Lieutenant-Colonel W.E. Gillespie
Royal Canadian Dragoons

I knew the hero of my youth, Walter Gillespie, whom I had worshipped as a very young boy at Jackson’s Point, was now the second in command of the [RCD] …Thus I became an armoured car officer, because Walter Gillespie was the only senior officer I knew.

(J.A. Roberts, The Canadian Summer, 34-35)

Born in Toronto 10 Feb 1901 Toronto, Walter Edmund Gillespie was a Permanent Force officer and graduate of the Royal Military College. He became second-in-command of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, when it mobilized as 1st Canadian Armoured Car Regiment (RCD) in September 1940. He helped to secure the transfer to the unit of Lieutenant James Alan Roberts, who would go on to command 8th Infantry Brigade in Northwest Europe. Roberts predicted Gillespie would lead the RCD overseas.

In May 1941, Lieutenant-Colonel E.L. Caldwell relinquished command of the RCD. Major T. Moss and Major J.H. Larocque filled in until Gillespie returned from training in England at the end of August 1941. The 1st Canadian Armoured Car Regiment embarked for England as part of the 5th Armoured Division in November.

As Roberts described, “But, within days of the regiment’s arrival in England, Lieut-Colonel Walter Gillespie had been relived of his command and succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel J.D.B. (Des) Smith.” Gillespie was struck off strength in February 1942 and returned to Canada due to ill health.

He died on 7 September 1980 in St. Anne-de-Bellevie, Quebec.