13.  On the 7 October 1941 the advance party under Major G.T.A. McNeill left on HMTS ORANGI for UK.  The main party was slated to leave shortly after­wards and was inspec­ted by the GOC Major-Ge­neral E. San­som on 15 Octo­ber at the air­port.  Every­thing was loa­ded and packed aboard the train when the whole move was post­poned indef­in­itely.  Finally the Regi­ment boar­ded the train on the 8 Novem­ber and after an un­event­ful jour­ney through the wilds of Eas­tern Canada embarked the fol­low­ing day at the “uni­den­ti­fied Eas­tern port” HALI­FAX on HMTS ORON­SAY.  This was an Orient line boat well fit­ted for the trans­port of a small num­ber in the tro­pics but NOT suit­able for the trans­port of large num­bers across the NORTH ATLAN­TIC in win­ter.  The unit was SOS Cana­dian Army CANADA the date of embar­kation.

14.  Some of the high­lights of the stay at Peta­wawa were the excel­lent offi­cers and ser­geants mes­ses and the very pop­u­lar ORs can­teens.  The pro­fits from these can­teens pro­vi­ded a fund which was used to send many thou­sands of cigar­ettes to the Regi­ment in Eng­land.  Ano­ther fea­ture of life by the Ottawa was the Trum­pet Band com­plete with white gloves, which pro­vi­ded music (after a fash­ion, and a while) for the many church par­ades, reviews and inspec­tions.