Author: Matthew K Barrett

Lt. Col. Frost

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Lieutenant Colonel R.W. Frost, D.S.O.
87th (Canadian Grenadier Guards) Battalion
Frost

Capt. Frost was twice blown up by shells but remained on duty.

 (14th Bn. War Diary, 3 June 1916)

 Capt. R. W. Frost, for the third time in 24 hours, was blown to the ground by a shell. Too dazed to walk, he was carried to Railway Dugouts, where he recovered and whence, on the following morning, he hastened to duty with the Battalion.

 (R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment, 14th Battalion [1927], 87)

Just as the 87th Battalion prepared to deploy to France in summer 1916, Reginald William Frost replaced Lieutenant Colonel Irving Rexford in command. A native of Norfolk, England, Frost was born on 21 May 1885 and immigrated to Canada in 1906. He had served seven years with the 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers when he enlisted in the 14th Battalion under the command of Frank Meighen at the outbreak of the war.

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Lt. Col. Alexander

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Lieutenant Colonel R.O. Alexander, D.S.O.
24th (Victoria Rifles) Battalion
Alexander

Born on the island of Ceylon on 7 August 1888, Ronald O’Keden Alexander was a soldier with the 3rd Regiment, Victoria Rifles and the Royal Canadian Regiment. He served with the 24th Battalion and succeeded Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Gunn in command on 1 November 1916.

After one month, Alexander was evacuated from the field with influenza and appendicitis in December 1916. Doctors determined that Alexander “Had long service at Front and requires rest.” He did not resume command of the 24th until after the battle of Vimy Ridge on 14 April 1917. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and three times mentioned in the dispatches. From October 1917 to demobilization, he was attached as a staff officer to the 2nd Canadian Division.

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Lt. Col. Hodson

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Lieutenant Colonel George C. Hodson, D.S.O.
1st (Western Ontario) Battalion
Hodson

I have perhaps foolishly put my Country and the Cause before my personal interests in the past but my patience is now absolutely exhausted and I am out to get justice, one way or the other. I have already lost all a soldier can lose and that is ‘his reputation as a fighting soldier’ … All I have asked is to be returned to the front with my rank or else given a decent appointment in England or Canada with some promotion.

(G.C. Hodson to Gen. Ashton, 20 Apr 1918)

After the death of Lieutenant Colonel Frank A. Creighton on 15 June 1916 during the battle of Mont Sorrel, the 1st Battalion was left leaderless and disorganized. Unable to find a suitable replacement from within the battalion or from another frontline unit, Major-General Arthur Currie needed to look to a surplus senior officer in England. He found George Cuthbert Bethune Hodson, former commander of the 9th CMR, which had been broken up some months earlier.

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Lt. Col. Yates

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Lieutenant Colonel Wilton Yates
2nd (Iron Second) Battalion
Yates

When he was badly wounded in World War I, he was the first to have successful plastic surgery on his face. It was very noticeable of course when he returned to Swift Current. At one time, as he himself relates, he was consigned to an insane asylum “but never reached it owing to my own machinations.” When wounded he was put in the morgue as dead; was saved by a nurse’s aide and given six months to live.

(Jim Greenblat, Those Were the Days in Swift Current, 1971, 32)

A native of England, Wilton Milwarde Yates was born on 17 October 1879. After being wounded in the Boer War, he immigrated to Canada and became a rancher at Swift Current. He enlisted in Lieutenant Colonel Harry Cowan’s 32nd Battalion in December 1914 and was attached to the 2nd Battalion once overseas.

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Lt. Col. Swift

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Lieutenant Colonel “Dolly” Swift, D.S.O.
2nd and 259th (Canadian Rifles) Battalions
Swift

The Vics took the first three games and looked like certain winners, but Stocking and Watson kept their team together and are mainly responsible for enabling Swift and Scott to tie the score and then get one ahead. Swift rallied his home and made a steady forward rush, when Grant lifted the puck, which struck “Dolly” Swift under the ear and knocked him out. This involved another fifteen minute delay.

(Toronto Globe, 31 Jan 1898, 8)

Albert Edward “Dolly” Swift was a Boer War veteran and professional soldier with twenty-years’ experience in the permanent militia. Born in Quebec City on 30 January 1866, Swift had also been an amateur hockey player in his youth. He played one season with the Montreal Victorias and thirteen with the Quebec Hockey Club during the 1880s and 90s.

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Lt. Col. Langford

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Lieutenant Colonel R.J.S. Langford
193rd (Nova Scotia Highlanders) Battalion

The Battalion, by means of its organization, is able to stand the shock of battle, to surmount confusion, to suffer casualties with the least injury to its efficiency. To abandon the organization is to destroy the fighting power and capacity for training.

(Langford, Corporal to Field Officer, 1940, 8)

Robert John Spinluff Langford was a professional soldier with the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was born in India on 9 July 1887. After Lieutenant Colonel John Stanfield, MP, temporarily assumed command of the Nova Scotia Highlander Brigade, Langford took over the 193rd, which he led to England in late 1916.

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Lt. Col. Bruce

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Lieutenant Colonel G.W. Bruce
181st (Brandon) Battalion
GWBruce

Col. Bruce’s wife was not able to give definite particulars about her husband’s death, on account of suffering from the sudden shock.

(Toronto Globe, 24 Apr 1916, 8)

George William Bruce was a barrister, militia officer and former commander of the 35th Simcoe Rifles. He was born in Simcoe County, Canada West on 26 January 1862. He graduated from Victoria College in 1885 and joined the militia in 1890. He moved west to join a law practice in Manitoba after retiring to the reserve officers’ list in 1912. In January 1916, Bruce was appointed to raise the 181st Battalion from Brandon, Manitoba. Continue reading →

Lt. Col. Parsons

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Lieutenant Colonel Norval Parsons
246th (Nova Scotia Highlanders) Battalion

Col. Parsons, who was appointed to be second in command of the 185th Battalion, is a very strong Liberal.

 It is a fact as reported to me that great credit is taken by the Liberal party in Nova Scotia for the organization of the Highland Brigade. Yet my hon. friend stands on the floor of this Parliament and says that the whole thing is honeycombed with politics.

(Robert Borden, Debates, 6 May 1916, 3545)

A senior officer with the 85th, 185th and 219th Battalions, Norval Henry Parsons was promoted to command the 246th in August 1916. The latest Nova Scotia battalion was designated as a reserve unit for the expected formation of a Highlander Brigade. Parson was born in Kingston, Nova Scotia on 25 March 1868. He was a lifelong militiaman and former commanding officer of the 68th Regiment.

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Lt. Col. W.R. Smyth, MP

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Lieutenant Colonel W.R. Smyth, MP
238th (Canadian Forestry) Battalion
Smyth

Am extremely sorry that certain cables crossed and I inadvertently accepted nomination. I wired Robb withdrawing my acceptance … Please convey this to electorate at first opportunity. I depend on all loyal Canadians to support the Union Government and thereby help win the war. We need men and must have them.

(Smyth to G.B. Nicholson, Nov 1917)

William Ross Smyth was a lumber tycoon, Conservative MPP in the Ontario legislature (1902—1908 and federal MP for Algoma East (1908—1917). He was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 3 January 1857. He was one of several sitting Conservative MPs selected to recruit an overseas battalion.

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Lt. Col. Leach

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Lieutenant Colonel Francis Leach
231st (Seaforth Highlanders) Battalion

Before very long you will be going overseas–an event to which I know you have all been anxiously looking forward, and you will then have the honour of taking your place beside the brave lads who have preceded you.

(Lt. Col. Leach, January 1917)

Francis Easton Leach was a graduate of the Royal Military College and a veteran of the Boer War. A native of Montreal, he was born on 24 November 1875. After doing survey work in South Africa, he was employed as a railway engineer in British Columbia. He joined the 72nd Regiment after the outbreak of the Great War and was eventually authorized to raise the 231st Battalion from Vancouver in 1916.

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