The Law Society at War
The end of the "war to end all wars"
The financial situation of the Law
Society improved rapidly once the war ended, 
and in October 1920 the financial statement recorded a surplus of more than $84,000 for the
preceding year, mainly due to students' fees.
Soldiers returning from the front flooded into the law school. In his reports to Convocation, law school principal Newman Hoyles had argued for post-war planning. He asked the Law Society to consider the problem of re-integrating returning soldiers into the legal profession: "not all who come back after active service will be able to settle down … to the drudgery of ordinary work… In regard to other walks of life plans are being already thought out for welcoming and, where necessary, assisting those who will come back, some disabled more or less owing to wounds and illness." Apparently the principal was discouraged from this pursuit. The following year he noted that special provision would have to be made for some returning soldiers who wished to pursue their legal studies, "but it is, I fear, too early to deal with the problem at present." Once the students were back measures to accommodate them had to be made quickly.
While
most of the post-war planning that the Benchers discussed involved provisions for students, occasionally they addressed
broader issues. Mid-way through the war, in October 1916, a Special Committee
to consider post-war conditions, apparently formed in response to a request
from the Senate of Canada, reported to Convocation. In addition to recommending
that plans be made for looking after returning soldiers and assisting
them to find employment, the Benchers made suggestions in the areas of
public works expenditures, immigration, relations between capital and
labour, and trade and commerce. Exactly what they meant by these suggestions
is not clear because there are no records that fully explain their recommendations.
Summer School
In order to accommodate the influx of returning soldiers who wished to start or resume their legal studies, Osgoode Hall Law School offered summer sessions in 1919 and 1920 in addition to the regularly scheduled program. The summer school was available only to war veterans and consisted of the second and third years of the law school program. Since veterans got a year off law school, there was no need to offer first year courses in the special summer program.
Dozens of returning veterans availed themselves of this opportunity to speed up their legal education. Numbers at the law school swelled during these years, and the two parallel law school programs meant additional burdens for the professors, lecturers, and administrative staff. Those who taught the summer school were paid $500 for the extra term.
In
each of the years 1919 and 1920, two law school classes graduated, and
separate class photographs were taken. One dilemma that emerged from the
summer program involved prizes awarded to the top graduates each year.
The Benchers deemed that graduates of the summer school were not entitled
to medals because they had not achieved academic excellence in the "regular"
program. Almost half a century later the Benchers decided that this decision
had been unfair, and in 1964 they awarded gold, silver and bronze medals
to those who should have received them years before.
Words from the "Mother Country"
In the later stages of and shortly following the war, several British dignitaries visited Osgoode Hall. The Benchers were keen to hear distinguished speakers from the Mother Country, three of whom were Law Society guests in the years 1918 and 1919. These visits demonstrate the close link that the Benchers felt towards Britain, and their desire that the British recognize the contributions that Canadians and its legal profession in particular had made to the war effort.
The first visit took place in Convocation Hall on January 21, 1918, when English Attorney-General Sir Frederick E. Smith addressed a large group of Benchers, judges and lawyers. Sir Frederick spoke on law and lawyers in relation to the war, "which he spoke of as being in a very important sense, a lawyers war because upon its result depended the answer to the question whether or not international and public law were to survive in the world."
Edward,
Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) visited Osgoode Hall during his tour
of Canada in 1919, during which the Benchers conferred the degree of Barrister-at-Law
upon him and elected him a Bencher. The Prince referred to the contributions
that the Ontario legal profession made to the war effort in his remarks: "I
do want to express to you my admiration for the wonderful war services of
this inn. You had 300 barristers serving in the war and still almost more
wonderful, out of 350 students, you had 300 serving at the front. I do congratulate
you most heartily on such a record. With you I mourn the loss of those 70
barristers and students who will never return. I offer to you my deep sympathy
for the splendid men you have lost."
Less than a month later, on September 17, 1919, the Benchers gave a luncheon to Lord Finlay, who until recently before had been Lord Chancellor of England. Lord Finlay commented on legal education, and emphasized the necessity of wide reading outside the subject of pure law. He advised that students "should not confine themselves to the study of law alone, if you do, you will not be a good lawyer, you must remember that the law concerns itself with mankind and is as broad as that word." Lord Finlay went on to speak about the value of esprit de corps in the legal profession. "I have always thought," he said, "that the Bar was the noblest of professions - that is of civilian professions. But now we must all put in first place the navy and the army."
The Benchers and their guests must have been extraordinarily gratified by the honour that these dignitaries bestowed on the Law Society by their visits, particularly that of the Prince of Wales and his explicit reference to the splendid war-time contributions of the Ontario bar.
