Lieutenant-Colonel S.H. McComb
Perth Regiment

He had served during most of the Great War, and wanted to go again. Hadn’t he gone over with the “Old 34th” as a buck private, and hadn’t he earned promotions in the field, until he returned on demobilization with a commission?

(Windsor Star, 6 Jun 1940, 28)

Born on 29 August 1891 in Palmerston, Ontario, Samuel Herbert McComb was a brakeman for the Canadian National Railway and a First World War veteran. He enlisted with the 18th Battalion, which deployed to France in September 1915 and suffered shell shock at the Somme in 1916. He took a commission in the Perth Regiment after the war, rising to the rank of major.

In September 1939, he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Garrod, who had commanded the Perths since 1933 but was deemed medical unfit for active service. McComb organized recruitment efforts over the next year before relinquishing command to fellow First World War veteran, Lieutenant-Colonel G.W. Little, a Military Cross winner with the PPCLI.

He died in April 1980 and is buried in Stratford, Ontario.