The 88th Regiment, Victoria Fusiliers is a historical regiment located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, between 1912 – 1920. The Victoria Fusiliers was the first militia infantry regiment formed in Victoria on the 3rd September, 1912.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, it was largly responsible for a recruitment in Victoria during the war until 1918. The 88th Battalion, of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, was then formed from the 88th Regiment and would see service overseas. It can be observed that the officers of the Victoria Fusiliers consisted primarily of British men that had immigrated from Britain. Many had grown up within a British military family or had joined the army at young age. It is due to their loyalty, experience, and pride that that the British men wanted to start a new military infantry regiment in Victoria, British Columbia, to help Britain in the coming war and establish a largely British organization.

Just as the British citizens of Victoria promoted and served with the Victoria Fusiliers, the Scottish citizens of Victoria desired a separate regiment for themselves and thus, after filing their petition on 15th August 1913, the Gordon Highlanders was formed. 

Inside this website you will find the history of the 88th Regiment, Victoria Fusiliers, as well as some of the prominent Officers, a chaplain, the medical officer, and mascot of the 88th Regiment, Victoria Fusiliers and it’s 88th Battalion counterpart.

Many thanks to the British Columbia Archives, the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) Regimental Museum, University of Victoria Special Collections, Library and Archives Canada for their support of this project.

All sources may be found in “References” while visual documents may be found under “Archives”.

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This project was created  by Geoffrey Hendrie and Nathan Waller in collaboration with the University of Victoria.