In August 1945, it was given its "royal" designation, and following the Second World War, several Reserve Force units were incorporated into the corps.

Originally formed as the Canadian Cavalry Corps in 1910,[2] Canada's first tank units were not raised until late in 1918.

Initially these units were considered to be part of the Machine Gun Corps and the 1st Canadian Tank Battalion, 2nd Canadian Tank Battalion and the 3e Bataillon de chars d'assaut were all too late to join the fighting in the First World War.

Although, in the 1930s there were some small attempts at mechanization with motorcycles, experimental armoured cars and the purchase of a few tracked Carden-Loyd machine gun carriers for training.

This began in 1936 with the creation of tank battalions and continued on from 1940 when many other types of regiment were mobilized as armoured units for the Second World War.

From these modest beginnings the modern Canadian Armoured Corps began on 13 August 1940 with Major-General (then Colonel) F. F. Worthington as its first colonel-commandant.

Towards the close of the Second World War, the corps was subsequently bestowed the honour of the 'royal' designation by King George VI in 1945.

[6] As of April 2013, the traditional designation of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps has been restored for official use.

[2] The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick, designs and conducts tactical and technical training for armoured crewmen and officers, in addition to maintaining specialized qualifications on behalf of the Canadian Army.