Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tudor, D.S.O.&
Major Ian Laurie Crawford, D.S.O.
&
Major John G. Anderson, M.C.
5th (Western Cavalry) Battalion

Major L.P.O. Tudor, D.S.O. to be acting O.C. as from 29-6-17. Major I.L. Crawford to be C.O. during temporary absence of Major L.P.O. Tudor, D.S.O. on leave from 29-6-17. Major J.G. Anderson to be 2nd in Command while Major Crawford is acting as C.O. 29-6-17.

(5th Bn. War Diary, 4 July 1917)

Following the promotion of Hugh Dyer to brigadier general at the end of June 1917, Lorn Paulet Owen Tudor assumed command of the 5th Battalion. A native of England, he was born on 3 July 1876. He had served for three years in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry before moving to Canada and joining the British Columbia Horse. At the time of his enlistment with Lieutenant Colonel Tuxford’s 5th Battalion in September 1914, Tudor worked as a rancher in Saskatchewan.

Tudor assumed temporary command of the 5th during the battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Two months later he formally took over from Hugh Dyer on his promotion to brigadier general. In recognition for his leadership at Vimy, Tudor received the Distinguished Service Order:

The magnificent success with which his battalion carried out its objective and consolidated the captured position was mainly due to his personal example of coolness and disregard of safety, and to the thoroughness with which all details had been prepared by him.

Second-in-command, Ian Laurie Crawford was a native of Quebec born on 10 July 1892. He was a member of the 8th Regiment and had originally enlisted in the 12th Battalion as a subaltern before being drafted to the 5th. He took temporary command of the battalion in spring 1918. Tudor resumed command in April 1918 until the end of the war. Twice wounded in action, Crawford was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Bar. He died on 20 February 1932.

Third-in-command, John Gibson Anderson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 19 January 1885. He immigrated to Canada as a child and was a school student of Arthur Currie in the late 1890s. Twenty-years later, during the battle of Festubert in May 1915, General Currie recognized his “old pupil” and followed the progress of Anderson’s military career.

Following the reorganization of the 5th Battalion after Vimy Ridge, Anderson was promoted to major. He was killed at Passchendaele on 10 November 1917. Currie expressed his condolences to Anderson’s mother, stating, “I pray that the great God of battles may grant you some measure of consolation.” Calling the major one of his “best officers,” Tudor wrote, “He is a very great loss to the Battalion, and will never be forgotten.”

Reverend Canon Scott, who found Anderson’s body on 11 November, arranged for proper burial and conducted the funeral service. He sermonized: “I am sure Major Anderson did not suffer, but entered peacefully into the fuller life beyond. Please accept my heartfelt sympathy, and yet, what more glorious or Christ-like death could one wish friends.”

After the war, Tudor donated the tattered Red Ensign flown by the 5th Battalion at Vimy Ridge to the Imperial War Museum in London. It was later presented to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa

Digitized Service Files (LAC)
Crawford: http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B2121-S018
Anderson: http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B0158-S047