Lieutenant Colonel F. Douglas H. Nelson, CD

A Member’s Profile

By BGen (Ret) Lloyd Skaalen

“Doug” was born Feb. 27, 1918 in Montreal and schooled in Carleton Place, Ontario until moving with his mother to Esquimalt, BC, in 1929. He attended Lampson Secondary and Victoria High Schools during which time he became associated with the Boy Scouts of Canada, the 3^rd Victoria Troop’s Band and then the Trumpet Band of the 5^th (BC) Coast Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1935.

By 1939, Doug had qualified as a sergeant with the 56^th Battery, RCA at Albert Head. Later, he served at the Duntze Head Battery in HMC Dockyard as the Senior NCO. He went on to serve with the 6^th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Lethbridge, Alberta, as an instructor. After service in Alaska, that regiment was transferred to Petawawa, Ont. and then to England in 1942 for practical training and operations against enemy aircraft.

Commissioned in 1943, Lt Douglas Nelson was seconded to the 98^th AA Regiment, Royal Artillery and saw action in the air defence of Great Britain against enemy aircraft and V1 rocket attacks. However, compassionate family matters brought him back to Victoria in August 1943, where he served with the 42^nd Heavy AA Battery, RCA until de-mobilization in 1946.

While Doug began his civilian career immediately as a personnel officer and administrator at HMC Dockyard, Esquimalt, he also re-enlisted in 1946 with the Militia and his original artillery unit, the 5^th Coast Regiment, RCA and eventually was its commanding officer from 1956 until 1964. Then, under the re-organization of the Militia, the Group Headquarters was disbanded and its deputy commander, LCol Douglas Nelson, was retired after 30 years of military service.

It was also 1946 when Doug joined the United Services Institute of Vancouver Island where, after 1968, he served on the Board of Directors as vice president, president and Newsletter editor for a total of 10 years; for those services, Doug was awarded an Honorary Life Membership in 1987. Doug is still an active member and one of the very few who have exceeded 50 years of continuous membership in the United Services Institutes of Canada.

Other community interests have been and are: the Vancouver Island Corps of Commissionaires where he was governor and past governor for six years; trustee of the Maritime Museum of BC for 17 years; guild master and past guild master in the Baden-Powell Guild of the Boy Scouts of Canada; president and past president of the 5^th (BC) Artillery Museum and Archives; and, co-founder of the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum where he still serves as honorary base historian. For the latter, Doug has been awarded the Maritime Commander’s Commendation.

In 1990, Doug was appointed to the Esquimalt Heritage Advisory Committee and for his services in that capacity has been presented with the BC Heritage Trust Award.

Doug still lives in Esquimalt with his wife, Renée; they have a daughter, Christine, and a son, Christopher.

      top
 previous article   |   News 3/03 index   |   next article