The Lorne Scots Regimental Association Newsletter September 2025
- Capt (Ret'd) Stewart Sherriff, CD
- Sep 10
- 6 min read
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying” Robert Herrick 1648
How quickly the summer has passed. Let’s look back at what has been going on around the Regimental Family over the summer.
New Appointment: Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Lori Duthie
Our Commanding Officer is very pleased to announce the appointment of Lori Duthie as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the Lorne Scots Regiment. Lori and her family live in Georgetown and she has been involved with the Regiment as member of our Regimental Senate since 2018. Lori brings a unique perspective to the Lorne Scots as she has had a long history with the Canadian Armed Forces starting first as an air cadet at the age of 12, and then joining the RCAF as a Reservist while continuing to maintain her engagement with youth and cadet development.
She started her professional career with Air Canada as a Ramp Operations Manager before ultimately moving into a leadership position in Labour Relations. Upon retiring from Air Canada, Lori was appointed Executive Director of the Canadian International Air Show. As leader of Canada’s premier air show, Lori fulfills the important role of inspiring Canadians to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces.
No stranger to challenge and fulfilling a lifelong dream, Lori earned her pilot’s license at the age of 40. Now in recognition of her ongoing commitment to community and country, Canada’s Minister of National Defence has appointed Lori as our new Honorary Lieutenant Colonel.
From the Regiment
The summer months are usually quiet around the regimental lines with members being away taking courses, staffing courses or on tasks and employment.
This year has been no exception. But unit members have been attracting attention.
Pte Theron started the summer off by being the Top Candidate on his Rank Qualification Course (DP 1 Infantry to the old soldiers out there)
Cpl Helen Ihejiahi and four other members of the regiment have been showing the Regimental flag while serving as members of the Ceremonial Guard (CG) in Ottawa. The CG has been posting stories about their members on Facebook. So far, they have only mentioned Cpl Ihejiahi and Cpl Sebastian Petipas, so the question is who are the other three?
The Regiment has a number of soldiers deployed on OP REASSURANCE. Operational Security means that we can’t tell who is where at present but occasionally something slips out.
NATO Multinational Battle Group Lithuania put this picture up on their Facebook page in a post on 11 Jul. It was about multi-national participation in a German Army Small Arms qualification shoot. No names went with the picture, but we can tell you that these two are well known Lorne Scots.
The Regiment wrapped up the summer by participating in EX STALWART GUARDIAN at 4th Canadian Divisions’ favorite summer campground, CFB Petawawa, from 14 to 24 August. The Regiment provided a Company headquarters and a rifle platoon. Two platoons from the 48th Highlanders rounded out the Company.
Honorary Colonel Gary Love helped to keep an old tradition alive by taking part in Honoraries Day. Honorary Colonels came to Petawawa to be briefed on the exercise and what their soldiers were doing and then they taken into the field to see and speak with the soldiers.
From the Fusiliers
Our congratulations to the Colonel of the Regiment, Major General Jon Swift OBE, on being appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff with effect from 01 September.
Maj Gen Swift has been the Director Programmes at Army HQ since 2023.
As the Assistant Chief of Staff, Maj Gen Swift will be responsible for supporting the Army Chief of Staff. His responsibilities include overseeing the Army internal and external communications policy, developing the Army of the Future and acting as link between the Ministry of Defense and the Army Headquarters.
The Museum
The Lorne Scots Regimental Museum (LSRM) continues to build on its calibre and its professional direction. Both visitor numbers and new volunteers have increased significantly over the summer.
In July, led by our Director of Collections and in partnership with the Regiment’s Full Time Summer Employment team, the museum launched Operation Trench. The purpose of the operation was to clear, organize, and process all objects, refuse and artifacts in the basement storage of the “old museum” at 48 John Street. Many hundreds of artifacts were extricated, and the team effectively advanced the museum’s collection management and integrity by decades.
Trench was a resounding success, and we acknowledge the support of Col Gary Love and the entire team who assisted us. Several of the best individual finds from the operation included Capt Jay Airds’ Air Canada silverware collection; a pristine First World War Brodie helmet with original liner and named to LCol Harold Lowe; and the 3rd Division Artillery trophy for Best Section which was won by Lt Conn Smythe and his section in 1916. There will be more to come on these discoveries and others in future newsletters and museum social media posts!
Another major development for the museum this summer was the creation of a cutting-edge collections’ photography lab at 48 John. Inside the lab, the team has begun to professionally catalogue, photograph, and store each individual piece of the museum’s collection. The photographs will form part of a new online catalogue which will be published for everyone to enjoy! Association Secretary, Scott Ching, Volunteer Coordinator David Fimio and the team, have been instrumental in building this exciting new centre for museum projects!
Meanwhile, the museum has been undertaking a longer-term project to verify, account, and organize its entire collection of approximately 10,000 objects. This is a major effort to better manage and organize the museum’s collection which has accumulated since 1980. The new museum team is working steadily to complete a master collections registry will serve as the LSRM’s backbone for all future exhibitions and collections projects.
One interesting new artifact acquired by the museum this summer was a “Lifeguard” trench periscope.
Donated to LSRM by the Oakville Historical Society, the Lifeguard trench periscope was designed in 1915 by Mr. Edgar Duerr of the well-known jam and fruit preserve makers. It was offered for sale to soldiers at the price of 15 shillings (or 75 pence) and it included a small web pouch.
The periscope extends to about 20 inches in length and offers a horizontal field of view of 100 yards at a range of 400 yards – not bad for a pocket periscope.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Duerr’s still-existing jam company made 100 replica trench periscopes and sold them to the public for £65 pounds each. The money raised was donated to veterans’ charities in the UK.
Get in touch
On September 20 & 21, the LSRM will be hosting “The War of 1812 Experience.” Artifact handling, uniform try-on, professional reenactors, black powder demonstrations, and more will be happening over the weekend, but especially during Doors Open on Sunday the 21st. Admission is by donation, and proceeds will help the museum to continue with its exciting projects.
If you are interested to join our museum team or to donate any objects to the museum’s collection, please contact our Director of Collections, Ryan Goldsworthy: r.goldsworthy@lornescots.ca
For research requests, please contact Curator, Stew Sherriff: stewart.sherriff3@gmail.com
You can always contribute to the museum on Canada Helps:
Follow the museum on Instagram:
Coming Events
Rededication of Port Credit Cenotaph (Sat 27 1000 - 1400 hrs Sep 25)
90th birthday of our Colonel-in-Chief, HRH The Duke of Kent (Thurs 09 Oct 25)
Brampton Steelheads Veterans Appreciation Night (21 Nov 25)
Brampton Run For Veterans (18 Apr 26)
How to contribute to the Newsletter
If you have a story about an upcoming event, want to pass on how an event went or something that may be of interest to the Regimental Family, please send a short write-up (100 – 150 words or so) with one or two good quality pictures to the Editor at stewart.sherriff3@gmail.com.
Please ensure that all people in any submitted pictures have agreed to have their images posted. The Association will assume that such permissions have been acquired before the picture was submitted.
The Association reserves the right to vet all submissions for appropriateness before posting. Items may not be deemed suitable for posting due to inappropriate language or content. Items submitted will reviewed for factual accuracy and may be edited for length.
Any mistakes which may occur are entirely accidental and no malice or harm is ever intended.
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