2011-06-18

Arthur Edward Potts

Arthur Edward Potts

Arthur Edward Potts CBE, ED (24-10-1890, Northumberland, United Kingdom-September 1983, Kingston, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian General officer, active in World War II.

Potts studied at the University of Edinburgh (bachelor of science) and the Cornell University (master’s degree in agriculture). He worked as instructor at Ames College in Iowa.

In 1915 he left Ames College to enlist in Second Universities Company at McGill University and was attached to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry as a private. This unit was sent to France where Potts fought in the trenches and got wounded. In september 1916 he was appointed lieutenant. At the end of 1917 Potts was send to the education office, to give lectures to soldiers about agriculture. But soon he joined his battalion again. After being wounded at 7 September,he was send to Engeland for convalescence. Potts was still there when the war ended.

After the war Potts joined the University of Saskatchewan as head of the dairy department. Besides his normal work as "Professor of Dairying" he also took over the university’s officer training corps and reorganized and retrained it.

Potts was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1934. In the same year he became commander of the Saskatoon Non-Permanent Active Militia garrison and officer commanding of the 19th infantry brigade. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II Potts received a request van then major-general Andrew McNaughton to accept demotion and take over . Potts accepted and took the unit to Europe in December 1939.

In July 1940 he was promoted to Brigadier and took over the command of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. He led this brigade in Operation Gauntlet, the commando raid at Spitsbergen

In May 1942 became General Officer Commanding in the rank of major-general. That appointment took him from the United Kingdom to the Pacific shores in British Columbia. In 1943 was appointed commander of in Toronto. He stayed there till the end of the war.

After the war he joined the Department of Veterans Affairs. He moved to Kingston, Ontario in 1949, to become the Department’s district administrator.

He retired in 1955 and died in september 1983.

Positions held

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