Lieutenant-Colonel M.W. Andrew
Perth Regiment

This trial is unique in the history of British law. Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer, Commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division, and at one time Commander of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, appears before you on five charges under the War Crimes Regulations, Canada, upon any one of which, if convicted, he may suffer death or such less punishment as set out in the Regulations, as this Court may deem proper to pass upon him.

(Andrew defence summation, Trial of Kurt Meter, Dec 1945)

Born in Kitchener, Ontario 28 December 1904, Maurice William Andrew was a University of Toronto graduate and Stratford lawyer, having been called to the Bar in 1931. As a prewar captain in the Perth Regiment, he assumed recruiting duties on mobilization in September 1939. Overseas, he served as second-in-command under four different commanding officers before taking over the regiment during the Italian campaign. He would be most notable as the defence counsel assigned to Kurt Meyer during his war crime trial for his role in the murder of Canadian prisoners-of-war in the Ardenne Abbey massacre.

When the newly arrived Perth CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Reid, was twice wounded in the night fight at Point 204 on 1 September 1944, command devolved to Major Andrew. The war diary noted that confirmation of his promotion to acting lieutenant-colonel had achieved “the ambition of every officer who had been with the unit and had the unit’s best interests at heart since before the war.”

Following a brief absence at the end of September while in hospital for an operation, Andrew resumed command in October until the end of the war in Europe. For his successful eight months commanding in Italy and Northwest Europe, he earned the Distinguished Service Order:

This officer assumed command of the Perth Regiment on 1 September 1944 and since that date has led it gallantly and successfully in every action in which the Brigade has participated from the Gothic Line in Italy to the capture of Delfzijl in Holland. A cool, conscientious and hard working officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew, by his brilliant leadership and organizing ability, has trained his unit ruthlessly into a highly respected and hard fighting machine.

In December 1945, Andrew was appointed replacement defence counsel for Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer, charge with inciting his troops to give no quarter to enemy prisoners, resulting in the murder of twenty-three prisoners-of-war at Buron and Authie, and seven Canadian prisoners at Ardenne Abbey. Convicted of the latter war crime, Meyer was sentenced to death which was eventually commuted to life imprisonment. “I was ordered to take the job and I took it,” Andrews later remarked. “I was just as pleased as any man in the court when the verdict of guilty was returned.”

After the court martial, Andrew rejoined the Perth Regiment in time to led them home. On return to civilian life, Andrew resumed his law career and served as Perth County sheriff from 1960 until he died on 27 January 1970. His obituary in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, noted, “His death thins by one more the ranks of Canada’s authentic Second World War heroes. His postwar role as the upholder of the rights of fair trial in the Meyer case will guarantee him a place in the. history books.”