The Highlanders Window is dedicated to the 48th Highlanders of Canada who were killed in the First World War. It was designed by Peter Haworth and erected by Laura Christie Clark on November 11, 1937. Laura donated the window out of her admiration for the regiment. Sergeant George Elms posed for the artist, not knowing that his son and grandson would also serve in the 48th Highlanders of Canada.
The window depicts a Highlander in full dress scarlet, standing with reversed arms, hands clasped on the butt of the rifle, head bowed – an eloquent symbol of mourning and respect. At each side of him, of similar dimensions but in perspective behind, are two great soldiers of The Old Testament, Joshua and David the King, armed as in the days when they too, fought and suffered and grieved for fallen comrades.
In 1891, a group of men gathered in Toronto intent on forming the city's first Highland regiment. The regiment was designated by the Militia Department with the number "48" and the word "Highlanders" and shortly thereafter Lieutenant-Colonel John Irvine Davidson assumed command of the newly constituted 48th Highlanders of Canada.
The Regiment was gazetted on October 16, 1891, and began to drill at Upper Canada College. It first marched out on the 21 April, 1892, to be greeted by crowds of cheering Torontonians. On the Queen's Birthday that year, the Regiment was presented with its first set of colours by His Excellency Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada.
The 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada) went overseas with the first Canadian contingent in October 1914 equipped in uniforms paid for by the Regiment. The 48th recruited three battalions, the 15th and two reinforcement battalions, 92nd and 134th. Facing the first gas attack of the war at the Second Battle of Ypres on 24 April 1915, the 48th were ordered to stand to the end. They did, losing 664 Highlanders, killed, wounded or prisoners of war. The 15th Battalion continued to the war’s end in battles including the Somme, Passchendaele and Vimy Ridge, earning 21 Battle Honours. 1,625 Highlanders were killed in action.
