Lieutenant-Colonel David Rosser
Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry

News that LCol David Rosser was now commanding officer came as a surprise. Assuredly he was qualified from a staff point of view to take command, but he had had little battle experience … He had never commanded a Patricia company in action, which to me and all other experienced officers was the litmus test for a prospective Commanding Officer.

(C. Sydney Frost, Once a Patricia, 272)

Born on 6 Dec 1905 Swansea, Wales, David Hillard Rosser was a Royal Welch Guards officer who immigrated to Quebec in the 1930s. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered with the PPCLI just before sailing for England in December 1939. Two years later he returned to Canada for a junior war staff college course at RMC. Following staff postings overseas, and promotions to captain then major, Rosser rejoined the PPCLI in Italy in March 1944, becoming second-in-command two months later.

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