Major Bert Lyon
27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment

A farewell party was given in the Officer’s Mess last night for Major B.D. Lyon who will be leaving soon to return to Canada. He was presented with a silver cigarette box by Major D.W. Beaudry, who in a few well chosen words expressed our regrets and assured him that our best wishes would go with him.

(War diary, 13 March 1943)

Born on 2 June 1905 in Island Brook, Quebec, Bertram Dawson Lyon attended McGill University and owned a Sherbrooke tobacco shop. In 1934, he was subject of an odd prosecution by the Crown, which argued that a whiffle-board made his shop a “common gambling house.” The judge immediately dismissed the case ruling that “the machine was in itself no more a gambling device than a billiard table or bowling alley.”

Lyon had joined the militia in 1921, was commissioned two years later, and served as a major in the Sherbrooke Regiment by the Second World War. In July 1940, the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment formed from the amalgamation of the English and French Sherbrooke militia regiments. Lyon served as third-in-command in the new bilingual unit under Lieutenant-Colonel M.W. McA’Nulty.

In February 1942, a deteachment including McA’Nulty and Lyon departed for training in England while command of the regiment in Canada passed to Major A. Biron and then Major A.C. Cave. In November, the rest of the Sherbrookes arrived overseas. McA’Nulty resumed command for a brief period but was soon succeeded by Lyon at the end of December 1942. The next month, the Sherbrookes, designated the 27th Armoured Regiment, joined the 6th (1st Hussars) and the 10th (Fort Garry Horse) in the 3rd Army Tank Brigade. It would go into action as the 2nd Armoured Brigade following reorganization of the Canadian Armoured Corps.

Less than two months after becoming acting CO, Lyon relinquished command due to the lingering affects of an arm injury sustained in a training exercise a year earlier. Lyon returned home and was replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel M.B.K. Gordon, formerly of the 12th Armoured (Three Rivers) Regiment.

At home, Lyon was given command of the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion, Sherbrooke Regiment. He retired from the army at the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1946.

Lyon died in Sherbrooke on 24 March 1986.