\u2019s Rangers in Upper Canada (1791 \u2013 1802), the York Militia, the Queen\u2019s Rangers of 1837, and the 12th York Rangers (1866 \u2013 1936). <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Queen\u2019s Rangers were formed again in 1925 in Toronto by an amalgamation of the West Toronto Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the York Rangers. In 1936, these Queen\u2019s Rangers and York Rangers, were amalgamated to form the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, the name of the present-day reserve unit.\u201d <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the Duke of York comes into the area this Thursday, June 5, for a special luncheon at Oakview Terrace to celebrate the Queen\u2019s York Rangers and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1MX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 06:57:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-06-05-12.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}