Brigadier P.E. Leclerc
5th Infantry Brigade
7th Canadian Division

I am told that the breakdown in the brigadier’s health was a sequel to an order from H.Q. 2 Cdn Div requiring all staff officers and formation commanders to walk five miles every day.

(C.P. Stacey, “Recent Changes in Commands and Staff,” 1941)

Born on 20 January 1893 in Montreal, Pierre Edouard Leclerc was a First World War veteran, businessman, and long serving militia officer. He first enlisted as a private with 5th Field Company, Canadian Engineers in January 1915. He earned the Military Medal then took a commission in a new battalion raised in Quebec. He was wounded and shell shocked in August 1917 while attached to the 22nd Battalion. He served as commanding officer of Le Regiment De Joliette in the 1930s and by the outbreak of the Second World War was colonel of the 11th Infantry Brigade, Military District No. 4.

In July 1940, he was appointed commander of the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division. Although he took the brigade overseas, by April 1941, a medical board in England ruled the overweight brigadier unfit. Unable to find a francophone replacement, Defence Minister J.L. Ralston expected that Leclerc’s removal “will of course be used by those who allege that French Canadians being ‘supplanted’ by English speaking officers.” Command of the 5th Brigade passed to Lieutenant-Colonel  G.V. Whitehead, formerly of the Royal Montreal Regiment.

Leclerc returned to Canada to oversea training for home defence and in May 1942 was promoted to major-general of 7th Canadian Division as part of Atlantic Command then commanded Canadian troops in Newfoundland. He received the O.B.E. in 1943, and announced his retirement from the army in December 1944.

He died in Quebec on 27 May 1982.

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