Lieutenant-Colonel J.R. Calkin
North Shore Regiment

During the attack north of Cambrai on the night of 8th October, 1918, he was in charge of a platoon detailed to secure bridgehead at Morenchies … He led his company across He led his company across under very heavy machine-gun fire, and, working to the right, captured the enemy posts which were holding Morenchies bridgehead. He did excellent work.

(M.C. citation, 17 Dec 1918)

Born on 6 January 1895 in Sackville, New Brunswick, James Ryan Calkin was town manager of Woodstock and long-time militia officer. He had enlisted with the 140th Battalion as a private and earned a field commission with the 26th Battalion in February 1917. He was three-times wounded in action and earned the Military Cross for leading an assault near Cambrai in October 1918. Following the First World War, he joined the Carleton and York Regiment and transferred to the North Shore Regiment to be second-in-command in 1940.

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