WWI Victory Medal - No. 2 Construction Battalion - Lindsay - Black Canadian

WWI Victory Medal named to: 931194 SPR. F. L. LINDSAY. C.O.R.C.C

Frederick Leroy Lindsay was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia and employed as a labourer when he joined the Number 2 Construction Battalion at Camp Aldershot, NS in August, 1916. He was underage at 17 but appears to have been accepted into the CEF notwithstanding his being under 18. He departed Canada with his battalion in February, 1917 and proceeded to France in May, 1917. He served with the unit in France until it returned to England shortly after the Armistice. He remained in England until January, 1919 and was finally discharged from the CEF in February, 1919. 

The Lindsay family (variously spelt Landsay and Lanzy) were from the former community known as Pine Woods, which is where Camp Aldershot was built. In 2024 a new building was built on the base and named in honour of Frederick and his brother, James.

The following is an excerpt from a local newspaper covering the event and offering some more insight into the story of Frederick Lindsay:

The Aurora News is at Camp Aldershot.

 Kentville, NS  · 
The name on the building tells a historical story, but the extended descendants in the audience during an October 10 naming event give the story life.
The new guardhouse at 5th Canadian Division/ 5e Division du Canada Support Group Detachment Aldershot is now the Private Frederick L. Landsay and Private James E. Landsay Building. The Landsay brothers grew up in Pine Woods, long over-taken by Camp Aldershot; and joined the once-unrecognized First World War, all-Black No. 2 Construction Battalion (No. 2 CEF). Following their war service, the Landsay men, their home community and the battalion all but disappeared.

Family, community fades into time
Pine Woods was a small, Black farming community north of Kentville. Early Camp Aldershot militia training grounds were regularly used and, with the outbreak of the First World War, activity increased. In 1921, Pine Woods as a community disappeared from public record.
In August 1916, Frederick Landsay walked down the road and joined the army. James enrolled 12 days later, in Pictou. They served with the No. 2 CEF overseas, Frederick in France and James in France and Belgium. They came home in 1919 and demobilized in Halifax. Frederick married Rachel in a 1920 service performed by the No. 2 CEF chaplain, and they lived for a short time with Rachel’s sister, Rita (Mrs. Benjamin Upshaw), in temporary housing, built after the Halifax Explosion in the North End. Rachel went on an extended visit to New York and, after Frederick followed, the couple divorced in Virginia. Frederick moved to Toronto, the last known record of him. James never married. He died in 1963 at 74, and is buried in the East Preston United Baptist Church.
The Landsay surname from Pine Woods is one of the potential sources of the name of “Lanzy Road;” renamed at some point from “Shadow Street.” Frederick and James’ war records confusingly also refer to them at times as “Lindsay.” Neither man is known to have had children, and, further complicating the story, the Upshaws and Landsays married into each other twice. In time, the Landsay name disappeared.

An interesting and scarce medal to a member of Canada's only all-black military unit, and a member of a notable Nova Scotia family.