About Us 
A Brief History of the ANAVETS
The Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada is Canada's
oldest veterans' association. Although the precise start-date is
obscured by time, it is known that a charter was given in 1840 by
Queen Victoria to create a unit in Montreal. It is felt that units
existed well before that time, perhaps as early as the Conquest of
New France in the seventeen hundreds.
The Association derives its name from those remnants of British
and French colonial regiments which were left in Canada when their
regiments returned to Britain or France following their tours of
duty protecting the colonies. These men banded together to
exchange information on service benefits available to them and to
fraternize. They called themselves "The Army Veterans in Canada"
so that when they were in Britain they could denote their location
as opposed to the Army Veterans in Australia or South-Africa. The
reference to Canada became an integral part of the Association's
title, as incorporated by the Government of Canada in 1917.
Following the War of 1812 sailors from the British Navy which
patrolled the Great Lakes and the eastern seaboard, who remained
in Canada, joined the Army Veterans in Canada and the title was
changed to "The Army and Navy Veterans in Canada".
The association was also composed of volunteers who answered
the call of the Canadian Government for active service during the
Fenian Raids of 1860, 1870 and 1871, the Red River Expedition of
1870, and the North-West Rebellion of 1885.
A cairn was raised in 1902 by the Toronto Army and Navy
Veterans Association to commemorate the first Lieutenant-Governor
of Ontario, John Graves Simcoe, founder of York (now Toronto) and
to mark the Military Burying Grounds (now the Victoria Memorial
Gardens) situated in a park at the junction of King St. West and
Bathurst St. in Toronto.
In April 1909 at Montreal, Mr. W. W. Marsh of the Army and Navy
Veterans Association was one of the founding members of the Last
Post Fund.
During and following the Second World War, members of the Air
Force were welcomed as members and the official title the "The
Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada" was enacted, by an
amendment to our Act of Incorporation, by Parliament in 1946. The
Association uses the short form ANAVETS
to identify itself.
A Brief History of the Kitchener Branch
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