ARTICLES

PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC
COAST MILITIA RANGERS:
British Columbia’s Guerrilla Army, 1942–1945
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
CLARK, David B., with James A. Goguen, Victoria: Privately Printed, 2013,
359 pages, illus., ISBN 978-0-9868772-3-0
Reviewed by Major Andrew B. Godefroy, CD, PhD, jrcsp, member of the
Concepts Team at the CALWC.
In light of the potential, if remote, threat against North
America posed by Japanese forces operating in the
Eastern Pacific during the Second World War, the
Canadian government authorized the formation of
local units in British Columbia whose mission was to
monitor, patrol and, if needed, help defend the
coastline locally.
Officially created on 3 March 1942, the Pacific
Coast Militia Rangers (PCMR) at its height
consisted of 15,000 volunteers organized into
138 companies. Assigned to three major patrol
areas—Vancouver Island, the lower Fraser Valley,
and the Bridge River Area—the PCMR provided
a visible sense of local security until its
disbandment shortly after the war’s end on
30 September 1945.
Source: http://www.servicepub.com
In their recent book, Pictorial History of the
Pacific Coast Militia Rangers, David B. Clark
and James A. Goguen offer a popular and richly
illustrated look at this unique wartime organization
that served as the model for Canada’s
modern-day Canadian Rangers. Not presented in
the typical form of a written narrative, the authors
have instead collected 19 illustrated chapters and
5 appendices—accompanied by hundreds of
photos, copious notes, a glossary and a bibliography—into an impressive and comprehensive
resource for historians and collectors alike. Additionally, the book includes a capsule history
of Company No.1, the South Vancouver Island Rangers, as well as detailed lists of all PCMR
companies and their operational areas. Good maps are also included in the book,
identifying all headquarter locations as well as a number of other important sites associated
with the organization.
For those familiar with the works of local historians, this book will be a welcome addition to
any military history library. For others, however, the casual layout and approach that is often
148 THE CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOLUME 16.2 2016