Lieutenant-Colonel W.E. Gillespie
Royal Canadian Dragoons

I knew the hero of my youth, Walter Gillespie, whom I had worshipped as a very young boy at Jackson’s Point, was now the second in command of the [RCD] …Thus I became an armoured car officer, because Walter Gillespie was the only senior officer I knew.

(J.A. Roberts, The Canadian Summer, 34-35)

Born in Toronto 10 Feb 1901 Toronto, Walter Edmund Gillespie was a Permanent Force officer and graduate of the Royal Military College. He became second-in-command of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, when it mobilized as 1st Canadian Armoured Car Regiment (RCD) in September 1940. He helped to secure the transfer to the unit of Lieutenant James Alan Roberts, who would go on to command 8th Infantry Brigade in Northwest Europe. Roberts predicted Gillespie would lead the RCD overseas.

Continue reading →