Lieutenant-Colonel G.G. Elder
&
Lieutenant-Colonel James Carvosso
South Alberta Regiment

Everyone wants to be an officer … They forget—or rather they don’t know that all the commissions in the PPCLI were given to the ranks in the last war. That’s how I got my commission.

(Carvosso quoted in Vancouver Province, 29 Sep 1939, 13)

Born on 16 June 1891 in Darfort, Kent, England, James Husband Carvosso was a long serving PPCLI officer and decorated First World War veteran. Fives-times wounded in action on the Western Front, he earned the Military Cross at Vimy Ridge and the M.C. Bar at Mons. “Although severely wounded, “the citation read for his action at Vimy, “he continued to command his Company until he fainted from loss of blood. His gallant example has the most inspiring effect on his men.”

In June 1940, following recruitment and instructional duties, Carvosso was appointed to command the newly mobilized South Alberta Regiment, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel George Gordon Elder. Born on 26 July 1894 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Elder was a doctor specializing in otolaryngology and ophthalmology. He had moved to Medicine Hat in the 1920s. He took command of the South Albera Regiment in 1938 but transferred to the medical branch of the Royal Canadian Air Force in May 1940.

“I think the old soldiers can do a lot of work with the new soldiers,” the war veteran assured the Canadian Legion in a speech while stationed in Nanaimo. Carvosso relinquished command to Major W.P. Bristowe in April 1941 and retired from the permanent force at the end of the year.

Elder died on 9 April 1962 and Carvosso died on 10 April 1977 in Victoria, British Columbia.