Major Pat Crofton
Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry

Without Patty Crofton’s common sense, steady hand and constant good humour, I doubt if the Regiment would have survived. Through some incredible blundering or plain stupidity on the part of the staff, Patty remained a major and was not given his rightful rank of lieutenant colonel. Not once did Patty ever complain, but it annoyed me then and still does.

(C. Sydney Frost, Once a Patricia, 466)                                         

Born in Salt Spring, British Columbia on 20 January 1915, Patrick Donovan Crofton joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry as a lieutenant in August 1940 from the Canadian Scottish Regiment. Five years later he was one of the old veterans of the PPCLI. Despite being three-times wounded, he served from the landing at Sicily in July 1943 through the Italian campaign until the end of the war in Northwest Europe. When Lieutenant-Colonel R.P. Clark joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles as part of the occupation of Germany in June 1945, Crofton took over the PPCLI.

As more original veteran officers left the regiment following the end of the war in Europe, second-in-command Major C. Sydney Frost found he and Crofton were the only “old guard” left. In his memoir, Frost expressed the highest admiration for his friend:

Patty was a tower of strength in the Regiment and a very popular officer. One indication of his qualities is that he was entrusted with command of the Regiment from June 7th until the Regiment’s final parade in Winnipeg in October … This period included the difficult tasks of disarming the Germans and concentrating them for removal to Germany, maintaining the morale and efficiency of the Regiment during the long months of inactivity in Holland, and finally bringing the Regiment home.

(Once a Patricia, 451)

His older brother Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Crofton landed on D-Day and commanded the Canadian Scottish Regiment in the Northwest Europe campaign. On demobilization, a local newspaper observed that “their combined stories would fall little short of covering the history of the Canadian army overseas.” The article added, “But both prefer not to talk about the war, unless as it concerns the two regiments and their historic records.”

Patty Crofton died on 26 June 1997 in Victoria, British Columbia.