Following the example set by fellow countryman Lord Strathcona, who raised Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), on the eve of the First World War Gault offered the Canadian government $100,000 to help raise and equip an infantry battalion for overseas duty. Lt.-Col. Francis Farquhar of the Coldstream Guards, military secretary to Canada's Governor-General, the Duke of Connaught, supported Gault's idea. Between them, they made the decision to recruit men who had already seen military action, but who were not attached to any militia units, in order to hasten the regiment's departure for Europe.