He joined the Permanent Force as an infantry officer when Canada established its own professional infantry unit in 1883. On May 2, 1885, he led a Canadian force of more than 300 in the Battle of Cut Knife against a Cree and Assiniboine camp defended by Poundmaker and Fine-Day. Otter's tactics were ineffective against the defending warriors.
During the Second Boer War, Otter, by then a lieutenant colonel, commanded the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry in South Africa. Otter played an important part in the Battle of Paardeberg.
He became the first Canadian-born officer to command Canada's military in 1908, and retired in 1910 as a major general. In 1922 he was the second Canadian, after Sir Arthur Currie, to be appointed a full general. Otter had the reputation of being something of a martinet – due mainly to his desire that the young Canadian Army should not show up badly when compared to British troops.[2]
He wrote The Guide: A Manual for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) Embracing the Interior Economy, Duties, Discipline, Drills and Parades, Dress, Books, and Correspondence of a Battalion with Regulations for Marches, Transport & Encampment, Also Forms & Bugle Calls in 1914, which includes sections on discipline, courts martial, offences, complaints, and defaulters.
During the First World War he came out of retirement to command operations for the internment of enemy nationals resident in Canada.
Otter headed the Otter Commission. The Otter Commission was tasked to establish links of perpetuation from the units of Canadian Expeditionary Force back to the institutionally separate units of the Canadian Militia in the years following the First World War. This establishment of perpetuation, based primarily on geographical connections through original recruiting areas of the CEF infantry battalions and CEF mounted regiments, provided a basis by which the achievements and battle honours of the CEF units transferred back to the units of the standing Militia. Without this work of the Otter Commission the CEF and its achievements would have had no continuance with existing units of the Canadian Army today.
General Sir William Otter died on 6 May 1929.
Freemason
Otter was initiated into the Ionic Lodge of Freemasonry in Toronto in February 1869. He became Worshipful Master in 1873.[3]
Otter Squadron, composed of University Training Plan Non Commissioned Member (UTPNCM) Officer Cadets, at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, was named in his honour and the Cadet Squadron Leader of Otter Squadron is permitted to carry his sword on graduation parade.
Family connections
In October 1895 he married Marian Porter, daughter of James Porter & Agnes Dryden. They had three sons and one daughter. Otter was the grandfather of Canadian Military historian Desmond Morton.
^Herbert George Todd (1915). Armory and lineages of Canada. p. 69.
Further reading
Desmond Morton, The Canadian General Sir William Otter, Toronto: Hakkert, 1974. Canadian War Museum historical publication
Commander Chas. N. Robinson R.N., Celebrities of the Army, London: George Newnes Limited, 1900.
Major-General Sir William D. Otter `The Guide: A Manual for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) Embracing the Interior Economy, Duties, Discipline, Drills and Parades, Dress, Books, and Correspondence of a Battalion with Regulations for Marches, Transport & Encampment, Also Forms & Bugle Calls` Toronto: Copp, Clark & Co. 1914
