Wor. Bro. William D. Otter was installed as Master of Ionic Lodge #25 Toronto in December 1873.

The son of Alfred William Otter and Anna de la Hooke, Otter was born on December 3rd, 1843 near Clinton Ontario. His father was a farmer in the area but subsequently moved to Toronto. He was educated at Upper Canada College. In 1865 he married Marian Porter and they had one daughter.

Otter is often regarded as Canada's first true professional soldier. While working as a clerk in 1861 he joined the volunteer militia with the Queen's Own Rifles and fell in love with the military way of life. Initially serving as a rifleman, he quickly progressed to the rank of Staff Sergeant. In 1864 he was commissioned and Lt. Otter served on active duty for four months along with two companies of Queen's Own Rifles in suppressing activities of Confederate soldier using Canada as a base to attack the northern US. He saw active duty during the Fenian Raids in 1866 at the Battle of Ridgeway. In 1875, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and assumed command of The Queens Own Rifles.

He wrote Otter's Guide in 1880, which became an indispensable soldier's reference guide. On December 21 1883 was able to secure appointment in the tiny permanent army by becoming Commandant of the newly formed Infantry School at Toronto (1883-89).

During the Reil Rebellion in 1885 he was despatched to the Northwest Territories to assist General Frederick Middleton. Upon news of the murder of white settlers at Frog Lake, Otter was placed in charge of a column that was to "relieve" the town of Battleford and the surrounding area from the threat of Indian attack.

In 1897 he led the Canadian contingent for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. In 1899, he led the first contingent of Canadian soldiers to South Africa (Boer War) as commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. The battalion arrived in South Africa on 29 November 1899. It consisted of eight 125-man regionally based companies. The units were basically "untrained" on their arrival and Otter formed them into a fighting unit and less than three months.

Otter had a no nonsense, no frills approach to soldiering, his convictions having been set by his memory of young militiamen fleeing in panic at Ridgeway. He was grimly determined that Canadian troops would not again fall into confusion on the battlefield. Otter was responsible for drilling and disciplining the Canadian troops in South Africa, ensuring that they were equals to the British regulars. Many British officers considered the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry to be the best infantry battalion in South Africa.

He became the first Canadian-born officer to command this country's military (1908-10). During the First World War he commanded operations for the internment of enemy nationals resident in Canada. He was knighted in 1913 and retired in 1920 as General Sir William Otter KCMG, CVO.

He passed to the Grand Lodge above on May 8, 1929.

In the 1970s, The Royal Military College of Canada created Otter Squadron for UTPM (now UTPNCM) officer cadets (those officer cadets who had previously served as Non-Commissioned soldiers, sailors and air'people' of the Canadian Forces).

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