1st Canadian Division

Maj-Gen. H.W. Foster

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Major-General Harry Foster
4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards
Highland Light Infantry of Canada
13th & 7th Infantry Brigades
4th & 1st Canadian Divisions
Foster

He was just as guilty of murder as I was at the time … or any other senior officer in the field during a battle. The difference between us was that I was on the winning side. That makes a big difference.

— Gen. Foster on Kurt Meyer

(Quoted in Tony Foster, Meeting of Generals, 1988)

Born on 2 April 1904 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Harry Wickwire Foster left Royal Military College the in 1924 to take a commission with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse. His father, Major-General Gilbert Lafayette Foster, had been director of medical services for the Canadian army during the First World War. With the outbreak of Second World War in September 1939, Foster was appointed brigade major of the 1st Canadian Brigade in England.

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Maj. Gen. Macdonell

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Major General Archie Macdonell
Lord Strathcona’s Horse
MacdonnellAC

“Batty Mac, our brigade commander, was crazy as a coot in many ways, I saw him actually get wounded one day … Somebody said ‘Be careful, sir, there’s a sniper’ and he said ‘Fuck the sniper,’ climbed up to get a look and the sniper took him through the shoulder and he went ass over applecarts into his shellhole from which he had emerged … My god, his language! You could hear him for miles around!”

(G.R. Stevens PPCLI, In Flanders Field interview, 1964)

Born on 6 October 1864 in Windsor, Canada West, Archibald Cameron Macdonell earned the nickname “Batty Mac” for his disregard of danger under fire. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1886 and joined the Canadian Militia before transferring to the North-West Mounted Police. He volunteered during the Boer War and was commanding officer of the Lord Strathcona’s Horse at the outbreak of the First World War.

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