He was a Sergeant in Seventeen Platoon of "D" Company of the Royal Rifles of Canada. Some of the men in Seventeen Platoon were big, tough, two fisted guys. They worked hard, and they played hard. They took no sass from anyone, and yet, Lance, who was more slightly built, could twist each and every one of them around his little finger.
In battle he was fearless.He sized up every situation quickly and reacted with speed and accuracy. He was a crack shot. He connected at 800 yards, a distance at which the figure of a man is totally obscured by the front sight of a Lee Enfield. He probably accounted for as many Japanese casualities as the whole platoon put together I shared some space briefly with Lance in North Point Camp. He was still analysing the campaign and figuring out what went wrong with the defence.
Lance went to Japan on one of the slave transports, and worked in a coal mine. There his leadership, his positive attitude and his ability to cope with all the attendant vicissitudes helped him , and by his example, his comrades, to survive and return to heaven in Canada.
Lance is still going strong at age 91. At the time of this writing he is spending some time with his daughter, Mitzi, in Ottawa, renovating her basement.
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