Lieutenant-Colonel Jimmy Dextraze
Fusiliers Mont-Royal

I love my province. I love my country. I don’t see Canada without the province of Quebec—or without Alberta or British Columbia. I went to combat to keep my freedom, to keep all we have as a country. As a Quebecois I also fought for Quebec when I went to combat … It sounds corny talking this way, you know, but maybe I’m a corny man. I’m a down-to-earth fellow.

(Quoted in Montreal Gazette, 14 Apr 1980, 10)

Born on 15 August 1919 in Montreal, Jacques Alfred Dextraze worked for a rubber company when he volunteered with the Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal in 1940. By 1942, he had been recommended for a commission and completed officer training at Brockville. He went overseas with a reinforcement draft after the losses the Fusiliers had suffered at Dieppe. By the time the battalion deployed to France in early July 1944, Dextraze had been promoted to major and “D” company commander. For “personal daring and determination,” leading his company in a hand-to-hand fight on 1 August, he earned the D.S.O.

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