Coln. Harold Gregory Leitch, CD Queen's Own Rifles of Canada

LEITCH _ Col. H. Gregory, CD Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (QOR of C) and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) Died on August 20, 2002 after a lengthy illness. The Leitch family deeply regrets a previous obituary published in The National Post on Saturday, 24 August, as it was inaccurate and not sanctioned by the family. The following is an obituary penned by Col. Leitch in this past year. Born at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta on 8 June 1939 to Father, Harold Laurier McDowell Leitch, a manager with the Bank of Montreal and Mother, Catherine Denilda (Elliott).

Attracted to the military at a very early age, Greg enrolled in Army Cadets at thirteen years, the Army Reserves at sixteen, and after graduation from high school, the Regular Army at eighteen years. After training as an Infantry Officer in Camp Borden and Kingston, Ontario, in 1959 he was commissioned into the QOR of C as a 2nd Lieutenant. From here he became the first Canadian officer to serve with its allied British Regiment - The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) from 1960 to 1963 in the UK. Unit appointments followed in Canada, Germany, Cyprus and Northern Europe until his appointment to the Land Forces Command and Staff College in 1969, where he graduated with one of two "A" grades awarded that year. In 1970 he was re-badged to the PPCLI in Winnipeg, Man. as part of the Army restructuring and commanded a rifle company in its Second Battalion.

In 1973 he was appointed Brigade Major of the 1st Cdn Mechanized Brigade Group (1CMBG) based in Calgary, Alta. During this two-year period he authored two large unit group exercises - an airlifted/airborne winter exercise set outside Churchill, Man. and an amphibious assault exercise on the Northern tip of Vancouver Island, BC with the United States Marines, both of which were unique one-time events.

In 1975 he assumed command of the 3rd Battalion PPCLI based in Victoria, BC, where his twenty-four months as the Commanding Officer saw the unit absent from its Work Point Barracks home for some twenty-one months. His missions included a 1975 tour of duty on the Green Line in Cyprus, operation of the maximum security BC Penitentiary after extensive rioting in 1977, and extended training exercises throughout Canada.

In 1977 LtCol. Leitch was appointed a member of the Directing Staff at The Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto. Ten months later at thirty-eight years, on promotion, he became the youngest full Colonel in the Canadian Army. Soon after his promotion he was posted to HQ Allied Forces Northern Europe, in Oslo, Norway, as the Senior Staff Officer to its Land Deputy, and the Senior Canadian Officer in the region. As part of the NATO staff he was responsible for the conduct of operational readiness inspections of Norwegian, Danish and German Army units North of the River Elbe in Germany. In 1986, after a year of preparatory training in Ottawa, he became the Canadian Military Attache (CFA) in Belgrade, Yugoslavia with accreditation to Hungary and reporting responsibilities for Romania and Bulgaria. In 1988, he was the first NATO Military Attache to travel throughout Albania, and in 1989 witnessed the Soviet withdrawal of their sixty thousand troops from Hungary. Early in 1990, he commanded the first NATO over-flight of Warsaw Pact installations in Hungary under the Open Skies Treaty was enacted. Later that same year, with his wife Theresa, he departed for South East Asia as CFA Kuala Lumpur with accreditation to Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines and reporting responsibilities for Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). One of the highlights of his work in the region was traveling in Myanmar with the Karen Liberation Army, which in the early nineties was waging an armed struggle to prevent their expulsion by the Myanmar Army from their bases across the Moi River in Thailand.

In late 1993 Col. Leitch returned to Canada as the most senior full Colonel in the Canadian Army and retired in Abbotsford, BC, where he pursued his love of singing Barbershop Harmony. His last Chorus, the "Gentlemen of Fortune" won the Division 1 Evergreen District Championship annually for more than a decade. His quartet "A Touch Of Grey" staged almost ninety vaudevillian performances over two years and won the Division 1 Seniors Quartet Championship in 1999 and 2000. In December 1999 he suffered an AVM and brain hemorrhage. By 2001 Greg, due to his illness, was obliged to give up active singing, but he remained a committed Barbershopper within the Society For The Preservation of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA) until his death. 

Col. Leitch married Theresa D.E. Ribbins in 1961 while stationed in Folkestone, Kent, UK. She became his lifelong companion and helpmate for more than forty-one years. They had two children, a son Laurier Gregory Andrew residing in England and daughter Rachael Catherine Alice Thomson living in Okotoks, Alberta, who between them produced five beautiful grandchildren. They also had two "honorary" children from Thailand, Chadchalee Jaengrung and her daughter Eve.

Col. Leitch is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews around Canada and the World and a sister, Marylyn Hazard. Col. Leitch has directed that there be no Funeral or other religious Service to mark his death. However, the family is planning to have a celebration of his life. Any donations in his name should be made to your local branch of the SPCA. In keeping with Greg's keen sense of humor, he would ask those who read this to recall the words of George Bernard Shaw who said: "Life does not cease to be funny when people die Anymore than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." So please enjoy a song and a laugh while you are still able to hear yourself. He did! 335813

Published in The Calgary Herald on Aug. 26, 2002