Rice enlisted in the army on the exact day Britaindeclared war on Germany in 1914, beginning as a gunnery officer. He began writing songs during training, mostly jokingly musing on the training procedures. Once deployed, he fought in various battles across Europe. He first wrote about trench life in 1915, at the battle of Neuve Chapelle. Rice organized the first World War I concert party for servicemen in France. Rice joined Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Comedy Company as a piano player from time to time. In an interview with the New York Times, Rice cites one of his clearest war memories as a time when he saved a piano from destruction:
I shall never forget, in one town, stealing a piano out of an old house that was being shelled. The piano would have been destroyed anyhow. We got a wagon, put the piano on the wagon, and drove down a road where thousands of infantry boys were lined along the sides. I couldn't keep my fingers from the keys, and started to play as we went along. There were shouts, cheers, and singing, and one English soldier came up to me in all seriousness and said: 'What is the idea of the celebration? Has peace been declared?' Of course, I had to answer the negative.
Following the Battle of Somme, Rice created a committee to develop concerts to entertain soldiers. He was removed from combat upon being gassed at Vimy Ridge in 1917, and returned to Canada. There he became lieutenant of musical entertainment for soldiers, overseeing the entertainment of approximately 70,000 troops per week.
Life after service
Having developed a reputation for writing numerous popular war songs, Rice moved to New York City in 1919 to pursue an entertainment career further. He began as a piano accompaniment player, and continued to write. Much of his work was based around emulating his war time experiences and performances, and he often appeared on stage in uniform. He went on to create the successful vaudeville act "Gitzy Rice and His North West Mounted Police," which featured performers in Royal Canadian Mounties uniforms. He wrote multiple musicals, although none matched the success of his other work. Rice stopped performing in 1930 in order to enter a public relations career, though he returned to the stage to entertain Canadian troops during World War II.
