Veterans

Veterans Affairs Canada
Veteran Affairs Canada provides client-centred services and benefits that respond to the needs of veterans, and other clients and their families, in recognition of their services to Canada.
For more information, please click here for the departments's website.
Royal Canadian Legion
The Legion is a non-profit, dues-supported, fraternal organization with approximately 1,600 branches in Canada, the United States, Germany and The Netherlands. The Legion receives no financial assistance from any outside agency and membership is open to all Canadian citizens and Commonwealth subjects who subscribe to the purposes and objects of the organization.

For more information, please visit The Legion's website

Canada’s Participation in War and Peacekeeping Missions

South Africa War (1899-1902)
Approximately 7,000 Canadians served; 267 of them gave their lives.

First World War (1914-1918)
Approximately 650,000 Canadians served, including members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served with British forces (Newfoundland was a colony of Great Britain until 1949) and merchant mariners. More than 68,000 gave their lives. There are no surviving Canadian Veterans of the First World War. The last remaining Veteran from this war, Mr. John Babcock, passed away on February 18, 2010, at the age of 109.

Second World War (1939-1945)
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in Canada’s Armed Forces, in Allied forces or in the merchant navy; over 47,000 of them gave their lives. There are approximately 143,700 living Veterans of the Second World War; their average age is 87*.

Korean War (1950-1953)
26,791 Canadians served in the Canadian Army Special Force; 516 of them gave their lives. There are approximately 12,000 living Veterans of the Korean War; their average age is 78*.

In the Service of Canada (as of September 2010)
More than 1,700 Canadians gave their lives in service to their country, including peacekeeping and other foreign military operations, domestic operations and training, since October 1947. There are approximately 593,700 living Canadian Forces (Regular Forces and Primary Reserves) Veterans; their average age is 54*.

Canada’s Veterans are commemorated in seven books of remembrance:

South African War / Nile Expedition Book of Remembrance

First World War Book of Remembrance

Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance

Newfoundland Book of Remembrance

Second World War Book of Remembrance

Korean War Book of Remembrance

Seventh Book of Remembrance, In the Service of Canada**

* The number of living Veterans and their average age is approximate, as of March 2010.

**The Seventh Book of Remembrance is a living document that will commemorate those who have given their lives “In the Service of Canada” for generations to come.

(Source: DVA Canada 2010)