CANADIAN FORESTRY CORPS

The Canadian Forestry Corps was formed following an appeal by Britain in 1916 for skilled lumbermen. On the 13^th May 1916, less than 4 months after this appeal was made, the Corps (which was raised as a military body, though many were outside military age limits or unfit for combat) produced its first British lumber in Windsor Great Park. The lumber camp was entirely Canadian - men, machinery and expertise. The CFC produced 70% of all Allied lumber used during WWI. They cleared land for airfields (needed to accommodate the growing Royal Flying Corps), prepared railway ties and lumber for trenches, built barracks and hospitals. They supplied timber required for building ships and locomotives and prepared the portable Armstrong huts used by the Corps all over Britain. Everything was transported to Egham Station where, in 1917, yard space with railway sidings running throughout had been acquired from the L.& S.W. Railway. Realising the urgency of the work many lumbermen worked up to 90 hours a week.

Later other companies were sent directly from Canada to France, where they often worked under fire. France awarded the Croix de Guerre to Corps members who experienced heavy artillery fire. During the critical days of 1918 some 500 Corps members were transferred out as infantry replacements.

Their Base Depot, covering 125 acres, was on Smith’s Lawn. The Corps cut down many acres of trees in Windsor Great Park, including the William the Conqueror oak tree, which had a circumference of over 38 feet. (Because no saw was long enough to cut through the huge trunk they cut a hole into the hollow trunk to enable a man to pull the saw from inside). Initially soft and hard wood was used but after August 1917 only hard wood, particularly oak, was felled.

The depot was a large camp with about 54 buildings, all built on site. These included the depot hospital with a Medical Officer and medical orderlies. As the Corps grew it became necessary to build more huts to accommodate the sick and injured until in March 1918 a hospital of 75 beds was opened.

The camp grew all its own food on a 55acre farm and piggery using land lent by King George V. The camp was often visited by King George V and Queen Mary, and, as a gesture of appreciation, one of the Companies designed a typical Canadian Forestry Corps log cabin (14ft. by 16ft.) known as the King’s Cabin, and erected it in front of the West Terrace of Windsor Castle. (It remained there until 1931-32 when it was removed during alterations at the Castle)

Englefield Green Cemetery has a total of 64 Commonwealth War Graves Commission WWI graves. 30 of these are Canadian Forestry Corps casualties. 5 were buried privately but the remaining 25, along with 34 other casualties of the war, were buried by the CWGC and have the distinctive CWGC headstone familiar to visitors to British war cemeteries in many countries. The youngest of the Canadian Forestry Corps casualties was only 19 and the oldest 56.

Items displayed were:

1. Orderly Room and Entrance to Camp.

2. General View and Main Entrance to Camp

3. Orderly Room, Smith’s Lawn Camp

4. Egham Wick Entrance to C.F.C. Camp

5. Officers Lines

6. Officers Mess

7. Mill Yard

8. Interior View of Mill

9. YMCA Recreation Hut

10. Interior of a YMCA Hut showing stage with Band

11. Exterior of YMCA Recreation Hut

12. Garage, Women’s Legion

13. Drivers, Women’s Legion

14. Egham Station

15. Visit by Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary to the camp with the statue of “The Copper Horse” in the background

16. King George III Statue “The Copper Horse”

17. Smith’s Lawn Camp

18. Entrance to Englefield Green Cemetery where 64 World War I casualties are buried

19. A photograph copied from ‘The Egham Picture Book’ by Dorothy Davis showing a local family visiting the Camp

Joan Wintour

September 2009

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