One of the great stories to come out of the first World War was the tales of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. So great were their deeds from the battles of Ypres and Cambrai, Governor Davidson who was the governor of Newfoundland at the time requested to the British Government to add the prefix of Royal to the regiments name. King George V bestowed the regiment with the prefix in December of 1917. What made this even more special was that it was the only time during the First World War that the honour was given to a unit. It was also only the third time in history of the British Army that a unit was given the prefix during a time of war.
When the call went out over 970 men had signed up to serve. 565 were accepted, more than 200 rejected, and the remainder held under consideration. Those men became known as the First Five Hundred and later as the Blue Puttees, because of the non-standard leg gear they wore due to a shortage of khaki fabric on the island. Although the regiment retained the nickname Blue Puttees throughout the war, the Newfoundlanders were issued with standard British khaki puttees shortly after their October arrival in England.
I have always had a fond admiration and respect for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment ever since I learned about them in history class. Shortly after Andrew had introduced me into the VBCW world and I decided on doing the Albertine faction I wanted to bring add my own personal spice of Canadiana commonwealth into my list without removing to much of the main British flavour. Thankfully Canada made great contribution in both World Wars in helping Great Britain that I have many ideas that could have worked. Myself and Turner has talked at length of all the cool different units that I could include to add a little bit of home into our VBCW games. Mounties were a big one that we talked about and Im sure at some point I will make a unit of Mounties but for our first few units we wanted a properly military unit.
When we settled on our first order of miniatures to start out VBCW armies we settled for units in WW1 battle dress. When started to formulate my idea for my Albertine Canadian Volunteer regiment in bright purple puttees I knew I wanted to include the blue puttees somehow. Since Canada and Newfoundland played a big role in WW1, and after talking with Andrew about it, we came to conclusion that it would not be a big stretch that if Canada was putting together a volunteer army to go back to fight in a British Civil War there would be lots of vets from the first world war that would be willing to fight. So with that in my mind I set to work creating a squad of veterans from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who have signed up once again to fight for the rightful King!
Now fully completed here is the finished product
Another week and another Albertine squad is ready for the table! Things are shaping up for me to have a fully painted Albertine army by the time this current lockdown ends which is amazing! Next week I will be showcasing my civilians and will have a bunch of pictures and updated progress so stay tuned for that!
Also if you have not had a chance to yet check out my Podcast hosted by myself and Andrew from https://notbystrengthbyguile.ca/ please check out the Fighting Dice Podcast! Checkout the link below!
https://thefightingdice.podbean.com/e/the-fighting-dice-podcast-episode-two-my-kingdom-for-a-truck/
Until next time!
Hussars & Handgrenades 