Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Ross
Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders

Its all very well when you’re sitting down at your leisure reading it page by page and getting somebody else’s opinion two weeks later and comparing this and comparing that. But in the confusion of battle and everything that’s going on and trying to put it together … Bang, bang, bang … Much more difficult.

(Ross interview, 20 Jul 1979)

Born on 5 June 1915 in West Kildonan, Manitoba, Norman Hugh Ross attended the University of Manitoba and worked for an insurance company in Winnipeg. Having belonged to the Cadet Officer Training Corps at university, he took a commission with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders before the war. He led the advance party of the regiment to England in June 1940 and became company commander overseas after the removal of many overage senior officers. “By this time the glamour of their ribbons and their World War I experience had worn off,” Ross said. “And they had out served their usefulness really.”

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