1. Harry Crerar rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the artillery in the First World War, during which he was mentioned in despatches and made a member of the Distinguished Service Order.
80 Facts About Harry Crerar
1. 2.
Harry Crerar was promoted to lieutenant-general and assumed command of I Canadian Corps, fighting briefly in the Italian campaign in late 1943 and in early 1944.
3.
Harry Crerar was promoted to full general on 16 November 1944, becoming the first Canadian officer to hold that rank in the field.
4.
Harry Crerar was unquestionably the most important Canadian soldier of the war.
5.
Henry Duncan Graham "Harry" Crerar was born in Hamilton, Ontario, on 28 April 1888, the eldest child of Peter Crerar, a Scottish born lawyer and businessman, and Marion Stinson Crerar.
6.
Harry Crerar had three younger siblings, Alistair, Violet and Malcolm, and an older half-sister, Lillian, from his mother's first marriage.
7.
Harry Crerar spent a year in Switzerland in 1904, then went to Highfield College in Hamilton to prepare for the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.
8.
Harry Crerar was one of 35 cadets who entered the Royal Military College of Canada in August 1906.
9.
Harry Crerar graduated in 1909, ranked thirteenth in his class.
10.
Harry Crerar hoped to secure a place with a cavalry regiment of the British Army or British Indian Army, but only seven places were available in the British or Indian armies, of which just two were in the cavalry, and he did not rank high enough.
11.
Harry Crerar took a job as a superintendent with the Canadian Tungsten Lamp Company.
12.
Harry Crerar courted Marion Verschoyle Cronyn, who was always known as Verse.
13.
Harry Crerar was the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Cronyn, and the daughter of Benjamin Barton Cronyn, a prominent Toronto businessman.
14.
Harry Crerar spent another month on leave in Canada before the two embarked for the UK, where she worked as a volunteer nurse at a hospital in Kingston upon Thames.
15.
Harry Crerar returned to Canada for the birth of their first child, a daughter named Margaret, in November 1916.
16.
Harry Crerar attended a gunnery course at Witley Camp in England in February 1917, but returned to lead the 11th Battery in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in March.
17.
Harry Crerar was mentioned in dispatches and made a member of the Distinguished Service Order in the 1917 Birthday Honours.
18.
In May 1917, Harry Crerar attended a junior staff officer course.
19.
White was immediately sent on a staff course, and Harry Crerar acted as SORA until he returned.
20.
Harry Crerar was thus SORA during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918.
21.
In October, McNaughton became the General Officer Commanding Canadian Corps Heavy Artillery, and Harry Crerar succeeded him as the CBSO, a position he held during the Battle of Valenciennes in November 1918.
22.
Harry Crerar was silent on the full effects of these deaths, preferring to relate only the light 'choice bits' of his experience to those who asked.
23.
Harry Crerar's daughter recalled that the Great War was rarely discussed, even among immediate family.
24.
Harry Crerar's mother died in May 1919, leaving annuities for her surviving children.
25.
Financially secure, Harry Crerar decided to join the Permanent Active Militia, Canada's full-time professional force.
26.
Harry Crerar wrote to the Deputy Inspector General of Artillery, Major-General Sir Edward Morrison, to apply for a position on the DIGA staff.
27.
Harry Crerar was accepted, and in March 1920 he was commissioned as a major in the Royal Canadian Artillery.
28.
Harry Crerar set his sights on attending the British Staff College, Camberley, where two positions were set aside for Canadian officers each year.
29.
Harry Crerar completed a four-month preparatory course at the Royal Military College, passed the Camberley entrance examinations in 1922, and secured admission in January 1923.
30.
Normally staff college would be followed by a staff appointment in Canada, but the death of the Canadian representative at the War Office led to Harry Crerar being given a two-year posting as a General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, in the office of the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, who was Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Wavell at the time.
31.
Harry Crerar concurrently served as the Canadian representative at the War Office.
32.
On returning to Canada in April 1927, Harry Crerar was appointed to command B Battery, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery.
33.
Harry Crerar's subalterns included a recent Royal Military College graduate, Lieutenant Guy Simonds.
34.
In January 1928, Harry Crerar became Professor of Tactics at the Royal Military College.
35.
Harry Crerar had McNaughton and Matthews nominate him to attend the Imperial Defence College in London in 1934 so the family could be reunited.
36.
Harry Crerar was the eleventh Canadian officer to attend since its founding in 1927.
37.
Harry Crerar expected a Canadian contribution to the war on land akin to that of the First World War, but the Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, hoped an industrial effort and participation in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan would suffice.
38.
Harry Crerar was appointed Brigadier, General Staff, of what was initially called "Overseas Headquarters", but was renamed Canadian Military Headquarters, in London.
39.
Harry Crerar established CMHQ on the second floor of the Sun Life Building, not far from Canada House on Trafalgar Square.
40.
Harry Crerar was promoted to acting major general, "while holding his present appointment", on 15 January 1940.
41.
Harry Crerar hoped to be given command of the 2nd Canadian Division when it was formed, but that went instead to Victor Odlum, a militia officer.
42.
Harry Crerar expected that he would soon be asked to take over as CGS.
43.
Harry Crerar had studied the defence of Hong Kong while at the Imperial Defence College in 1934, but he believed that a war with the British Empire and the United States would be disastrous for Japan, embroiling it in a war it could not win.
44.
Rather than take troops from the UK or the 4th Canadian Division, which was forming in Canada, Harry Crerar chose to send the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada, which had been on garrison duty in Jamaica and Newfoundland.
45.
That day, Ralston had the position of CGS upgraded to lieutenant-general, something Harry Crerar had long advocated.
46.
The First Canadian Army was formed on 6 April 1942 under McNaughton's command, and Harry Crerar therefore remained in command of the corps, which now became the I Canadian Corps, although the II Canadian Corps was not formed until 14 January 1943.
47.
Harry Crerar was replaced as BGS of I Canadian Corps by Brigadier C Churchill Mann.
48.
In January 1943, Harry Crerar was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath, the highest level of award permitted by Canadian government policy.
49.
Harry Crerar's handling of the I Canadian Corps during the exercise drew praise from McNaughton, General Sir Bernard Paget, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, and Brooke, who was now a knight, a general and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
50.
Harry Crerar showed tact and restraint in the relief of officers who did not meet his standards, and often suggested alternative postings where they could perform good service in a Canadian Army that was still desperately short of trained officers.
51.
Harry Crerar suggested that Canadian troops participate in raids on the French coast to gain combat experience.
52.
Harry Crerar pressed for his troops to be committed to the North African campaign under Montgomery's command.
53.
Harry Crerar suggested Crerar gain experience commanding the 1st Canadian Division, a development Crerar would have welcomed, but was not to be.
54.
Harry Crerar was concerned the strain of the fighting in Sicily and Italy was telling on Simonds, and he sought a psychiatric assessment.
55.
Harry Crerar cautioned Simonds he was approaching a level of command where balance was as important as brilliance, and that the firing of brigadiers was a matter of concern for the Canadian government.
56.
Simonds offered to resign if Harry Crerar had lost confidence in him, but he had not; on 6 January 1944 Harry Crerar recommended Simonds for command of II Canadian Corps in the UK.
57.
Harry Crerar assumed command of the First Canadian Army on 20 March 1944.
58.
Tac HQ was a part of Main HQ that could be temporarily split off when Harry Crerar was required to be closer to the action, but he preferred to command from Main HQ, and rarely established Tac HQ more than 5 miles from Main HQ.
59.
Harry Crerar would do his paperwork in the morning, then would then visit his corps commanders, accompanied by his other aide, Lieutenant Giles Perodeau.
60.
Harry Crerar did not use Mann as his representative like Montgomery used his chief of staff, Major-General Sir Francis de Guingand.
61.
Harry Crerar was disappointed, as he was considering Keller as a replacement for Burns in Italy.
62.
Harry Crerar resisted suggestions that training time for reinforcements be cut.
63.
When Montgomery threatened to have Harry Crerar replaced, Harry Crerar replied that as the national commander he would take the matter up with the Canadian government.
64.
Harry Crerar was featured on the 18 September 1944 cover of Time magazine.
65.
Harry Crerar conferred with Montgomery, who accepted his recommendation that Simonds became acting commander of the First Canadian Army.
66.
Harry Crerar had to deal with the problem of Burns's continued command of I Canadian Corps.
67.
Harry Crerar was always very well-informed because, in spite of the bad weather, he made constant flights over the battlefield in a small observation aircraft.
68.
Harry Crerar was invested with the award by King George VI.
69.
Harry Crerar received the Canadian Forces' Decoration, and was mentioned in despatches four more times.
70.
Harry Crerar received the keys to the city, then returned to Ottawa two days later, where he was met by a guard of honour at Union Station.
71.
Harry Crerar spent a day there before heading to Loon Island where his sister lived.
72.
Harry Crerar commenced retirement leave on 31 March 1946, and officially retired from the army on 27 October.
73.
Harry Crerar served on a series of minor diplomatic missions to Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and Japan.
74.
Harry Crerar was appointed Aide-de-Camp General to the King in 1948, the first Canadian to be accorded this honour, and was an Aide-de-Camp General to Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, attending her coronation in that role.
75.
Harry Crerar was awarded honorary degrees by seven universities, including the University of Oxford, McGill University, the University of Toronto and Queen's University at Kingston, became a Knight of the Order of St John on 30 December 1954, and was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on 25 June 1964.
76.
Harry Crerar went to hospital on 24 March 1965 and died in his sleep over a week later, on 1 April, at the age of 76, just weeks from his 77th birthday.
77.
Harry Crerar was buried with full military honours in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.
78.
Harry Crerar was too concerned with non-operational matters, too inexperienced, too weak a field commander, and too determined to protect Canadian interests to gain Montgomery's confidence.
79.
Harry Crerar did not inspire love, and he polarized opinion among superiors, peers, and subordinates: some regarded him as a kindly figurehead, others a hard-driving terror.
80.
Harry Crerar led, as he tried to live, by example, yet he was aware of his limitations, perhaps too much so, and, to his credit, worked to overcome them.