James Ross LeMesurier was born in Montreal on Nov. 26, 1923, the son of a law professor who went on to become Dean of Law at McGill. In spite of the family’s French name, they were very much English Canadian. The LeMesurier family traced its roots to the Channel Islands, off the British mainland.
Young Ross grew up in Westmount and went to Selwyn House, going on to boarding school at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ont. A tall, muscular boy, he was a first-rate athlete and captain of the cricket, football and hockey teams as well as a keen squash player.
Straight out of high school he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Artillery. By March of 1943 he was promoted to lieutenant. He spent months training in Canada before being shipped to Europe in 1944 on loan to the British Army. The British Army was short of junior officers at the time, many of them having been killed in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy.
Lieut. LeMesurier was one of 673 “Canloans,” as they were called, young Canadian officers who volunteered for service in the British Army. The Canloans were all sent into battle, and thus suffered much higher casualty rates than the rest of the Army: Of 673 officers, 75% were killed or wounded, as opposed to regular losses of 50%.
Ross LeMesurier joined the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, part of the famed British 51st Highland Division, which had defeated Rommel in North Africa. He was commander of the scout platoon. It was a dangerous appointment, as his men had to probe enemy defences before an attack or gauge whether the enemy was preparing a counterattack. Lieut. LeMesurier was wounded by rifle fire once, then by mortar fire in the Battle of Hochwald Forest in Germany in February, 1945. His leg was amputated below the knee at a field hospital. He was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery.
After the war he went on to become a highly successful businessman, finally retiring in 1983.
