Lieutenant-Colonel W.K. Jull
Calgary Highlanders

He went forward under heavy fire to reconnoitre the enemy’s dispositions. He succeeded in reaching his objective and brought back valuable information. Later, when the company on the left flank was held up by an enemy machine-gun nest, he rushed forward and succeeded in killing three of the crew and capturing the remainder, thus allowing the company to continue its advance.

(M.C. citation, 4 Oct 1919)

Born on 20 October 1891 in Rosen, Manitoba, Walter Kingsley Jull was a Calgary barrister and commanding officer of the Calgary Regiment since May 1938. As a law student he had enlisted with 31st Battalion in November 1914. He was three times wounded in action, earned a commission in February 1917, and received the Military Cross for “marked courage” in October 1918. Following the reorganization of the postwar Canadian militia, he became a captain in the Calgary Regiment in 1923 and second-in-command in 1931.

Although redesignated a tank battalion in 1936, the Calgary Regiment did not mobilize as part of the Canadian Armoured Corps until February 1941. At nearly fifty and partly blinded from a training accident, Jull was replaced by fellow First World War veteran Lieutenant-Colonel G.R. Bradbrooke, who took the unit overseas. Jull took charge of he reserve depot in Calgary and supervised German prisoners of war held in Alberta.

Jull tried to follow the progress of the regiment closely, declaring in 1943, that the Calgary Tanks “showed its courage, skill and fighting ability at Dieppe, and we are sure the regiment is showing the same spirit in this important action in Italy, if they are fighting there as it is believed.” He welcomed the regiment when they disembarked in Halifax in December 1945 and traveled home with the unit then under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Stoney Richardson.

He served as sheriff and clerk of courts in Calgary for ten years until 1959 when he resumed private law practice. He died after a long illness on 30 July 1966.