Lieutenant Arthur Carrick Whealy, QC, was born in Toronto, Ontario on 30 July 1929, the son of the late Arthur Treloar Whealy, DSO and Bar, DFC, and Margaret Carrick. He was educated at Upper Canada College (where he rose to Cadet Commanding Officer in 1947-48), Royal Military College (#2953), and Dalhousie Law School (LL.B. ’58).

Commissioned as a regular army officer in the First Canadian Rifle Battalion (1CRB) in 1951 and continued in the military when 1CRB was re-designated as 1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in 1953. Former President of the Criminal Lawyer Association; former director of the Advocates Society; and former counsel with the Dept of Justice (Ottawa). After a decade in private practice, he was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (1980), where he served for 25 years.

Jurist,  photographer, birder and soldier; member of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and Royal Canadian Legion (Fort York Branch.) He will be fondly remembered for his fairness, optimism, humour, and generosity of spirit.

He died on 1 September 2012 and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto (Plot 1, Lot 44.)

Lieutenant Arthur Whealy was a Volunteer in the 1st Canadian Rifles

(Excerpt from 2013 The Rifleman Magazine)

It has been over 60 years since the Ist Canadian Rifle Battalion sailed for foreign shores and NATO service in Germany and The Honourable Arthur C. Whealy, who died in 2012, was the last of eight officers from The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada’s 1st (Reserve) Battalion who had volunteered to join the new battalion when it was formed. Of those eight, all but three were posted into 1CRB: Major W.R. (Bill) Weir and Lieutenants Healy, P.B.L. (Pete) MacKinnon, Mike O’Grady and M.B. (Mike) Symons. Deployed to Germany with the 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade, they were quartered in a former German artillery housing now renamed Edinburgh Barracks and attached to the British 11th Annoured Division, part of the British Army on the Rhine (BAOR).

The 27th Brigade commander was Brigadier Geoffrey Walsh, DSO, who had served in Sicily and Italy in  WW2. The battalion was soon regarded as operational and conducted live firing exercises at Putlos on the Baltic seacoast and other training at the British Army’s facility at Sennelager, for as many as four weeks at a time. Lt Whealy’s responsibilities varied and included periods as anti-tank officer, battalion intelligence officer and as 2nd in charge of the mortar platoon.

The commanding officers of 1CRB were Lieutenant Colonel E.W. Cutbill, DSO, ED and Lieutenant Colonel J.M. Delamere, MBE, CD. Acting commanding officer Major C.P. MacPherson brought the battalion back to Canada in November 1953 and it was on the voyage aboard SS Columbia that members of I st Canadian Rifles learned their unit had been redesignated as 1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. Upon its arrival, the battalion’s members went on furlough, reassembling at Calgary’s Currie Barracks, the 1st Canadian Rifle Battalion now being part of their history.

Lt Whealy, who served as a judge in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, was the son of Canadian World War One air ace Arthur Treloar Whealy, DSC & Bar, DFC, who was credited with 27 victories while serving in WWI with the Royal Naval Air Service and, later, with the Royal Air Force.