Family Fun Day at the Old St. Thomas Church

Yesterday was a rather refreshing summer day after a hot, busy week. Beth and I and a number of the King's Company of Historical Reenactors added our presence and noise to the Family Fun Day at the Old St. Thomas Church. (Kevin, Tina, Tyler and his son, Andy, and Jared and his daughter were there and Taylor joined us for the day.)
St. Thomas Church was built in 1824 as the first Anglican Church in the area. It is the oldest church to be found between Windsor and Niagara Falls. When our friend, Nick, retired from the active ministry as an Anglican priest, he was made the chaplain and administrator of the church. He took this family fun day and helped make it bigger. The festivities include tours of the church, hotdogs and pop, ice cream, face painting, and similar thing. Our reenactor bring out a display of the uniform, equipment, embroidery, weaving, and toys of the 1812 period. We do a musket firing display and a mini-militia every so often.

(Photos by Beth, myself, and our friend, Taylor.)

Nick laid aside his Canon persona and became a surgeon for the day.
The tools are authentic, quite scary, and an education all by themselves.

Your humble blogger, Kevin, and Tyler talk to the public about the uniforms and weapons of the War of 1812.

Beth shows the loom and some embroidery to the visitors.

Beth and Jared and Jared's daughter take a break under the fly we'd set  up.

The St. Thomas Select Embodied Militia present arms with Tyler as their drill example. A fine group!
Steve wanders armed behind them.

Kevin and Tyler in a quite moment.
For a display day like this, we often wear different uniforms. Tyler is in the regulation infantry uniform with a forage cap. Kevin is in a hunting frock, which the 17th wore as an emergency stop-gap in early 1813, with a straw hat quite appropriate for the summer sun.

Your humble blogger in his First Sergeant persona hands out muskets to the Militia.

Tyler... on duty...

and off.
("Never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie down; never stay awake when you can sleep, and leave no beer undrunk!" Bolla's First Law of Reenacting)

Our friend, Taylor, in her Regency finery. She wanted to try this reenacting out and Beth and I felt that the Family Fun Day would be the ideal time to see what it was like. She told us she enjoyed it very much.

Jared's daughter enjoying part of a hot dog on the hopscotch board.
Taylor discovered that hopscotch was very popular in the Regency era.

Tina and Jared's daughter ring the church bell.
That was a favourite activity for most of the young folks there.

Croghan's Company, 17th US Infantry moves to demonstrate a musket volley.
From the left - your humble blogger as First Sergeant, Jared as corporal of the battalion pioneers, Andy, Kevin, and Tyler.
Steve joined us with his musket a few times and Beth joined us with her rifle as well!

The St. Thomas Militia continues their drill... with some help from Mom and Dad.

Don't mess with this young lady!
Jared's daughter picked up a toy pistol we happened to have and would not put it down!

Tyler's son and another militiaman watch for zombie coyotes in the cemetery.
Don't ask. Please don't.

Taylor, who followed Jared's daughter around a good bit, strolls with her parasol.

This is a good little event and a lot of fun. It also helps a historic place. St. Thomas Church has no congregation at this time, but it remains a consecrated Anglican church. This event helps in the upkeep of this historic house of worship.

The World War I Public Education Day at Fanshawe Pioneer Village

Once in a while, my family and I help out a group known as History Matters. This group is dedicated to the education of the public on the First World War particularly. We've often done education days for high schools, but two weekends back was the first one History Matters did for the general public. Fanshawe Pioneer Village, a heritage area of one of the conservation areas in and around London, ON, hosted the event which consisted of a number of displays and interactive programs for the public in general. I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves - photos taken by my wife, by Jeff Brown of History Matters, by my daughter, and a few by myself. My wife turned out in a period dress she sewed herself. I attended on Saturday as a factory worker in a long canvas duster, a vest, and a derby hat. Katie was present in the uniform of the Russian Women's Battalions of Death.

Katie and I manned the display of the various equipment of the major participants in WWI, including helmets, caps, mess kits, bayonets, gas masks, and uniforms. Behind Katie (or Unteroffizer Ekaterina Ivanova, I should say) are the flags of the major powers - Great Britain, France, the German Empire, and the Russian Empire. Emphasis was laid on the Western Front for the most part.

The various participants including Canadians, Germans, French, Scots, suffragettes, and the War Graves Commission.

Beth and I in our "finery." She looks quite fine, while I'm rather scruffy.

A Canadian Army tunic with the insignia of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
The temperature was about 30°C that day, so imagine wearing this woolen nightmare all day!

A late-war German infantryman's tunic... still wool and still hot.

Various caps including the Canadian dress cap, a "Gor-blimey" cap, French kepi and bonnet de police, and a German feldmütze. Katie was wearing the Russian furashka.

Helmets -- Picklehaub, Stahlhelm with Stirmpanzer attachment, the Adrian helmet, and two examples of the Brodie helmet worn by the British, Canadian, Portuguese, and American armies.

Gas masks in their cases.

... and out of them.
The German Gummemaske, the British Small Box respirator, and the early French mask.

Entrenching tools and the trench club variant.
The Danish-designed Linnedemann tool on the far left was used by the German, Russian, and French armies.
German trench raiders often sharpened the edges and used it as a sort of hatchet for hand-to-hand combat in raids.

Mess kits and canteens. The French backpack is in the centre; it must have been hell to carry!

British, French, and Russian bayonets; a German Stahlgrenate, a British Mills Bomb with some sort of rifle grenade attachment, a cup discharger (please see previous blog) and wire cutters.

The British mess kit used in WWI. Mess kits of this style were first issued to British troops around 1812!

The whole display

Engaging the public. That's the duster Beth made for me.

Katie checks out the French canteen in her Russian uniform. She was quite grateful that it was all cotton!

A lot of good questions were asked.

Our friend, Nick as Canon Scott, the Canadian Army chaplain in front of his marquee tent
that was being used as a casualty clearing station. 

My dear wife, Beth, in the wonderful period dress she sewed. She even put the hat together.
She had to meld together two different patterns to get the look she wanted.
Quite fine, I'd say!

The other side of the dress.

Suffragettes on the march.
These ladies paraded around a few times each day to stir support for the women's vote!

I watched the battlefield demonstration with this gentleman and his granddaughter.
He just decided to come out in Highland dress. Good for him!

About mid-day on both Saturday and Sunday, there was a small battlefield exercise for the public - an Allied attack on a German position. Here the reenactors go over the "script"and procedure. Blank ammunition only of course!

Our good friend, Tyler, in the flannel undershirt of the Imperial forces with his SMLE rifle.

The attack! En Advant! 
Justin in the uniform of the Black Watch, Tyler and another reenactor in British kit, and Katie in her Russian.

Katie led the attack as seemed appropriate for the Women's Battalion of Death. (Look it up; you'll be amazed!)

Katie and her new love, the Moisin-Nagant rifle!

Ben, our French Poilu, takes up the charge after Katie fell to enemy fire.

Mopping up!

Hande hoch! Du bist Kriegsgefangnen jetzt!

Another photo from Sunday. Katie had a bit of trouble with the Moisin-Nagant since the bolt was stiff,
but nothing she couldn't handle.

Seconds after this was taken, Katie screamed, charged, and "died" gloriously.
Justin followed up closely.

Canadian and British troops in the abandoned house.

Fall back to the mortar position!

The Germans surrendered once again. Happy to say it was all in fun.

The smiles couldn't get much bigger.
Tyler and Katie in their battle finery.

Justin sporting his new Black Watch uniform.
Another interesting uniform for the display.

Katie at the trench system display. History Matters has built an almost full-sized teaching example of a Canadian trench system at Fanshawe village. The site might be about 40 metres long and almost 2 metres deep. Some trench raiding examples were done on both days. 

Tyler leads some of our visiting friends through the trench. Hi, Gail and George!
At one point, it was discovered that part of trench was occupied by bees.
A gas mask was borrowed and a chemical attack took place!

Ekatrina Ivanova (Katie John's daughter) in a belligerent mood!
Urrah! Urrah! Urrah!

Y'know, a father can only resist so much when he sees a photo like this.
I'm quite proud of her ...and of my wife.
... And of my son who was working and otherwise would've been toting a rifle as well.

This might be a yearly event at Fanshawe Pioneer Village in London. I'd just hope it's a little cooler.