Buster

About the Book

Buster is a biography of James Sutherland Brown, CMG, DSO, a distinguished Canadian soldier who advanced from boy bugler to Brigadier General. He was noted for his organizational and planning abilities as well as his humane command. As Assistant Quartermaster General of the 1st Canadian Division he was substantially responsible for the rapid advance of the Division through Mons, Beligium, to the Rhine in the last 100 days of WWI. He also provided for the efficient demobilization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1919-20. As Director of Operations and Intelligence he was the author of Defence Scheme No.1 designed to defend Canada in case of an attack by United States in the 1920s, a plan that has been mocked by academic historians but praised by his colleagues.

As District Officer Commanding in Victoria during the Great Depression he managed on a slim budget to get military facilities built and the Militia as prepared as possible in anticipation of WWII. He then lost a confrontation with his immediate superior, General McNaughton, centred on the humane treatment of the unemployed in Relief Camps in the 1930s and consequently he resigned. Though he sought one, he was refused a role in WWII as a result of this clash.

About the Author

Atholl Sutherland Brown was born in Ottawa in 1923, the third son of James and Clare Sutherland Brown. He lived in London for a year as a child but grew up and lived much of his life in Victoria, Canada. He was a pilot in Burma with 177 Beaufighter Squadron in 1944-1945 and was awarded the DFC in 1945, after the war he became a geologist with a PhD from Princeton University. He was a research geologist with the BC Geological Survey and its chief geologist for ten years.