Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Counsell
48th Highlanders of Canada

Let us not forget the men we left behind in Sicily, in Italy and Holland … Had it not been for them, you would not be giving us this great reception. Their courage and sacrifice has let us come home, just as they have preserved our wonderful civilization for us.

(Counsell quoted in Kim Beatte, Dileas: History of the 48th Highlanders of Canada, 1929-1956, 782)

Born in Niagara, Ontario on 7 July 1904, James Ronald O’Dell Counsell went overseas as a reinforcement officer in 1940 and became adjutant for the 48th Highlanders in England. He would be one of the few officers to serve with the battalion throughout the campaign, from the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 to the final hard fighting in Northwest Europe in spring 1945.

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