Okanagan Military Museum

MILITARY BIOGRAPHIES

BRIGADIER HARRY H. ANGLE

Distinguished Service Order

A story of bravery and sacrifice -

Brigadier Harry Angle, DSO, was killed in an air crash in the mountains of the Punjab-Kashmir region on July 17, 1950. He was Canada's first UN peacekeeping fatality.

He had been serving as the Chief Military Observer for the United Nations Commission for Kashmir, a troubled area of the world still in conflict today. Brigadier Angle had come to serve with the UN after having served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. During the war he had commanded the British Columbia Dragoons, the Okanagan's own regiment, in the Italian Campaign. The regiment had fought in many battles, against some of the toughest units of the German army, as part of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division .

A knocked out German Panther tank

After the war he returned to Canada with the regiment as its commander when it was converted to an army reserve unit with squadrons based in the Okanagan towns of Kelowna and Vernon. Brigadier Angle exemplified service to Canada in war and peace.

Colonel Angle with BCDs in
front of Sherman tank

His sacrifice was the first of many made by the servicemen and women of this country in the service of peace through United Nations operations. They have been honoured internationally by the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to all UN peacekeepers and nationally by the construction of the National Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa.

If the name Angle sounds familiar to you it might be because the British Columbia Dragoons are housed in the Brigadier Angle Armouries in Kelowna,BC.

Canadian Peackeeper site