72nd Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders of Canada engaged in Aid to Civil Powers for the Coal Miners' Strike on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo,1913 - 1914. Caption: "Cpl Dr Westall" on page. Seaforth bass drummer, #275 Cpl Dr Westall with a small boy playing a bugle on top of his drum. Cpl Westall is wearing a service dress tunic, kilt, glengarry and a leopard (not cougar) pelt apron. The young boy is wearing a blue uniform and a glengarry. The Imperial Seaforths wore the leopard skin. As an adaptation of the Canadian Seaforths they wore cougar collar dogs (instead of the elephant) and the cougar instead of the leopard skin. The photo is circular. The Vancouver Island Coal Strike began on 16 Sept. 1912 when miners at Cumberland declared a "holiday" to protest the firing of Oscar Mottishaw. Canadian Collieries locked them out and hired Chinese and strike breakers. The issues were safety (gas explosions had killed hundreds) and union recognition. Other employers followed the pattern in resisting any union. By spring 1913, 3,500 miners from Vancouver Island were off work with the United Mine Workers of America providing leadership and strike pay. In the summer of 1912, the Vancouver and Nanaimo Coal Co., settled with its employees, but not before rioting, arsons and "shoot-outs" had broken out in all the coal towns. Peace was restored when the BC government sent in 1,000 militiamen. The withdrawal of strike pay in the summer of 1914 and the beginning of WW I ended the confrontation. By then the mines were running at almost pre-strike capacity using newly hired labour.