Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Colwell
Halifax Rifles
6th Armoured (1st Hussars) Regiment

During this action Lt-Col Colwell organized and fought his Regiment with great determination and courage. His own tank was shot from under him, so he continued to direct from on foot … By his courage and determination he set an excellent example to all rank and fostered the fighting spirit of his Regiment.

(D.S.O. citation, 12 Jul 1944)

Born on 11 August 1899 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ray John Colwell was a businessman, retail clothier, and a former rugby and hockey player. He had joined the Halifax Rifles in 1917 and during the final stage of the First World War went to France just after the armistice as a lieutenant in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. As commanding officer of the Halifax Rifles in September 1939, Colwell organized the mobilization of the regiment, and remained in command almost the next four years.

In January 1942, the regiment converted to an armoured unit renamed the 23rd Army Tank Battalion and embarked for England with the 2nd Army Tank Brigade in June 1943. Shortly after arrival, Canadian military authorities decided to breakup the brigade and disperse the troops as reinforcements. The battalion war diary remarked as a final word:

Today the Regiment is disbanded but the spirit of the Regiment will live on in the deeds that will be performed by its former members in the units they are reinforcing. The honours they will win for other units will accrue to their old Regiment The Halifax Rifles after the war and this history will not be complete until this phase of the service of its members is duly recognized.

In August 1943, Colwell transferred to the 6th Armoured (1st Hussars) Regiment, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel R.H.F. Back in command. The unit went into action on D-Day in support of the 3rd Canadian Division landings at Juno Beach. A week later, Colwell survived his tank hitting a mine and led the regiment for the next two months. He accepted his awarding of the D.S.O. “as an honour to the men.” He became temporary commander of 2nd Armoured Brigade in mid-August and was reassigned away from the 6th CAR at the end of the month. He was replaced by Major F.E. White.

He died in Halifax on 7 April 1970.