Introduction: CANLOAN Remembrance project

Hello everybody,

I'm not sure if it's allowed on this thread, but I'd like to introduce my project with which I might need your help: The CANLOAN Remembrance Project.

The CANLOAN scheme is not generally known in popular history of the Second World War. The officers who volunteered formed a relatively small group, but quite impactful. In 1943, the British Army was short of junior officers, whereas the Canadian Army had, at that time, a surplus. The Canadians and British sat together and developed the CANLOAN scheme. From the many volunteers, 673 junior officers (of which 50 ordnance officers), were selected after a strict selection procedure and trained at Camp Sussex, New Brunswick. The CANLOANs eventually ended up being assigned to many different British regiments and were part of all big British operations in North West Europe. Their casualty rate was high, with 310 of them being wounded, 128 officers losing their lives, and 27 of them ending up as prisoners of war.
However, the CANLOANs were also one of the most decorated groups of officers in the British army, with 41 Military Crosses (1 with bar), 1 Silver Star (US), 1 Distinguished Service
Cross, 4 Croix de Guerre (French), 1 M.B.E., 1 Order of Bronze Lion (Dutch), and an unrecorded number of “Mentions in Dispatches”, and C-in-Cs Commendations.
As a tribute to these CANLOAN volunteers, the CANLOAN Rembrance Project is now launched in 2024. The aim of the project is to gather info on the lives and service of the CANLOAN officers. We also want to connect with relatives and other people who are interested in the CANLOAN story.
But above all, we want to commemorate the 673 CANLOAN army officers.

I'm now in the process of contacting as many relatives of CANLOAN officers, gathering information and building an online memorial website. If you want to help or have any information about the CANLOAN officers or are a family member or relative of a CANLOAN, feel free to contact me!

Thank you all so much,
Cas
Look for the project facebook or send an email to canloanremembranceproject@gmail.com


"William Stewart Rodger (service no. CDN472) was a CANLOAN officer in the British Army in the Second World War. He, together with 672 other Canadians, volunteered for active duty in British regiments as a junior officer.
He joined 'B' company, 2nd battalion, the Devonshire Regiment, in June 1944 and was with them as a lieutenant from July 1944 to the end of 1945. He eventually ended up in Berlin as part of the British victory parade and was in Germany until the end of 1945.
Within his service, he battled through Normandy, participated in the liberation of Brussels and Antwerp, and was part of Operation Market Garden, protecting the flanks of the tank thrust into the Netherlands. On VE (Victory in Europe) day, his war ended around Hamburg as a liaison officer for 131 Lorried Infantry Brigade."

Photos Attached thanks to his son, Ed Rodger

 

I like the project already, in the Netherlands, there are 40 graves of CANLOAN officers.

Several organisations make biographies of these and other soldiers, one of is the foundation Faces to Graves.
Last month i finished one myself Richard Norman Wilson, you can find here

https://www.facestograves.nl/Memorial/WILSON Richard Norman-MEMORIAL-BDK-bio-EN.pdf

 

Thank you so much! At the moment I'm situated in Belgium and chance will have it that I've been to the Panel at Groesbeek where Lt. Wilson is remembered just last week. I was at the Market Garden commemorations at Nijmegen and Arnhem all weekend and visited as many graves as possible.
I did not yet find the faces to graves page of Lt. Wilson so thank you so much! Already there is some info I did not yet have.

Cheers,
Cas

 

Geen dank Cas. En dank voor de tip van het Logo.

Here are some more...

Francis Lewis Joseph ARNETT CDN/61

William MacDonald COWAN CDN/615

 

Officer returns for 5th battalion Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, September 1944. All would be wounded with Evert Merchant being killed November 1944 at 'Cameron Bridge'. Archie Fox was FOO in 'D' Company, good friend of my Father who was his sergeant, and ordered to keep an eye on him until he was bedded into the art of war.

 

Recently I found some Canadian embarkation list that include CANLOAN officers. I’m not sure if you already have these but thought I would share them.














These are not very clear……but if you want a better resolution copy, send me a PM and I can share them with you direct (via e-mail) or dropbox…….assuming you haven’t see these before

 

He cannot message you until he has made 5 posts on the forum.

Lesley

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that BOTH these groups were on the Empress of Scotland, just sailed on different dates.
E842 Sailed on 4-5-44 and E870 Sailed on 17-6-44……Both sailings from Halifax

 

Thank you, I didn’t notice that he was “new”….so if he is interested I’m sure he will contact me “eventually”

 

Empress of Scotland, E.870 Halifax to England

 

Excellent Temujin.

One name that lept off page 3 for me. So much has been written; a lot of it on this very forum. Foibles? Faults? No matter what any may think, there can be no dispute that he, like so so many "Canloans", did his bit.

Always remember, never forget,

Jim.

 

Lt's Arnott, Pearce and Pennington landed with 5th Camerons in Normandy. All 3 took part in the 1st and 2nd battles for St Honorine, June13th and June 23rd. Lt. J.W. Pennington, 'A' Company and Lt. F.L.J. Arnott, 'D' Company both being wounded during the 2nd assault. Later canloans were Le Mesuirier and Archie Fox.

 

You are welcome. Found the first lists by accident (looking for information for someone else of course) so when I spotted these I downloaded and put in a file.

I did a little counting and the records I posted give us 426 names from the CANLOAN lists. I’ve decided to see if I can find any others, so looking in the Directorate of Movement files now…..does take time as their is NO search engine so I have to go page by page looking, AND most of the files have over 5000 pages in them

Of course if I do find any further pages, I’ll post them here

Cheers

 

Lt. J.R. Le Mesurier was severely wounded 25th March 1945, Mittleburg area and attack at the Brickworks whilst Commander of the Scout Platoon. H was later awarded a Military Cross, I think in 1946. H e had been mentioned in war diaries earlier, November 1944 for taking out 2 German Bazooka teams.

 

Did you have a copy of his citation? If not here it is

 

I will post the patrol reports later. Thanks for the citation

 

Thank you so much for the valeuble info! This is already great. We'll keep a look-out for your updates on this post! you may always email us as well. If it helps, I've got the dates and names of ships from Wilfred I. Smiths CODEWORD CANLOAN book. See attached.

 

Well said indeed! Leo Heaps his story is one of the many we'd like to include in our project. Since Leo Heaps has written down quite a lot, his story has become well known. We'd like to get the story of all other CANLOANs as well, so the CANLOANs will have their place in the collective memory of ww2.

Cheers,
Cas

 

Thank you all so much!

Sorry for the belated responses, up untill now this has been a solo-project and the amount of info produces many rabbitholes to dive into! If anybody want's to get contact please do! The fastest way for contacting is email (canloanremembranceproject@gmail.com) but I'll try and check this forum multiple times a week.

Thanks,
Cas

 

Some more rabbit-holes!

All information (via links below) courtesy of "Paradata.org.uk"; there is some comprehensive history here.

Always remember, never forget,

Jim.

James William Taylor | ParaData

Extended biography of James Taylor | ParaData

William A Colbert | ParaData

Hubert C Cox | ParaData

John C Pape | ParaData