Lt A.M. Hall, 67th (Western Scots) Battalion, CEF on parade with his troops in Victoria, 1915-1916. They are dressed in service dress tunics, breeches with puttees and glengarries. They are all carrying rifles. The "X" is Lt Hall. 103027 Pte (later commissioned Lt) Alexander MacRae Hall enlisted in the 67th Battalion, CEF on 4 October 1915 in Victoria. He had previously served in the 59th Stormont and Glengarry Regiment and the 5th Canadian Garrison Artillery. Hall arrived in France with the 67th Pioneers, CEF on 13 August 1916. Hall was killed in action from a gunshot wound to the lung on 4 September 1916 at or near the Poppy Lane Trench. The 67th Battalion (Western Scots), CEF was an infantry battalion which was converted to a pioneer battalion. The 67th Battalion was authorized, recruited and mobilized on 20 April 1915 in Victoria and embarked for Britain on 1 April 1916. It was converted to pioneers and redesignated the 67th Canadian (Pioneer) Battalion, CEF on 15 May 1916. It disembarked in France on 14 August 1916, where it served as part of the 4th Canadian Division in France and Flanders until 28 April 1917, when its personnel were absorbed by the Canadian Corps to reinforce 54th and 102nd Infantry Battalions in the field. The battalion was disbanded on 30 August 1920. Pioneer battalions differed from normal infantry in that they would be composed of a mixture of men who were experienced with picks and shovels (miners, road men, etc) and some who had skilled trades (smiths, carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, masons, tinsmiths, engine drivers and fitters). A Pioneer battalion would also carry a range of technical stores that infantry would not. This type of British battalion came into being with an Army Order in December 1914. A Canadian view: There is a difference between a pioneer battalion and a labour battalion. Pioneers were Infantry, and only received recruits of A1 category. They provided a necessary function different than that of the standard Infantry Battalion. In the British Army the Pioneers received special training, received the pick of skilled (men with applicable trades) Infantry, and received extra pay. Canada had four labour battalions in its Corps structure in France; these weren't pioneers. The Pioneers’ function was within the Division. They provided the extra man power to the Engineer Field Companies and skilled pioneer functions to the Infantry in the front line. In fact in the 1918 reorganization of the engineers, the Pioneers were absorbed into the Divisional Engineer Brigades. It was the pioneers that built the dugouts, built the roads in forward areas, laid barbed wire entanglements, and were the power house in trench construction. Pioneers also were the ones who followed on the heels of the Infantry in the attack to fill trenches and build passable avenues for the guns to be brought forward. CEF service file and CWGC details attached