bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 4 (2001-2002) — Winter 2001/2002, p. 20
Dacre Cole served in the Canadian Navy during the Second World War. He joined as an Ordinary Seaman in 1941 and by the time he retired in 1946 he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Commander. He spent most of the war on the convoy escort runs to Murmansk. After leaving the Navy, he studied in France, Germany and especially Switzerland, at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva.
I first met Dacre in 1953 when he joined the Department and was assigned to the Far Eastern Division where I was on the Indochina Desk. He was an approachable, friendly, likeable, outgoing person who genuinely enjoyed helping people. He was working on Japan and Korea with “McGuff” (Charles Eustace McGaughey), another friendly and very likeable man, who died not so long ago.
After about a year in the Far Eastern Division our paths diverged, owing to assignments in different parts of the world. His postings included the Consulate General in New York and the Five-Power Disarmament Conference in Washington. He later went to Prague and then to Brasilia, where he was officer-in-charge (1962-1964), as the embassy was then still located in Rio de Janeiro. Back in Ottawa, he spent several years in the Consular sector and also at the Royal Military College (History Department) in Kingston.
Upon his return to Ottawa from Kingston, he was assigned to the Historical Division, of which I was the Director at the time. I put his friendly, helpful personality to good use by placing him in charge of our academic relations programme. We were providing a good deal of help to many professors and researchers, both Canadian and foreign, seeking access to departmental files for their books and other projects. He enjoyed the job and was very good at it. He would often go to a great deal of trouble to locate information about the sometimes esoteric requests that surfaced along his path. The glowing letters of acknowledgement and thanks that I received from those whom he had helped were tributes to his success in making the Department better known and liked in the academic world.
In retirement, he moved west, first to Prince Rupert, later to Victoria. He did not long survive his wife, Diana. They were a devoted, closely-knit couple.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 18, No. 4 (2001-2002) — Winter 2001/2002, p. 20. Read the rest of this issue →
