British Columbia Regiment

The British Columbia (BC) Regiment drum and bugle corps, also known as the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles, was originally formed as a regimental band on November 9, 1883, in Victoria and New Westminster, and is older than Vancouver in which it later served.

With the conversion of the Regiment from Artillery to Rifles in 1900, the band evolved into a brass band. When the Regiment marched off to war, the Band went overseas and several of its World War I drums sit with honor in the Regimental Museum. Serving the Regiment throughout World War II, the 1950s, and the early 1960s, the Band was well known and won many band competitions.

They continued to perform mainly as a military unit and converted to a competitive drum and bugle competitive corps in 1964. At that time, the Regiment participated in Mid-Winter championships in Seattle during the spring.

The corps also competed on the field in 1965 and 1966 before going inactive due to cuts in the Canadian military establishment with unification of the Army, Navy, and Air Force in 1967. Twenty years passed before RSM (Band), Don Shale, and former Band Officer, Major Jim Barrett, decided to try to re-form a regimental band in 1987. After obtaining permission from the Regiment, the Commanding Officers’ Committee of retired colonels, and Major Fred Smith (ret.) of the British Columbia Regiment Association, the Band was re-formed as a volunteer band.

 As of 2024, the Regiment was a proud and visible ambassadors of the Canadian Forces and the British Columbia Regiment in the eyes of the community.