Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Turcot
Royal 22nd Regiment

People think soldiers are war-mongers. We’re not. We’re peace-makers.

(Turcot in Calgary Herald, 21 Oct 1972, 25)

Born in Quebec City on 9 December 1917, Gilles-Antoine Turcot was a hockey player and student at Laval University. He joined Les Voltigeurs de Québec in 1935 and mobilized with the 22nd Regiment four years later as a lieutenant. He served as a company commander during the invasion of Sicily, where wounded and evacuated. By late 1943, he was back in Canada training troops and promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

In September 1944, as the 22nd Regiment fought its way up the Italian peninsula, Turcot was recalled to be second-in-command although it required a reduction in rank. Lieutenant-Colonel J.V. Allard who had joined the regiment after Turcot had been put out of action, explained:

I did not know Turcot, but I soon realized that he was an excellent officer. He readily took over the administration of the regiment … This instantly took a lot of weight off my shoulders. In addition, Gilles was a pleasant and cultivated young man who quickly became a friend. I soon learned to rely on him completely.

When the 22nd Regiment was redeployed to Northwest Europe and Allard was promoted to brigadier, Turcot took command for the reminder of the war. “A lot of the SS were fanatics and they thought they could still win the war,” he recalled on the final weeks of hard fighting. “But on the whole, we were stronger than they were by then, and we were pushing them back.”

After the war, he attended staff college and held many important posts with the Canadian Army at home and abroad. He was commander of NATO Allied Command Europe Mobile Force in 1966 and became commander of the Canadian Mobile Command in 1969. He retired from the army as lieutenant-general in 1973. He was colonel of the Royal 22nd Regiment from 1974 to 1978.

He died in Magog, Quebec on 15 December 2010 just after turning 93.