Vincent J. Curtis
3 July 24
General Sir William Otter (December 3, 1843
– May 6, 1929) was the first Canadian born Chief of the General Staff, making
him Canada’s first “First Soldier.” His
career is a monument to the Administration principle of war, and of showing up
for work every day.
Otter was born in near Clinton, which lies
in Southwestern Ontario, then Canada West.
Many young men his age in Canada West signed up for the Union Army
during the depression of 1863, but Otter instead joined the colonial
Non-Permanent Active Militia, a force under British command, in Toronto in 1864
Enrolling as a private in the Victoria
Rifle Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles, Otter was appointed Staff-Sergeant on October
21, 1864, then Lieutenant in the 2nd Administrative Battalion at
Niagara 1864-65. On his return he was appointed Lieutenant in No. 1 Coy QOR May
19, 1865; Adjutant, August 19, 1865; Captain, March 8, 1866; and Major, June 4,
1869. Otter was CO of the QOR from 1875
to 1883.
Otter’s first action was at the Battle of
Ridgway, a Fenian Raid near Niagara Falls, which saw the inexperienced Canadian
troops routed in confusion. He received
a service bar on his Canadian General Service Medal for that and 1870, the year
of the first Riel Rebellion, but also a year of another Fenian raid.
In 1883, Canada created its own army,
styled the Permanent Active Militia, or Permanent Force, and Otter secured an
appointment as the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Infantry School in Toronto. Sent west under the command of General
Frederick Middleton to deal with the second Riel Rebellion, Otter commanded the
Battleford Column (April – July 1885); and, at the Battle of Cut Knife (May 2,
1885), Canada’s first professional was worsted by a couple of Indian amateurs,
Poundmaker and Fine-Day. Poundmaker, invoking a mercy rule, spared Otter’s whupped
and retreating column further casualties, their having suffered 8 KIA and 14WIA. After Batoche and the end of the rebellion,
Otter was unable to nab an elusive rascal named Big Bear, who (all’s well that
end’s well), eventually surrendered.
Withal, Otter was appointed Commander of No
2 Military District effective July 1, 1886; and in 1893, was appointed the
first Commanding Officer of an outfit called the “Royal Canadian Regiment of
Infantry” (or some such). Otter was
known to be something of an austere professional, or martinet, and that
proclivity for extreme attention to military detail and discipline seems to
have passed on, generation after generation, in 1RCR. This sort of attitude can arise in men who
have seen action, experienced failure, and they employ it against those who
haven’t. Otter was appointed Inspector
of Infantry on May 16, 1896.
When the Secord Boer War rolled around
(1899-1902), Canada sent a large contingent of troops to aid the British
effort. For this service, Canada created a Special Service force, and
Lieutenant Colonel Otter commanded the 2nd (Special Service)
Battalion of the RCRI, which was dispatched to South Africa, and saw action at
the Battle of Paardeberg. In South
Africa, he could have encountered Sam Hughes and Charles Ross. Otter was
gazetted Colonel on July 19, 1900.
Returning to Canada, Otter was appointed OC
Military District No 2, and in 1908 he was promoted BGen and appointed CGS (1908-1910),
becoming the first Canadian born head of the Canadian Militia, which, until
then, had ben commanded by a British officer. (The RCN didn’t come into
existence until 1910.). He retired, aged
67, in 1910 in the rank of MGen, and was knighted in 1913. During World War I, he came out of retirement
to command detention operations of enemy nationals in Canada. In 1922, he, along with Sir Arthur Currie, was
promoted to full General.
In 1914, Otter published The Guide: A Manual
for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) perhaps a Canadian first attempt at a
comprehensive training manual. He also headed the Otter Commission which
established the perpetuation of Canadian Expeditionary Force units in Canadian
militia units.
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