The Department of Militia and Defence was the department responsible for military forces in Canada from 1906-1921.
The Minister of Militia and Defence was in charge of this department.
It was created in 1906 when the British Army withdrew its forces stationed in Canada and remained in place to support the Permanent Active Militia and Non-Permanent Active Militia, the name for Canadian land forces.
In 1921 the Royal Canadian Navy was transferred to the Department of Militia and Defence from the Department of Marine and Fisheries and the Naval Service. In the same year, the department was renamed the Department of Militia and Defence and the Naval Service. In 1922, the name of the department was changed to the Department of National Defence.
Famous quotes containing the words department and/or defence:
“In the great department store of life, baseball is the toy department.”
—Los Angeles Sportscaster. quoted in Independent Magazine (London, Sept. 28, 1991)
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)