This 1910 oil painting by E. Wyly Grier hangs in the Officers’ Mess.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Irvine Davidson was gazetted (provisionally) the first Commanding Officer on 20 November 1891 and formally confirmed 25 March 1892. In the military he began as a private in Scotland, serving a total of  five years in the 7th Aberdeenshire Volunteers, the London Scottish and the Uxbridge Yeomanry. In Toronto, he was an officer for six years in the 10th Royal Grenadiers, rising to Captain. He served on the Board of Managers of St. Andrew’s Church, including six years as chairman. The 48th Highlanders appointed him Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel upon his retirement in 1898, a position he held until his death in 1910.