James Maxwell "Mick" Gleason

Essex Scottish Regiment, reported missing after the Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942. Later a Windsor fire captain. Born 9 October 1918, died 10 October 2003, the day after his 85th birthday.

The lead photograph is a family portrait of Mick in his Essex Scottish bonnet and medals, courtesy of the Gleason family, shared via Windsor News Facebook on 11 November 2026. The file is small (160 by 213 pixels). A sharper original from the family can replace it later if one is offered. The 2001 Windsor Star portrait by Nick Brancaccio is not used here, because the newspaper's copyright still applies.

Name, dates, and family

Published death notices, as transcribed on MesAieux, give his name as James Maxwell "Mickey" Gleason, born 9 October 1918, and record that he died on 10 October 2003 at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital, at the age of 85. The same notices say he was predeceased by his wife, Catherine Eileen "Kay" (nee Mullins). This desk has not yet opened a complete original newspaper page of the notice.^obit-gleason

On 11 November 2026, his son Greg Gleason wrote on a Windsor News Facebook post that Mick "passed in October 10, 2003. One day after turning 85 years old." Those dates match the death notices.^greg-gleason

He was known as Mick and as Mickey. A 2001 Windsor Star column by Gord Henderson uses Mick. The death notices use Mickey. A later Windsor Fire memoir uses both.^{star-gleasonobit-gleasonlodge-gleason}

The Essex Scottish and Dieppe

Private J. M. Gleason, service number A22340, was on the strength of the Essex Scottish Regiment by the spring of 1942. The battalion's Part II Order No. 35, dated 11 May 1942, lists him among men granted privilege leave from 27 April to 4 May 1942.^{diary-gleason-leave}

After the Dieppe raid of 19 August 1942, the same battalion's Part II Order No. 58, dated 29 August 1942, posted him to the "X" list as missing, citing Army casualty list 190 of 23 August 1942. That order recorded what the battalion knew ten days after the raid, not each man's final fate. "Missing" is not a death, and it is not, by itself, a prisoner-of-war record.^{diary-gleason-missing}

A mid-September 1942 casualty list, published after Ottawa announced the Dieppe losses, names "Pte James Maxwell Gleason, Windsor, Ont." among the missing from the Western Ontario Regiment, the grouping that list used for the Essex Scottish. This desk read the name from a scan of the Hamilton Spectator. The scan's folio date is hard to read in places (16 or 18 September 1942).^spec-gleason

A later secondary Dieppe roster also lists him as Private James Maxwell Gleason, A22340. That roster leaves his status blank, as it does for many names, so the blank is not evidence one way or the other.^{jubilee-gleason}

As the Star reported it, in 2001

On 10 November 2001, Gord Henderson published a column in the Windsor Star, "Vet confronts past within," on page A12. The column, written from an interview, describes James Maxwell "Mick" Gleason, then 83, as an Essex Scottish veteran of the 1942 Dieppe raid who had spent three years in German prisoner-of-war camps. It says he later became a Windsor fire captain, and that he was a widower. It says he would stand before the Windsor cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday that year for the first time. It also mentions a death march from the camps, strafed by Allied fighters, and an airport golf tournament in which each hole was named for a veteran. The column describes him wearing an Essex Scottish bonnet. Those details come from the column. They have not been checked against his service file, and this desk has not found his name on an official prisoner-of-war register.^star-gleason

Not claimed here. This profile does not name a prison camp, and it does not treat the death march, the first visit to the cenotaph, or the golf tournament as independently confirmed facts. They are recorded as what the 2001 column reported.

Windsor Fire Department

The 1949 Windsor city directory lists "Jas M (Catherine) firemn Win Fire Dept." The same form, James M. Gleason, wife Catherine, Windsor Fire Department, continues in later directories, including 1951, which gives her name as Catherine E., and 1964, which still lists him as a fireman. The 1977 directory lists "Gleason James M & Cath; captain Windsor Fire Department."^{dir-gleason-1949dir-gleason-1951dir-gleason-1964dir-gleason-1977}

A memoir by Windsor firefighter Jack Lodge, published on 30 December 2010, recalls working at Station No. 7 in Riverside in about 1973, and names "Mickey Gleason, our captain," later "Mick." That is a recollection written decades later, and the year is given as "about 1973."^{lodge-gleason}

The directories confirm a long fire-department career and, by 1977, the rank of captain. They do not, by themselves, fix the date he joined or the date he was promoted. Older directories often used "fireman" as a general occupation word.

Source and rights

The lead photograph is a public-domain Library and Archives Canada official photograph, used only as regiment and raid context until a family portrait can replace it. Please do not treat the men in that picture as named, and do not treat any of them as Mick Gleason. The 2001 Windsor Star clipping and photograph are not used. Dates of birth and death are taken from published death-notice transcriptions and from Greg Gleason's message of 11 November 2026. Service facts before and after Dieppe are taken from the Essex Scottish war diary and from a 1942 published casualty list. Later fire-service facts are taken from Windsor city directories and from Jack Lodge's memoir.

He is not on the War Chest honour roll. That starting roll is reserved for people whose deaths in service are recorded on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. He survived the war and died in Windsor in 2003.

Back to the chronology entry

Notes

1. Death-notice transcriptions on MesAieux (YourFolks), "Obituary of James-Maxwell Gleason (1918 - 2003)" and "Obituary of James Gleason," https://www.mesaieux.com/genealogy/james_gleason, retrieved 11 November 2026. The transcripts give: James "MICKEY" Maxwell Gleason, 9 October 1918 to 10 October 2003, 85 years, died at Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital; predeceased by Catherine Eileen "Kay" (nee Mullins). This desk has not opened a complete original newspaper page.
2. Greg Gleason, comment on a Windsor News Facebook post, 11 November 2026, stating that Mick "passed in October 10, 2003. One day after turning 85 years old." Family statement, used here for the dates. The comment itself is not reproduced as an image on this page.
3. Gord Henderson, "Vet confronts past within," Windsor Star, Saturday 10 November 2001, page A12. Read from a photograph of the printed page sent to Windsor News in November 2026. The clipping and the portrait by Nick Brancaccio are not published here. The column identifies him as James Maxwell "Mick" Gleason, 83, an Essex Scottish Dieppe veteran, a former prisoner of war, a Windsor fire captain, and a widower.
4. Essex Scottish Regiment, war diary, 1942, vol. 3, Part II Order No. 35, 11 May 1942, PDF leaf 496. "A22340 Pte. Gleason, J.M." appears in a privilege-leave list for 27 April to 4 May 1942. Digitized copy, University of Windsor Leddy Library, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14776/18532. Leaf numbers are PDF positions. The entry was checked against the page image, not only the OCR.
5. Essex Scottish Regiment, war diary, 1942, vol. 3, Part II Order No. 58, 29 August 1942, "Strength Decrease" / "X" List, PDF leaf 844. "A22340 Pte. Gleason, J.M." is listed with the ditto status "Missing," citing "A. list 190 d/23 Aug 42." Same digitized volume as above. The OCR renders the surname poorly; the service number and the page image were used to confirm the name.
6. "Canada's Casualties at Dieppe Total 3,350, Ottawa Indicates," Hamilton Spectator, mid-September 1942, in a scan published at wartimes.ca, retrieved 11 November 2026. The list includes "Pte James Maxwell Gleason Windsor Ont" among the missing from the Western Ontario Regiment. The scan's date line is hard to read in places (16 or 18 September 1942).
7. Association Jubilee - Dieppe, "Essex Scottish Regiment" roster, https://www.dieppe-operationjubilee-19aout1942.fr/op%C3%A9ration-jubilee/forces-alli%C3%A9es/essex-scottish-rgt/, retrieved 11 November 2026. Secondary compilation. Entry: "GLEASON JAMES MAXWELL. PTE A22340," status field blank.
8. Windsor City Directory 1949, alphabetical listing, "Gleason ... Jas M (Catherine) firemn Win Fire Dept," read from the Internet Archive text layer, https://archive.org/details/WindsorCityDirectory1949. A name, spouse, and occupation match is strong evidence, not a service record.
9. Windsor City Directory 1951, "Jas M (Catherine E) firemn Win Fire Dept," https://archive.org/details/WindsorCityDirectory1951. The middle initial E. matches Catherine Eileen in the death notices.
10. Windsor City Directory 1964, "Jas M (Catherine) firemn Win Fire Dept," https://archive.org/details/WindsorCityDirectory1964. A different James M. Gleason, wife Nancy, is also listed that year and is not this man.
11. Windsor City Directory 1977, "Gleason James M & Cath; captain Windsor Fire Department," https://archive.org/details/windsor-city-directory-1977.
12. Jack Lodge, "My First Time at the Wheel," The Phoenix: The WFD Retirees & Friends Blog, 30 December 2010, https://wfdretirees.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-first-time-at-the-wheel.html, retrieved 11 November 2026. The post is signed "Jack Lodge." It recalls Station No. 7 in Riverside in "about 1973" and names "Mickey Gleason, our captain," later "Mick." A memoir, not a personnel file.