Description
Charles Cecil Ingersol Merritt
Colonel Merritt’s father was killed in Ypres during the First World War. 7 or 8 of his uncles from both sides of the family also served during the First World War - three of whom were killed in action. He received his early education in Vancouver and Victoria and then went on to Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. He articled with a Vancouver lawyer for three years before being called to the bar there in 1929. During this time, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada militia unit - the unit with whom he enlisted with when the Second World War was declared. Eventually, in late 1941, he was appointed Commanding Officer of the South Saskatchewan Regiment, and served with the Regiment until the war was over. During his service he earned the Victoria Cross for his gallant efforts on Aug. 19, 1942 in the Dieppe Raid. Mr. Merritt was taken prisoner during the Dieppe Raid. Following the war Mr. Merritt returned to his law practice in Vancouver and served in the Canadian Federal Parliament from 1945 - 1949. He continued to live in Vancouver until his death on July 12, 2000.
Transcript
Interviewer: In fact, Colonel Merritt, the bridge was some two hundred yards long, open, without railings on either side, and it was being swept at the time by German mortar, machine guns and artillery fire.
I think that’s so. It sounds pretty bad. I survived, so it couldn’t have been that bad.
Interviewer: On the other side of the bridge some of those fortified positions that were holding the bridge in part were the ones that you just eluded to, that you and the party that got across silenced.