Lieutenant Colonel Fred Lister, M.C.
102nd (Central Ontario) Battalion

We started out a British Columbia unit; we return an Ontario Battalion; but I defy anyone to note the point of cleavage. Welded together by many months of common danger, East and West have fused as one…

(Lister, “Final Order,” 25 May 1919)

Born on 10 February 1879 in Wigtoft, Lincolnshire, England, Frederick Lister was a sawmill superintendent in British Columbia. He had been a policeman with the Bechuanaland Protectorate since 1896 and fought in the Matabele Rebellion and the Boer War. He immigrated to Canada in 1903. In December 1915, he enlisted with the 102nd Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel J .W. Warden.

He won the Military Cross at the battle of Passchendaele and soon earned a promotion to major. When Warden was assigned to a secret mission in the Near East, Lister assumed command of the 102nd in January 1918.

Following serious injuries at the battle of Cambrai, Lister was replaced by Major E. J. Ryan. On 27 September 1918, a German shell had landed at the door of the battalion headquarters. Several soldiers had been killed and Lister was severely wounded. He did not resume command of the 102nd until one week after the armistice.

On returning home, Lister was appointed superintendent a soldier settlement, dubbed Camp Lister. In the 1920 British Columbia election, he narrowly won the riding of Kaslo as the Conservative candidate. He was twice re-elected to represent Creston but was defeated in 1933.

He died at Camp Lister on 22 December 1944.