The Early Years
The present unit stood up on January 1, 1965 when the report of the Guthrie Commission on Militia Organization resulted in its formation. This was achieved by joining 133 Company Royal Canadian Service Corps., 16 Medical Company, 4 Ordnance Company, 5 Technical Regiment Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineer an platoon of Military Police and members of the Canadian Women Army Corps. Under a single command the Unit was called Hamilton Service Battalion which became part of the Hamilton Militia District. The Battalion paraded at the Burlington Street Armoury. With the orders to closed out the armoury the unit marched to its present location at Canadian Forces Reserve Barracks Hamilton in April 1968. Where it is collocated with Her Majesty Canadian Ship Star and 23 Field Ambulance.
Hamilton Service Battalion remained unchanged until 1974 when transformation reached the militia, the Service Support Corps. were disbanded and replaced with the branches we have in place today. Soldiers were issued with the distinctive environmental uniform and combats replacing the World War Two battle dress and Korean vintage bush dress, the rank structure also changed at this time. Pay at this time was $12.00 per day and was paid twice yearly there were no additional benefits provided.
The next major change occurred in 1975 when all Service Battalions were numbered and we became 23(Hamilton) Service Battalion. The numbering system is based on geography. All Ontario Service Battalions with the exception of Thunder Bay are affiliated with 2 Service Battalion a regular force unit based in Petawawa Ontario. Thus we became 23, Toronto 25, Ottawa 26, and so on. For some unknown reason there is no 24 Battalion, could this have any thing to do with the number of bottles in a case of beer?
Our next event occurred in 1976 when the Medial Company became an independent unit known as 23 Medical Company Canadian Forces Medical Services. This depleted our ranks somewhat due to not only losing our Medical Officers, Medical Assistants we also lost Clerks, Drivers and Supply Technicians. We over came and both units still exist 30 years later.
Read more about this topic: 23 Service Battalion
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—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)