Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Gordon
North Shore Regiment

But Gordon was right out in front of us, knowing full well what to expect, when they really started to open fire on us. We jumped off the tanks and kept on moving. Then they started to knock out tanks. I saw the major reach up to his face and then he kept on moving for a few minutes and then he went down. A bullet went through the side of his face, took all his teeth out and went out the other side.

(David Arksey quoted in Testaments of Honour, 295)

Born on 13 November 1914 in Toronto, James Neil Gordon was a graduate of Upper Canada College and a salesman. He joined the Queen’s Own Rifles in July 1940 and received a commission one month later. He commanded “D” Company on D-Day and suffered a wounded to the face on 11 June 1944. Major Ben Dunkelman of the QOR recalled seeing “his face swathed in heavy bandages, after being shot through both cheeks. He was unable to speak, though it was unclear whether this was caused by his injury or his sorrow—most of D Company, a fine body of men, had been lost in the first few terrible moments of the attack.”

Gordon rejoined the QOR as a company commander during the taking of Boulogne, but by the end of September 1944, he transferred to the North Shore Regiment. He became second-in-command after the death of Major John M. Carson on 26 September. When Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.H. Rowley was killed on 26 March 1945, Gordon immediately went forward to take over the battalion. He remained in command until the end of the war and received the D.S.O. He brought the North Shore Regiment home to New Brunswick in December 1945.

Gordon returned to civilian life but remained active in the Queen’s Own Rifles. He served as commanding officer of the militia regiment from 1952 to 1954, during which time he acted as honorary pallbearer for the late Queen Mary. He retried from the militia at the rank of brigadier and served as honorary colonel of the QOR from 1987 to 1989.

He died in November 1995 in Orangeville, Ontario.