The unit mottos are pristinae virtutis memor – 'remembering their glories in former days' – and celer et audax – 'swift and bold'.

The regiment traces its direct origins to Robert Rogers and his Rangers in 1756 during the French and Indian Wars.

The Rangers were particularly distinguished under John Graves Simcoe in 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine and were shipped to New Brunswick at the end of the war in 1783.

[6] The 12th Battalion of Infantry (York Rangers) mobilized four companies for active service on 10 April 1885.

The companies served with the York and Simcoe Provisional Battalion in the Alberta Column of the North West Field Force.

The battalion performed particularly well at the Battle of the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, and at Amiens and Canal du Nord in 1918.

Two of its members, Lieutenant Wallace Lloyd Algie and Sergeant Frederick Hobson, were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

In April 1918 as the second great German offensive of the year rolled back over the old Somme Battlefield, the 127th was pressed into service as infantry near Amiens.

Although initially trained as infantry, the battalion had not been employed as such but the men were apparently eager to show they could fight even if they were only armed with rifles.

Combing through the chaos of Amiens, a large number of 'surplus' Lewis guns were 'acquired' and the battalion entered the line with considerably more firepower than might have been expected.

At any rate, the German advance was being slowed up by exhausted troops and the usual logistical problems created in moving over World War I battlefields.

In 2011, the Minister of National Defence approved the ex officio honorary appointment of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario as the unit's Colonel of the Regiment in perpetuity.

The oldest purpose-built armoury used by the military in Ontario until 2014; this gable-roofed, wood frame building is home to The Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment) (RCAC).

Designed by architects Marani, Lawson and Morris in an industrial area of Toronto; this large, two-storey, drill hall with a concrete, vaulted roof is home to Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment)