Robert Percy Clark

Lt. Col. Fisher

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Lieutenant Colonel Frank Fisher
23rd (Westmount Rifles) & 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment)
Fisher

[Fisher] was not a success when he previously commanded this Battalion and also, that having been to the front in command of a service Battalion and having been returned, that he will not command respect and that the Battalion will suffer.

 (Report of Gen. E.C. Ashton, 21 Apr 1916)

Frank William Fisher was born in Yorkshire, England on 7 July 1868 and emigrated to Canada as a teenager. With twenty-five years in the militia, he had been the commanding officer of the 3rd Victoria Rifles until retirement in 1912. In late 1914, Fisher organized the 23rd Battalion from Quebec City. After it was designated a reserve battalion on arrival in England, Fisher proceeded to France as second-in-command with the 14th Battalion.

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2nd Infantry Battalion

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2nd (Central Ontario) Battalion
1st Canadian Division

2nd BN 1 A

David Watson was the first 2nd Battalion CO, from September 1914 to August 1915, when he was promoted to command the 5th Infantry Brigade.

2nd Swift

Albert E. Swift commanded the 2nd Battalion until November 1916, about when he learned that his wife had been killed by runaway horses in Quebec. Swift was appointed to command the 14th Infantry Brigade.

2nd Yates

Wilton Yates briefly command the 2nd Battalion until December 1916. While on a training course, Yates suffered severe head injuries when he was in an accident with an overturned bus.

2nd Clark

Robert Percy Clark transferred to the 2nd from command of the 14th Battalion. He relinquished command in May 1917.

2nd McLaughlin

Lorne McLaughlin commanded the 2nd Battalion from May 1917 until 30 August 1918, when he suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. He resumed command from October until the end of the war.

2nd Vanderwater

Roscoe Vanderwater temporary took over the 2nd when McLaughlin was wounded for the month of September 1918.

Lt. Col. Yates

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Lieutenant Colonel Wilton Yates
2nd (Iron Second) Battalion
Yates

When he was badly wounded in World War I, he was the first to have successful plastic surgery on his face. It was very noticeable of course when he returned to Swift Current. At one time, as he himself relates, he was consigned to an insane asylum “but never reached it owing to my own machinations.” When wounded he was put in the morgue as dead; was saved by a nurse’s aide and given six months to live.

(Jim Greenblat, Those Were the Days in Swift Current, 1971, 32)

A native of England, Wilton Milwarde Yates was born on 17 October 1879. After being wounded in the Boer War, he immigrated to Canada and became a rancher at Swift Current. He enlisted in Lieutenant Colonel Harry Cowan’s 32nd Battalion in December 1914 and was attached to the 2nd Battalion once overseas.

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The Capitalist

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Brigadier General Robert P. Clark, D.S.O. M.C.
14th (Royal Montreal Regiment) & 2nd BattalionsRPClark

This Christmas, I believe, will be your last in France. That the next may find you Home again, safe and happy, and with your loved ones, is my most earnest wish. The war is drawing to a close. Your many trials and privations will soon be forgotten. The horrors of this war will soon become to you a memory, dimmed by happier things to come. But the glory of this war, though some day a memory too, can never fade.

(Gen. Clark to The Listening Post, 2 Nov 1918)

Robert Percy Clark was a Vancouver businessman, investor, real estate agent and capitalist. He was born in London, England on 17 April 1874. He worked on the London Stock Exchange and volunteered to fight in the Boer War. He later immigrated to British Columbia, where he pursued various gold mining enterprises. He served in the 5th and 50th Regiments under Arthur Currie. As part of the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Clark became staff-officer to Currie with the 2nd Brigade.

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