Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Toogood
28th Armoured Regiment (B.C. Regiment)

A friendly little Vancouver newspaperman with a grin as broad as the Pacific and a shock of hair as unruly as the snow on Mount Seymour is today leading British Columbia’s oldest regiment back home—the DCOR’s

(Vancouver Sun, 28 Jan 1946, 10)

Born in London, England on 24 January 1914, John William Toogood was an employee of the Vancouver Sun when he enlisted as a second lieutenant with the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own) in August 1939. He rose to squadron commander during the Normandy campaign and received the Silver Star from the U.S. government for his actions at Falaise in August 1944. He temporary took over during the battle after the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Worthington. Toogood served throughout the fighting reportedly without suffering a scratch and assumed command as lieutenant-colonel after VE-Day. 

“We’d been informed of the war’s end 12 hours before the armistice went into effect,” he later said of the final push into Germany, “yet from that time one we still had two tank squadrons in battle … We knew the war was over but you didn’t dare try to go out and tell them (the Germans).” He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel A.G. Chubb in June 1945 and led the regiment home to Vancouver six months later. He remained in command of the BCRs in the reserve army until 1950.

In civilian life, he rejoined the staff of the Vancouver Sun, soon becoming national advertising manager and retiring as advertising director in 1979. He served as a honorary colonel of the British Columbia Regiment from 1992 until shortly before his death on 19 October 1997.