Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Merritt
South Saskatchewan Regiment

My war lasted six hours. There are plenty of Canadians my age who went all the way from the landings in Sicily to the very end … It was an enforced idleness. It cannot be escalated into virtue.

(Quoted in Ottawa Citizen, 3 Sept 1966, 66)

Born on 8 November 1908 in Vancouver, British Columbia Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt was an RMC graduate, football player, and barrister. Since 1929, he was a commissioned officer in the Seaforth Highlanders, the regiment his father had belonged to before being killed at Second Ypres in April 1915. Merritt went overseas as a major, attended staff college, and served on the general staff of the 3rd Division. In March 1942, he was appointed new commanding officer of the South Saskatchewan Regiment, which would land at Dieppe over four months later.

Merritt led the troops ashore at Green Beach on 19 August 1942. From a bridge “thickly covered with [Canadian] bodies,” the colonel waved his helmet at the men, shouting, “Come on over. They can’t hit anything. There’s nothing to worry about here.” Charging through shell explosions and heavy fire, he next cleared a series of enemy pill-boxes despite being wounded. When ordered to withdraw, Merritt organized a rearguard action to provide the evacuating troops with covering fire. He took charge of the final stand of the remaining Canadian forces on the beach before being forced to surrender.

After witnessing Merritt’s actions that day including carrying a wounded soldier to cover, Captain John Runcie remarked, “It wasn’t human, what he did.” For exceptional bravery, “matchless gallantry and inspiring leadership,” he was awarded the Victoria Cross:

Hen then coolly gave orders for the departure and announced his intention to hold off and “get even with” the enemy. When last seen he was collecting Bren and Tommy guns and preparing a defensive position which successful cover the withdrawal from the beach … To this Commanding Officer’s personal daring, the success of his unit’s operations and the safe re-embarkation of a large portion of it were chiefly due.

The South Saskatchewan Regiment reported, “Col. Merritt has been agreed upon by all members of his battalion as the most outstanding personality of the raid.” He and eight-three members of the SSR were taken prisoner. On the night of 3 June 1943, he participated in a daring tunnel escape from Oflag VII-B in Bavaria, but was soon recaptured.

In summer 1944, the Progressive Conservative Party nominated Merritt to be a candidate in the next federal election, despite still being a prisoner-of-war. By the time of the election in June 1945, Merritt had been liberated and won the riding of Vancouver—Burrard. When asked to speak about his war experiences in the House of Commons, Merritt stated:

Many things have been said about the difficulties and the peculiar circumstances which we faced at Dieppe, but I know that everybody who went there was delighted to go. Despite all that happened we all felt that what was done was worth doing, in that from the operation great lessons were learned. In remembering the large number of Canadians who fell at Dieppe I should say that in the opinion of one who was there, the sacrifice which they, and their relatives who remain, made through their deaths was one that was well worth while.

He lost re-election by less than 300 votes in 1949 and returned to private practice as a lawyer in Vancouver. He served as commanding officer of the Seaforth Highlanders from 1951 to 1954 and as honorary colonel of the regiment from 1963 to 1966.

He died in Vancouver on 12 July 2000 and his V.C. is held by the Canadian War Museum.