Struck off Strength and from Memory: A Profile of the Deserters of the 165th (Acadian) Battalion, 1916

This article uses an exceptional archival source, the register of deserters for the 165th (Acadian) Battalion, to study the little understood phenomenon of desertion during the recruitment and training of new units in Canada during the First World War. By 1916, national enrollment numbers were in stark decline, and yet this Acadian unit was able to attract nearly 900 recruits. However, approximately 200 of them deserted before the unit left for Europe. Employing techniques of longitudinal analysis with military records and national censuses, the article identifies trends with regard to who was more likely to desert and why, and also examines the reintegration of deserters and soldiers into civil society after the war.