Historian Reginald Roy has died in Saanich, B.C., aged 91, leaving a legacy of a dozen books on military history, dozens of scholarly articles and hundreds of interviews with veterans taped over half a century.

Just 16, Roy earned the moniker “Boy Roy” when he enlisted in 1939. He served with the Cape Breton Highlanders, earning a commission in 1943. After the war he remained in the reserve force, earned a doctorate and made history his career.  He worked as an archivist, then taught  military history at Victoria College, Royal Road Military College and the University of Victoria.

His military experience spiced his lectures and he was a pioneer of  scholarly methods of conducting oral military history  interviews.

In 2005, UVic’s McPherson Library  became home to Roy’s interview collection. The collection is available online, digitized for listening  or in print summaries.