Lieutenant-Colonel W.T. Ibbott
Lake Superior Regiment

Offr of medium height and stocky build who has a pleasant personality and good military bearing. He impressed the Board as possessing aggressiveness, drive, leadership and alertness. Having requested the interview, he willingly discussed his case …

He states that he has had many promises of promotion by his former Comds which have not been implemented and has a keen sense of disappointment.

(Survey and Classification Board report, 1945)

Born in Lancashire, England on 13 March 1894, Walter Taylor Ibbott was a Vancouver insurance agent and adjutant in the Westminster Regiment. He had served with the 13th Battalion in France where he was wounded, earned the Military Medal, and demobilized as a lieutenant. After the Westminster Regiment arrived in the United Kingdom, in January 1942 Ibbott was promoted to second-in-command.

In November 1942, Ibbott was appointed to take over command of the Lake Superior Regiment, the motorized infantry unit of the 4th Armoured Division. Many of the originals were suspicious of an outsider and worried that the unit would lose its Lakehead identity. “1943 has seen great changes in the personnel of the regiment,” the war diary recorded, “with the ‘Old Timers’ now in a minority. Of the original officers there are now but eight left with the unit.”

Ibbott replaced Lieutenant-Colonel H. Cook who had returned to Canada from ill health. After almost a year and half, in February 1944, Ibbott relinquished command to Major J.E.V. Murrell. A superior filed a change of employment report: “I am not confident that he is physically able to endure the hardship of active operations due to his age. Because of this, I feel that under physical strain he would not command his unit efficiently in the field. This off has done a good job of work in the training and command of his unit.”

Ibbott nevertheless remained overseas, performing staff and training duties. He was promoted to colonel in July 1945 in charge of a repatriation depot. He returned home to New Westminster in April 1946.

He died in Vancouver on 8 July 1960.