During the Great War, HCol John Macpherson Almond CMG CBG DSO would become Assistant Director and later Director of the Canadian Chaplain Service with the rank of Honorary Colonel. Several tours at the front, and with Canadian Military Forces in England and Canada.
Almond sought to improve the reputation of Canadian Military Chaplains and would develop close professional relationships with several senior Canadian commanders, including Lieutenant General Sir Richard Turner and Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, who he continued to work together with in establishing the Last Post Fund.
Early Life of John Macpherson Almond
Born 27 July 1872 in Shigawake, Bonaventure county, Quebec. Son of James Almond and Mary Ann Macpherson. Preliminary education in provincial schools before entering Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, where he graduated with an M.A. as well as a D.C.L. Ordained in September 1897 and began his ministry as a missionary on the Labrador Coast, where he remained until becoming attached to the Cathedral of Quebec City.
Boer War
In October 1899 volunteered as chaplain to the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. L-Col William Dillon Otter, in command of the Canadian contingent, did not want any chaplains, but public opinion forced the militia authorities to make provisions for two, one Presbyterian and one Roman Catholic. Anglicans persuaded Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier to authorize the last-minute appointment of Almond as chaplain.
While in South Africa he took part in twenty-seven engagements, and awarded the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. Following the war returned to the Quebec Cathedral, remaining there until September 1901 when offered the Rectorship of Gran’Mere, Quebec. Married to Nellie Estelle Beamer of 146 Durocher St, Montreal in 1901.
Last Post Imperial Naval and Military Contingency Fund
On 18 May 1904 Almond called to the Rectorship of Trinity Memorial Church, Montreal. From here Almond became president of the South African Veterans Association in 1908 and the following year founding member of the Last Post Fund (LPF), established by Sir Arthur Harold Douglas Hair and other prominent citizens of Montreal to provide impoverished veterans with a funeral and a proper burial. The fund’s first president, Almond held office from 1909 to 1915 and again from 1932 to 1939.
6th Hussars
In 1911 Almond joined the Canadian militia as honorary chaplain to the 6th (Duke of Connaught’s Royal Canadian) Hussars. At Bishop’s College, he led the Alumni Association, chaired the Diamond Jubilee Fund drive in 1913, and served as a member of the governing council of Bishop’s, from 1908 until his death. He often met with other Bishop’s students and Alumni, once enjoying a lobster barbeque organized by Canon Scott.
Great War
H-Col and Chaplain John M Almond 6902 attested 22 September 1914 in Montreal. He was 42 years of age, standing 5′ 10″ tall, 145 pounds, with dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. Appointed to commissioned rank (Major) in Headquarters Divisional Artillery.
To Senior Chaplain, 2nd Canadian Division, 9 September 1915. The following week, his brother Eric Almond volunteers with the Canadian Field Artillery on 15 September 1915.
Honorary Lieutenant Colonel
Promoted to Honorary Lieutenant Colonel and On Command to Canada, 20 August 1915.
Chaplain Services
To be Assistant Director of Chaplain Services, 1 December 1915. Attached to unit as Senior Chaplain, 25 December 1915.
To be Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St George, London Gazette, No 29608, 3 June 1916. John M Almond Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazette No 29623, 15 June 1916.
Director Canadian Chaplain Services
In November 1916, the Canadian overseas military administration extensively reorganized under a new minister, Sir George Halsey Perley. General Richard Ernest William Turner recalled Almond from the front, and appointed him director of the CCS.
Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazette No 29890, 2 January 1917.
Appointed Director of Canadian Chaplain Services, 15 February 1917 through 11 July 1919. On Command proceeded to France on Special Duty, 18 April 1917.
Honorary Colonel
Honorary Colonel effective 23 August 1917. HCol John Macpherson Almond On Command proceeded to France on Special Duty, 10 September 1917.
Taken on Canadian Records List on arrival in France on 10 day visit to inspect work of Chaplains, 30 November 1917. Transferred to England on termination of visirt and posted to Canadian General Depot, Shorncliffe.
On Command proceeded to Canada on Special Duty, 9 April 1918. On 13 April 1918, his brother Gunner Eric Almond appointed to commissioned rank in the CFA with the 35th Battery.
HCol John Macpherson Almond Off Command resumed duties in England, 21 June 1918.
Lt Eric Almond wounded on 7 August 1918 on the eve of the Battle of Amiens.
HCol John Macpherson Almond On Command proceeded to France on Special Duty, 19 August 1918, returning 28 August 1918.
On Command proceeded to France on Special Duty, 15 October 1918, returning 26 October 1918.
Return to Canada
Almond To be Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, London Gazette, No 31377, 3 June 1919. SoS on transfer to Canada, 11 July 1919.
On return to Montreal, Almond began working on the new Trinity Memorial Church in NDG. He was Archdeacon of Montreal from 1932 until his death in Montreal in 1939.
On 17 September 1939, three days after volunteering his services for war, HCol Venerable Archdeacon John Almond died suddenly in his sleep.
“One of the best-known clergymen in the Dominion.”
The Gazette, 18 September 1939
Very much active until his death, Almond had conducted three weddings in the Trinity Memorial Church. At the time of his death, chaplain to the Canadian Field Artillery and Ste Anne’s Veterans Hospital. He had been chaplain to the Montreal jails since 1912. He was an honorary member of the mess of nearly every military unit in the city, as well as a supporter of the Amputations Association of the Great War. Mason (32nd degree) and a past officer of Grand Lodge. Board of Governors of Trafalgar Institute and member of Islemere Golf and Country Club, and the South African Veterans Association.
Last Post Fund
Arthur Harold Douglas Hair also a charter member of the Canadian branch of the South African Veterans Association and an active member of the Trinity (Anglican) Church congregation where he sought the assistance of Rev Almond to create a veteran’s burial organization (the Last Post Fund).
“Almond would later recall the ‘great indignation’ with which Hair approached him over the callousness of allowing veterans’ bodies to go unclaimed. The two men would be close partners in the affairs of the Fund for the next 30 years.“
Serge M Durflinger – Lest We Forget
Motivation
In December 1908 two policemen find a homeless man huddled in a doorway of downtown Montreal. Unconscious, taken to the nearby hospital and diagnosed as a drunk and taken to a room to sleep it off. Head orderly Arthur Hair looks in on the so-called drunk, and notices a blue envelope sticking out of the man’s pocket.
A Veteran of the South African War, Hair familiar with the type of envelope. Issued by Britain’s War Office, it contained the honourable discharge of Trooper James Daly with 20-years-of-service. Hair realizes Trooper Daly not a drunk, and instead suffering from hypothermia and malnutrition. Sadly, Daly died 2 days later, still unconscious, at age 53.
His body unclaimed, and his remains turned over to science for medical research. Hair thoroughly disgusted by the Empire’s disregard for a Veteran, so he raised money from friends and colleagues to give the soldier a decent and dignified burial.
Trooper Daly buried at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery on Mount-Royal. This was the catalyst for the creation of the Last Post Fund in Montreal, in April 1909. Trooper Daly the first of nearly 150,000 servicemen and women for whom the Last Post Fund has provided financial benefits over the past century.
Founding of the Last Post Imperial Naval and Military Contingency Fund
On 19 April 1909, the LPF held it’s first meeting in the vestry of Trinity Church on St. Denis and Viger.
- Arthur Harold Douglas Hair (Secretary)
- (President) Venerable Archdeacon John M Almond
- Brigadier-General Lawrence Buchan, CVO, CMG, ADC
- (Treasurer) Lucien C Vallée (South African Veterans Association)
- Alex Mackay (Imperial South African Veterans Association)
- W W Marsh (Army and Navy Veterans Association)
- Mrs R Hemsley (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE))
- Miss Borthwick (IODE)
- Mrs F W Slater
- Sergeant-Major T Blond (Permanent Force)
Hair later recalled it as “a little gathering with patriotic ideas and fervour, and no money.”
Original Trustees
- Venerable Archdeacon John M Almond
- Brigadier-General Lawrence Buchan
- J T Walsh (Royal Naval Reserve (RNR)
“Walsh, marine superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s steamship service, was also a Catholic, an important consideration in his selection.”
Serge M Durflinger – Lest We Forget
Official recognition came quickly. Governor-General Albert Grey became the honourary patron of the fund, the first of a long line of Governors-General to fill this role. The first formal burial sponsored by the Fund in April 1909 for A. Walter Walters, a Veteran of the South African War. The LPF had yet to secure a plot, and Walters’ remains temporarily placed in the vault at Mount Royal Cemetery. The first burial of a Catholic, Private Patrick Brosnan in the adjoining Cote-des-Neiges Cemetery on 20 October 1909. Brosnan’s remains also temporarily placed in the cemetery vault.
“The Last Post Fund is not a charity, it is a duty.”
Arthur Hair, Last Post Fund founder
John H Molson replaced Almond as president of the LPF. Almond had replaced Sir Arthur Currie as president in 1932.
“There is nothing with which I have been connected of which I am so proud as the inauguration and development of the Last Post Fund. I would rather be connected with that than with anything else…in my career.”
Venerable Archdeacon John M Almond
In January of 1910, Arthur Hair secured two plots, one at Mount Royal Cemetery, and an adjoining plot at Cotes-des-Neiges Cemetery, (Montreal (Notre Dame Des Neiges) Cemetery), for Roman Catholic burials.
National Field of Honour
The LPF maintains its own military cemetery, the National Field of Honour, at Pointe-Claire, Quebec. In 2019, it launched the Indigenous Veterans Initiative to honour the memory of more than 18,000 Indigenous veterans.
Its national headquarters are in Montreal and it has nine provincial boards (NB and PEI included in the same board). The organization also has an office in the United Kingdom. To date, nearly 150,000 veterans assisted by the Last Post Fund.
Almond’s Legacy
HCol John Macpherson Almond a pioneer in the development of a strong and active ministry to the Canadian soldiers of the Great War. His drive to achieve denominational equality for Roman Catholics, involve the home churches directly in the recruitment of chaplains, and ensure a vigorous front-line presence for his clergy founded the major traditions of military chaplaincy in Canada. Even though the structures he adapted so effectively, replaced by denominational dualism in World War II and the Cold War, the Canadian Armed Forces since 1997 have returned to the single-service, forward-deploying, and multi-faith chaplaincy that had proved so effective on the battlefields of Europe. – Duff W. Crerar
- Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazette 29623, dated 15 June 1916.
- Mentioned in Despatches, London Gazette 29890, dated 4 January 1917.
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
John’s brother Lt Eric Almond joined the ministry following the Great War. Reverend Eric Almond died on 3 August 1953.
Trinity Memorial Church
Construction began in 1922 and dedicated in 1926. Trinity Memorial can trace its roots to 1840, when the original church founded in Old Montreal on St. Paul Street opposite Bonsecours Market.
Trinity Memorial Church closed since 2017. Sold several times since its closure and the subject of considerable land speculation. As far back as 2005, the City received a proposal from a developer to demolish the church and propose a new commercial and residential development on the site.
Lt David Alwyn Forneri
The structure initially dedicated as a memorial to soldiers who died in the Great War, and a stone slab at the entrance pays tribute to David Alwyn Forneri (VIMY MEMORIAL), a lieutenant with the 73rd battalion of the Royal Highlanders of Canada, “killed in action at Vimy Ridge, France, while gallantly leading his men, March 1st, 1917.” Forneri the son of The Rev. R. S. Forneri, of Peterborough, Ontario.
Nursing Sister Agnes Florien Forneri
Nursing Sister Agnes Florien Forneri, daughter of The Rev. R. S. Forneri, of Peterborough, Ontario, died from a stomach hemorrhage on 24 April 1918 at No 12 Canadian Hospital, Bramshott Camp, England.
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