The 2nd Battalion (Eastern Ontario Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force was an infantry battalion of the Canadian Army created in response to outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. 

The battalion comprised local militia in many regions of Ontario (and even from Quebec City). 

Men came from as far away as Sault Ste. Marie to join in Canada's military endeavour. Local militia gathered at Valcartier, in August 1914 and became part of the 2nd Battalion. 

On 8 February 1915, the battalion was mobilized for war. They sailed out of England aboard the SS "Blackwell", bound for France. 

The battalion's first taste of battle came later that month, on 19 February, when they entered the trench system at Armentières.

Their first battle was the Second Battle of Ypres, in April 1915. When the battalion pulled out of the battle, on 29 April, the final count included 6 officers and 68 other ranks killed, 4 officers and 158 other ranks wounded, and 5 officers and 302 other ranks missing, for a combined loss of 543 men.

By the end of the war, 242 officers and 5,084 other ranks had fought with the battalion. Of those, 52 officers and 1,227 other ranks were killed in action, accidentally killed, or died of their injuries.

• https://books.google.be/books/about/The_History_of_the_2nd_Canadian_Battalion