22 Canadian Military Journal • Vol. 15, No. 4, Autumn 2015 Fallen on the Field of Honour?: Attitudes of the Canadian Public towards Suicides in the Canadian Military ~ 1914–2014 1 by Matthew Barrett and Allan English Matthew Barrett is a PhD candidate in the History Department at Queen’s University in Kingston. His research focuses upon public perceptions of shell shock during the First World War, and the history of suicide in the Canadian military. Allan English, CD, PhD, served for twenty-five years in the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Forces. He teaches Canadian military history in the History Department at Queen’s University. Allan has served on committees that advised Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence, and the RCMP on operational stress injuries. He is a member of the College of Peer Reviewers of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. Introduction T here have been more deaths by suicides in the Canadian Armed Forces since 2002 than mission deaths in Afghanistan. In the twelve years that Canada was engaged in the War in Afghanistan, 158 Armed Forces members were killed. During the same period, 178 members died by suicide, of which some might have been attributed to Operational Stress Injuries (OSIs). 2 In addition to being personal and family tragedies, suicides constitute a significant loss of personnel to the CAF, and a loss to Canadian society as well. Recent political and media attention surrounding the issue of suicide in Canadian military and veteran populations is not a new concern. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Canadian government, veterans’ groups, and the public-at-large confronted the problem of soldier suicide in the context of contentious debates over pensions and rehabilitation for returned men. Just over a decade after the end of the war, Colonel G. S. Rennie, the former com- mander of No. 2 General Hospital, observed: “These men become despondent and we read in the newspapers every week or even sometimes more frequently that one of these men, despondent, out of work, ill and unable to get a pension, has committed suicide.” 3 Although the number and details of suicides in Canadian military and veteran populations is not well documented, a number of cases have come to public attention, especially those during or imme- diately after a major conflict in which Canada has been involved. This article uses two case studies as a preliminary examination into Canadian attitudes toward suicide in the military: Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Simpson Sharpe (1873–1918), and Major Michelle DND photo LF2014-0115-001 by Sergeant Dan Shouinard