Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Cantlie
Royal Highlanders of Canada (The Black Watch)

Stephen Cantlie was le Dauphin. His father, Colonel GS Cantlie, was a living legend whose accomplishments, military and civilian, could only have been a double yoke – great responsibility coupled with greater expectations. Militarily, Cantlie could not have been better prepared.

(Roman Jarymowycz, The History of the Black Watch, Vol. 2, 39)

Born in Montreal in September 1903, Stephen Douglas Cantlie was the son First World War 42nd (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion commander Lieutenant-Colonel George Stephen Cantlie. A graduate of RMC, the younger Cantlie pursued a career as a stockbroker though joined his father’s regiment, nicknamed the Black Watch after the famed British Army Scottish regiment. He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel K.G. Blackader on his promotion to brigadier in January 1942.

Continue reading →