Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Glenn
96th (Canadian Highlanders) Battalion

Col. Glenn’s record in the House has been excellent. A quiet man, and not to be considered in any sense one of the orators of the House, he has nevertheless contributed not a little to its progressive spirit …

Col. Glenn is overseas now. He took over a fine battalion of men. When he found that he was unable to get into the trenches in the capacity of a commanding officer he managed somehow to revert to the rank of Lieutenant and as lieutenant he is in the trenches today. How he managed it will remain probably a military secret. He is not a young man by any means but he is doing his duty in a way that shames many a young man in Canada.

(Saskatoon Daily Star, 20 Jun 1917, 4)

Joseph Glenn was the Conservative member for South Qu’Appelle in the Saskatchewan legislature from 1912 to 1921. Born on 29 August 1860 in Owen Sound, Canada West, he moved to the North West Territories during the early 1880s. Settling in Indian Head, he built a farm, imported horses, worked in the lumber trade, acted as the local mail carrier and operated a grain elevator. During the 1885 Rebellion, he volunteered as a dispatch rider for General Middleton and Major Sam Steele.

By the turn of the century, Glenn owned a 16,000 acres farm, one of the largest properties in the Saskatchewan District.  By the beginning of the First World War, he had served for eight years in the 16th Light Horse. In December 1914, he enlisted as a major with the 10th Canadian Mounted Rifles. When the 10th went overseas, the fifty-four year old Glenn remained in Saskatoon to raise the 96th Battalion. After an inspection before the unit departed for England, General John Hughes reported:

Lieut. Col. Glenn, the Officer Commanding, is an officer of some years experience in Mounted Infy. He is not an efficient officer but has done good service in recruiting the Battalion, and desires the honour of taking his Battalion across seas.

(Gen. John Hughes, 19 Sept 1916)

Like many older senior officers, he was disappointed to have his battalion broken up for reinforcement drafts. He wrote to Manitoba MP Robert Rogers, “In view of the fact that order to do my bit I left my business in charge of a highly paid manager, and have spent the last two and a half years in recruiting and training men, and that the efficiency of my work has been well attested by those in a position to know, I think I am not expecting too much when I ask my services to be utilized.”

After reminding Rogers of his service in the 1885 Rebellion, he continued, “I feel it is due me something definite should be forthcoming. I have been waiting nearly four months for the command that was promised … No one wishes to return to Canada until he has given the fullest service possible, and all that I want is the opportunity.”

Glenn eventually secured a transferred to the Forestry Corps in Scotland. On the 26 June 1917 Saskatchewan election, Glenn won with a four-hundred-vote majority against David Railton, who he had narrowly defeated in a 1912 by-election. Endorsing his candidacy, the Saskatoon Daily Star claimed Glenn had reverted to junior rank and was serving in the trenches. While he participated in the usual tour of the front offered to surplus senior officers, his service record indicates war service was confined to the United Kingdom.

By the time of the December 1917 federal election, Glenn was as deputy presiding officer at Inverness, England. Although a resident of Indian Head, Saskatchewan and a sitting member of the provincial legislature, Glenn cast his ballot in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Suspecting the Union Government with having organized a conspiracy to ensure its victory, Liberal MP Arthur Bliss Copp accused Glenn and his officers with fraud. Unionist MP Martin Burrell defended Glenn and others explaining that “many men did honesty believe that a man, because he was a military voter, had the right to place his vote in any constituency he pleased.”

His son, Donald Roy Glenn, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps died in an accident on 12 February 1918. The elder Glenn retired from the Saskatchewan legislature in 1921 and died on 20 April 1931.

Digitized Service File (LAC):
http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B3585-S017