by Scott Taylor
In the early hours of Friday 26 February, 2021 we received the sad news that Les Peate had passed away the previous afternoon. We were notified by the Peate family, but for the past three decades we have been proud to consider Les Peate as a much loved member of the Esprit de Corps family. Peate joined our writing team almost from the outset of us launching the monthly version in May 1991.
We soon discovered there was almost no part of the Canadian defence community to which Peate was not somehow connected. He had fought in the Korean War with the British army but then subsequently served for 16 years in the Canadian Forces.
He dedicated his time to the Korea Veteran’s Association (KVA), and ended up serving a term as their National President.
Peate was also: a devoted member of the Royal Canadian Legion, a Liaison officer to the Army Cadet League, a volunteer at the Canadian War Museum and an eager participant with the Memory Project Speakers’ Forum. Peate was the last surviving member of a team that we unoffically dubbed ‘The Old Guard’. This was Esprit
de Corps’ original historical writing team which included fellow historians Strome Galloway and Norm Shannon, both of whom were WW2 veterans of the RCR and RCAF respectively.
Peate initially contributed to Esprit de Corps, monthly features on the Canadian military involvement in the Korean War. These short stories were eventually compiled into a chronological account of that conflict which was released as Peate’s 2005 bestselling book The War That Wasn’t: Canadians in Korea. Following the completion of that book Peate admitted that after writing 168 stories, over 14 years, covering a conflict that lasted only 3 years, he had run out of new Korean War material.
Instead, Peate began producing a monthly Trivia section and what would become one of our most popular monthly segments The Old Guard Update. In these columns Peate would bring readers up to date on all the latest developments in the world of Canadian veterans. While often holding the VAC government officials’ feet to the fire with his writings, Peate was still held in high esteem by the VAC bureaucracy.
Les Peate leaves behind Joyce his loving and devoted wife of 71 years. For those who were blessed to know them, they were truly a tight team – a dynamic duo. At Esprit
de Corps we did not regard them individually, but rather collectively they were simply known to us as “Les & Joyce”. While Les contributed his writing skills and extensive military experience, Joyce spent years volunteering her bookkeeping skills to assist with the magazine’s administration. The two Peates also consistently volunteered for our monthly mail–out sessions when we used to manually affix the labels to every subscribers’ copy.
On behalf of the entire extended Esprit de Corps family I wish to offer Joyce and the Peate family our sincere condolences on the loss of a truly great man. He was a soldier to the bitter end. He is gone but will never be forgotten.
Rest In Peace Leslie Peate.
Les Peate In His Own Words
Editor’s Note: This bio passage was written by Les Peate about himself (circa 2006), and it clearly reveals both his humility and humour.
Les Peate’s military career began when, as an army cadet, he was poised to prevent a German invasion of his homeland, armed with an 1880’s Martini-Enfield carbine (but no ammo). The success of this was evident as the Nazis were obviously deterred from invading Britain. Later Les joined the British army, perhaps his most notable exploit being to pass out on his first Buckingham Palace guard. He later served with no particular distinction as an infantryman in the Far East and later in Korea.
Following his release he became a “bobby” in England for a couple of years until, lured by the high pay he remembered from his Canadian contacts in Korea, he joined the Canadian Army in 1954, serving for 16 years in the Canadian Provost Corps, the Royal Canadian Regiment and eventually the Canadian Intelligence Corps.
After leaving the Regular Force in 1970 he worked with Employment and Immigration Canada until retiring in 1992.The last 10 years were spent in Emergency Planning. He also spent 15 years in the Reserves (CIC) finally hanging up his uniform (the tie and socks of which still fitted) in 1986. Since 1992 he has been active with the Korea Veterans Association (of which he is National Vice-President), as a Vice-Chairman of the National Council of Veterans Associations in Canada, and as a member of a number of committees and working groups on veterans’ issues. He is also a contributor on the Korean War, veterans’ issues, and other matters to the Canadian Military Magazine,
Esprit de Corps. He is partnered by a patient spouse (Joyce) who also helps out at this magazine, and is a slave to a ginger cat.
He has recently become a published author with his book The War That Wasn’t: Canadians in Korea detailing the lives of Canadian soldiers in the trenches of Korea.
