affiliation with the University for
the instruction of joint classes, and Divinity Hall on University Street
was opened.

The last five years of Sir William Peterson's Principalship were the
years of war tragedy. When the war came in 1914 the University gave all
its energy to the allied cause. When the trumpet blew for freedom, the
Principal, although he could not actually enter the combatant lists,
gave all his strength unstintingly. The part taken by McGill in the war
cannot be here detailed; it must be left for another story. Only the
bare outline need be mentioned. When the war cloud broke, the Canadian
Officers Training Corps already in connection with the University was
reorganised, and grounds and buildings became centres of military
activity. In the spring of 1915 the McGill General Hospital, known later
as No. 3 (McGill) went overseas. It was a distinctively McGill unit. It
was organised within the Medical Faculty. All its officers were members
of the teaching staff or graduates of the Medical School. The nurses
were graduates of either the Royal Victoria Hospital or the Montreal
General Hospital, and practically all the men in the unit were drawn
from the student body. Early in the following year a heavy artillery
unit was organised within the University, and was permitted by the
Militia department to use the name McGill until its arrival in France.
It was also allowed to embody the McGill crest with the artillery badge.
It was organised as No. 6 (McGill) Siege Battery, but after its arrival
at the front it was known as No. 7 Battery, Canadian Siege Artillery.
The Commanding Officer and the second in command were members of the
teaching staff of the University; the other officers and
non-commissioned officers were largely graduates, and more than half the
gunners were McGill students. Because of rapid promotions and consequent
transfers of officers and men, as well as of the usual circumstances and
changes of war, this unit lost before the end of hostilities its
distinctively McGill character. The majority of McGill men in the
original unit received commissions. Five full companies of infantry and
part of a sixth were recruited in the University. They were known as
"The University Companies," and were sent to the front as reinforcements
for the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. The majority of the
officers of these companies and a large number of the men were graduates
or students of McGill. The 148