Varsity's Soldiers

Based on the rich fund of documents housed in the University of Toronto archives, Varsity’s Soldiers offers the first full-length history of military training in Toronto.

Eric McGeer holds a PhD from the Université de Montréal and teaches at St Clement’s School in Toronto.

"Varsity’s Soldiers is an integral work on the history of the organization and lived experiences of Toronto students, dating back to the nineteenth century, as they trained and prepared for war in which many would participate and sadly pay the ultimate sacrifice. The book is a well-written and richly researched, illustrated, and detailed analysis of how the university and students met the challenges of extraordinarily adverse and dire circumstances caused by international conflagrations. Varsity’s Soldiers fundamentally furthers our understandings of student culture, war and university life, and the larger scholarship on the history of higher education and campus in Canada."

Geoffrey Hayes, Department of History, University of Waterloo:

"Eric McGeer’s rich account traces the University of Toronto’s COTC contingent from the Fenian raids in 1866 to its demise in the 1960s. Carefully researched and beautifully written, it details how generations of COTC cadets played an important part in the life of the University but also the military history of Canada."

Howard G. Coombs, Department of History, Royal Military College of Canada:

"Varsity’s Soldiers displays a solid understanding of the Canadian military volunteerism that occurred at the University of Toronto during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It contains original material expressed fluently and written with an engaging style distinguished by its freshness and clarity."