Canadian army officer and military historican
Edward Jeffery Williams (January 16, 1920 – April 5, 2011) was a
Canadian army officer and military historian.
[1] He was most noted for his book Byng of Vimy ,
[2] a biography of
Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy which won the
Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the
1983 Governor General's Awards .
[3]
Background
Williams was born in
Calgary ,
Alberta , and was raised by a single mother after his father died a month before his birth.
[4] He attended Calgary's Sunalta High School, and signed up for
The Calgary Highlanders when he reached enlistment age.
[4]
Military career
With the outbreak of
World War II , he was commissioned and sent to
London , although due to his skill as an administrator he saw little action on the front as he was usually assigned to logistical and organizational work.
[4]
Following the end of the war, he briefly returned to Calgary to civilian work,
[4] but soon went back into active service.
[4] He was
second-in-command of
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry during the
Korean War , receiving the
Bronze Star Medal with
"V" device .
[4] After the Korean War he served as secretary and flag officer to the Canadian Joint Staff in
Washington, D.C. , playing a role in the negotiation of the Canada-U.S. agreement on the exchange of nuclear information,
[4] served as chief of staff to the
4th Canadian Brigade in
Germany ,
[1] and worked for the
High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom .
[1] He retired from the military in the early 1970s.
[4]
Writing
In addition to Byng of Vimy his other books included Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, 1914-1984: Seventy Years' Service , a history of the Princess Patricia's regiment first published in 1972
[4] and then updated and expanded in 1986;
[5] The Long Left Flank: The Hard Fought Way to the Reich, 1944-1945 (1988);
[6] First in the Field, Gault of the Patricias (1995), a biography of Princess Patricia's founder
Hamilton Gault ;
[7] and Far from Home: A Memoir of a 20th Century Soldier (2004), his own memoir of his military career.
[8] He was also a regular writer of obituaries of Canadian soldiers for
The Telegraph , and played a role in the creation of the
Canada Memorial in London's
Green Park .
[1]
He was named a member of the
Order of Canada in 2001.
[9]
References
^
a
b
c
d
"Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffery Williams" .
The Telegraph , May 8, 2011.
^
J. L. Granatstein , "The hero as failed politician".
The Globe and Mail , December 10, 1983.
^ "CanLit fiction's leading award goes to the Dog".
The Globe and Mail , June 21, 1984.
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i "Calgarian dedicated life to military; Jeff Williams named to Order of Canada".
Calgary Herald , April 11, 2011.
^ "The Princess Patricia's earned and sustained reputation as elite battalion of Canadian Corps".
Montreal Gazette , December 27, 1986.
^ "Told at last, the story of Canadian army's long, hard slog".
Vancouver Sun , October 22, 1988.
^ "PPCLI founder immortalized in new book".
Calgary Herald , September 28, 1995.
^ "War stories".
The Globe and Mail , June 5, 2004.
^ "New appointees to Order of Canada".
Montreal Gazette , February 16, 2001.
1930s 1940s
J. F. C. Wright , Slava Bohu (1940)
Emily Carr ,
Klee Wyck (1941)
Bruce Hutchison , The Unknown Country (1942)
Edgar McInnis , The Unguarded Frontier (1942)
E. K. Brown , On Canadian Poetry (1943)
John Robins , The Incomplete Anglers (1943)
Dorothy Duncan , Partner in Three Worlds (1944)
Edgar McInnis , The War: Fourth Year (1944)
Ross Munro , Gauntlet to Overlord (1945)
Evelyn M. Richardson , We Keep a Light (1945)
Frederick Phillip Grove , In Search of Myself (1946)
Arthur R. M. Lower , Colony to Nation (1946)
William Sclater , Haida (1947)
Robert MacGregor Dawson , The Government of Canada (1947)
Thomas Head Raddall , Halifax, Warden of the North (1948)
C. P. Stacey , The Canadian Army, 1939-1945 (1948)
Hugh MacLennan , Cross-country (1949)
Robert MacGregor Dawson , Democratic Government in Canada (1949)
1950s
Marjorie Wilkins Campbell , The Saskatchewan (1950)
W. L. Morton , The Progressive Party in Canada (1950)
Frank MacKinnon, The Progressive Party in Canada (1951)
Josephine Phelan , The Ardent Exile (1951)
Donald G. Creighton , John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician (1952)
Bruce Hutchison , The Incredible Canadian (1952)
J. M. S. Careless , Canada, A Story of Challenge (1953)
N. J. Berrill , Sex and the Nature of Things (1953)
Hugh MacLennan , Thirty and Three (1954)
Arthur R. M. Lower , This Most Famous Stream (1954)
N. J. Berrill , Man's Emerging Mind (1955)
Donald G. Creighton , John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain (1955)
Pierre Berton , The Mysterious North (1956)
Joseph Lister Rutledge, Century of Conflict (1956)
Thomas H. Raddall , The Path of Destiny (1957)
Bruce Hutchison , Canada: Tomorrow's Giant (1957)
Pierre Berton , Klondike (1958)
Joyce Hemlow , The History of Fanny Burney (1958)
[No award] (1959)
1960s 1970s
[No award] (1970)
Pierre Berton ,
The Last Spike (1971)
[No award] (1972)
Michael Bell, Painters in a New Land (1973)
Charles Ritchie , The Siren Years (1974)
Marion MacRae and
Anthony Adamson , Hallowed Walls (1975)
Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History (1976)
F. R. Scott , Essays on the Constitution (1977)
Roger Caron ,
Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978)
Maria Tippett , Emily Carr (1979)
Robert Bothwell and
William Kilbourn , C.D. Howe (1979)
Larry Pratt and
John Richards , Prairie Capitalism (1979)
1980s
Jeffrey Simpson , Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration (1980)
George Calef , Caribou and the Barren-Land (1981)
Christopher Moore , Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town (1982)
Jeffery Williams , Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General (1983)
Sandra Gwyn , The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier (1984)
Ramsay Cook , The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada (1985)
Northrop Frye , Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986)
Michael Ignatieff , The Russian Album (1987)
Anne Collins , In the Sleep Room (1988)
Robert Calder , Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham (1989)
1990s
Stephen Clarkson and
Christina McCall , Trudeau and Our Times (1990)
Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past (1991)
Maggie Siggins , Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm (1992)
Karen Connelly , Touch the Dragon (1993)
John Livingston , Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)
Rosemary Sullivan , Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen (1995)
John Ralston Saul , The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
Rachel Manley , Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (1997)
David Adams Richards , Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi (1998)
Marq de Villiers , Water (1999)
2000s
Nega Mezlekia , Notes from the Hyena's Belly (2000)
Thomas Homer-Dixon ,
The Ingenuity Gap (2001)
Andrew Nikiforuk , Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil (2002)
Margaret MacMillan ,
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2003)
Roméo Dallaire ,
Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2004)
John Vaillant , The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (2005)
Ross King , The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006)
Karolyn Smardz Frost , I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (2007)
Christie Blatchford , Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army (2008)
M. G. Vassanji , A Place Within: Rediscovering India (2009)
2010s
Allan Casey ,
Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (2010)
Charles Foran , Mordecai: The Life and Times (2011)
Ross King ,
Leonardo and the Last Supper (2012)
Sandra Djwa , Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page (2013)
Michael John Harris , The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection (2014)
Mark L. Winston , Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive (2015)
Bill Waiser , A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 (2016)
Graeme Wood , The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (2017)
Darrel J. McLeod , Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age' (2018)
Don Gillmor , To the River: Losing My Brother (2019)
2020s