157th Battalion (Simcoe Foresters), CEF

The 157th (Simcoe Foresters) Battalion, CEF was a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. On 30 November 1915, the 35th Regiment "Simcoe Foresters" was authorized to raise the 157th Battalion. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel D.H. MacLaren, the 157th was tasked with constructing a new army training camp on the Simcoe Pines Plain, which was to be named Camp Borden. Construction began in May 1916 with the companies from Barrie and Collingwood. A second company from Barrie arrived in June to help speed up the construction. As such, the 157th became the founding battalion of Camp Borden, which it constructed to accommodate 40 infantry battalions in 10 brigades. Before the camp was opened the remainder of the 157th and the entire 177th Battalion (Simcoe Foresters), CEF, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J.B. McPhee, arrived. By that summer, Camp Borden was home to 36 CEF battalions in nine brigades before they embarked overseas. On the night of Camp Borden's official opening, a riot by members of other battalions was suppressed by both the 157th and 177th battalions of the Simcoe Foresters, which were turned out with bayonets fixed.

Based in Barrie, Ontario, the 157th Battalion, Simcoe Foresters, began recruiting in late 1915 in Simcoe County. 2,450 volunteers were recruited, of which 1,070 officers and other ranks were enlisted in the battalion. Of the remainder, about 700 were rejected as being medically unfit, 75 were transferred to the 76th Battalion, and the approximately 600 remaining were transferred to the 177th Battalion, Simcoe Foresters.

On 12 October 1916, the battalion received its regimental colours at Camp Borden, which were subsequently laid up in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Barrie, Ontario, after the war on 10 October 1919. The colours were reclaimed by The Grey and Simcoe Foresters, which perpetuates the 157th, on 18 June 1982 and deposited in the regiment's Barrie Officers' Mess.

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