${vImageAlt}
University Archives & Special Collections. A8791. (Patrick Hayes)

Suicide Battalion

A memorial stone and plaque to honour those who served with the 46th Canadian Infantry Battalion (South Saskatchewan) Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918, rests on the northeast corner of the Bowl.

Designed by a sculptor in Winnipeg, it was presented to the University of Saskatchewan at a solemn ceremony in Convocation Hall on Nov. 11, 1933.

Formed in February 1915, the 46th Canadian Infantry Battalion (South Saskatchewan) was to have a strength of 600 men. Its ranks were filled primarily with Saskatchewan youths, many via the U of S. Also known as the "Suicide Battalion," it fought in some of the bloodiest encounters of the Great War.

Reinforcements were constantly needed as battle after battle decimated its ranks. Of the 5,374 men in the 46th Battalion, 4,917 were either killed or wounded. A particularly costly battle was Passchendaele, where there were 403 casualties from the battalion's strength of 600 men.

Share this story