Lieutenant-Colonel Pat Black
12th Manitoba Dragoons

 As a result of your training, teamwork, loyalty and fine qualities as soldiers, you have established the Regiment. We cannot look into the future of the months to come, nor will I try to predict what it holds for us. Wherever we may be, whatever the task, whatever the conditions, I know you will live up to the highest expectations.

(The Staghound, 8 Dec 1945)

Born in Ottawa on 26 August 1915, Patrick Cameron Rooke Black graduated from Queen’s University and joined the permanent force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1943, he transferred from the Royal Canadian Dragoons to the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons) under command of former RCD officer, Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Roberts. As part of II Canadian Corps, the Dragoons deployed to Normandy in July 1944 with Black as second-in-command.

In October 1944, Roberts was promoted to take over 8th Infantry Brigade. He later wrote of his reaction: “I knew, instinctively, that the best way to handle the shock was to return to regimental hq, order Major Pat Black to take over temporary command of the regiment, and get out as quietly as possible. It was a time not for emotion – no tears and no regrets – but for thankfulness that I had been given such a privilege.”

The battalion bulletin, The Staghound, reported the change in command: “Any new C.O. has a tough go. The one who comes after a man like Lt Col. Roberts has a big pair of shoes to fill, and we are lucky here to have former 2 i/c, Major Black to command the Regt instead of a stranger who does not know the Regt., and its peculiarities.”

A later issue detailed in a sarcastic fashion the roles of senior officers:

The Commanding Officer, we presume, needs no great explanation. He, and his job appear to be a necessity in most Regiments, and in spite of the fact that you may consider yourself capable of executing his task with considerably greater dexterity, we assure you that you are mistaken. For those in doubt, he commands the Regiment, which may be made up of people like me, which is a bad thing.

The Second in Command is also necessary, chiefly when the First in Command, as it were, is not there, or here, or something. He is very, very Senior and is either very, very nice, or very, very horrible, and we understands that his moods do not depend upon the curls on his forehead … Rather do they reflect your general behaviour. Be warned!

Black led the Dragoons throughout the liberation of the Netherlands until the end of the war. He continued a postwar military career, which included a posting to the International Truce Supervisory Commission in Indochina in 1958. He retired from the army in 1964 and moved to the United States. Black died in Palm Beach, Florida on 29 October 1993.