Royal Montreal Regiment

Brig. G.V. Whitehead

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Brigadier Victor Whitehead
Royal Montreal Regiment
5th Infantry Brigade

… one of the guests was Brigadier Victor Whitehead, my former commander at 5th Brigade. He was a bitter man. Having trained the brigade for two years, he had been replaced, as being too old, by a former signals corps officer, Brigadier Bill Megill, who at that time did not have a clue about infantry and who later proved to be one of the Army’s most controversial brigade commanders.

(Jeffrey Williams, Far From Home, 219)

Born on 8 October 1895 in Montreal, George Victor Whitehead was a First World War veteran, insurance executive, and long serving militia officer. He attended Bishop’s College before being commissioned a lieutenant in the 148th Battalion in December 1915. He embarked for England in October 1916 and joined the 14th Battalion in France in April 1917. He was invalided from a shell wound at Passchendaele, rejoined the 14th in May 1918, and ended the war at the rank of captain.

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Lt-Col. T.C. Lewis

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Lieutenant-Colonel T.C. Lewis
32nd Reconnaissance Regiment (RMR)
7th Reconnaissance Regiment (17th Hussars)

Colonel Lewis was absolutely outstanding as a commander, and, had he lived, would have undoubtedly have proved one of Canada’s foremost military leaders … His name will always have a high place in the annals of both Regiments which he commanded, as well as in the hearts of all who served with him.

(Gen. C.B. Price, Montreal Star, 7 Nov 1944, 3)

Born in Montreal on 9 February 1911, Thomas Cripps Lewis was a Sun Life insurance statistician and junior officer in the Royal Montreal Regiment (RMR). He had joined in 1925, rose to regimental sergeant major and was commissioned a lieutenant before it embarked for the United Kingdom with the 1st Division in December 1939. When he returned to Canada for instructional purposes at RMC, he had risen to the rank of major. He returned overseas in May 1943 and took command of the RMR, now redesignated from a machine gun battalion to the 32nd Reconnaissance Regiment.

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Brig. J.A. Calder

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Brigadier J. Allan Calder
Royal Montreal Regiment
Saskatoon Light Infantry
1st Infantry Brigade

If I had known then what I know now, I would have refused the order. Of course, refusing an order is a “no-win” proposition, because it can never be proved what would have happened if the order had been carried out.

(Calder interview, quoted in Dancocks, D-Day Dodgers, 390)

Born in Montreal in 1908, James Allan Calder joined the Canadian Officer Training while a student at McGill University and was commissioned with the Royal Montreal Regiment in 1930. He went overseas as a battalion adjutant in December 1939 and took command in April 1941, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel G. Victor Whitehead. In January 1943, Calder was promoted to colonel with the Canadian Reinforcement Depot in Italy. He reverted to lieutenant-colonel a year later when finally appointed to a battlefield command.

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