Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Meldram
Royal Winnipeg Rifles

His friends will remember that Jack left a very lucrative job in New York—an executive position that carried real money—to return to Canada and offer his services … As second-in-command of the Winnipeg Rifles his talents have full scope and it is not hard to predict a brilliant future.

(Times Colonist, 19 Oct 1942, 15)

Born on 24 July 1900 in Victoria, British Columbia, John McIntosh Meldram worked as advertising manager for the National Cabon Company in New York City. First commissioned in the Vancouver Regiment in 1927, he returned to Canada in 1940 to join the Queen’s York Rangers (1st American Regiment) in Toronto. By 1942, he had been appointed second-in-command of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles under Lieutenant-Colonel W.J. Moogk, who he succeeded in command in November.

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