The Law Society at War
"Keeping the Home Fires Burning"
Throughout the war, Benchers were concerned not only with supporting the war effort, but also with ensuring
that the Law Society ran smoothly, and that Osgoode
Hall and the people in it were adequately protected.
For the most part, the work of Convocation proceeded normally, and the Benchers continued to deal with admission, discipline and administrative matters. In June 1917, the Benchers agreed to dispense with their luncheons for the remainder of the war except on the occasion of the annual meeting. This may have been a cost-saving measure as much as a symbolic sacrifice on the part of the Benchers.
The war had a serious impact on the Law Society's finances.
By October 1917, the Benchers reported a deficit of more than $11,000 during
the preceding year and they predicted a deficit of $14,000 for the ensuing
year. This situation had arisen because of the large sums the Benchers donated
to charities, but also because of the loss of fee revenues with so many members
and students exempt from payment. The Benchers attempted to make up the shortfall
by introducing a fee of $10 for each examination for the duration of the war. 
Many staff went overseas on war service and replacements had to be found to keep things running smoothly. Law school demonstrator Mr. Foster had gone by September 1915, and senior examiner G.F. McFarland and assistant librarian Henry Haight both went overseas in January 1916.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the Benchers began to take steps to secure Osgoode Hall. Security procedures were put into place early in 1916. Doors would be closed outside of office hours when the law school caretaker, Thomas Jones, would control the main law school entrance. Guards patrolled the property 24 hours a day and at night the grounds were lit up, and some of the fence's gates locked.
The Law Society also had to comply with government wartime regulations. The law school and the library closed for three days in early February 1918 in response to an order from the Fuel Controller. Also in 1918 Law Society employees paid income tax for the first time under the new Income War Tax Act.
Keeping Track of the War
Throughout
the war, the Society kept track of the students and lawyers who had enlisted.
Lists were drawn up showing the numbers of those on active service, the
number who had died while on active service, and the military honours
that they had received. A list dated December 1st, 1917 showed
216 students and 252 lawyers on active service, of whom 31 and 26 respectively
had died.
The first Law Society members killed in action were Captain
W. Leslie Lockhart Gordon, a 1914 graduate, and Henry Kelleher, a second year
student. Their deaths were recorded in the Minutes of Convocation in June
1915. Their passing was marked with a quotation in Latin from a patriotic
English poem, translated as: "Who died far
away, before his time: But as a soldier, for his country."
The death of Charles Moss at the age of 41 affected the Benchers deeply. Charles Moss was one of their own, the only Bencher to die on active service. Greatly admired, Major Moss was "one of the most prominent men who have yet gone to the front from Toronto: one of the brightest lights in the legal profession; a man who was prominent alike for his personal qualities and intellectual attainments; and was loved and respected as few men are privileged to be." The Benchers ordered that a brass memorial tablet in his memory be placed in Osgoode Hall, where it remains today in the Benchers' Quarters.
Occasionally poignant references to the war dead appear
in the record of Convocation. In May 1917 a poem, "War: A Sonnet", by Major
J. Miles Langstaff, "the well-known young Toronto barrister" was copied into
the Minutes. The handwritten sonnet had been found on a sheet of paper among
Major Langstaff's effects after he had been killed in action. In March 1921,
the mother of lawyer Cecil J. Bovaird, who had been killed in May 1917, donated
a framed photograph of her son to the law school, on the walls of which the
photograph hung for many years. 
The military accomplishments of some members were mentioned at Convocation. Newman Hoyles, Principal of Osgoode Hall Law School, was an enthusiastic booster of the war effort. In the Principal's Report of May 1918, he noted: "We are proud to notice not only the number of members of the legal profession … who, at the call of King and Country have sprung with alacrity to arms, leaving the 'brawling courts and dusty purlieus of the law,' but also their brilliant achievements in this unfamiliar service." He went on to note that H. Brooke Bell, youngest son of a former Law Society Secretary, had been awarded the Military Cross and the 'al Valore Militare' Medal from the Italian Government for conspicuous gallantry.
Law Society staff and Benchers spent a lot of time documenting the role of members in the war, a task that went on after the war ended as plans for the war memorial began to take shape.
