The other draft was recruited for the
Tank Battalion raised in the universities of Canada. But apart from the
men in the units and drafts organized in the University, McGill men,
students, graduates and professors, were found in practically every
branch of the service, whether army or navy. The attendance of students
in the University was reduced to a minimum; the teaching staff was
depleted. In all, over twenty-five hundred McGill men enlisted. Three
hundred and forty-one were killed in action, or died of wounds or
disease; five hundred and twenty-two were wounded; three hundred and
eighty-two received decorations or honours, two of which were the
Victoria Cross. In recognition of its services in the allied cause the
University received a grant of one million dollars from the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. McGill's war record, tragic
but glorious, is one of her proudest possessions.
Principal Peterson's health had been impaired even before the war by the
cares of an active and busy life spent unsparingly in the interests and
the advancement of the University. Like his predecessor, his life at
McGill was one of unremitting labour and ceaseless, strenuous tasks
which drew in the end a heavy toll from his strength. Then the war came.
With its activities and the continuous demands it made upon his time and
energy, it severely taxed his already weakened constitution. During the
summer of 1918 he had been urged by his physicians and friends to rest
because of his failing health. He did not heed the advice; he felt,
indeed, that he could not in that troubled and anxious time obey it. He
refused to curtail his exertions, and he continued to give his great
ability and his unstinted service in every way to help the allied cause.
On Sunday, the 12th of January, 1919, although he was not then in good
health, he presided at a meeting on behalf of a fund for the benefit of
the dependents of Scottish soldiers and sailors killed or disabled in
the war. While the meeting was in progress he was stricken with apoplexy
and partial paralysis. In the course of a few weeks he recovered his
speech almost entirely, and later he regained the partial use of his
right leg. When it became evident that he could not recover sufficiently
to resume his place at the head of the University he resigned, and after
May 1st he ceased to be Principal of McGill. On July the 24th he sailed
from Montreal for England, where he resided until his death in February,
1921.