Lieutenant-Colonel C.J. Loat
&
Brigadier John Sager
Westminster Regiment
4th Infantry Brigade

Known as “Brick” to his friends and intimates and affectionately as “Little Joe” by all the men of the Westminsters during the period of his command, he was a good athlete and was fond of athletics and it was through his energic leadership that his regiment became outstanding the Canadian Army for their athletic prowess.

(Chilliwack Progress, 26 May 1943, 10)

Born on 29 May 1898 in Stirling, Ontario, John Earl Sager moved to British Columbia in 1909 and worked as a teacher at the Vancouver technical high school. At the end of the First World War, he had belonged to the officer training corps at the University of British Columbia and joined the Westminster Regiment in 1923. Second-in-command before the war, he succeeded the aging Lieutenant-Colonel C.J. Loat in January 1940. Standing five-foot-five, Sager was known in the unit as “Little Joe.”

Born in Vicotria, British Columbia on 15 August 1881, Christopher John Loat was a long-time militia officer and commanded the Westminster Regiment since 1937. He had first joined the 5th Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, then was commissioned in the 104th Regiment in 1916. He served as militia quartermaster and trained high school cadets in New Westminster during the First World War.

With the reorganization of the militia in 1920, Loat joined the Westminster Regiment and soon rose to captain then major. He mobilized with the regiment in September 1939 but at fifty-eight, he relinquished command to Major Sager in January 1940. Loat commanded the regimental depot until 1942 and died in Vancouver on 13 May 1943.

Sager led the Westminster Regiment to England as part of the 1st Armoured Brigade in November 1941. Promoted to brigadier in April 1943, Sager handed command of the regiment to Lieutenant-Colonel R.L. Tindall, former second-in-command of the Perth Regiment.

J.E. Oldfield’s regimental history observed of the former commanding officer: “It can be truly said in tribute that through one officer’s inspiration, drive and energy the Westminster Regiment had become known far and wide for its prowess in training , smartness , and sports . Always a soldier and a gentleman, his demand for ” at least a hundred per cent ” was tempered with justice and a very human understanding.”

Sager commanded the 4th Infantry Brigade in the United Kingdom from April 1943 to February 1944. Too young to have fought in the First World War and too old for active service in the second, Sager was then posted to the Canadian Reinforcement Units in the United Kingdom.

He returned to Canada in October 1945 and retired to the reserve army in January 1946. He had been appointed chief inspector for the British Columbia department of education shortly before his death from a heart problem in Seattle, Washington on 26 May 1946.