Lieutenant-Colonel G.F. Clingan
Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa

Under very heavy shell fire, this Officer reconnoitered the ground for advantageous positions, and showed great skill and judgement in his selection, as all positions later proved tactically sound. During the operations, when his crews were suffering from very heavy shell fire, he went from gun to gun, helping with the wounded, and greatly encouraged the men by his fine example. Although wounded, he refused to leave his command and continued to carry on until relieved, a period of several hours.

(M.C. citation, 1 Jan 1918)

Born in Virden, Manitoba on 1 July 1894, George Francis Clingan was a decorated veteran of the First World War and the Siberia Expeditionary Force. His uncle, Liberal MLA and doctor Lieutenant Colonel George Clingan, raised the 79th Battalion, which the twenty-year old Clingan joined in October 1915. He was commissioned the next year in England and went to France as a reinforcement officer for the 4th Brigade, Canadian Machine Gun Company.

He suffered gunshot wounds at Lens in August 1917 for which he received the Military Cross in January 1918. He returned to Canada where he joined the 260th Battalion and survived the Spanish Flu before leaving for Siberia. In 1920, Clingan returned to his home in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, where he lived until moving to Ottawa in 1938. Although he had enlisted with a battalion of the Cameron Highlanders of Canada during the First World War and by the Second World War was a militia officer in the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa.

He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Rogers in April 1942 until his promotion to lieutenant-colonel and appointment to No. 1 Machine Gun Reinforcing Unit. Lieutenant-Colonel P.C. Klaehn of the Saskatoon Light Infantry arrived as his replacement in June 1942.

Long involved with the Cameron Highlanders regimental association, Clingan died on 22 November 1964 in Goderich, Ontario.