Jimmy Duggan, who served with the 86th Field Battery in Antigonish from 1936 to 1939 recalls his time training at the what was known as the ‘old gun shed’ on Victoria Street. For a photo of the unit see Page A4. (Debbie Johnson photo)

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A large empty building sits on Victoria Street in Antigonish. Paint is flaking off the shingles and loose ragged pieces of plastic flaps from broken windows on its second floor. Though it still looks solid, its days are numbered.
The building, once known as the “old gun shed” has played many roles in the town over the years.
Built in 1897, it was owned by Leonard Kerry Archibald who used it as storage for condensed milk produced from a Main Street creamery. Antigonish Heritage Society’s Jocelyn Gillis said that National Defense then purchased the building in 1913 for militia training.
It was later occupied by a gunnery militia troupe known as the 86th Field Battery. After its use by the military, it was later purchased to be used as warehouse by Wilkie and Cunningham Ltd., for furniture storage and delivery.
Jimmy Duggan, a former militia member, recalls his years with the area militia and the role the building played before and during the years leading up to World War II. Though 94-years-old his memories are clear about his years of service and how they started at the Victoria Street building.
“My unit had about 30 members in it and there were a number of field guns in the shed,” Duggan said. “That is where you learned to fire the gun and then you went to Petawawa for militia field gun competitions.”
He joined, as he said, for a “good time” at age 18. Some of his closest friends, since passed, also belonged to the troop, saying it was common for young Antigonish men to take “a turn” serving.
Once war broke out that militia troupe and others went from being field to coast artillery, on watch for German U-boats off the Atlantic coast.
He was not deployed overseas but still served with the military as an instructor for six years. He worked at the Canso Strait in coastal defense for one year. Duggan also worked as a non-commissioned officer (NCO) at what was then, a new port in Lingan, Cape Breton.
“I shifted around a bit and I also served a bit out west and in Ontario,” he said.
“On D-Day in 1945 they started discharging, I got out because I said there was a new furniture factory going up in Antigonish, it wasn’t the truth but it seemed like a good idea to get out,” he said.
“I was going to get a job with an express company on the railroad in ’39 when we were called up to serve and when I got out I asked a fellow hiring with the Canadian National Railway (CNR) if there was anything and he said they had a job for me.”
He worked on the railroad for 36 years after his military service.
Buddy Sweet, another member of the 86th Field Artillery Troop is the only other surviving member who trained with Duggan. Local history buff Bill Landry said Jim “Jazz” MacDonald, another troop member who passed away only months ago, was wounded in the leg while standing on a dyke in Holland during his overseas service. Landry, named after his uncle who also served with the field battery militia, recalls some of his uncle’s involvement with the local miltitia,
“My uncle Bill was automatically enlisted from that militia and he didn’t work in artillery, he worked in the Royal Air Force in England as they transferred them around,” he said.
He added there was another building used by the militia on Brooklyn Street where an apartment building now stands. His own father, John, who still lives next door to the Victoria Street building, remembers the guns rolling up the street as a boy.
“They used to parade up and down the street, and they would take their guns out and fire shells across what we called Stewart’s Hill, where the old dairy was,” John Landry said.
He doesn’t recall any stories that his older brother Bill told him about his years of military service given he was a young boy at time with brother Bill 12 years his senior.
The building’s present day owner Leonard Hanrahan, could not be reached, regarding demolition and what the property will be used for in the future.