Brigadier W.J. Megill
Algonquin Regiment
5th Infantry Brigade

It was perfectly clear that the attack should have been called off at a very early stage in the morning. I suggested this not later than perhaps 8:00 or 9:00 o’clock. Instead the Corps commander was pressing the divisional commander and he was pressing us to get on with an attack which we knew was almost hopeless. Under these circumstances one does not quit. You do as much as you possibly can and hope that someone will see the light and give you some relief.

(Quoted in Copp, The Brigade, 88)

Born in Ottawa on 26 June 1907, William Jemmett Megill was a graduate of Queen’s University and RMC who had risen from the ranks of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals which he joined in 1923. He was attending staff college in India when the Second World War began. Following general staff appointments with 3rd Division headquarters, he was promoted to brigadier with I Canadian Corps headquarters in June 1943. General Harry Crerar, described him as “the type of man who needs to experience in order to know. He is not what I would call imaginative … his lack of field experience definitely handicaps him.” To gain command experience, Megill request a revision in rank to lieutenant-colonel and was posted to the Algonquin Regiment in October 1943.

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