Note: This article was originally written in September 2020 for the Toronto Police Military Veterans Association
On the 2nd September 1918, 102 years ago today, a young Toronto Police Constable, Robert Alexander (badge no. 264) of the Old No. 9 Police station at Keele & Dundas, performed actions during the First World War that led to his award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal – a gallantry award for enlisted ranks second only to the Victoria Cross.
The Distinguished Conduct Medal. (Photo Credit: eMedals.com)
PC Alexander was on leave from the department and serving with the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada) on the Western Front, holding the rank of Corporal. The Canadian Corps was engaged on the attack on the Drocourt-Quéant Line, a major German fortified position which dominated the area. It was a system of bunkers covered by interlocking arcs of artillery and machinegun fire, protected by fields of barbed wire. Alexander’s Battalion had arguably the hardest task, attacking a main strongpoint known as the “Crow’s Nest”. The fighting was heavy, and there was some doubt whether the position could be taken. The men clashed up and down hills and through woods. “In the confusion of things, several men of the 15h Battalion were too far to the right, amongst the Imperials. Cpls. Robert Alexander and G. Taylor helped on that flank spectacularly and were recommended for honours by the British” writes Kim Beattie, author of 48th Highlanders of Canada 1891-1928.
By the end of the battle, Canada suffered over 5,000 killed and wounded. German losses are unknown but significant, and the German army was forced to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line.
The attack was successful in part due to the daring actions of PC Alexander and others like him. His citation for the Distinguished Conduct Medal appeared in the London Gazette on 16 January 1919, and reads as follows:
“For conspicuous gallantry and initiative in the attack on Drocourt-Queant line on the 2nd September, 1918. When one of the companies was held up by a strong machinegun post, he led his platoon forward and bombed the occupants, over sixty of whom surrendered. He showed conspicuous ability in handling his platoon and keeping the men under control in the face of machine-gun fire from both flanks and point-blank artillery fire. ”
Sgt. Alexander DCM returns to Canada aboard the SS Baltic, 1919 (Photo Credit: 48th Highlanders Museum)
Alexander would return to the Toronto Police Force after the war, was quickly promoted to Patrol Sergeant, and continued climbing the ranks to Inspector, before finally becoming Chief Constable of the neighbouring York Township Police.
Alexander was an original member, and President (1926-27) of the Toronto Police War Veterans Association.
Inspector Alexander leads the Toronto Police War Veterans at the 1929 Warrior’s Day Parade. (Photo Credit: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 17638)
Sources and further reading:
H. Grasett – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto, Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Force for 1914. Toronto: Carswell publishing, 1915.
Library and Archives Canada – Personnel Records of the First World War (799372 Robert Alexander); Honours and Awards Citation Cards 1900-1969 (799372 Robert Alexander); War Diaries of the 15th Battalion CEF.
K. Beattie – 48th Highlanders of Canada 1891-1928. Toronto: 48th Highlanders of Canada, 1932.
J.L. Granatstein – Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War 1914-1918. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.
Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspapers Database. Toronto Daily Star 1916-01-26 “Policemen Don Khaki for Blue”; The Globe 1919-09-09 “Police Board Honor Heroes”; The Globe 1927-03-25 “Suggest Memorial for Police Soldiers”; The Globe and Mail 1938-09-01 “New Police Chief”
The London Gazette. Supplement 31128 to the London Gazette, Page 847. London: King’s Printer, 1919.
This article was originally written in June 2019 and versions were published in Blue Line Magazine and featured on TPS News.
It was spring 1944. The Second World War had been raging for four and a half years. Most of Europe lived under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
Canadian troops headed toward Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3205254)
Millions of Jews, visible minorities, queer people, political dissenters, and people with disabilities were being rounded up and sent to death camps. Rights and freedoms disappeared and occupied peoples were forced to work towards the Nazi war effort. The Western Allied armies of Great Britain (including Canada and other Commonwealth nations), France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and other European nations, had been pushed out of mainland Europe since 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded in their blitzkrieg – “lightning war”. The Western Allies escaped to Britain, where they remained under attack from the air, but persevered. When the Americans joined the war, they too would sail to England and prepare to fight.
Meanwhile, the Nazis fortified Europe using slave labour to build the Atlantic Wall, coastal defences made of concrete bunkers, weapons pits, landmines and other defences to make re-invasion impossible. The Western Allies instead invaded through Italy in 1943, but the narrow and mountainous terrain heavily favoured the defenders – casualties were high and progress was slow. In the east, the Soviet Union was also taking heavy losses pushing Nazi forces out of Eastern Europe. The situation was bleak and there needed to be a breakthrough elsewhere.
A plan was made to form a massive armada of ships, planes, and troops and invade Occupied France across the English Channel at Normandy. Five beaches would be assaulted, the Americans and British responsible for two beaches each, and the Canadians responsible for the last beach – code-named “Juno”. It wasn’t clear if the plan would work and casualties were expected to be extremely high. After bad weather postponed the attack, it was finally settled that it would take place on June 6, 1944, code-named “D-Day”.
On June 6, 2019, Canadians across the country are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the daring invasion, which marked the beginning of the end of World War II. The successful Normandy Campaign commenced a drive to Germany that would see the war end in less than a year. And just like the many Toronto policemen who fought in the First World War, 235 members (men and women) of the Toronto City Police Force, would leave to serve in the Second World War(1). Many of them took part in the D-Day invasion.
This is the story of a half-dozen police officers, just a small sample of the many Toronto Police members who contributed to victory in the Normandy Campaign at sea, on land, and in the air.
At Sea
Some of the first Toronto Police members in action on D-Day were three burly constables aboard the HMCS Skeena. Fred Davies, Len O’Hara and Ken Peglar were all towering policemen who had joined the Royal Canadian Navy together as stokers – whose main duties were to feed coal into the ship’s boilers – in 1940. Deputy Chief Charles Scott described them as “outstanding” track and field athletes in the Toronto Police Force Amateur Athletic Association, who would be “an asset to any ship.”(2)
Constables Frederick Davies (#284), Leonard O’Hara (#55) and Kenneth Peglar (#108) in their Royal Canadian Navy uniforms, as they appeared in a 1942 edition of the Toronto Daily Star
The men had survived terrifying sea battles in the years leading up to this momentous day, including being involved in the first sinking of an enemy submarine by Canadian forces. While on convoy duty, on the night of September 8 & 9, 1941, the ships they were protecting were attacked by a “wolfpack” of German submarines known as U-Boats. In the epic 66-hour battle that ensued, the Skeena launched depth charge after depth charge in chaotic fighting in which Constable Peglar was wounded by a powerful blast that launched the 6’4”, 245-pound policeman through the air into a bulkhead. (3) When the smoke settled two U-Boats were sunk at a loss of 16 merchant ships.
Now veteran seamen, they were on board one of the 63 Canadian warships participating in the greatest sea-borne assault in history. In the hours leading up to the D-Day invasion, the trio toiled below-deck stoking the steam engines in the sweltering boiler rooms of the Skeena. Their destroyer was paving the way for the invasion force by clearing the sea lanes of enemy ships, and starting at 5:45 a.m., bombarding the coastal defences where enemy machine guns and artillery were laying in wait, zeroed-in on the landing beaches. (4)
About two hours later, Canadian assault troops landed at Juno Beach into murderous fire from the entrenched enemy who by now were expecting an attack.
While the first waves of Canadian infantry and tanks fought through the beaches and into the town, the SS Sambut was just sailing out of England’s River Thames, carrying reinforcements for the blood-stained sands of Normandy. It was taking an indirect route to avoid detection. Among the vehicles, munitions, and troops on board was a 28-year-old Lance Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) named Clarence Verdun Courtney. (5) Following in the footsteps of his father, Courtney joined the Toronto Police Department, graduating as a constable in 1938. After three years of service, he put his career on hold and answered the call to arms to defeat tyranny. He rose quickly up the military ranks and passed specialized training including advanced infantry training, platoon support weapons, mine detection and clearing and military motorcycle riding. He was posted to No. 84 Company RCASC, part of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, and was tasked with providing logistical support to tanks in battle.
A rare colour photo of special Tank Landing Craft moving toward Juno Beach on D-Day. Patrol Sergeant H.L. Smuck came ashore aboard these ships (Library and Archives Canada)
While crossing the Straits of Dover, the Sambut encountered fire from German coastal batteries in the nearby French city of Calais, and at 12:15 p.m. she was hit in the side by 15-inch shells. Shrapnel tore into Courtney’s abdomen, and the fuel and trucks on deck around him were set ablaze, shortly followed by the explosion of an ammunition cache in the ship’s hold. In a chaotic scene, soldiers began throwing ammunition off the side of the ship, while secondary explosions sent shrapnel flying around them. (6) A British medical officer found Courtney and began dressing his wounds. Within 15 minutes, however, the order was given to abandon ship.
While thoughts surely flashed through Courtney’s mind of his wife Margaret and their peaceful home on Glendonwynne Road, he was helped to life rafts by his comrades. He then clung to the side of a crowded raft as long as he could, but the young Lance Sergeant succumbed to his wounds and slipped into the sea,(7) robbed of any chance to fight back.
Courtney was one of the hundreds of Canadians who died that day. He is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial in France.
A Toronto Police constable stands with citizens during an impromptu D-Day prayer service at Old City Hall (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 90982)
ON LAND
In the following days, the Allied soldiers established their toe-hold into occupied France and pushed out from the beaches, fighting through the towns, fields and hedgerows of Normandy. The weaker German coastal defence troops were being reinforced by crack tank divisions from further inland.
Amidst the Canadian forces fighting their way inland was Harry Lee Smuck, a captain in the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) – a tank unit. The 41-year-old was a Patrol Sergeant in the Toronto City Police Force, who joined back in 1926 and served at the Belmont Street and Claremont Street stations as well as the Mounted Unit. At 5’10 and ¾”, the fair-haired blue-eyed policeman was short compared to his colleagues in an age of height requirements on the force. (8)
To ‘do his bit’, Smuck enlisted in the 1st Hussars soon after the war broke out, and said goodbye to his wife Hettie, and children William and June. As a young man, Smuck had served seven years in the Canadian militia with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, another armoured outfit. Due to his police service and prior military service, he rose quickly through the ranks and was commissioned as an officer.
Patrol Sergeant Harry Lee Smuck, in military uniform (Canadian Virtual War Memorial), and Constable (#302) Clarence Verdun Courtney in winter dress (1938 Toronto Police Recruit Class Photo– Author’s Collection).
Harry Smuck and his troops had made the hellish assault on Juno Beach, in specially equipped Sherman tanks that could operate while partially submerged underwater. Landing near Courseulles-sur-Mer in the second wave of the attack, he and his “C” Squadron tanks put their 75mm cannons and machine-guns into action to the relief of the battered infantrymen on the shore. They fought hard breaking out from the beach, through intense street battles in town and into the fields beyond. (9) The 1st Hussars, through skilful deployment of tanks led in part by Smuck, were the only element of the entire Allied invasion force to meet their final D-Day objective. But there would be no time to rest.
After five days of fighting, Smuck received orders on the morning of June 11, 1944, that his tanks would support the Queen’s Own Rifles in an assault on German troops occupying the town of Le Mesnil-Patry. Unbeknownst to them, their radio codes had been captured some days earlier and the enemy was listening. When the attack set off in the afternoon, the Germans held their fire until the Canadians were halfway into the town. (10) The Hussars and Queen’s Own were suddenly met by tremendous machine-gun and mortar fire from a great number of troops lying in wait in the hedgerows, haystacks and buildings of the town. In response, Smuck’s tanks unleashed devastating fire (11)on the enemy and the survivors were beginning to flee. The tanks pressed on toward the village, where they found another trap waiting. As they approached, “B” Squadron started taking fire from 7.5cm anti-tank guns, which were knocking out the Canadian tanks. Then, powerful German Panzer IV tanks took the field and engaged them – the 2nd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, a fanatical Nazi unit made up of experienced fighters and members of the Hitler Youth, was counter-attacking. A fierce tank battle ensued. Smuck and his ‘C’ Squadron tanks were ordered forward into a field of burning tanks,(12) and continued the fight.
Canadian tanks fighting in a Normandy field June 1944 (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3524524)
In the chaos that followed, the Canadians were ordered to withdraw. Of the over 50 tanks from the 1st Hussars that went into action, only 13 made it back. Many men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Some, like Harry Smuck, were simply listed as missing. In the first six days of the Normandy campaign, over 1,000 Canadians would be killed, and over 2,000 wounded. (13)
IN the air
Pressing on the attack in the air was a motorcycle cop from East York,(14) Constable Norman Crook, flying with No. 433 “Porcupine” Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Crook joined the air force in the summer of 1942 and by D-Day, was a navigator on a Halifax bomber plane on an overnight mission to drop sea mines into the English Channel to protect the invasion fleet.
After the Allies established a foothold in France, Crook’s squadron went to work bombing enemy troops, positions, railways and other infrastructure that could be used to send reinforcements against the Canadians.
One such mission took place on the night of June 28, 1944. Crook’s Halifax Bomber, tail number LV-839, took off on a bombing run to Metz, France, piloted by Hamilton McVeigh of Port Arthur, Ontario. En route to the fortified city, Crook and his crew suddenly encountered tracer fire coming out of the darkness – three German Ju-88 night fighters were attacking the slower bomber plane. After evading three waves of attacks from the fighter planes, the bomber was finally hit while flying in an evasive corkscrew manoeuvre. “The one shooting at us was just a decoy,” recounted Crook, “we were too busy watching him to see the guy behind. All of a sudden we got walloped. The first shell missed the rear gunner by inches and lopped off one of the rudders. Another shell went through the wing – then another, and finally one wing tip was chipped off.”(15)
The crippled aircraft, with its massive bomb load still on board, went into a tight spin at 13,000 feet in the air. The engines were failing and the pilot ordered the crew to bail out of the aircraft, which some started to do. Crook, however, made his way to the pilot, McVeigh, wanting to say goodbye to his friend before parachuting out. At that point he changed his mind and decided to stay on board – meanwhile McVeigh levelled off the aircraft at 6,000 feet. Crook, the plane’s navigator, set a course for England, to an alternate airfield with long dirt runways suitable for a crash landing. Two minutes after midnight, the aircraft made a hard 155-mph landing at Woodbridge, England, the remaining crew safe and their ordeal over. (16)
Crook’s action that night would later be recognized by the second highest award of bravery an airman could receive. His recommendation read, in part: “ …when attacking Metz his aircraft was attacked three times by fighters and was very severely damaged. So much so that two members of the crew abandoned on order of the Captain, and the aircraft lost 7,000 feet before control was regained. At that time the port outer engine cut so the bomb load was jettisoned and a course set for England. Pilot Officer Crook cooly and skilfully navigated his damaged aircraft back to a diversion base, avoiding the heavily defended areas en route, and a high-speed landing was made at an emergency landing field.” For this action and his overall flying record, he would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Halifax bomber on a raid. (Library and Archive Canada MIKAN No. 4002568) Top Right: Toronto Daily Star newspaper photo of Constable Norman Crook (Toronto Public Library – Historical Newspaper Database). Bottom right: The Distinguished Flying Cross
towards freedom and justice
The fighting in Normandy, France would go on until the end of August 1944. It marked the turning point in the war and from there Canadians pushed on through Belgium, the Netherlands and finally into Germany. The Nazis would surrender unconditionally in May 1945, and the true extent of their evil deeds became known – concentration camps were discovered, liberated and their victims freed. Millions who had lived under oppression would start to rebuild. The rule of law was re-established and war criminals were put on trial.
SS General Kurt Meyer on trial for war crimes in a Canadian military court. (Library and Archives Canada MIKAN No. 3191556)
One such war criminal was the Nazi General Kurt Meyer, who was tried by a Canadian War Crimes court. It was during these proceedings that the fate of Patrol Sergeant Harry Lee Smuck was discovered, thanks to the Canadian War Crimes Investigation Unit. During the battle for Le Mesnil-Patry, Smuck’s tank had been knocked out by enemy fire and he and his crew, some wounded, managed to bail out and make a break for their lines. They became separated in a firefight and Smuck and one of his men hid under another destroyed Canadian tank to re-group.
Suddenly, the pair were swarmed by enemy troops and they decided to each make a run for it. Captain Smuck was captured and marched off to a secluded area with other Canadian prisoners of war, including some of his own tank crew, also captured in the chaotic battle. Once there, Smuck and the other men were lined up, callously shot, and buried in a shallow grave. (17) It was an unjust end for a brave man.
General Meyer was found guilty of ordering the killings, and other atrocities. Though sentenced to death, another unjust turn of events would see him only serve five years in a Canadian prison before returning to Germany, and ultimately being freed by 1954. Smuck’s remains were re-interred at the peaceful Ryes War Cemetery in Bazenville, France.
The sacrifices that many Toronto Police members made during the Normandy Campaign should never slip from our memory. On this 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, let us pause to remember those who came before us and risked it all so that we could be free.
Sources and further reading:
(1) D. Draper. Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the Year 1939, Toronto: The Carswell Co Ltd City Printers, 1940.
(2) Toronto Daily Star 1940-09-14, p.15 “Policemen Join Up and Stick to Blue”
(3) R.H. Gimblett. The Naval Service of Canada p.90-91; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-10, p.9 “Many Toronto Men Helped Skeena Beat Off Wolk Pack”; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-03, p.7 “PC Fred Davies, et al”; Toronto Daily Star 1942-01-03, p.3 “Says 20 U-Boats in Pack of Which Skeena Sinks 3”
(4) Cobourghistory.ca/stories/hmcs-skeena; The Naval Service of Canada p.71-72
(5) Library and Archives Canada. Personnel File of B80413 Clarence Verdun Courtney.
(6) T. McCarthy. True Loyals – A history of 7th Battalion, The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) / 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery 1940-1946. Regimental History, Chapter 8: Disaster on the Sambut (Trueloyals.com/new-page-18)
(7) Library and Archives Canada. Personnel File of B80413 Clarence Verdun Courtney; Statement of Pte. J.S. Poulton, No 84 Coy, RCASC
(8) City of Toronto Archives. 1926 Nominal and Descriptive Roll of the Toronto Police Department.
(9) J. Marteinson & M.R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps – An Illustrated History. D-Day: The 1st Hussars and 7 Infantry Brigade. p.232-236.
(10) T. Copp. A Well Entrenched Enemy: Army Part 92 (Legion Magazine). Kanata: Canvet Publications Ltd, 2011.
(11)Library and Archives Canada. War Diary of the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment(1H), June 1944.
(12)J. Marteinson & M.R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps – An Illustrated History. The Hussars at Le Mesnil-Patry. p.245-248.
(14) Toronto Daily Star 1944-11-28, p.13 “4 for a Fight, 3 for a Trip, Need 120 Points for Leave”
(15) Toronto Daily Star 1944-11-28, p.13 “4 for a Fight, 3 for a Trip, Need 120 Points for Leave”
(16) Collections Canada. Operations Record Book of No 433 Squadron RCAF – June 1944 Summary of Events, p.6
(17) H. Margolian. Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. Pages 111-115, 235-237. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
Note: This article was originally written in September 2017 and a version was featured on TPS News.
Throughout this 150th year of Canadian Confederation, Canadians look through our past to identify our greatest heroes and celebrate those qualities which have made and continue to make this country an amazing nation. Today we remember Patrol Sergeant Henry Earl Scott, M.M., one of the most distinguished police officers in the history of the Toronto Police Service. Twice decorated for exceptionally brave deeds – by Kings George V and George VI respectively; he is only one of two Canadians ever awarded both the Military Medal and the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry.
Patrol Sergeant H. Earl Scott in winter patrol dress, 1928.
Like many heroes, Henry Earl Scott (who went by his middle name Earl) came from humble beginnings. Scott was born on May 8th, 1882 in Beeton, Ontario, to Robert and Ann Scott. Earl grew up in the town an hour north of Toronto with his four brothers and two sisters. Not much is known about these early years but it is believed he helped with his father’s local lumber business. As Earl Scott grew older, he left Beeton and traveled to the City of Toronto, moving into 82 Gloucester Street.
At 28 years of age, Scott joined the Toronto Police Force on April 1st, 1910, the same year his father died. Scott served the next few years as Police Constable No. 24 in the bustling downtown core of the growing city. In 1913, Scott made the newspaper, along with his partner P.C. Edward Koster, after raiding a Queen Street Opium den, arresting 15 men and seizing $3,600 worth of drugs – a modern-day value of $77,000 when adjusted for inflation.
In late 1914, soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Earl Scott went on military leave to enlist as a Private in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, as many other Toronto Police officers were doing at the time. Scott enlisted with the 2nd Divisional Cyclist Corps, an elite unit of bicycle mounted infantry, recruited from men deemed to have above-average intelligence and fitness. The army doctor who inspected Scott noted his modest appearance with some unflattering notes – describing him as a “dark ruddy” man with blue eyes and brown “mud coloured” hair. He was just over 5’10 with a chest measuring 41 inches. Scott and his fellow Cyclists began their advanced training to act as scouts, sentries, trench guides, stretcher-bearers, prisoner escorts, dispatch riders and couriers. In the spring of 1915, after some local training, he sailed to England on the SS Corinthian, bound for the trench-ridden and battle-scarred Western Front in France and Belgium.
By the fall of 1916, a major offensive on the River Somme pitting France and Britain against Germany, was in full swing and had cost hundreds of thousands of casualties.
On the morning of October 8th, 1916, now Corporal Scott was detailed to command a squad of stretcher-bearers forward of the town of Courcelette, where British and Canadian troops were fighting the German 1st Army for control of the Ancre Heights. In the previous 72 hours, the bitter fighting there had cost the lives of Toronto constables Alfred Sim and Francis Smith, and wounded PC James Farlow.
On the following day, with the battle still raging, the following deeds took place which made Scott stand out among his peers. Now staged in the front line with the battle raging all around, Scott heard a strained voice calling “Stretcher!” and sprang into action leading his men over broken ground to the casualty. Scott and his men were unarmed and had white armbands marked “S.B.” in red – this was supposed to prevent them from being targeted. But all around him, Scott’s fellow stretcher-bearers were being cut down by bullets, artillery, and gas. Among the chaos, Scott found the wounded man, and two more. What happened next was nothing short of incredible. Scott picked up the helpless soldier and ran, without help, 275 metres to the Advanced Dressing Station under heavy artillery fire. After dropping the man off, Earl turned around and made his way back to the wounded men, picked up another, and carried him back through to safety. Stunned observers watched our hero take off a third time through the murderous fire. To their amazement, he soon-after reappeared, exhausted, with the last wounded man.
Left: Bringing in the Wounded, 1916; Right: The Military Medal
By midnight, Scott and the surviving stretcher-bearers returned to their camp exhausted. Their party had suffered 11 casualties over the last two days at the front. His superior, made aware of the incident, recommended Scott for the Military Medal, a decoration for bravery in action. The recommendation read “On the 9th October while in charge of a party of stretcher bearers engaged in bringing in wounded from the front line to the advanced dressing station unaided, carried in instant succession, three wounded men, three hundred yards under heavy shell fire.” A notice in the London Gazette on January 6th, 1917 announced that “His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to award the Military Medal for bravery in the Field to … 76 Cpl. H.E. Scott, Cyclist Bn.”
The War to End All Wars carried on for another two years but Scott survived, and once demobilized, returned to Toronto. Earl moved in with his widowed mother Ann, at 316 Garden Avenue in Parkdale, and returned to duty with the Toronto Police Force. Scott was soon promoted to Patrol Sergeant, at the Queen and Claremont Streets’ No. 3 Station. Scott found that he had come back to a different city, it was now the prosperous “Roaring ’20s”, the population was booming, and the relative unity and peace during the war was over. Most notably, Prohibition had been in effect since 1916. Police had their hands full enforcing the Ontario Temperance Act, and dealing with all the crime and violence of underground liquor consumption and black market trade. In those years, the now 42-year-old Earl Scott finally met the love of his life. He married May Hesson in 1925, with his mother Ann as his witness.
The 1920s came and went, and the 1930s brought in the Great Depression. Unemployment was at an all-time high, the city was crowded, and violent bank hold-ups and labour demonstrations were the new normal. In 1933, at one such demonstration in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, a lone constable was mobbed by the angry crowd. Responding to the call for assistance, Patrol Sergeant Scott arrived to the melee where he and his fellow officers were also attacked. They managed to disperse the crowd but not before our hero received a blow to the eye so hard he was sent home to recover.
Scott returned to duty soon after and, in 1935, was celebrated at a dinner with his peers after 25 years on the job at the Prince George Hotel where the TD Centre now stands. Earl Scott, however, was not finished protecting and serving the people of Toronto.
The Old No. 9 Police Station, Keele and Dundas Streets.
On Saturday, February 5, 1938, a greying 56-year-old Earl Scott was now assigned to No. 9 Station, at Keele and Dundas Streets in the city’s west end. When Sergeant Scott went into work for the night shift as the station duty sergeant, he had no reason to believe it would be anything but a quiet night. His duties were to manage the internal operations of the station for the night. Outside temperatures dropped below freezing after having rained all day. Scott was sitting at his desk as the hours passed when, just after 2 a.m., he heard a muffled gunshot and shouting outside. Scott immediately grabbed a flashlight and ran out to the street to find a 30-year-old Norman Ford shot in the gut and dying on the sidewalk in front of the police station. A married couple, passing by, witnessed the shooting and saw the perpetrator flee down an alleyway, so Scott ran south on Keele Street in order to cut him off.
Suddenly, he encountered the man coming out from the laneway by the nearby post office.
Out of the darkness, as Scott’s eyes fixed on the threat, he saw the suspect aiming a .32 automatic pistol. Click. The gun jammed. Scott threw a powerful right hook, knocking him to the ground where the sergeant wrestled the man who again tried to shoot him. Scott overpowered the killer, pried the gun from his hands, and brought him to his feet under arrest.
Left: Shorty Bryans’ arrest mugshot. Right: The heroic arresting officer Scott is photographed by the Globe and Mail.
The murderer was identified as Thomas “Shorty” Bryans, a career criminal who had broken out of the Kingston Penitentiary in 1923 where he was serving time for Manslaughter. Bryans had been a member of the Red Ryan Gang, notorious for violent robberies, hold-ups and murders throughout Southern Ontario since the early 1920s.
While newspaper editors praised Scott’s bravery and his restraint in not shooting the suspect, it came out later that our hero was actually unarmed throughout the incident. As the station duty sergeant, Scott was not wearing a gun belt as usual. After finding the shooting victim out front of the station, and with utter disregard for his own safety, Scott immediately chased after the suspect, fearing any delay could allow the perpetrator to escape and kill again.
In the aftermath, Chief Draper recommended Scott for the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry, a decoration instituted by King Edward VII in 1909 to recognize exceptional bravery by individuals in the emergency services throughout the British Empire.
Meanwhile, for his latest crime, “Shorty” was sentenced to hang, smirking in court when his sentence was read. Bryans’ execution was carried out four months later at the Don Jail.
Scott quietly continued working until, after 32 years on the job, he retired on May 1, 1942. After years of bureaucratic process, award of the King’s Police Medal was announced by Canada’s Secretary of State in the Canada Gazette on March 20, 1943. Ten days later, at a yearly police parade and inspection at St Paul’s Church on Bloor Street East, a now-retired Scott was presented his decoration by Lieutenant-Governor The Honourable Albert E. Matthews on behalf of King George VI, becoming one of only 32 Canadian police officers ever decorated with the award.
Retired Patrol Sgt. H.E. Scott being presented with the King’s Police and Fire Services Medal for Gallantry. At right, a close up of a KPFSM medal.
Earl Scott then lived out the rest of his days in the companionship of his loving wife, May, until he passed away on April 27, 1955, at the Toronto Western Hospital. Scott is buried at Trinity United Cemetery in his home town of Beeton, Ontario.
In keeping with the highest traditions of the Toronto Police Service, our humble Patrol Sergeant Henry Earl Scott spent his life putting others before himself, to protect and serve, and should be forever remembered as a true Canadian hero.
With Thanks to Jack Templeman and Bob Pyefinch.
Photo Credits:
“Patrol Sergeant H. Earl Scott, M.M., in winter patrol dress, 1928” Courtesy of The City of Toronto Archives,
“The Old No. 9 Police Station” Courtesy of the Toronto Reference Library, Baldwin Collection Item S 1-854.
“Shorty Bryans’ mugshot.” Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
“Scott photographed by the Globe and Mail.” Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266 Item 49441
“Retired Patrol Sgt. H.E. Scott, being presented with the KPFSM for Gallantry” Courtesy of the Pyefinch Collection
“The King’s Police and Fire Services Medal.” Courtesy of the Pyefinch Collection
Sources and further reading:
Grasett, H. (1915) Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the year 1914 – p. 48. Toronto, ON: The Carswell Company Limited.
Draper, D. (1939) Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the year 1938 – p. 39-40. Toronto, ON: The Carswell Company Limited.
Templeman, J. (2017) To Guard My People: The King’s Police and Fire Service Medal in Canada – p. 51-52. Winnipeg, MB: Leadthrough.
McCreery, C. (2015) The Canadian Honours System, 2nd Edition – p. 116-117, 125-128. Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press.
Blatherwick, J. (2016) King’s Police and Fire Services Medal, Plus Other Medals to Police and Fire Services In Canada. Blatherwick.net
The London Gazette. (1917, January 6th) Supplement 29893 to the London Gazette, Page 350.
The Canada Gazette. (1943, March 20th) No. 12, Volume LXXVII, Page 1256.
Toronto Daily Star. (1913, October 24th) Fifteen Chinamen Taken In, p. 11; (1920, January 14th) Several Promotions Made in Police Force, p. 3. (1938, February 7th) Sergeant Fells Alleged Slayer With Fist Blow, p. 1; Note and Comment, p. 4; Alleged Murderer Remanded After Shooting, Sec. 2 p. 1. (1938, February 9th) Police Learn N. Ford Feared Man in Cafe Armed with Revolver, p. 1; (1938, October 20th) Even Men Going to Jail Like Insp Chisholm, Sec. 2 p. 1 & 27; (1943, May 20th) 3 Police Officers Win King’s Medals, Sec. 2 p. 2.
The Globe. (1933, June 5th) Crowd is Dispersed After Hot Fight, p. 11; (1935, April 10) Celebrate Quarter Century on Vimy Night, p. 11.
The Globe and Mail. (1938, February 7th) Toronto Murder Laid to One of Ryan Gang, p. 1; (1938, April 29th) Thomas Bryans Smiles at Sentence of Death, p. 5; (1942, April 28th) Sgt E. Scott Resigns Force, p. 4; (1943, May 31st) King’s Medal Rewards Courage of Policemen, p. 7; (1955, April 29th) HE Scott etc., p. 4.
Archives of Ontario. Registration of Births and Stillbirths 1869-1913; Ontario Canada Select Marriages.
Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921. Personnel Records of the First World War; Military Honours and Awards Citations Cards 1900-61; War Diaries of the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion 1916/05/12 to 1919/03/31; Capital Punishment Case Files – 1938 – Bryans, Thomas.
The Khaki and Blue Project 