Military building named after N.S. brothers who served in all-Black battalion

A new building at a military training site in Nova Scotia’s Kings County is being named in honour of two brothers who served in the first and only all-Black battalion in the history of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Private Frederick L. Landsay and Private James E. Landsay Building is located in Kentville at the 5th Canadian Division Support Group Detachment Aldershot.

The Landsay brothers grew up in the former community of Pine Woods in North Kentville — where Detachment Aldershot stands today — and enlisted in August 1916 during the First World War.

They both joined the No. 2 Construction Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force alongside more than 750 Black men, mostly from Nova Scotia and Ontario. James, the eldest brother, was in his early 20s at the time. Frederick, who was born in 1899, was still a teenager.

The Landsays were farmers before they decided to enrol in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, said Maj. Jake Rideout of the Halifax Rifles.

When they deployed overseas, Frederick went to the Canadian Forestry Corps while his brother was involved in the maintenance and construction of railways — both key to keeping communications and resources available during the war. 

“They changed the game in terms of how the war effort on this side was fought given that the roads and the ability to move around were severely limited by weather. The Canadian railway troops assisted with that in a big way,” Rideout said in an interview Thursday.

The ‘right to fight’

Brig.-Gen. Mark Parsons, commander of 5th Canadian Division, said the members of the No. 2 Construction Battalion not only served Canada during the war, but also fought for the “right to fight.”

“The members who volunteered to serve in Canada’s only Black battalion showed unwavering commitment to king and country in the face of prejudice, bias, hate, racism, and an unwillingness of other Canadians to serve shoulder to shoulder with them against a common enemy,” Parsons said in a news release Thursday from the Department of National Defence.

While some Black men had previously been able to join Canadian Expeditionary Force battalions, they faced racism during their service and many were not even allowed to enlist. Despite being a segregated Black unit, the leadership of the No. 2 Construction Battalion was largely white.

Although the battalion did not serve a combat role, its members helped gather wood and run mills in the forests of southeast France during the war.

When the war ended, members of the battalion received no recognition for their service. The unit was disbanded without ceremony on Sept. 15, 1920.

Upon their return to Canada, Frederick married and moved to Halifax. “Unfortunately, we don’t know much about Fred and where he ended up after that,” said Rideout. 

James, who never married, died in the 1960s at the age of 74.

Canada’s apology

In July 2022, more than a century after the No. 2 Construction Battalion was disbanded, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Truro, N.S., to apologize on behalf of the federal government for the racial discrimination the members endured before, during and after their service. 

Earlier this year, a monument honouring the historic Black batallion was unveiled in Amherst, N.S. 

Col. M.P. Williams, commander of 5th Canadian Division Support Group, said the facility named after the Landsay brothers will serve as a reminder of the battalion’s history and significance.

“A community was denied its heroes through a mixture of overt and unspoken racism, which denied the recognition that was so rightfully owed to the members of No. 2 Construction Battalion,” he said in the news release.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from features on anti-Black racism to success stories from within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.