Lieutenant-Colonel Ken MacIntyre
Rocky Mountain Rangers
Essex Scottish Regiment

Communism—Communism is the rule of a godless dictatorship and I will oppose with all the mental, moral and physical strength I posses the treasonable activities of those whose object is to overthrow our government by force and establish a dictatorship controlled from abroad.

(Quoted in Windsor Star, 2 Feb 1949, 6)

Born on 12 December 1914 in Milton, Ontario, Kenneth Wilfred MacIntyre was a Western University graduate and underwriter for a Windsor insurance company. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Essex Scottish Regiment on the outbreak of war and served as adjutant overseas. He returned home a captain in April 1942 and became second-in-command of the Oxford Rifles, mobilized for home defence.

He participated in the joint American-Canadian operation to Kiska in August 1943 as a staff officer. Following the expedition, in January 1944, he took command of the Rocky Mountain Rangers. In spring 1944, military authorities selected the 13th Brigade, which included the Rangers, for overseas reinforcements. MacIntyre faced the difficult task of convincing soldiers conscripted for home defence to go active for general service. By the time the battalion embarked in May about a third had volunteered for overseas service.

When the 13th Brigade was converted to training units in late 1944, Macintyre reverted to the rank of major for active duty in the European theatre. He rejoined the Essex Scottish in the final months of the campaign as second-in-command. After holding off an enemy counterattack in February, he earned the D.S.O. for “gallantry beyond description”:

Through the calm and resolute courage and complete disregard for his own safety Major MacIntyre set a magnificent example for his me which they were quick to follow with the result that another glorious page was added to the history of the Regiment.

He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.C. Pangman in May 1945 and would lead the regiment home for demobilization.

MacIntyre retired from command of the regiment in 1948 to enter the political arena. In the Ontario provincial election that June, he successful managed the re-election campaign of Reverend M.C. Davies, future speaker of the legislature. He was nominated by the Progressive Conservatives to be their nominee in the 1949 federal election. “My services are offered you tonight in the same spirit as many of us offered our services to our country in time of war,” he stated. “It is my hope that I might be considered suitable by you to assist our country in peacetime.”

He and fellow Essex commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Jasperson, who had been taken prisoner at Dieppe, and was candidate in Essex South, were expected to make a formidable team. In the final tally, both lost to the Liberal incumbents.

MacIntyre died in Montreal on 26 March 1994.