Commanding Officer, 48th Highlanders of Canada 1949-1952

Honorary Lieutenant Colonel 1967-1970

Lt. M. E. George joined the 2nd Battalion, 48th Highlanders in Toronto and is shown in a 1940 newspaper article as one of the 52 officers of the 2nd Battalion who were training for service in the Second World War. After sailing to England he was quickly transferred from the Holding Unit to the 1st Battalion in 1942 and became Platoon Commander of 18 Platoon. In sports he was a member of the battalion’s 1942-43 hockey team. When the battalion moved to Scotland in spring of 1943  as the battalion prepared to sail for Sicily in June he was appointed Transport Officer a position he held through the Sicily Campaign and Italy up to Jan 1944 just after the battalion outflanked the town of Ortona in December, at which time he was made Captain. He joined Baker company as 2 i/c for the Hitler Line in May and on 6 September assumed command of Baker in the Gothic Line battles  between the Conca and Marano Rivers. In The Netherlands in April 1945 on the attack to take the town of Twello, after the battalion had crossed the Ijssel River at Wilp, Captain George, as one of two leading companies, “conferred with the his tank troop commander and tried a new tactic. He had three tanks, so it was decided to load two platoons of Highlanders on two Shermans, leaving the leader free to work with its gun and fight. The third platoon would follow in reserve on foot, with any left-overs from the tank ride. They would go right in, by-passing the German posts, and risking whatever they met at the town’s outskirts. It was daring, imaginative – and worked like a charm! ” Dileas page 750. His leadership and daring was recognized by a Mentioned in Dispatches.

Captain George would be one of the few officers with the battalion for the entire campaign, from the landings in Sicily in July 43, through the full length of Italy and then the liberation of Apeldoorn in The Netherlands in 1945, shortly after which the battalion went out of battle. Returning to Toronto with the battalion for its final parade on 1 October 1945, Captain George rejoined the 48th Highlanders reserve battalion, becoming its commanding officer in 1949.