Canada

Canada’s entry into the Second World War in September 1939 was met with resignation by its people. Like so many countries, the memory of the First World War, during which 60,000 Canadians had died and over 172,000 been wounded, still loomed large. The introduction of conscription by the Anglophone (English-speaking) majority in 1917 was still a source of resentment for French Canadians – about a third of Canada’s population of 11.5 million. In addition, the First World War had left Canada saddled with huge debts. The economic situation grew even more severe with the Depression of the 1930s. When the Second World War broke out, over 400,000 Canadians were unemployed. 

1931 Statute of Westminster (Had to be passed in each of the Dominions it applied to (not just the UK) as they were in 1931 – the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Dominion of Newfoundland, the Irish Free State, the Dominion of New Zealand and the Union of South Africa. A key part of the statute was that laws passed in the UK after 1931 no longer extended automatically to Dominion countries unless they expressly requested it, and that no law passed in any of the Dominion countries after 1931 would be made void by the UK. It effectively removed the last bonds of British Imperial power in these countries.)

The purpose of this enquiry is for pupils to explore not only why the Dieppe Raid is seen by Canadians as such a disaster in the annals of their armed forces, but also what the lessons were that might have been learned from the action.

Students should understand the importance of commemoration to the Canadian sense of national identity and more generally the contribution by the Empire/Commonwealth to the two World Wars. They will conduct an enquiry using a variety of visual and written sources to analyse and consider the value of memorials to an historian in constructing a picture of a nation’s sense of identity.