1916What military unit was known as Canada's Black Battalion during the First World War?
The No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force—Canada’s famed Black Battalion—was authorized in Pictou, Nova Scotia during the First World War. Created to overcome the challenges of segregation, it became the first and only all-Black battalion in Canadian military history, providing vital labor to the war effort overseas. Remarkably, more than half of its members hailed from Nova Scotia, and its chaplain, Captain Reverend William A. White, was one of the only Black commissioned officers in the entire British Empire. Today, the granite monument at Market Wharf in Pictou stands as a national historic site, commemorating the unit’s enduring legacy and 109 years since its formation.
