It was organized at Ottawa by Lt Col Charles Wesley MacLean with members recruited by the 43rd Regiment "Duke of Cornwall's Own Rifles" and volunteers from Carleton County and environs beginning in February 1916.

Initial training was conducted at Rockcliffe Camp at which time the battalion earned its unofficial nickname "MacLean's Athletes" due to its participation in sports, especially rugby and baseball.

Additional training was done at Amherst, Nova Scotia, from January 1917; the battalion sailed from Halifax with a strength of 27 officers and 652 men on June 2, 1917.

While in training at Rockcliffe Camp, the battalion published a periodical The WhizBang, 19 issues of which are in the collection of the National Library at Ottawa.

The 207th (Ottawa-Carleton) Overseas Battalion, CEF, was organized on February 1, 1916, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Wesley MacLean.

Like many of the later infantry battalions, the 207th was largely created through the efforts of a single man or a handful of individuals trying to raise a formed unit for service overseas.

A slogan of the 207, 'This is your flag -Fight for it,' was made the title of a song dedicated to the 207th with words by Miss Esther Knott and music by Donald Helms.

The crowd of thousands enjoyed musical entertainment in the auditorium, dancing to the Tippins' orchestra in the clubhouse, band concerts in the parks and a spirit of carnival.

The formation of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the 2nd, 21st, 38th, and 77th Battalions, and legions of combat support units had absorbed much of the local male population of fighting age long before the spring of 1916.

He also proposed the construction of a model redoubt (a small fortress) as a recruiting attraction on Connaught Place, a wide bridge and park area running along what is now Wellington Street between Parliament and the Chateau Laurier.

The redoubt was to be placed approximately where the National War Memorial now stands and was to be built by the local Engineer Training Depot using 2,500 sandbags.

While the engineers were eager for the practice the project would give their sappers it was, ultimately, turned down by higher militia authorities, as it was "not thought that the expense is justified."

Early training, including basic drill, care of weapons, and rapid-fire and fire discipline techniques, was carried out at the battalion's headquarters in a building on the corner of Albert and Metcalfe Streets.

Also notable during the 207th's time in Rockcliffe was the publication of a regimental newsletter, "The Whizz Bang", nineteen issues of which were produced by the battalion between July 1 and November 4, 1916.

Lieutenant-General Sam Hughes, in his final public act as Minister of Militia, presented the Colours, a gift from the American Bank Note Company, a local firm, on November 18, 1916.

[3] Despite all of his efforts to form a fighting battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel MacLean still did not know what the fate of his unit would be within the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

He noted: "You will notice that we have, in our Battalion, a good many civil engineers, public land surveyors, railway superintendents, section foremen, drivers, saddlers, and tailors."

Training at Amherst followed the "Regular War Office Syllabus", the troops receiving instruction in such subjects as bombing (grenades) and scouting.

The battalion's training regime was suddenly interrupted in late February and March 1917 because of an outbreak of infectious diseases in Amherst.

Medical authorities believed the unit to be on the verge of an epidemic and immediate measures were taken with respect to the sanitary conditions of the soldiers' accommodations.

It was little consolation that it wasn't the only battalion suffering, as five other units were quarantined in camps in other parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at the time.

It is necessary to fill up the [troop] transports, and nothing is to be gained by keeping whole battalions or units back in Canada, in order to enable them to proceed overseas, complete.

As a result, seven men died during the First World War wearing the cap badge of the 207th (Ottawa-Carleton) Overseas Battalion.

The 207th Battalion's journey overseas began on June 2, 1917, when the unit left Halifax on board the troopship S.S. Olympic.

However, the largest number of 207th men (twenty-two in total) who died did so, perhaps appropriately, as members of the 38th Battalion, CEF their sister unit from Ottawa.

Captain Edward Thomas Mennie was awarded the Military Cross with the 38th Battalion, CEF before dying of his wounds on November 7, 1918, and Private James Arthur Robertson was awarded the Military Medal with the 38th before being killed in action on September 2, 1918. Notable, too, was Private Nelson Taylor who was killed in action with the 38th on November 15, 1917, at the young age of seventeen.

Finally, on September 5, 1919, Captain Duguid, a member of the 15th Battalion, CEF, gathered them up and brought them back to where they were laid up in Knox Presbyterian Church (Ottawa) on November 16, 1919.