Lieutenant-Colonel T.W. Greenfield
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada

Boxing is a grand sport. It builds men up to withstand terrific punishment without flinching.

(North Bay Nugget, 22 Jan 1942, 8)

Born in Worcestershire, England on 27 August 1892, Thomas William Greenfield assumed command of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada in October 1938. A First World War veteran, he had enlisted with the 49th Battalion out of Edmonton, earned a commission overseas and rejoined the battalion in France in November 1917. He was severely wounded at Cambrai a year later.

After the war, he relocated to Hamilton, Ontario, where continued militia service in the A&S Highlanders. A year after taking command, he prepared recruiting efforts on the outbreak of the Second World War. The battalion mobilized in 1940, briefly converted to a machine gun unit before reverting to infantry. In August 1941, before the Highlanders departed for garrison duty in Jamacia, Greenfield was replaced by fellow First World War veteran Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Sinclair.

Remaining in Canada, Greenfield was appointed commandant of an advanced infantry training centre at Camp Borden and later in 1942 headed Fort Chippewa Barracks. In the relatively remote northern Ontario, Greenfield emphasized education for his soldiers: “They have been studying only a short time and already some of them can write letters home—probably only letters of a few words, but nevertheless, they are writing letters that they couldn’t write before.” The local newspaper, North Bay Nugget explained his philosophy:

“If you expect to receive letters, you must learn first to write some yourselves.” That contact maintained with the outside world through correspondence was most beneficial, he explained … recalling “letter-less” periods during his own career, when the mail man failed him too many days at a stretch that would have been brightened by the receipt of a bill to indicate that he maintained that contact.

(North Bay Nugget, 1 Arp 1942, 4)

After a year and a half as commandant of the army basic training centre in Orilla, he retired from the army in October 1943.

Greenfield died in Montreal on 30 September 1984.