Canadian Kangaroo photos wanted.

[WJ Miller]

It occurred to me that some of you out there that have 1 CACR badges might also have other memorabilia related to the regiment.

I have compiled quite a physical and electronic database of ephemera belonging to the regiment. Unfortunately, many of these items after 65 years of travelling through various family members and members of the collecting community, are now orphaned with no known ID. I have a few hundred formal and informal photos of the regiment, the majority of which the subjects are unidentified. I would love to be able to put more names to faces.... SO, if you do have any "identified" photos of Kangaroos, I would like to add copies of them to my database. (I like unidentified ones too!!)

I am also interested in photos of any other assorted wartime and even postwar memorabilia, flags, pennants, uniforms, copies of letters, documents (like leave passes, dance cards, christmas cards, etc.). Without ever having the benefit of a perpetuating unit and/or a regimental association, SO much the Kangaroo's history is fragmented and lost. At this point ANY little bit helps put an accurate picture back together.

Also, if you have items that are identified, I might be able to supply you a photo of your 1CACR veteran. (I have positively identified photos of 95% of the serving officers.)

Please contact me by PM or email if you have something that I may add to the regiment's archive. Thanks!

Here is a great studio portrait photo of Sgt. EF Smith... there has to be more of these out there!

[WJ Miller]

I want to publicly thank Ray (Boots and Saddles) for his very gracious and generous help today. Ray sent me some information from a local history book that has lead me to find a Kangaroo veteran still living in Newfoundland (and a guy that is in quite a few of my photos too, but his whereabouts unknown). I now I can add his "story" to the official record. For those who don't know, I am collecting photos and veteran recollections for a proper regimental history I am currently working on.

These vets have no formal association (never did) and have no regimental home or memorial here in Canada. The 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment was formed in the field in Europe and disbanded there shortly after the hostilities ended in 1945. The regiment was comprised of men from every Military District in Canada and thus are scattered everywhere (the biggest concentration of them being from southern Ontario however). Many of these men have since gone to their grave, never even having seen another comrade since the end of the war!?

It has been a huge challenge for me to find these veterans and try to piece back together their unique history (I am still struggling with a few large gaps). Today's modern APC's and IFV's are direct descendants of the Kangaroo APC and these same "Kangaroo" men and officers. Their valuable service and the fact that they saved the lives of innumerable infantrymen is largely forgotten and nearly lost from living memory. They deserve better.

So thanks Ray, every little scrap of information I get is a potential lead. What may seem insignificant or trivial might just have much larger meaning to me and the data I have collected to date. I know these guys or their surviving families are out there still, somewhere... I have moved well beyond collecting their badges, I am all about their stories and not their "stuff".