Lt-Col. J.C.H. Anderson

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Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Anderson
Royal Regiment of Canada
AndersonJCH

In spite of his own wound and under most intense fire which struck down many men as the beach was reached, Capt. Anderson organized the landing of all unwound personnel and a three-inch mortar with its ammunition. This officer displayed high qualities of leadership coolness and determination under most difficult circumstances.

(M.C. citation, Oct 1942)

Born in Toronto on 10 October 1909, John Charles Holtby Anderson was a bond house executive and since 1931 was a commissioned officer with the Toronto Regiment, redesignated the Royal Regiment of Canada in 1936. He served as captain of a landing craft during the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942. Under heavy enemy fire as the troops came ashore, Anderson manned a Bren gun even as he sustained shrapnel wounds to the head.

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Lt-Col. A.M. Young

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Lieutenant-Colonel A.M. Young
Royal Regiment of Canada

I have been pleased with your conduct during the last two very trying weeks, and can only say—keep it up. I don’t think it will be long now, and if you can maintain the spirit and esprit-de-corps that we have now–there is no doubt as to what will happen when we meet the enemy.

(Young address, War Diary, 23 Jun 1944)

Born in Toronto on 9 May 1905, Austin Moore Young was a businessman and insurance agent.  In 1929, he qualified as a lieutenant in the Toronto Regiment, which became the Royal Regiment of Canada in 1936. Having completed a senior officer’s course, Young became second-in-command in September 1943. By the end of the year, he had succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel F.S. Wilder. For the next six months the regiment trained for the anticipated invasion of France and Young temporarily took over the 4th Infantry Brigade during absences of the brigadier.

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Lt-Col. F.S. Wilder

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Lieutenant-Colonel F. Stuart Wilder
Royal Regiment of Canada
Wilder

I consider this an extremely bad case, and there appears to be good ground for thinking a prosecution for perjury might be successful … I consider Mr. Wilder to be a clever, calculating and consummate liar. He has deliberately lied in as brazen a manner as I have ever come across.

—Sir Reginald Sharpe, Divorce Court Commissioner

(Evening Standard, 25 May 1955, 10)

Born on 23 May 1910 in Kingston, Ontario, Franklin Stuart Wilder was a Queen’s University graduate, science teacher, and chemist. In 1940, he was appointed to head gas warfare training on the general staff of National Defence Headquarters. Overseas Wilder commanded No. 6 Wing, Canadian Training School until appointed to succeed Lieutenant-Colonel F.L. Nicholls of the Royal Regiment of Canada in August 1943.

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Lt-Col. A.H. Fraser

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Lieutenant-Colonel Art Fraser
Royal Regiment of Canada
Fraser

The raid was costly in that many lives were lost, but the lessons learned at Dieppe were essential for the future undertakings of the Allied forces. The invasion of North Africa might have been a dismal failure along with future invasions without the knowledge gleaned at Dieppe.

(Ottawa Citizen, 26 Feb 1943, 15)

Born in Victoria, British Columbia in April 1907, Arthur Hayward Fraser enlisted with the Canadian Scottish in 1922, received a commission in 1928, and transferred to the Permanent Force with the PPCLI in 1931. During the early phase of the Second World War, he served on the general staff of the 2nd Canadian Division and became brigade major of the 4th Infantry Brigade prior to the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942.

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Lt-Col. D.E. Catto

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Lieutenant-Colonel Doug Catto
Royal Regiment of Canada
Catto

Colonel Catto did not overcome the shock of Dieppe. On his first action he lost his whole regiment in two hours. He saw that it was over, that there was nothing more to win. Still, he became the front fighter of his regiment. He was captured at the furthest forward position. I characterize this affair as the last knightly encounter with the enemy on the field of battle.

— Hauptmann Richard Schnosenberg

(Quoted in Whitaker, Dieppe: Tragedy to Triumph, 270)

Born in Toronto on 13 April 1899, Douglas Ellisson Catto was a First World War artillery gunner, University of Toronto graduate, and architect. As second-in-command of the Royal Regiment of Canada, he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel G. Hedley Basher in July 1942. The next month, Catto led the regiment ashore in the failed Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942. In initial reports after the battle the colonel was listed as missing and presumed killed in action.

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Lt-Col. G.H. Basher

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Lieutenant-Colonel G. Hedley Basher
Royal Regiment of Canada

[Courage] it’s something you’ve got or you have not got, but often good leadership will overcome the slightest sign of weakness among men. On the other hand, of course, cowardice on the part of one man is liable to spread its evil through the whole group. You won’t hear anything about cowardice from our lads. They can take it. I’ve looked them over and I know.

(Basher, Toronto Star, 25 Oct 1939, 11)

Born in Cornwall, England on 28 December 1891, George Hedley Basher was a Toronto police officer and governor of the notorious Don Jail from 1919 to 1931. Having immigrated to Canada in 1913, he joined the 3rd Battalion (Queen’s Own Rifles) the next year and received a commission in the British Army by early 1915. He served with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in Egypt and Salonika, and with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry at the Somme. The 24-year-old major was then appointed governor of a military prison in England and by the end of the war headed all British military prisons in the field.

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Lt-Col. S.V. Radley-Walters

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Lieutenant-Colonel S.V. Radley-Walters
27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment
Radley-Walters

You’ve got to be seen; you can’t hang back. You’ve got to be with the men … we had some that hung back and you could tell by the resistance that came, not necessarily resistance, but no enthusiasm at all from the men. And they wanted to see their leader with them doing the things that they [were] doing and so on, and they [wanted] him up in front.

(Quoted in Radley-Walters interview, 6 Dec 2006)

Born on 11 January 1920 in Gaspé, Quebec, Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters was one of the most decorated Canadian tank commanders and the Allies’ leading tank ace of aces in Northwest Europe. He was commissioned with the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment after gradating from Bishop ‘s College in 1940. By the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, Radley-Walters, nicknamed “Rad,” commanded a squadron of Shermans. At the end of the campaign, he had knocked out eighteen German tanks as well as many more enemy vehicles, earning him the Military Cross and D.S.O.

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Lt-Col. F.T. Jenner

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Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Jenner
27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment
Jenner

A man is here to-day and to-morrow he is vanished: when he is taken away from our sight he is quickly out of our mind. Yet the men whose names appear on the Roll of Honour of the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment will never go from our memories. Those who died, whose lives passed like a shadow, are the men who are the real heroes of this Regiment.

(Jenner’s message in Roll of Honour, war diary, Jun 1945)

Born on 20 July 1909 in Elkhorn, Manitoba, Frederick Thomas Jenner was an accountant and auto dealer in Olds, Alberta. He mobilized with the Calgary Regiment as battalion adjutant and participated in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942. He returned to Canada for general staff instruction and was assigned to the directorate of training. He went back overseas in November 1943 to be assigned to the Canadian Armoured Corps with First Canadian Army headquarters.

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Lt-Col. M.B.K. Gordon

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Lieutenant-Colonel M.B.K. Gordon
27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment
Gordon

I had meant to speak to all of you before leaving but time would not permit. We have known joy end sorrow together which I feel and hope has welded us together so tightly that no matter what the lapse of time, nothing can destroy that feeling of wonderful teem spirit we have developed. Each and every one of you has been magnificent in his job, Your loyalty end will to get on has been more then anyone could ask

(Gordon farewell address, war diary, 7 Feb 1945)

Born on 7 September 1905 in Dixie, Ontario, Melville Burgoyne Kennedy Gordon was a Quebec lawyer and graduate of the University of Toronto, where he had belonged to the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps. Commissioned with the Governor General’s Body Guard in 1924, he transferred to the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards in 1928, rising to the rank of major. He mobilized for active service in May 1941 with the 12th Armoured (Three Rivers) Regiment. In February 1943, he was promoted to command the 27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment.

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Maj. B.D. Lyon

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Major Bert Lyon
27th Armoured (Sherbrooke Fusilier) Regiment
Lyon

A farewell party was given in the Officer’s Mess last night for Major B.D. Lyon who will be leaving soon to return to Canada. He was presented with a silver cigarette box by Major D.W. Beaudry, who in a few well chosen words expressed our regrets and assured him that our best wishes would go with him.

(War diary, 13 March 1943)

Born on 2 June 1905 in Island Brook, Quebec, Bertram Dawson Lyon attended McGill University and owned a Sherbrooke tobacco shop. In 1934, he was subject of an odd prosecution by the Crown, which argued that a whiffle-board made his shop a “common gambling house.” The judge immediately dismissed the case ruling that “the machine was in itself no more a gambling device than a billiard table or bowling alley.”

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