Major Griff Griffith
22nd Armoured Regiment (Canadian Grenadier Guards)

At this time the tank man’s black beret became our official head-dress and “Griff” was determined that the Grenadiers would wear it properly. Each morning he would issue the command – “Check berets!” … It was a small thing but it established the discipline and concern for correctness that became the hallmark of the Guards. He knew that the time would come when the battle was on, and we were in a tight corner, when discipline would save the Regiment from disaster.

(Robert E. Osborne, Pax in Bello, 52)

Born in Quebec City on 3 September 1896, Henry Crawford Griffith was an accountant and First World War veteran. He had enlisted with the 60th Battalion and went to France as a sergeant before suffering a gunshot wound at the battle of Mont Sorrell in June 1916. He was commissioned in 1918 and returned to the field with the 87th Battalion. He joined the militia after the war, serving as adjutant with the Canadian Grenadier Guards.

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