Lieutenant-Colonel Tommy Thompson
Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders

A quick learner, quick at grasping new ideas. Very industrious and preserving; a hard quiet worker. Polite, conscientious in fulfilling obligations, helpful and considerate of other general liked. Has a well balanced and equable temperament. Has a very good knowledge of all arms and gets well in the tactical picture and makes sound appreciations and decisions.

(Final Report on Capt. Thompson, 19 Dec 1942)

Born in Winnipeg on 8 January 1921, Ernest Payson (Tommy) Thompson was a medical student at the University of Manitoba when he enlisted with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, having been a cadet of the unit as a teenager. Although regarded as too young to go overseas, the young lieutenant nevertheless joined the battalion before it embarked and arrived in England before to his twentieth birthday.

Continue reading →