Lieutenant-Colonel C.C. Ferrie
Seaforth Highlanders of Canada

Our sergeants, as the Vimy Dinner night approached, looked for ways and means to put on their annual dinner. Rationing was in effect, as were strict regulations against the purchase of poultry and meats. They scurried around the countryside and located a farmer who would sell a young pig, at a price. It had to be very “hush, hush” … however, and could not be slaughtered on the premises.

The pig was collected in the vehicle. Then the fun began.

(Ferrie quoted in Roy, The Seaforth Highlanders, 79)

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 18 January 1895, Colin Campbell Ferrie enlisted with the 196th (Wester Universities) Battalion in April 1916, gained a commission one year later in England and joined the 72nd (Seaforth Highlanders) Battalion in France. He was wounded at Amiens on 11 August 1918 at the start of the Hundred Days campaign.

During the interwar in Vancouver, Ferrie worked in insurance and was an active member in the city’s yacht club. Having rejoined the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in 1920 on the reorganization of the militia, he went overseas as second-in-command in December 1939.

Of his time stationed in England during the earlier days of the war, he later related the bizarre and grisly attempt to secure a pig on a regimental dinner honouring the anniversary of Vimy Ridge. To overcome strict ration restrictions on meat, the unit’s sergeants bought a pig from a local farmer, but would have to slaughter it themselves …

The Sgt. Cook then cut the pig’s throat. Immediately the pig came to life, rushing around the truck covering all the inmates with blood and gore. Eventually he was subdued. The next question was how to dispose of the entrails. Someone got the bright idea to put them down the camp sewer. They forgot it was a septic tank system.

The dinner was a great success and everything appeared to be perfect. The day following the dinner there was a blockage of the sewer system … and the drains opened. The report was that human entrails had been found. The police were notified and excitement reigned. The culprits confessed and shortly after all was quiet again.

Ferrie succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel J.B. Stevenson in January 1941 and relinquished command to Major J.M.S. Tait a year after that. Recalled to Canada after instructional duties in the United Kingdom, he became commandant of Officer Training Centre at Gordon Head, British Columbia in March 1943. He later managed defences in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, and retired from the army in May 1946.

Ferrie died in Vancouver on 14 December 1981.