Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Cantlie
Royal Highlanders of Canada (The Black Watch)
You allowed the CO and the Adjutant to both be captured once and I got shot in the stomach as well—as the general said, “you must take better care of the CO even though you might not like him because he is the fellow who has to run the show.”
(Quoted in Jarymowycz, The History of the Black Watch, Vol. 2, 55)
Born in Winnipeg on 5 October 1907, Stuart Stephen Tuffnel Cantlie was a Montreal salesman, RMC graduate, and militia captain in the Royal Highlanders of Canada, which his uncle Lieutenant-Colonel G.S. Cantlie had commanded in the First World War. He went overseas as adjutant but returned in January 1942 for instructional work at RMC and general staff duties. Seven months later he returned to the United Kingdom, where he was attached to 3rd Division headquarters. In April 1943, he succeeded his cousin, Lieutenant-Colonel S.D. Cantlie in command of the Black Watch.
Superiors had removed the former colonel citing poor training and low morale. The new CO admitted on arrival that his first impression was “a sad affair of a unit living on its past glories.” An earlier war staff college assessment noted of Cantlie: “This officer is reliable, hardworking, and possesses a good deal of energy. He works well as a member of a team but also has the ability to take charge when appointed as leader. He expresses himself very well, both verbally and on paper. He has a pleasing personality.” He worked to improve his regiment but in October 1943, he was suddenly reassigned to Canadian Army headquarters as general staff officer for the Joint Planning School.
Lieutenant-Colonel G.P. Henderson, a Black Watch officer commanding the Algonquin Regiment, took over in Cantlie’s absence. The period would be a brief interruption. A report on his performance with army headquarters concluded that Cantlie was “more suited to comd than to staff work.” By February 1944, he resumed command of the Black Watch as the 2nd Division prepared for the invasion of France. The regiment disembarked in Normandy with the 5th Brigade on 7 July. Within twenty days he would be dead.
“We went into out first attack in the early morning of July 25 and met very heavy opposition,” Corporal Allan Nadler described the battle near Caen. “Jerry tanks seemed to be everywhere. Our companies were scattered by this terrible fire. Our colonel, [Stuart] Cantlie was killed early in the attack.” Command fell to Major Phil Griffin, who was killed later in the day. Nadler and other Black Watch soldiers were taken prisoner, some of the more than 300 casualties that day. Major F.M. Mitchell took over a battered and depleted battalion.
Cantlie had been hit by machine gun fire while reconnoitering the battlefield. He succumbed to his wounds shortly thereafter and was buried by the regiment. When the regiment returned home in November 1945, the Montreal Gazette eulogized:
For The Black Watch is a regiment deeply rooted in the life and traditions of Montreal. From its organization in 1862 until the present day it has had a notable continuity of service by generations of the city’s families. This fact was strikingly and poignantly illustrated in the death in the summer of 1944 of Lt. Col. Stuart S. T. Cantlie.
World War Graphic History 
I imagine you may want to correct the citation, in the essay on Colonel Stuart Cantlie, of the middle initial in the name of my late uncle, Francis Murray Mitchell. Illiterate as I am in such matters, I gather that what you are producing here is called a “blog”. I just stumbled across it a couple of days ago, while Googling a bit of research on my Uncle Frank. By any name, your endeavour here strikes me as admirable. The essay on my uncle seems sound – and the cartoon of him ain’t bad! A wee point: he was Commandant of the Regiment from 1946 to 1947 – dying, as you note, twenty years later. With cordial appreciation, I remain yrs etc. – Ian H. Mitchell, Suite 706, 224 Maple Ave., Georgetown, Ont. L7G 0P2. Tel.: 905 873 0408
Thank you, and corrected.
Thank you!
I hope that here I’m using an appropriate e-mail address to pass on to you a further observation. This one has to do with your “post” ( I trust that’s the term ) for my late uncle, Francis Murray Mitchell. I wonder whether it perhaps contains some very small errors of transcription. I have not seen the original letter (presumably in the Black Watch Archives at the Regimental HQ in Montreal), but I have seen it cited elsewhere, very slightly differently – thus:
On page 126 of “The Brigade” by Terry Copp – Fortress Publications Inc., Stoney Creek, 1992
“I greatly regret that I found it necessary to take the actions I did on September 22, 1944 but I’m afraid that when I arrive at a calculated decision, it is providential that it be carried out. I assure you that I have made no mistake other than possibly the method of handling, and I tried to be loyal to both the Regiment and higher authority.”
A footnote refers the reader to the following by Copp on page 130:
“Mitchell to Hutchinson [ sic – Hutchison is presumably the intended name ] , 25 Oct. 1944. Black Watch Archives. In a letter to Hutchinson [ again, sic ] dated 26 Sept. 1944 Mitchell stated ‘I provoked my removal.'”
Col. Paul Phelps Hutchison was Regimental Commandant from 1939 to 1945.
Yours respectfully,
Ian H. Mitchell Suite 706, 224 Maple Avenue, Georgetown, Ontario L7G 0P2 Tel.: 905 873 0408 ________________________________