Clarence Sparks McKee

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Clarence Sparks McKee was born in Chicago in 1893, when his father William McKee was at the World's Fair representing the Massey-Harris Company of Toronto.

He joined the Canadian Army's Corps of Guides, who were a reconnaissance outfit in Toronto, in 1913, as a Trooper, and eventually became a Lieutenant with them. The Corps of Guides were not going overseas in the First War and this annoyed him. In the fall of 1917 he resigned from the Corps of Guides and went overseas to join the British Army. He went to Whitehall and said he wanted to join the Horse Guards. They said, "We don't take Colonials in the Horse Guards!" So, in disgust, went and joined the Royal Field Artillery and finished the war with "D" Battery. They did have horses, which suited him.

He returned from overseas in 1919, he rejoined the Corps of Guides, eventually commanding the Toronto Company as a Captain. They were disbanded as being no longer appropriate with the horses in 1929, and at that stage he joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals as a Captain. He was serving in the Signals as a militia officer when war broke out. On the 3rd of September he went down and volunteered at once, and he was sent overseas in 1939 as an Acting Major in charge of "M" Company, which was a very large company. He became Adjutant of the 1st Division Signals, then second in command, and finally he commanded 1st Canadian Division Signals. He was made Chief Signals Officer of the 1st Canadian Corps, in 1943, just as they were about to go out to Sicily. He commanded the 1st Canadian Corps Signals, as the senior signals officer for all the Canadians in Italy, fighting from Sicily right up to the Po River in northeast Italy.

He was relieved eventually, by this time he was fifty-one. He came back via northwest Europe and spent a short period there, running over his experiences of the fighting in Italy – the Gothic Line and the Hitler line, etc., and then came back to Canada in February of 1945.

He became Honourary Colonel of the 2nd Toronto Signal's Regiment. He was later appointed as Colonel Commandant of Signals, which is an advisory position for a militia officer for the Signals to the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Signals. He was a Brigadier, and the most senior militia officer in Signals in the war to have an active field command. He was awarded American Legion of Merit, and the C.B.E. – the Commander of the Order of the British Empire, as well as the war service medals from WWI and WWII.

1934 - The first Canadian branch of the Pony Club, the Eglinton branch, was established by Col. Timmis and Clarence McKee, assisted by Helen Guerney. Col. Timmis was appointed as Canada's first District Commissioner. Captain Dick Paton was also a major supporter.

1941 - 1943 Chief Signal Officer 1st Canadian Division, England
1943 - 1945 Chief Signal Officer I Canadian Corps, England - Italy
1945 Retired (www.generals.dk)