Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Leger
North Shore Regiment

The North Shore most regretted saying goodbye to Lt.-Col. Leger, who had given his all to make the unit a real Regiment. He had spent more than thirty years soldiering, knew every man, and the Unit was to him his very heart’s blood.

(Will Bird, North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, 119)

Born on 3 November 1889 in Saint-Louis de Kent, New Brunswick, Joseph Arthur Leger was foreman for the Canadian National Railway in Newcastle and later town councillor. He had been commissioned in the 26th Battalion and served in France in 1915. He returned home to become second-in-command of the 165th Battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel D’Aigle. After the Acadian-recruited unit was broken up, Leger returned to France as part of the Canadian Forestry Corps. He demobilized as a major but remained in the militia and took command of the North Shore Regiment in May 1938.

Following mobilization in the Second World War, in June 1940, the regiment recruited a second reserve battalion while Leger remained in command of the 1st Battalion until April 1941. As the active service battalion prepared to go overseas, fellow First World War veteran and Military Cross winner Major J.R. Calkin succeeded him. Stationed in New Brunswick to oversee recruitment work, Leger commanded the 2nd Battalion from September 1941 until demobilization in 1946.

He died in a car accident in Newcastle on 2 May 1957.