Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.V. Murrell
Lake Superior Regiment

They immediately came under a great deal of fire. Snipers were everywhere. Control was lost and the coy was pinned down … At that time the C.O., Lt-Col. J.E.V. Murrell, arrived on the scene … The C.O., on hearing some of the wounded in the wheatfield, yelled “Follow me” to a group of men across the road and dashed, disregarding the sniper fire, into the field and with the help of other men who followed him in, evacuated the wounded to a safer spot.

(War diary, 9 August 1944)

Born in Southend-On-Sea, England on 24 September 1904, James Edward Victor Murrell was a constructor contractor and adjutant in the Lake Superior Regiment, which he had joined in 1923. When the unit mobilized in 1940, he was acting second-in-command and after it converted to motorized infantry he led the battalion overseas in August 1942. When Lieutenant-Colonel H. Cook returned home due to ill health, command instead went to Lieutenant-Colonel W.T. Ibbott of the Westminster Regiment. Murrell remained second-in-command as more original officers were transferred.

Murrell assumed command from Ibbott in February 1944. As the regiment historian George Stanely wrote, “it seemed but justice that he should, after all these years, take over command of the unit to which he had given so much of his life.” He led the Lake Superiors to France as part of the 4th Armoured Brigade in late July and the battalion went into action for the first time in early August.

After witnessing many of his men killed and wounded, Murrell managed to lead a group of survivors to safety on 9 August. The unit medical officer ordered the exhausted and wounded colonel to rest. He would not return to duty and Major R.A. Keane took over for the rest of the Northwest Europe campaign.

Murrell resumed command of the regiment after the war in the reserve army and initiated its transformation into the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1978.