Allegiance Canadian Rank Major general Name Bert Hoffmeister | Awards OCCBCBEDSO Years of service 1939-1945 | |
Service/branch Canadian Active Service Force Unit 1st Canadian Division5th Canadian DivisionCanadian Army Pacific Force Battles/wars Second World WarBattle of SicilyItalian CampaignMoro RiverBattle of OrtonaLiri ValleyGothic LineBattle of RiminiLiberation of ArnhemNorth West Europe Campaign Battles and wars World War II, Allied invasion of Sicily | ||
Major General Bertram Meryl "Bert" Hoffmeister OC CB CBE DSO ED (15 May 1907 – 4 December 1999) was a Canadian Army officer, businessman, and conservationist.
Biography
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia to parents Louis and Flora, he was a sales manager with the Canadian White Pine Co. Ltd. in Vancouver. He enlisted with the Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM, the Canadian Army Reserve Force) in 1927. He was promoted captain in 1934. After he was promoted to major, in 1939, he was made officer commanding a company of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada who went to England in 1939.
He attended the Canadian Junior War Staff courses at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.
In 1942, he was promoted lieutenant colonel. In 1943, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order while fighting in Sicily. He received a bar to the DSO the following year
In October 1943, promoted to brigadier general, he was named commanding officer of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, who fought in the Italian Campaign. In March 1944, he was promoted to major general and made general officer commanding the 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division. After VE-Day, he was made general officer commanding the 6th Canadian Division (Canadian Army Pacific Force) which disbanded after the atomic bombings of Japan. Hoffmeister retired from active service in September 1945. That same year, he was made a Grand Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau with swords as well as a Companion of the Order of the Bath and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1947, he was made a Commander of the Legion of Merit.
After the war, in 1949 he became president of MacMillan Bloedel Limited and was its chairman from 1956 to 1958. From 1958 to 1961, he was British Columbia's agent general in London. From 1961 to 1968, he was chairman of the Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia, an association for the British Columbia interior forest industry. From 1971 to 1991 he was the founding chairman of the Nature Trust of British Columbia, a non-profit land conservation organization.
In 1982, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.