Everything about Malcolm Mercer totally explained
Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer, CB (
17 September 1859 –
3 June 1916) was a Canadian general, barrister and art patron who practiced law in
Toronto and led 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 militia commander and had demonstrated a great flair with training and organising 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 army 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.
Law career
Mercer was born in September 1859 in
Etobicoke, a small town to the east of
Toronto in
Ontario,
Canada. He was the third of nine children to Thomas and Mary Mercer and was raised in Delmer and St Catherines. 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.
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 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(military)|]
major, Mercer led a company to
Sault Ste. Marie to calm a riot by striking dock workers, his only deployment before 1914. in command of the
1st Canadian Infantry Brigade which consisted of the first four battalions of the Expeditionary Force recruited in Ontario.
On arrival at
Plymouth a British officer on overall took command of the Canadian Contingent as it was then known and Mercer was dispatched to Camp Bustard on
Salisbury Plain, where he oversaw the training and organising of the Canadian Force to ready it for the bitter fighting already occurring in Belgium and Northern France. Mercer performed well at this task and an inspection of his camp on the
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 under Turner and Currie who were under the overall command of British Lieutenant-General
Edwin Alderson. in command of the
3rd Canadian Division, as this disparate force became. 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 the
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'd 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 organiser who never got the opportunity to demonstrate the tactical nous he'd shown in training and exercises. He also remains the highest ranking Canadian officer to ever be killed in combat.
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