Lieutenant-Colonel C.A. Scott
Winnipeg Light Infantry

Maj. Scott is a smart, alert offr, who seems to have considerable ability and who has a orderly, logical mind. He has had a long record of efficient service both on staff and in Regt duty in Canada … It is recommended that he continue in employment as long as he is desired or until he is replaced by a battle casualty.

(Officer Survey and Classification Board report, 1 Mar 1945)

Born in Ottawa on 30 April 1903, Cuthbert Aiden Scott was a lawyer and member of Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa since 1925. Promoted to major in 1936, he volunteered with the unit when it mobilized as a machine gun battalion in July 1940. Following later administrative duties with National Defence Headquarters, Scott was appointed second-in-command of the Lanark and Renfrew Regiment in May 1942.

In December 1942, he joined a Canadian overseas tour of units training in the United Kingdom, where he was temporarily attached to the Stormont, Dundas & Glenngarry Regiment and 9th Infantry Brigade. Back in Canada, in March 1944, Scott was promoted to command the Winnipeg Light Infantry as part of the 6th Division on the Pacific Coast. The former commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel H.F. Cotton, had been assigned to a jungle warfare course in the South Pacific theatre.

In November 1944, with reinforcements urgently needed for the Canadian divisions in Europe, Brigadier R.H. Beattie and several commanding officers, including Scott, held a press conference admitting that the plan to encourage home defence conscripts to volunteer for overseas service had failed. “If the Government would only assume its responsibility,” Scott stated, “I am convinced this whole mess could be cleaned up.”

The senior officers’ dissent from the Mackenzie King Government policy led to rumors of courts martial for this public insubordination, but national defence headquarters exonerated the group from any breach of regulations. In the end, the government sent a levy of 16,000 troops overseas, which provoked a short-lived soldier mutiny. With the return of Cotton from the Pacific, Scott reverted to second-in-command of the WLI before it departed for overseas. The regiment was disbanded after arrival to the United Kingdom in January 1945.

After the war, Scott resumed his law career as King’s Counsel in Ottawa, where he died on 12 March 1989.