Rum Ration Podcast Episode 13: RMR At Ypres

Westmount, Quebec – 30 May 2025: In this gripping episode of the Rum Ration Podcast, your hosts take us deep into the Second Battle of Ypres—Canada’s brutal baptism by fire in the First World War. Focusing on The Royal Montreal Regiment (14th Battalion), they recount the horrors of April 1915, where untested Canadian troops held their ground against Germany’s first mass use of poison gas.

The episode honours Captain Richard Steacie, the first RMR officer killed in action, whose remains were only recently identified. It also honours the quiet courage of unnamed stretcher-bearers and buglers, while telling the story of Captain Francis Scrimger, the RMR’s medical officer who earned the Victoria Cross for heroic actions under fire at Shelltrap Farm.

Listeners also hear of Westmount High School’s Fred Fisher, a member of the Black Watch (13th Battalion), he was the first Canadian soldier awarded the VC in WWI at the age of 19-years old. With storytelling steeped in personal sacrifice, chaos, and camaraderie, this episode reveals how the RMR helped stop a German breakthrough and cemented the reputation of the Canadians on the Western Front.

Available now at rumration.ca or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Amazon, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and YouTube).