Kingston

Lt. Col. Dawson

/ Matthew K Barrett / 2 Comments

Lieutenant Colonel H. J. Dawson, D.S.O.
59th (Eastern Ontario) & 46th (South Saskatchewan) BattalionsDawson

During the recent fighting Lieut.-Colonel Dawson gave out and was sent down to the Hospital. I think he has gone on down the line and, as the strenuous fighting is likely to continue for some time, I would like very much to have another man in command of the Battalion and give Dawson a good chance to rest. He has been recommended as an Officer fit to command a Brigade in the Field, and is one of the best Commanding Officers I have. He has been hard at it now since the Fourth Division came to France.

(Gen. Arthur Currie, 17 Aug 1918)

Born in Birkenhead, England on 21 November 1876, Herbert John Dawson was an associate professor at the Royal Military College and militia officer with the 14th (The Princess of Wales’ Own Rifles) Regiment since 1901. He was appointed lieutenant colonel in May 1915 when he began to organize the 59th Battalion from Eastern Ontario and Hull, Quebec.

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The Professor

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

It seems fitting to begin this project with Professor P. G. C. Campbell of the 253rd Battalion, a man who understood the value of historical inquiry.

Lieutenant Colonel P. G. C. Campbell
253rd (Queen’s University) Highland Battalion
PGC campbell

We moderns, however go with magnifying glass and dissecting knife to the past, attempting to discover how our forebears lived and thought, and ever present in our researches is the question, how do these things throw light on ourselves; to what extent can we trace a continuity of process between the past and the present?

(P.G.C. Campbell, “Early Roman Religion,” Queen’s Quarterly, 1909, 58)

Percy Gerald Cadogan Campbell was a professor of Romance languages and French at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario from 1902 until his retirement in 1949. The son of a Scottish Anglican chaplain, Campbell was born on 8 January 1878 in Calais, France. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he moved to Canada to take a teaching position at Queen’s. In Kingston, Campbell joined the 14th Militia Rifles (The Princess of Wales’ Own), rising to the rank of major.

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