Adair, Harold Alexander (Alex)

In the photo above from the left: Unknown, Alex Adair, Norm Hore. Bob McBurney.

C120897 Rifleman Harold Alexander “Alex” Adair was born on 17 August 1923, in Tamworth, Ontario, the son of John Reginald Adair and Martha Jean Adams. His father had served in France with the 8th Canadian Field Battery, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War. He had two younger siblings: Mary and Thomas. When Alex was 3, his mother took him to Ireland for six weeks, presumably to visit his mother’s family.

Alex left high school at the age of 15 to work on the family farm after his grandfather fell ill.

At the age of 20, Alex was taken on with 12 Platoon, B Company of The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada on 8 October 1943. After arriving in England, he was granted seven days’ leave on 28 January 1944.

After boarding a transport ship on 1 June, Alex landed with B Company in the first wave at Juno Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. A photo taken in front of what is now called Canada House, just minutes after landing, is well-known regimentally (see header above – second rifleman from the left), and he talks about what led to that photo in the short video below.

Alex was appointed Lance Corporal on 26 September 1944, but reverted to Rifleman when he was wounded with shrapnel in his femur on 15 October 1944. He’d served with the QOR for exactly one year and one week.

After the war, Alex worked in Toronto as a salesman for Christie’s cookies and Kellogg’s before moving to Windsor to work at Auto Haul Away.

In 1949, he married Mary “May” Brownlie, and they had two children, Elaine and Kevin. At the time of his death, he had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Alex was the last known QOR D-Day veteran when he passed away in his 100th year, at the Golden Plough Lodge in Cobourg, Ontario, on 24 December 2022. His remains were cremated and deposited in Christ Church Anglican Cemetery in Tamworth, Ontario.