John K. Rhodes, DSO, of Fonthill, Ont., writes about the late Strome Galloway.

“During the Italian campaign I had been to B Echelon one day and was walking back to my company when I met Strome Galloway herding along several German prisoners. I was a company commander in the West Nova Scotia Regtiment and I think Strome was second-in-command of the Royal Canadian Regt.

“We stopped to chat and suddenly German mortar shells started landing beside the road, altogether too close for comfort. I eyed the ditch but Strome continued talking. I decided that I was not going to be the first to take cover.

His prisoners had no such compunction and quietly slid in to the ditch. This seemed to infuriate Strome, who belaboured them with his walking stick and shouted: ‘Get out of that ditch, you shirkers, they’re your mortars.’”