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Across Europe, after an Assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914 by members of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society fires were spreading quickly to lesser nations.  
 
Austria/Hungary attacked Serbia. Germany attacked Russia, and Great Britain declared War on the Kaiser, and all his allies on August 4th 1914.  
 
After the declaration was declared, mobilization of the Brandon Garrison began. South African veterans met at the Armoury, and every man volunteered to go to the front. Fifty volunteers in the 99th Manitoba Rangers held their first Drill under Majors C. J. Whillier, and W. J. Creelman.  
 
A wave of patriotisms then erupted, Professionals left their desks, Carpenters abandoned their tools, and Railway Firemen quit their locomotives. Small Shopkeepers locked their doors to stand in line with Store Clerks, Bank Tellers, Restaurant Cooks, Office Workers, Confectioners, Delivery Men, and the like to join the First Canadian Contingent. Also fifteen tenants of a Twelfth Street boarding House volunteered for service overseas.  
 
Columns of the local Newsprint read like a Telephone Directory containing names of enlistees: Anderson, Atkinson, Baird, Barryclough, Bell, Bingham, Bowler, Bridger, Bright, Broal, Brumwell, Bubb, Bunch, Cairns, Carlton, Chapman, Coldwell, Cooke, Crawford, Curtis, Davenport, Davaney, Dodds, Donahoe, Douglas, Dwyer, Ferguson, Finnemore, Freeman, Guzzana, Green, Hall, Lane, Lee, Lieth, Levine, McBain, McCormick, McCosk, McGregor, McInnis, McIntosh, McIntyre, McPhail, McQueen, Marshall, Mears, Meehand, Miller, Mickleburgh, Oliver, Parker, Porteous, Rogers, Scott, Seguin, Sherriff, Raylor, Thorvaldson, Townsley, Trotter, Tunbridge, Walters, Wildgus. Majors Jsames Kircaldy, and Joseph McLaren also had parts to play.  
 
Brandon became the collection point for enlistment men who traveled here from distant centres. They include Bakers and Barbers, Blacksmiths, and Butchers, labourers, and the seasonally employed, early Dr. Bernardo Home wards, and Barr colonists. They travelled on foot, by horse drawn vehicle, and train.  
 
Day and night the streets of Brandon were filled with the sounds of human, and mechanized traffic. Revellers, and drunken merrymaking were the norm, leaving the newly appointed Police Chief J. Esslemont Senior at his wits’ end.  
 
Source: Brandon a city, by G. F. Barker.