ABSTRACT
On 16 September 1916, Lieutenant Francis ‘Frank’ Clarence McGee of Ottawa was killed by heavy shellfire on the Somme. A member of one of Canada’s most prominent political families and a hockey superstar, McGee’s death was greatly mourned. His death was all the more tragic because he had an impairment that should have caused him to have been rejected for service. McGee had been partially blinded while playing hockey in 1900. This paper challenges the traditionally held view that McGee entered the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) by using a ruse to mask his visual limitations, arguing that he was accepted into the CEF because of his status as a hockey star. More broadly, this paper offers a conduit through which to explore the role sport played as an arbiter of military fitness in the British Empire during the early twentieth century and contributes to our understanding of the role of sport in the British Empire’s preparation for war.
