Lieutenant-Colonel H.C. Arrell
Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

Major Arrell held court on the top floor of the convent. He explained to the attentive soldiers that their role was to stop the enemy if he attacked from the north. At all costs, they were to stop the Germans from overwhelming allied positions and gaining ground around Tilburg, Antwerp and Brussels. “In brief,” said a calm but somber Arrell, “we are a stand and die battalion, totally committed to stopping the enemy.”

(Kelly, “There’s a goddamn bullet for everyone …”, 285)

Born on 18 March 1914 in Caledonia, Ontario, Hugh Cameron Arrell graduated from the Ontario Agricultural Collage in Guelph and belonged to the Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles. In April 1940, he transferred as a lieutenant to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry which went overseas that summer. He was promoted captain less than two years later and deployed to France with the regiment as a major in July 1944.

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