On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Canadians gather to observe Remembrance Day. Central to the ceremony is the two minutes’ silence, often followed by a piper's lament. Among those taking part at the national ceremony in Ottawa are the Pipes and Drums of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and of the Royal Canadian Air Force Band. Their presence, and the playing of the lament, testifies to the continuing expression of a Scottish diasporic military identity by Canadians. A century ago, at the outbreak of the First World War, military Scottishness occupied a prominent position in Canada. Tied to and sustained by the Scottish diaspora and its influential position in the country, and by links to the British Empire, it was part of a broader pattern reflected in other dominions and colonies. Increasingly adopted and appropriated by broader sectors of Canadian society, Scottishness and military Scottishness was also sustained by characteristics often connected with nationalism and imperialism in Canada, including conservative, militarist and anti-modern sentiments. This chapter will examine the creation and uses of Scottish military identity in Canada leading up to, during and after the First World War, using images as a way of understanding the pervasive influence of visual culture in war-time. Furthermore, many of the wartime manifestations of military

Scottishness in Canada – or at least those manifestations which have survived to the present day – are visual expressions of military Scottishness. Scottish units first arrived in North America during the Seven Years War, where they formed a substantial portion of British forces. Some Scottish veterans remained afterwards, settling in the former New France and elsewhere, and their numbers were gradually augmented by the arrival of other Scottish immigrants. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Britain recruited these veterans and settlers for units including the Royal Highland Emigrants, the first Highland regiment recruited in North America. After the Revolution, these regiments were disbanded, with many veterans either returning to their Canadian homes or settling in various locations in what are now the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and eastern Ontario. Continuing Scottish immigration, including the arrival of Loyalists leaving the new American republic, added to their numbers and would help shape the creation of military units during the War of 1812 and from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.