Description
Mr. Anderson discusses his career in the military after the First World War, and becoming Second in Command of the 120th Battalion Training Centre during the Second World War.
George Anderson
George Anderson was born in Gateshead, England on May 16, 1887. He and his wife emigrated to Canada to join his wife’s family in Saskatchewan. Interested in the military, he joined the South Saskatchewan Regiment as a militiaman in 1911. On March 14, 1916, he enlisted for overseas service with the 210th Battalion at Moose Jaw, despite having poor vision in one eye. Mr. Anderson then joined the 46th Battalion as a sergeant. He fought in several major battles; Amiens, Arras, Canal du Nord, Hindenburg Line (Drocourt- Queant), and Valenciennes, but was able to remember little of his action. He returned home to an empty house, divorcing his wife soon after. He rejoined the militia as a Regimental Sergeant Major, and served Canada during the Second World War training combat troops. After the war, he resided in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Transcript
I came back here and I joined the militia and Colonel Germaine was in command. He asked me to his assistant adjutant. I was RSM in the military and he asked me to join the, to take up the assistant adjutant’s job. Well, I hesitated, I didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t fussy about a commission and then I changed my mind and I took it. And then I was adjutant and then I was company commander and I was a major. I was a captain adjutant and then company commander major, and then I, when the Second World War broke out, Colonel Quinn called me up. I was up in Prince Albert checking CPR accounts. He called me up in 1940 to join the training centre. So I joined the 120th Training Centre in Regina and I eventually became second-in-command there under Quinn. I was in the army from 1905, you can say, till 1945.