Lieutenant-Colonel W.C. Dick
Lanark and Renfrew Scottish

By his untiring efforts he obtained the necessary extra officers from infantry units throughout the Corps, personally selected all key personnel from the reinforcement unit and arranged special training for the unit’s reinforcements … The organization and training of a Battalion in forty-one days, in addition to services previously mentioned, adequately demonstrate qualities which are deserving of the highest recognition.

 (O.B.E. citation, 28 Apr 1945)

In July 1944, Allied military leaders in Italy decided that the 5th Armoured Division required additional infantry regiments beyond the 11th Infantry Brigade. As the Allies had achieved air superiority, the 1st Canadian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment was converted from artillery to infantry as part of the newly formed 12th Infantry Brigade. On 20 July, Lieutenant-Colonel William Clement Dick arrived as replacement for Lieutenant-Colonel F.J. Thorne. Born on 10 December 1912 in Toronto, Dick had fought at Dieppe and briefly served as brigade major for the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade in Italy.

Originally a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Dick served as a lieutenant with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry during in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942. Although suffering multiple wounds himself, he had helped the withdrawal of wounded comrades during the evacuation from the beaches earning a mention in dispatches. While attached to the British First Army in North Africa, in early 1943 he gained experience as a company commander.

During the Italian campaign, he served as brigade major and general staff officer until appointed to reorganize the 1st Canadian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment into infantry. Over the summer of 1944, Dick worked to select officers and train the reinforcements for service as infantrymen. When the new infantry reinforcements and former anti-aircraft gunners acted cooly toward each other, Fred Cederberg recalled Dick lectured, “You’re all Canadians, you’re all on the same side, and you all know what you have to do—help win a war we didn’t start.”

The unit retained an improvised designation 89/109 Infantry Battalion, named after two dissolved light anti-aircraft batteries. It would not receive its distinctive regimental identity of the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish until November 1944.

In September 1944, Dick became general staff officer to Major-General Bert Hoffmeister of the 5th Armoured Division, although he made frequent visits to his old unit. He served as Hoffmeister’s righthand through the Italian and Northwest Europe campaigns. Dick returned to Canada with Hoffmeister when the general was appointed to command the 6th Division as part of the anticipated Pacific force. With the end of the war against Japan, Dick went to the United States as military attaché in Washington. He earned the US Legion of Merit for his work preparing the 6th Division for cooperation with the United States Army in the Pacific.

By 1947, he had been named director of the Canadian Army Staff College in Kingston and served as chief of staff of the Quebec Command in the 1950s.

Dick died on 25 May 1997 and is buried in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery.