Public symposium connects PEI military history to modern Canadian Forces

The University of Prince Edward Island, The Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at UNB, HMCS Queen Charlotte and the Prince Edward Island Regiment are teaming up to host the first annual Atlantic Military Affairs Symposium in Charlottetown, April 16-17.

Local soldiers, sailors, and aircrew will form the core of this public military history and current affairs gathering to focus on the Island's role in the defence of Canada. It begins in the Duffy Lecture Theatre at UPEI at 7:30 pm on April 16 and continues at the PEI Regiment's Queen Charlotte Armoury all day Saturday, April 17.

The keynote address at UPEI on April 16 will be delivered by renowned Canadian naval historian, Professor Roger Sarty from Wilfrid Laurier University. In honour of Canada's Naval Centennial, his presentation is titled, 'By accident as much as by design: The surprising origins and rise of the Royal Canadian Navy, 1881-1945.'

On April 17, from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.in the Queen Charlotte Armoury, local and national military historians will present on subjects ranging from the Island's 19^th Century militia and contribution in two world wars, to the role of today's PEI army and naval reservists around the world. The featured speakers will include The Gregg Centre's Lee Windsor and Brent Wilson, PEI historians Boyde Beck and David Campbell, and reservists from HMCS Queen Charlotte and the Prince Edward Island Regiment who have returned from service overseas.

Admission is free and all are welcome. Lunch will be provided and the PEI Regiment Museum will be open.

PROGRAM

Friday 16 April 2010

Saturday 17 April 2010

8:45-9:00am Welcome and Opening Remarks

Bruce Craig, Department of History, UPEI, Gregg Centre Fellow, Host

Lee Windsor, Symposium Co-organizer, Gregg Centre Deputy Director

0900 - 1030am Panel 1 - From Confederation to the Great War

"Forging the Link": Joint NB-PEI Military Training and Recruitment, 1867-1918."

Brent Wilson, Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society

"Actions and Words: Andrew Macphail and the First World War"

David Campbell

Boyde Beck

'Islanders Across the Rhine: 'D' Company(PEI), North Nova Scotia Highlanders in the Battle for Beinen, Germany, March 1945.'

Lee Windsor, Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society

12:15 - 1:00pm - Lunch

1:00 - 2:00pm Panel 3 - The Prince Edward Island Regiment in Afghanistan

2:30 - 3:30pm Panel 4 - Canada's Navy in it's 100^th Year: From the Arctic to Haiti to the Indian Ocean

Roger Sarty, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was educated at Duke University and the University of Toronto. From 1981 until 1998 he was with the Driectorate of History at National Defence Headquarters. He contributed to the official history of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was then team leader of the group that produced the new official history of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War. From 1998 to 2003 Roger was at the CanadianWarMuseum. As deputy director of the museum and director of historical research and exhibition development, he led exhibit development and design for the museum's new building that opened in 2005. In 2004 Roger became a professor of history at WilfridLaurierUniversity. He has authored, co-authored or editted ten books.

Boyde Beck is a native of Alliston, Prince Edward Island. After completing his BA in history at the University of Prince Edward Island he completed Masters Degrees in History at QueensUniversity, where he studied with Dr. Don Schurman, and Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. He is a Curator with the Prince Edward IslandMuseum and also teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island.

David Campbell graduated with a B.A. in history from the University of Prince Edward Island and received an M.A. from the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Calgary, where he specialized in military/diplomatic history under the supervision of Dr. Tim Travers. His major area of study is the social and operational history of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. He currently resides and teaches in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Lee Windsor studies Canadian Army history from the Second World War up to and including current missions abroad. He is a native New Brunswicker and served with two Atlantic region Canadian Forces units, the VIII Canadian Hussars and the West Nova Scotia Regiment. He is completing a manuscript on the Allied war effort in Italy in 1944. In 2007 he accompanied Canada's Task Force 1-07 for part of its time in Afghanistan and was then lead author of Kandahar Tour: Turning Point in Canada's Afghan Mission.

Brent Wilson, has worked at UNB's Centre for Conflict Studies and the Gregg Centre since 1989. He studies in the fields of contemporary international terrorism and the civil-military dimensions of peacekeeping operations. He has also conducted extensive research on the early history of the British Army's experience with counter-insurgency warfare, and the role of the New Brunswick militia in the early development of the Canadian Army. He is Co-Director of the New Brunswick Military Heritage Project and editor of vol. 10 in our book series, Hurricane Pilot: The Wartime Letters of W. O. Harry Gill, D.F.M., 1940-1943, as well as a co-author on the recently published Kandahar Tour: Turning Point in Canada's Afghan Mission