Posted by Carol Hutchinson on Nov 05, 2019
Eric McGeer  and his son Colin at the new
Canadian Memorial on Verrieres Ridge in Normandy
 
Guest Speaker: Eric McGeer , Friday Nov. 8, 2019
Location: The National Club, 303 Bay Street
Topic: Memories of the D-Day Dodgers 
Host: Harold Hetherington
 
NEW Cost:  Toronto Rotarians and Their Guests: A Lunch Ticket
Visiting Rotarians and Other Guests $60 Cash at the door
or ahead of time on credit card by calling no later than Thursday
at 416-363-0604 or email: accounts@rotarytoronto.com
 
Biography
 
Eric McGeer is an academic who studied at the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal. He obtained his doctorate in history from the University of Montreal in his chosen area of study, the Byzantine Empire. He lectured at the University of Montreal, Dumbarton Oaks research Centre, Harvard University, University of Toronto and York University. In addition he taught at St. Clément’s girls’ school here in Toronto on the subjects of Latin and history.
 
More recently Eric’s interests changed to military history and particularly to the study of Canada's involvement in World War One and World War Two.
 
He has written a numerous articles on Canadian military history. In addition he has written and published five books on this subject including two 'coffee-table books' on the military cemeteries of Europe, one on WWI and one on WWII. Most recently, this past month, he published his latest book on officer training at the University of Toronto and the University's role in the wars that Canada has participated in from the mid-19th century, through to the present.
 
Eric has led and continues to lead many guided tours, for Canadian groups and others, to the battlefield sites and military cemeteries across Western Europe, including in France, Belgium, Holland and Italy, among other locations.
 
2019 is the 75th anniversary of two often overlooked Canadian involvement in the Second World War. These are the anniversaries of the Italian campaign, the breaking of the Hitler Line in May of 1944 and the other the battle of the Gothic Line in August/September 1944. Both rank among the greatest achievements of Canadian soldiers in the Second World War. As part of his presentation, Eric will show photos of some of the sites as well as paintings done by the Canadian war artists.
 
Eric lives in midtown Toronto with his wife Sylvia and their two young children.