Of the 673 volunteers, 465 became casualties, 127 of them fatal, and over 100 decorations for bravery were made, including 41 awards of the Military Cross.  Of the four Calgary Highlanders to volunteer, two were killed in action, the other two were captured at Arnhem.

Earl Harcourt

Lieutenant Earl Harcourt was assigned to the 8th Reinforcement Holding Unit, and sent up to the 8th Battalion, Royal Scots, on 14 July 1944.  He was killed in action only two days later.  In the battle of Esquay, conducted by the 15th (Scottish) Division, no less than four CANLOAN officers were lost by the 8th Royal Scots alone.

John Robert Harrison lied about his age to join the Calgary Highlanders, and even though he was discovered, he eventually made it overseas and served in England with the battalion from 1940 to 1943.  He returned to Canada to get his commission and then was made an instructor.   He joined the CANLOAN scheme when it came about, and went back to England as part of the second flight of CANLOAN officers, being given number CDN/80.

By April 1945 he was a captain and commander of the carrier platoon of the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.  This was part of the famous 51st Highland Division, and Harrison saw action from Normandy onwards.  He was killed in action on the 17th of April, becoming the last CANLOAN officer to die in combat.   He was twenty two years old.

Harrison was a good friend of Bill Lyster; one of Lyster's grandsons was named Harrison in his honour.  John Robert Harrison lies in Grave IV. H. 9. of the Holten Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands.

Larry Kane was given CANLOAN Number CDN/482, and served with the 7th Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers at Arnhem, where he was captured.  Like James Taylor (see below) he had been an instructor in Canada.

John Robert Harrison and his mother.
Photo courtesy of Eswyn Lyster

James Taylor

Jim Taylor’s military career started when Sergeant Les Kemp of the Calgary Highlanders arrived in a wheat field west of Nanton early in September 1939.  After annual threshing was completed, Jim reported to the regiment on 23 September. Number 10 platoon of "B" Company became his home for the next four years. Major Glenn Lockwood commanded the company, Herby Dann the platoon - a group of farmers, miners, ball players and several men who had just arrived in town via the local freight train. For a time Jim functioned as company clerk and assisted the physical training staff with their duties.

Taylor travelled with the Regiment to the United Kingdom in August 1940 (his name is found on the nominal roll of those who sailed on the SS Pasteur); training and moves throughout the south of England continued for Jim for the next three years. Battle drill courses, small arms course, support weapons courses, physical training course and pre-officer training and eventually a return to Canada for commissioning. He sailed on the Queen Mary with Sir Winston Churchill, the King of Norway and other high ranking officials on board. In the hold, four hundred fifty Afrika Korps prisoners of war. On arrival in New York nine prisoners escaped via a port hole with the aid of rope from their hammocks. As they climbed the dock an alert American naval sentry took them prisoner. Jim’s first experience with the phrase "for you the war is over" (but unfortunately not his last).  A short time later nine naked men were standing at the gang plank.

New York, Montreal, Calgary, and Gordon Head, BC followed in quick order. In August 1943, Lieutenant Taylor was given a temporary commission and posted to Currie Barracks where he quickly became an instructor for a junior NCO course. In January 1944 Jim reported to Vernon Battle school where he was earmarked to become a battle drill instructor for the rest of the war.

Whilst in Vernon Jim heard of the CANLOAN program. Much to the annoyance of the senior staff at the school Jim volunteered, and travelled again to Calgary for processing and transfer to Sussex, New Brunswick for special officer training fitting he and others for British service. Jim and five others on his draft were quickly moved to the instructional staff of the school.

The Empress of Scotland sailed out of Halifax early in May 1944 with a very large draft of CANLOAN officers on board, and after arrival in Glasgow these men were moved to London in record time for posting to the various British regiments. Taylor was assigned to the 7th Galloway Battalion The Kings Own Scottish Borderers, an airlanding battalion with the first Airborne Division. Two flights in a Horsa glider qualified him as an airborne soldier, and tense months followed as fifteen planned operations in a row were cancelled because the drop zones were overrun by the Allies before the operations could be mounted.

Operation MARKET GARDEN was the sixteenth operation. Taylor landed with the first troops in Holland in his first operational role, the guarding of the drop zone for the two brigades of paratroopers scheduled to arrive a short time later. Two days later Taylor and his company, less two platoons (each rifle company had four platoons), arrived at their final battle area, the village of Oosterbeek. After seven days of close quarter fighting against a well-equipped, battle trained and determined enemy, Taylor was wounded and put out of action. Medical help consisted of field and shell dressings which he wore for the next six days, after which he was re-bandaged with German paper dressings and put in a box car on his way to a German prisoner of war camp.

Life in the camp was dreary and sometimes frightening although Taylor as usual had a role to play. He was instructed to train eight men in the use of machine guns to protect the camp against the local villagers who it was felt may try to overrun the camp. By 31 March 1945, the camp was evacuated when the British American advance in the west pushed ever closer.  After a forced march east for 150 kilometers and 14 days, the guards deserted and the news that the American President had died was received.    The prisoners were free, and three days later found themselves being flown to Brussels. On 18 April 1945 Taylor and thirty other ex-prisoners were loaded onto a Short Stirling bomber for the flight to England, coincidentally Taylor’s 25th birthday.   On take-off the aircraft got a tail wobble and left the runway crashing into a German pill box. The right undercarriage came through the fuselage injuring five passengers.

Still on his birthday, Taylor was reunited with his wife Dorothy and met for the first time his two month old daughter. In June, Taylor returned to Canada and a hospital in Calgary. In 1947, after a short taste of civilian life he re-enlisted as a corporal in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry at Currie Barrracks. In 1951 Taylor receives a permanent commission as a lieutenant in the Patricias, and went from the Third Battalion to the School of Infantry instructing junior officers, the first of many postings to the school for instructional duties.

Whilst still at the school Taylor was promoted captain and in September 1954 found himself on posting to Vietnam with the International Supervisory Commission. Whilst on staff for several weeks in Hanoi, he did duty as liaison officer flying the length and breadth of the country, as well as a trip to India as a diplomatic courier.  Fixed and mobile team duty in several towns and cities in Vietnam followed, and in May 1955 Taylor was the Canadian representative on the mobile team turning the Hanoi/Haiphong enclave from French control to the Viet Minh. Following the handover,   Taylor took a much needed rest in Hong Kong and in August 1955 returned to Camp Borden and the role of assistant chief instructor.

In 1956, because of his war time injuries, Taylor is not permitted to complete a parachute course and is forced to make a unit change.  He selected a unit serving in Western Canada, the 2nd Queens Own Rifles of Canada.  Arriving in Gordon Head on Vancouver Island, he was appointed adjutant. In November 1957 the battalion was posted to Germany for duty with NATO. Adjutant and company commander appointments, followed, with more courses in England and Canada and on return to Canada he was made General Staff Officer Grade III (operations) at Headquarters Western Command, Edmonton. Promotion to major and return to regimental duty soon followed with posting to Calgary. In 1963 another posting to the school, this time to command the officer training division, but because of an injury playing hockey for the officers mess team Taylor receives a category that will not permit him to continue in the role of instructor and was posted back to Alberta. Mewata Armoury became his base for the next four years where he served as SOLAM. (Staff Officer Logistics and Administration Militia). Finally after 29 years service Taylor retired to a role as a social worker in British Columbia.

In 1970 The British Columbia Dragoons approached Taylor and he was given command of an armoured squadron. In 1972 he assumed command of the regiment, with promotion to lieutenant colonel, finally retiring in 1974. He and Dorothy returned to Calgary in 1984 and later moved to Cochrane. During their long life together Taylor and Dorothy had four children one of which followed in his fathers footsteps and retired as a lieutenant colonel from the air force.