Century of Service: The History of the South Alberta Light Horse [Hardcover]

Donald E. Graves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2005

This is the story of Alberta's senior militia regiment, which celebrates its centennial in 2005. Although it was authorized in 1905, the SALH traces its origins to the 1880s when cavalry units were raised to protect Alberta during the Northwest Rebellion.This fascinating study takes "Her Majesty's Cowboys" from the 1880s to the 21st century. It describes how the predecessor units of the modern Light Horse fought for their nation in wartime and struggled to stay alive in peacetime.The reader will accompany the Light Horse as they fight in the Rebellion of 1885, South Africa in 1899-1901, the Western Front in the First World War and Northwest Europe in the Second World War. More recently members of the regiment have helped to keep the peace in Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.The story of the SALH includes that of the World War II South Alberta Regiment, whose story was told in more detail in SOUTH ALBERTAS (by the same author), described by more than one reviewer as among the best regimental histories ever published.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leading military historian, author of SOUTH ALBERTAS, FIELD OF GLORY and other popular titles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Robin Brass Studio, Inc.; First Edition edition (May 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896941435
• ISBN-13: 978-1896941431
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,227,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Without Peer, June 20, 2005

By 

Michael A Dorosh (Calgary, AB, CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Century of Service: The History of the South Alberta Light Horse (Hardcover)

Donald Graves' history of the South Alberta Regiment in World War Two is acclaimed as one of the best WW II regimental histories yet written. This history, of the South Alberta Light Horse, is just as good, and offers a substantially wider view, looking in detail at the SALH from inception to the present, 1905 to 2005 (hence the title).

The book is substantially more than that, however. The SALH result from several postwar amalgamations, and therefore the book provides a detailed history of the 31st Battalion in World War One, the 13th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery and the South Alberta Regiment in World War Two. Aside from the history of these combat units, the peacetime service of the 15th Alberta Light Horse, 19th Alberta Dragoons, South Alberta Regiment, and others is told in some detail, as well as the story of the many cavalry units in Southern Alberta from inception through the First World War and into the 1920s reorganizations of the Militia, as well as stay-home Militia units in WW II such as the 31st Recce Regiment.

Graves does not just start his story in 1905, however, and traces the history of the Militia in Alberta back to its starting points.

Despite covering all this ground, the book is laid out in several distinct chapters, broken up with interesting sub-paragraph headings and always written so the reader knows exactly which unit is being discussed.

The prose is lucid, meeting the tenets of good historical reporting using period terminology (yet avoiding abbreviations that would confuse the layman) and remaining conversational and even light in tone. To that end, despite the richness of detail and abundance of academic footnotes, Graves has very much made this book - like the SAR history - storylike in tone, making maximum use of personal anecdotes to illustrate points.

And those points are well covered - Graves discusses many themes in detail - for the combat units, he sketches out methods of employment, conditions for the average soldier and the officers in charge of them, and places their battles into the overall larger context demanded. He does the same thing with peacetime history, providing the political context of how and why the Militia evolved, what its purpose was, and how the SALH and predecessors went about meeting its objectives.

The book can't be praised highly enough for being a comprehensive look at not just one regiment, but the histories of many Alberta militia regiments and how they reflected on the Canadian Army as a whole.

Colour photos and plates by the superb Ron Volstad bring the subject matter to life, though they are unfortunately few in number. The mass of black and white photos are unpublished and extremely well captioned, each caption being more of a sidebar to the main text than simple explanatory piece of the picture itself. The photos have been carefully selected to maximize the understanding of the reader and make him relate to the story being told.

Additionally, Chris Johnston's line drawings are here in abundance, a very welcome treat, including such rarities as the loading layout for LCTs of the the 13th Field Regiment (self propelled) on D-Day, and a look at the rare ammunition sledges they towed into action on 6 June. There is much in this book for not just devotees of regimental history, but wargamers, general interest historians, armour buffs and more.

The maps (all thirty of them) are also superb and in appropriate quantity to illustrate the text fully.

This book will give the general interest reader a deep understanding of what it was like to be in a cavalry or infantry unit in the First World War, in the Militia in the mid and post war eras, in an armoured or artillery regiment in Normandy and NW Europe, and paints a vivid picture of life in the Militia today.

Extensive appendices include Rolls of Honour for the pertinent units, lists of Battle Honours of same, Major awards and decorations from 1914 to 1945, Commanding Officers and RSMs of the SALH, national and command competitions won in the postwar era, a complete lineage of the SALH, Commanding Officers of the predecessor units, and a listing of Canadian Expetionary Force units raised in Alberta.

The colour photo section includes a nice layout of insignia of all predecessor units.

And, a full glossary is included. Sadly, no battle manual as in the SAR history, but Graves has a real grasp of the mechanics of how these infantry, cavalry, artillery and armoured regiments "did business" and this comes through in the text and photo captions.

This book can not be bettered by any regimental history in the foreseeable future.