World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAndrew George Latta McNaughton attended Bishop's College School in Lennoxville and McGill University in Montreal, both of which in Quebec, Canada, before joining the Canadian militia in 1909. As a member of the 4th Battery of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he arrived in France in Feb 1915, where he would contribute greatly in the advancement of artillery, namely through the invention of a target detection technique using an oscilloscope. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in Mar 1916 and then the rank of brigadier-general one day prior the end of WW1. For his WW1 service, he was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He began his inter-war period career as the General Officer Commanding of the Canadian Corps Heavy Artillery. In 1922, he was made the deputy chief of the General Staff; in 1929, he was made the chief. In 1932, he proposed a scheme, which was subsequently adopted, in which the military-run programs provided constructions jobs for airfields, highways, etc. for some of the large numbers of Canadians who lost their jobs during the Great Depression. The program, while giving the workers a glimmer of hope, was met with criticism as the civilian works were unaccustomed to military discipline, and many of them were housed in barracks with poor living conditions. He briefly retired from military service, during which time he headed the National Research Council of Canada between 1935 and 1939. In 1935, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. When the European War began in Sep 1939, he returned to the Canadian Army as the commanding officer of Canadian 1st Infantry Division. Between Jul and Dec 1940, he was the commanding officer of British VII Corps. In Dec 1940, British VII Corps was renamed Canadian Corps, and he remained its commanding officer until Dec 1941. Already having established several political rivals, McNaughton lost influence after the failed Dieppe, France attack. He resigned from the military in Dec 1943. He was promoted to the rank of full general in 1944. Between 1944 and Aug 1945, he served as the Minister of National Defence. Although he was originally groomed by Mackenzie King as the first Canadian-born Governor-General, political strife over conscription meant he would not receive such honor. After the war, he chaired the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission between 1946 and 1948, served as the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations between 1948 and 1949, and chaired the Canadian Section of the International Joint Commission between 1950 and 1962. He was awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour and the Order of Leopold in 1946. He passed away in 1966.

Photographs

Andrew McNaughton Timeline