History of the Obligation Ceremony

The inspiration for the creation of a special ceremony linking all Canadian engineers must be credited to Professor Herbert E.T. Haultain of the University of Toronto who, on January 25, 1922, addressed the 36th Annual Professional Meeting of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) on the theme “The Romance of Engineering,” in which he urged the development of a tribal spirit among engineers. Later the same day, Professor Haultain expanded on his theme and suggested the development of an obligation to which the young graduate could subscribe, something in the form of the Hippocratic Oath in the medical profession. Dr. John M.R. Fairbairn, Chief Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, was an EIC past president and meeting chair. Also present as special guests were six other past presidents of the EIC. At Professor Haultain’s suggestion, the seven past presidents were constituted then and there as a committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. Fairbairn, to act on this proposal.

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In October 1923, Professor Haultain contacted Dr. Fairbairn with the suggestion that Rudyard Kipling be invited to participate in the development of a professional obligation for engineering graduates. Kipling was a Nobel Prize recipient, one of Britain’s most eminent literary figures of the early 1900s and a man known for his interest in engineering accomplishments. Dr. Fairbairn agreed, and on October 18, 1923, a request was sent to Kipling.

 

Kipling was pleased to participate in the project, and on November 9, 1923, he responded to Professor Haultain with a draft of the original ‘Calling of an Engineer’ ceremony, together with several explanatory notes that became an integral part of the original Obligation Ceremony. Following exchanges on some of the details, a final version was agreed to by both Kipling and Fairbairn’s committee of seven EIC past presidents in early 1925. Hence, The Corporation of the Seven Wardens was formed.

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An inaugural Obligation Ceremony was held in Montreal on April 25, 1925, with the obligation taken by six prominent engineers, including Dr. Fairbairn and Mr. Robert A. Ross, Consulting Engineer. This was followed on May 1, 1925, with a ceremony at the University of Toronto, where 14 of the officers of the U of T Engineering Alumni Association were obligated, thus Camp 1, Toronto was established. Other camps were soon established – in Montreal (1926), Kingston (1927), Regina (1928) and Vancouver (1930), and, in subsequent years, in other Canadian centres, reaching at the present day (2024) a total of 28 camps.

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In the months following the initial ceremonies, a number of details relating to the administration of the Ceremony and to the design of the iron ring were resolved through correspondence among Kipling, Professor Haultain and the original seven wardens. Kipling urged keeping the original hammered-finish iron rings, as initially provided by Professor Haultain [1]. In March 1926, the Rule of Governance as drafted by Warden Ross was approved.

 

For the 100th anniversary in 2025, the text and ceremonial aspects of “The Calling of an Engineer” were updated significantly while maintaining some ties to the version created by Kipling and approved by “The Seven.”

 

As Kipling stated:

 

“The Ritual has been instituted with the simple end of directing the young engineer towards a consciousness of the profession and its significance and indicating to the older engineer their responsibilities in receiving, welcoming and supporting the young engineers in their beginnings.”  

 

In his correspondence with Haultain and “The Seven,” Kipling originally envisaged spreading of the Ceremony to Great Britain and other of its “Dominions.”  However, this never came to pass, so the Ceremony remains a uniquely Canadian tradition. To date, 100 years after its inception, more than 500,000 Canadian engineers have obligated themselves to the principles of the Ceremony.

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The original ‘Calling of an Engineer’ ceremony and its notes and memoranda by Rudyard Kipling, together with the charter and the Rule of Governance, originally received copyright protection on June 5, 1926. Letters patent were granted under Quebec law on March 18, 1938 constituting the Corporation of the Seven Wardens as custodians and administrators of the original ‘Calling of an Engineer’ ceremony. In 1961, the iron ring received trademark protection and, with camps situated across Canada, the Corporation was reincorporated as a company under federal laws. In 1983, the corporate name was rendered bilingual – Corporation of the Seven Wardens/Société des Sept Gardiens.

 

The first French-language ceremony was held in Camp 2, Montreal, in 1963 for graduates of l’École Polytechnique. Similar ceremonies are today held in all the other francophone camps.

 

The Ceremony is not connected with any university, college or any engineering organization; the Corporation is an entirely independent body. 

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[1] For the initial ceremonies and for all ceremonies for many years thereafter, the hammered-finish rings were produced by World War I veterans at the Christie St. Veterans’ Hospital in Toronto. Stories linking the rings with the Quebec Bridge are totally unfounded.