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 [ edit ] 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 [ edit ] 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 [ edit ] 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 [ edit ] ^ 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