Malcolm Mercer

Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer (17 September 1859 – 3 June 1916) was a Canadian general, barrister and art patron who practised law in Toronto and led the Canadian Contingent, then later the 3rd Canadian Division, during the first two years of the First World War before he was killed in action at Mount Sorrel in Belgium. Mercer was an experienced Canadian Militia commander and had demonstrated a great flair with training and organizing the raw Canadian recruits during the opening months of the war. He also demonstrated courage under fire, visiting the front lines on numerous occasions at the height of battle and personally directing his forces in the face of poison gas attacks and heavy shellfire.

Mercer remains the most senior Canadian officer ever to die in combat and was unfortunate to be killed at the opening engagement of the largest battle of his career, when he was trapped by shellfire during a front line reconnaissance and overrun during the subsequent German attack. The division Mercer created and trained remained one of the best units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force under his successor Louis Lipsett and Mercer was remembered by the men under his command, many of whom attended his funeral in the aftermath of the Battle of Mount Sorrel.

Early years Mercer was born in September 1859 in Etobicoke, a small town to the west of Toronto in Canada West. He was the third of nine children to Thomas and Mary Mercer and was raised in Delmer and St. Catharines. During his childhood he was educated at local schools and worked on the family farm before enrolling at the University of Toronto in 1881 to study philosophy.

Military service Mercer's greatest passion however was reserved for the Canadian Militia, which he joined as a student in 1881. Posted to the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada as a private soldier, Mercer devoted much time and energy to the unit and became an excellent soldier and first-rate shot. Mercer rose steadily through the ranks of the militia, being made an officer in 1885 and a captain in 1891. In 1903 as a brevet major, Mercer led a company to Sault Ste. Marie to calm a riot by striking dock workers, his only deployment before 1914. Amongst these men his militiamen were dispersed, intended to spread experience and morale amongst the raw recruits. At the end of September, after just under two months' training, the brigade departed on the 20-day sea voyage to Britain as the first installment of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

On arrival at Plymouth a British officer, Lieutenant General Edwin Alderson, took overall command of the "Canadian Contingent" as the CEF was then known and Mercer was despatched to Camp Bustard on Salisbury Plain, where he oversaw the training and organizing of the Canadian force to ready it for fighting in Belgium and northern France. Mercer performed well at this task, and an inspection of his camp on 4 November by King George V, Queen Mary, Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener drew the compliment "No finer physique in the British Army. A fine brigade. Splendid."

During the year the Canadian Contingent was involved in further fighting, assaulting German lines in the unsuccessful battles of Festubert and Givenchy. In the aftermath of these engagements, the Canadian Contingent was reorganised into the Canadian Corps, consisting of two divisions led by Turner and Currie who were under the overall command of Lieutenant-General Alderson.

Death at Mount Sorrel In early June 1916, the Canadian Corps was again posted to trenches around the Belgian town of Ypres. The new commander of the Canadian Corps, Julian Byng, was inspecting the corps positions in front of a German-held rise named Mount Sorrel and noted that the Canadian troops were overlooked by German positions and under constant danger of enemy fire. The Germans also seemed to be digging new sap trenches which implied that an assault was intended. Byng ordered Mercer to make a reconnaissance of the front line and draw up a plan to overrun the more dangerous German positions in a local attack. Mercer complied on 2 June, conducting a standard inspection of front line Canadian trenches at 08:30.

Mercer's funeral was attended by many men of his division and from his old regiments as well as numerous Canadian and British officers who had worked alongside him. Mercer was posthumously mentioned in dispatches for his courage under fire, the third time he had been so mentioned, and his division was taken over by Major-General Louis Lipsett, who was himself killed in action two years later. Mercer is remembered as an efficient and capable organizer who never got the opportunity to demonstrate the tactical nous he had shown in training and exercises. He also remains the highest ranking Canadian officer to ever be killed in combat

Mount Mercer in Banff National Park, Alberta, is named in his remembrance.

Malcolm Mercer was also an active Freemason. Following the armistice with Germany in 1918 steps were taken to create new Masonic Lodges in Toronto to accommodate returning soldiers looking to join Freemasonry, including a new Lodge in the West Toronto Junction neighbourhood of Toronto, which was instituted in 1919 and named the General Mercer Lodge in honour of Malcolm Mercer. The General Mercer Lodge remains active , meeting at the same Masonic Temple in West Toronto where Mercer attended Lodge prior to the war.