(16 May 1893-13 Jan. 1970), soldier, author. (Lt. -Col. Boss) Born at Burton-on-Trent, England. He served in the Canadian Army 1913 to 1948, and was overseas in both world wars. He was the author of The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders 1783-1951 (Ottawa, The Runge Press, Limited, 1952). This well known official history of the SDG regiment was reprinted in a splendidly prepared large volume of coffee-table format as Lieut.-Col. W. Boss and Brig.-Gen. W.J. Patterson, Up the Glens: Stormont Dundas and Glengarry at Highlanders 1783-1994 (Cornwall, Ont., The Old Book Store, 1995). He had been commissioned by the spring of 1947 to write this history, then occasional press reports followed on its progress. During the work, he visited Holland to gain further data. Col. Boss also wrote the history of the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish Regiment and part of the regimental history of the Governor General’s Foot Guards (1948). He left at his death an unpublished manuscript on saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. He was married to Marcelle-Blanche Ramaut (d. 1974) a native of Lille, France. Their son Gérard William Boss (Bill Boss) was a journalist and University of Ottawa public relations officer.
Private information *obituary of his wife, Kitchener-Waterloo Record 25 Feb. 1974 * “commissioned…data,” Standard Freeholder 28 April 1947, 11 May 1948, 28 Feb., 15 June (portrait), & 31 Aug. 1949 * Bill Boss: The Canadian Who’s Who 1958-1960 and article University of Ottawa Gazette 17:19 (1 Dec. 1982) on his retirement