Lieutenant-Colonel Larry Henderson
Canadian Scottish Regiment

Our line in this war is not like the lines veterans of the last war in France knew. We live in slit trenches. The same old scenes, though, prevail I am sure … Just now it is quiet except for our occasional shelling, and once in a while the cry of “stretcher-bearer,” the smell of dead cattle, patrols sneaking back just at daybreak, etc., so I guess it’s pretty much the same old war.

(Henderson, Time Colonist, 25 Aug 1944, 10)

Born on 18 July 1908 in Vernon, British Columbia, Lawrence Sinclair Henderson was a rugby player and commissioned officer in the Canadian Scottish since 1928. He served as a company commander at D-Day and earned the Distinguished Service Order at Hill 168 near Falaise for “courage and leadership under heavy fire.” He temporarily took command of the battalion in December 1944 when Major A.H. Plows was injured in a motor accident. He assumed command again in February 1945 when Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Crofton was severely wounded.

Describing the landings at Juno Beach on 6 June 1944, Henderson wrote in an article for the Victoria Times Colonist, “The lads were really wonderful and walked through a hellish fire as it they were going to a wedding.” After a successful push through the German defences:

I managed to get time late D-Day evening to crack a bottle of champagne we got out of a Jerry officer’s mess which had been evacuated very hurriedly, and bot did it go down well! Suddenly realized how tired I was after all the nasty sights of war, being scared three-quarters of the time, and the pace we had hit. We tank God we did this training, for as long and as often as we did.

Ten days before his report was published the Canadian Scottish had suffered heavily in the breakout from Normandy. At Hill 168 on 15 August 1944, one officer recalled, “We lost more men there in 45 minutes than we lost in all of D-day.” Despite the danger and death, he said of Henderson, “He didn’t seem at all excited.” The D.S.O. citation described his heroism that day:

Major Lawrence Henderson led his men in the attack. The advance was made over very difficult rolling country which was a maze of almost insurmountable hedgerows, behind each of which lurked machine guns and Tiger tanks, well dug in. With his Company sadly depleted and held up Major Henderson finding himself out of touch with his Commanding Officer as his wireless set had been destroyed and realizing that he had to make the best of it having absolutely no regard for his own personal safety, gathered the remnants of his Company together, and pushed forward amid devastating enemy fire.

With his one remaining officer and less than half his original Company Major Henderson destroyed the enemy position and held the ground without which his unit could not have attained its success on Hill 168 and facilitated the Brigade breakthrough to Falaise.

Henderson led the battalion from February 1945 until the end of the war. In June 1945, he took command of the 4th Battalion, Canadian Scottish in the Army of Occupation in Germany, exchanging places with Lieutenant-Colonel Cy Wightman. He returned home in 1946 and became a brigadier in the reserve army.

Henderson died in Victoria on 22 February 1997.

Larry kept the attack in shape. He showed tremendous leadership and tremendous guts. He never showed fear and kept all our spirits up. He expected you to be just as aggressive as he was. He was always pretty reasonable if there was a job to be done, just as long as you got the job done. He was a hell of a soldier.

(Quoted in Times Colonist, 23 Feb 1997, 2)