Lt-Col. C.A. Muir

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Lieutenant-Colonel C.A. Muir
Lincoln and Welland Regiment

We aren’t a Field Unit yet and are still attached to Reinforcements but the Colonel and most of the old crowd are carrying on just as if we were back in Canada. I am one of the outcasts in the Unit because I want to train men to fight while this bunch of phoney peace-time soldiers run a social club.

(Anonymous officer’s letter, Sept 1943 censor report)

Born on 26 November 1896 in Glasgow, Scotland, Charles Andrew Muir moved to Canada as a teenager and settled in Hamilton. He enlisted with the 36th Battalion in April 1915 and reinforced the 4th Battalion in France. After a year at the front, he was put out of action by shrapnel at the Somme in October 1916. During the First World War, two brothers were wounded while another two were killed.

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Lt-Col. R.S.W. Fordham

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Lieutenant-Colonel R.S.W. Fordham
Lincoln and Welland Regiment

It is sometimes extremely difficult to make certain Refugees comfortable and happy in any sense of the words, as instance occur where they seem anxious to find fault and complain … Actually, many changes have been made of late for the benefit of Refugees, and it is probably correct to say that nowhere are they treated better than in Canada.

(Fordham quoted in Eric Koch, Deemed Suspect, 216)

Born on 9 May 1897 in London, England, Reginald Sydney Walter Fordham was a lawyer in Niagara Falls and a First World War veteran. He had joined the 98th Battalion as a lieutenant in December 1915 and joined the 13th Battalion in France at the end of September 1916. Less than two weeks later he went missing in action and spent almost the next two years a prisoner of war. He returned to law practice after the war and in July 1936 became commanding officer of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.

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Lt-Col. H.H.A. Parker

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Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Parker
Lake Superior Regiment

The question of returning to Canada is one which is of great interest to all of us, and naturally there has been a lot of discussion about it. Unfortunately, the army is a great breeding place for rumours—mostly of the ‘latrine’ variety—and this subject has proved itself to be just as fruitful in the production of rumours as any that has ever been under discussion. So I’m going to ‘put you in the picture’, as far as I know it myself, to give you some idea of what the future holds.

(War diary, Fifty Forum, 20 Jul 1945)

Born on 25 May 1915 in Lockerbie, Scotland, Henry Hugh Alexander Parker was a University of Toronto graduate and insurance agent. He enlisted with the 48th Highlanders and went overseas with the 1st Division. He returned to Canada in 1942 to be an instructor at RMC before joining the staff of the 4th Armoured Brigade headquarters. He served as assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general of the brigade during the Normandy campaign. In September 1944, he was appointed second-in-command of the Lake Superior Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Keane.

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Lt-Col. R.A. Keane

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Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Keane
Lake Superior Regiment

It is very difficult to speak upon an occasion like this; one just doesn’t know what can possibly be said about the boys that are gone. I was with the unit when we received our first casualty on the continent and have been with you ever since. It gets tougher and tougher as time goes on accepting these casualties. With the memory of our comrades still fresh, let us remember the mothers, wives, sweethearts and families of the boys, and do what we can to lighten their load.

(Keane, war diary, 18 March 1945)

Born on 14 May 1914 in Fort William, Ontario, Robert Angus Keane was a hockey player, real estate agent and a commissioned officer in the Lake Superior Regiment since 1935. He became battalion adjutant after mobilization in 1940 and went overseas with the Cameron Highlanders in 1941. Although he rejoined the LSR in January 1942 when it converted to motorized infantry, he went to the United States for parachute training while the regiment embarked for England.

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Lt-Col. J.E.V. Murrell

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Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.V. Murrell
Lake Superior Regiment

They immediately came under a great deal of fire. Snipers were everywhere. Control was lost and the coy was pinned down … At that time the C.O., Lt-Col. J.E.V. Murrell, arrived on the scene … The C.O., on hearing some of the wounded in the wheatfield, yelled “Follow me” to a group of men across the road and dashed, disregarding the sniper fire, into the field and with the help of other men who followed him in, evacuated the wounded to a safer spot.

(War diary, 9 August 1944)

Born in Southend-On-Sea, England on 24 September 1904, James Edward Victor Murrell was a constructor contractor and adjutant in the Lake Superior Regiment, which he had joined in 1923. When the unit mobilized in 1940, he was acting second-in-command and after it converted to motorized infantry he led the battalion overseas in August 1942. When Lieutenant-Colonel H. Cook returned home due to ill health, command instead went to Lieutenant-Colonel W.T. Ibbott of the Westminster Regiment. Murrell remained second-in-command as more original officers were transferred.

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Lt-Col. W.T. Ibbott

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Lieutenant-Colonel W.T. Ibbott
Lake Superior Regiment

Offr of medium height and stocky build who has a pleasant personality and good military bearing. He impressed the Board as possessing aggressiveness, drive, leadership and alertness. Having requested the interview, he willingly discussed his case …

He states that he has had many promises of promotion by his former Comds which have not been implemented and has a keen sense of disappointment.

(Survey and Classification Board report, 1945)

Born in Lancashire, England on 13 March 1894, Walter Taylor Ibbott was a Vancouver insurance agent and adjutant in the Westminster Regiment. He had served with the 13th Battalion in France where he was wounded, earned the Military Medal, and demobilized as a lieutenant. After the Westminster Regiment arrived in the United Kingdom, in January 1942 Ibbott was promoted to second-in-command.

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Lt-Col. H. Cook

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Lieutenant-Colonel Herb Cook
Lake Superior Regiment

They are commanded by Lieut.-Col. Hebert Cook of Port Arthur, a veteran of the last war and a contractor in civil life. He is quiet, has a mild twinkle in his eye and is possessed of a subtle wit.

(Evening Citizen, 2 May 1941, 2)

Born in Manchester, England on 19 September 1891, Herbert Cook was a construction contractor in Port Arthur, Ontario. During the First World War veteran, he served in France with the 52nd Battalion, which was perpetuated by the Lake Superior Regiment after the war. He assumed in 1938 and mobilized with the battalion in May 1940. An inspection report described him as “A quiet spoken but apparently capable man to whom this battalion, I think, may be safely entrusted.”

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Lt-Col. J.W. Toogood

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Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Toogood
28th Armoured Regiment (B.C. Regiment)

A friendly little Vancouver newspaperman with a grin as broad as the Pacific and a shock of hair as unruly as the snow on Mount Seymour is today leading British Columbia’s oldest regiment back home—the DCOR’s

(Vancouver Sun, 28 Jan 1946, 10)

Born in London, England on 24 January 1914, John William Toogood was an employee of the Vancouver Sun when he enlisted as a second lieutenant with the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own) in August 1939. He rose to squadron commander during the Normandy campaign and received the Silver Star from the U.S. government for his actions at Falaise in August 1944. He temporary took over during the battle after the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Don Worthington. Toogood served throughout the fighting reportedly without suffering a scratch and assumed command as lieutenant-colonel after VE-Day. 

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Lt-Col. A.G. Chubb

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Lieutenant-Colonel Gerry Chubb
28th Armoured Regiment (B.C. Regiment)

Unshaven and covered with Booth’s blood I arose … to find the Corps Commander in his enormous armoured car staring—or is the word glaring—at me … I explained the situation and his reply was “Armoured regiment are never out of communication,” with which profound remark he drove away.

(Chubb to Reg Roy quoted in 1944: the Canadians in Normandy, 276)

Born on 16 July 1913 in Rossland, British Columbia, Arthur Gerald Chubb was a graduate of RMC and Permanent Force officer in the Lord Strathcona’s Horse since 1936. He attended the war staff college at Camberley, England before assignment back to Canada in 1943 on staff with RMC. He returned overseas to be brigade major of the 4th Armoured Brigade. During the Normandy campaign, on 14 August 1944, Chubb recovered the body of Brigadier Leslie Booth from the wreckage of his destroyed tank. A week earlier Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Worthington of the 28th Armoured Regiment had been killed and at the end of the month Chubb became acting second-in-command.

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Lt-Col. C.E. Parish

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Lieutenant-Colonel C.E. Parish
28th Armoured Regiment (B.C. Regiment)

The Regiment received a staggering blow on 9 August 1944. We lost our Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, all the Squadron Commanders and the Rear Link Capts of each Squadron, plus six Subalterns, and 101 Other Ranks wounded or missing. With this, also came the loss of 46 tanks, which left us hardly a nucleus with which to build another Regiment … Casualties have not been light, but that must be expected in a war of this kind.

(War diary, August 1944)

Born on 29 August 1906 in Wentworth, Ontario, Charles Ernest Parish was a graduate of McGill University, and a Montreal engineer. He was commissioned into the Wentworth Regiment in 1932 before transferring to the Canadian Grenadier Guards three years later. In September 1943, he transferred from the 22nd Armoured Regiment to the 28th (B.C. Regiment) as second-in-command under Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Worthington. He assumed command on 9 August 1944 following Worthington’s death in Operation Totalize.

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