Lieutenant-Colonel J. Aird Nesbitt
West Nova Scotia Regiment

“Monty runs his army, as I see it, on three main points—(1) Confidence—in each other and in our ability to beat the Hun. (2) Ruthless efficiency—you can deliver the goods or you get fired quickly. (3) Cheerfulness—everyone does his job cheerfully.

(Quoted in Jarymowycz, History of the Black Watch, 34)

Born in Westmount, Quebec in March 1907, James Aird Nesbitt was a McGill graduate and owner of Ogilvy’s Department Store in Montreal. Commissioned with the Royal Highlanders of Canada (The Black Watch), he went overseas in 1941 and transferred to the Cape Breton Highlanders (CBH), which deployed to the Italian theatre with the 11th Infantry Brigade in November 1943. “I went from private to brigadier-general in the army,” he later reflected on his military service. “And if anybody had told me during the 1930s that I would cross the golf course at Cannes with a tommy, I would have told them they were crazy.”

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