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31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's)

combat engineer regiment of the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Army

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ4634774 ↗
Source-derived summary

31 Combat Engineer Regiment (31 CER or "The Elgin's"), is a combat engineer regiment of the Canadian Military Engineers. A Primary Reserve unit, it is part of 31 Canadian Brigade Group of the 2nd Canadian Division. It consists of two squadrons in southern Ontario: 48 Engineer Squadron in Waterloo and 7 Engineer Squadron in St. Thomas. Founded in 1866 as a militia infantry battalion in Elgin County, Canada West, the unit mobilized an armoured delivery unit for service in Europe during the Second World War. The militia unit was converted to armour in 1954 and then to combat engineering in 1997.

History

31 CER perpetuates the Provincial Corps of Artificers, a unit associated with the War of 1812.

The regiment existed before the Confederation of Canada, tracing its origin to 1866 when the Militia Act officially created the 25th, Elgin, Battalion of Infantry from five local militia companies. It became the 25th Elgin Regiment in 1900, but was then disbanded in 1903, but re-formed the next year.

In 1915 the 91st Battalion (Elgin), CEF was raised in St.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's)” as combat engineer regiment of the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Army. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1866, 1954, 1997, 1812—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1866-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Combat, Engineer and Regiment can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as combat engineer regiment of the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Army. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4634774. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1866, 1954, 1997 and 1812.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's) primary sources, 31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's) archive and Combat research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin's)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.