{"id":10582,"date":"2015-01-21T18:41:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T23:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10582"},"modified":"2015-01-21T18:41:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T23:41:37","slug":"rip-colonel-retd-rhett-lawson-cd-kh-klj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/rip-colonel-retd-rhett-lawson-cd-kh-klj\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP: Colonel (ret'd) Rhett Lawson, CD, KH, KLJ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rhett_CarletonLawson-300x420\"<\/a>
Colonel (ret’d) Rhett Lawson, CD, KH, KLJ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

21 January 2015: \u00a0The RMR Foundation regrets to announce the death of\u00a0Colonel (ret’d) Rhett Lawson, CD, KH, KLJ,\u00a0a former Commanding Officer (1967-70), Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel (1979-84), and Honorary Colonel (1984-90) of The Royal\u00a0<\/span>Montreal<\/span> Regiment<\/span><\/a> (and former Commander of District 1, a precursor to 34 GBC). \u00a0Comrade Lawson was also a member of the RMR Association (Br. 14)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Colonel Lawson was long considered the soul of the Regiment, and his counsel was sought on all matters. \u00a0His thirst for knowledge was unquenchable and he kept himself up to date with regards to weapons, tactics, leadership, uniforms, deployments, vehicles, etc. His dedication and passion for the RMR was strong to the end, and he was quite\u00a0involved in editing the upcoming volume of the RMR’s Centennial history book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His funeral will be held on Monday 26 January 2015. \u00a0Visitation will take place at the BROME-MISSISQUOI Funeral Complex<\/a> (402 River Steet, Cowansville 450.266.6061) starting\u00a0at 13h00, followed by a celebration of his life that will take place at the Complex at 15h00.<\/p>\n

Read the complete obituary here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A video tribute can be viewed here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Colonel Lawson’s\u00a0time in command was one of great change in Canadian society and the military, a confluence of history particularly centred in Quebec and Montreal: 1967 – 1970. \u00a0<\/em>Remarkably, Colonel Lawson assumed command at the tender age of 30, after only 8-years in the military – completely unheard of in a peacetime army. From enrollment he had devoted himself to taking every single training course that he could, and he was fully qualified for promotion to LCol and able to take command in September 1967. \u00a0It can not be overlooked that Colonel Lawson was part of a new breed who had not served in WW2, and he had new ideas. \u00a0His civilian career (and passion) was Advertising, and his creative mind certainly served the Regiment well<\/em><\/p>\n

Right from the beginning, even compared to all of society\u2019s upheaval, progressive change, and more in the late 1960\u2019s, Colonel Lawson was ahead of his time.<\/em><\/p>\n

He took soldiering seriously and forced the Regiment to change from a social club mentality that saw the troops rarely training outside their Armoury. \u00a0He instituted Saturday field training which replaced the Tuesday & Thursday evening schedules. \u00a0His training model was so successful that it was mandated across Quebec by the end of the year, and then across the country within two years. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

As a born leader of men, he understood that fundamentally soldiers crave tough, challenging training – not being coddled. \u00a0He even created an \u201cRMR Special Forces Platoon\u201d and personally designed their own patch that they were allowed to wear on their uniforms. Competition to become part of this elite force was fierce.<\/em><\/p>\n

Colonel Lawson loved being in the field. He especially enjoyed night recce patrols, shooting, and driving military vehicles at maximum speed across country. \u00a0It is documented in Volume 3 of the Regimental history that his driving once thrust his passenger\u2019s head straight through the canvas of the jeep. \u00a0It was a \u201crather peculiar bump\u201d according to the good Colonel\u2026 of course his passenger, the RSM, was less than amused by the adventure.<\/em><\/p>\n

Colonel Lawson\u2019s contributions to the Regiment were tremendous, here are a few examples:<\/em><\/p>\n

He oversaw the Regiment receiving two of its four sets of Colours. \u00a0First as CO in 1969, and again as Honorary Colonel in 1989. \u00a0It must be noted that in 1969 he strove for the RMR to be one of the first units to receive the new Queen\u2019s Colour with the distinctive Maple Leaf replacing the Union Jack, and the RMR was the third unit in the entire country to be so honoured.<\/em><\/p>\n

Women were permitted to join the Regiment for the first time, and Colonel Lawson welcomed them into the field and onto the range.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cadet Corps 2862<\/a> was formed and still exists today.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Regiment was deemed \u201cofficially bilingual\u201d, the first unit in Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n

Militia training was professionalized across the country, due to his leadership.<\/em><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t only good times of course, his command also saw a minor exodus of leaders West \u201cdown the 401\u201d towards a stronger economy and less FLQ activities. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Unification of the Forces in 1968 shook things up immeasurably, and both the RMR\u2019s \u201cD\u201d Company in Ste-Anne\u2019s and the Regimental band were closed as a result of cost-cutting. \u00a0As the \u201cnew kids on the block\u201d (the Regiment was barely 50-years old at the time), the RMR was in very serious danger of being disbanded.<\/em><\/p>\n

The unit held its last \u201cannual gala Ball\u201d in 1970, as the depleted ranks of the Officers and NCO messes were incapable of carrying on the planning.<\/em><\/p>\n

Political upheaval caused much strife: his own change of command parade to LCol (ret’d) Art Cauty was cancelled due to the FLQ crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the challenges of his era, Colonel Lawson\u2019s strong leadership saw him move up quickly through the ranks post-command, and he eventually commanded District Number One, Montreal (precursor of today’s 34 GBC). \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1979 the Regiment appointed him as Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel and in 1984 he was appointed Honorary Colonel, a position he held until 1990. \u00a0Most members of the Regimental Family are unaware at just how involved he was in all aspects of Regimental life. Working behind the scenes, he magically made problems disappear before most people could even become aware that there was a problem. \u00a0In December he was still regularly involved\u00a0in the upcoming publication of the Regiment\u2019s Centennial history, having edited several drafts himself. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

His interest in the men and women who make up the Regiment are what really make him stand out in my mind. Traditions, trappings, rituals, etc. all have their place, but he was most concerned about the people who made up his beloved Regiment.<\/em><\/p>\n

LEST WE FORGET<\/h1>\n
\"All<\/a>
All living CO’s of the RMR on 01 November 2014, Colonel Lawson centre in wheelchair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 January 2015: \u00a0The RMR Foundation regrets to announce the death of\u00a0Colonel (ret’d) Rhett Lawson, CD, KH, KLJ,\u00a0a former Commanding Officer (1967-70), Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel (1979-84), and Honorary Colonel (1984-90) of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-centennial","category-news","category-rmr-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}