Royal Canadian Legion's Periodical

[Father Bill]

I opened my January/ February "Legion" Magazine from the Royal Canadian Legion and found this on the index page:


They identify it as "Soldiers of the 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) depart from Germany in January 1919"

[Father Bill]

And subsequently, in the same magazine this picture:

[Orvis]

I opened my January/ February "Legion" Magazine from the Royal Canadian Legion and found this on the index page:


They identify it as "Soldiers of the 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) depart from Germany in January 1919"

Interesting photo of the post-war RHC - gone are the kilt aprons and other appurtenances of trench warfare, and the men look fairly content. Perhaps they are riding that boxcar westbound to a port at which to board a ship that will bear them back to Montreal and home. Do the photo credits indicate if this was an original color photograph? Or was it colorized later? If the latter, whoever did the work knew their business and got the colors right. I once had the opportunity to visit the Officers' Mess of the Black Watch of Canada (RHR) - a descendant of the WWI 13th Battalion CEF (RHC)) at the Regiment's HQ on Bleury Street in Montreal - this was after participating as a 42nd RHR reenactor at a military tattoo at the old Montreal Forum. There were many interesting historical artifacts displayed in the Mess, not to mention first-rate hospitality.

[Father Bill]

Do the photo credits indicate if this was an original color photograph? Or was it colorized later? If the latter, whoever did the work knew their business and got the colors right.

Sorry; no indicators. The poor quality suggests it might be an original colour photo, but I'm not 'up' on that enough to give a qualified answer.

[Allan Thomson]

Sorry; no indicators. The poor quality suggests it might be an original colour photo, but I'm not 'up' on that enough to give a qualified answer.

The vividity of the colours (similar to the quality in the recent colourised film) suggests that the photo has been tweaked and tidied up recently.

Regarding an original colour photo but unles someone more in the know can clarify otherwise my understanding is that all early colour photos were in fact black and white with the colours added later. Certainly that's the case with colour postcards from the late 19th early 20th c. I may be wrong though?

[Tarheel]

I really like this child's hose.

I didn't know this memorial existed and will look into the history. Thanks for the photos and information lead.

[Brian Rose]

The vividity of the colours (similar to the quality in the recent colourised film) suggests that the photo has been tweaked and tidied up recently.

Regarding an original colour photo but unless someone more in the know can clarify otherwise my understanding is that all early colour photos were in fact black and white with the colours added later. Certainly that's the case with colour postcards from the late 19th early 20th c. I may be wrong though?

While there was a rudimentary colour photography process about this time, it's pretty rare. Colour photographs don't become commonplace for candid/home use until Kodachome is invented in the 30's. Not really popular until after the next war. That's why most WW2 era photos are B&W.
It was common to hand colour a photo after printing. The colours are usually very vivid. This photo is a bit puzzling , however. The tartans are well done- it'd be hard to do that by hand for all those kilts. Suggests computer enhancement not hand done. On the other hand, note that the flashes are not uniform in shade. The blue of the shoulder patches really stand out . Perhaps that's our hint. Did the 13 RHC use blue shoulder patches?

[OC Richard]

Pretty sure this is a colourised photo.

Because that's not the colour-scheme of Black Watch kilts. (The areas that are supposed to be black have been painted green.)

And the squares of tartan on the TOSs are red rather than matching the tartan of the kilts.

I've expressed before my disappointment with these WWI colourised photos.

One thing they consistently get wrong is sporran-colour, painting the ORs' sporrans of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders brown. I've seen many of them in person, I now own one made during WWI, and they are quite black.

I believe they also paint the black tassels on Black Watch, Gordons, and Seaforths sporrans brown.