Sansom, Ernest William, 1890-1982 : Ernest William Sansom (1890-1982), military officer, was born in Stanley, New Brunswick. He joined the 71st York Regiment, Canadian Militia, in 1906 and was appointed Lieutenant with the unit in 1907. During the First World War, he served with the 12th Infantry Battalion and later with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, ultimately commanding the 1st Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919 for his wartime service. In 1920, he joined the Permanent Force and commanded the Royal Canadian Machine Gun Brigade until its disbandment in 1923. During 1924-1925, he attended the Army Staff College, Camberley, England. He later held various staff positions in Canada.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he proceeded overseas on the Headquarters Staff of the 1st Canadian Division, later serving as Deputy Adjutant General at Canadian Military Headquarters in London. In November 1940, he was promoted to Major-General and assumed command of the 3rd Canadian Division. With the formation of the 5th Armoured Division, he was transferred to its command in March 1941. In January 1943, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General and appointed commander of the 2nd Canadian Corps. He returned to Canada in 1944 on medical grounds. During the Conscription Crisis of 1944-1945, he was employed on fact finding duties. In January 1945 he was appointed Inspector General, Canadian Army Overseas. He was made a Commander of the Bath in 1945 for his wartime service. At his own request, he retired from the Army in June 1945.
Sansom returned to Fredericton, New Brunswick. He ran, unsuccessfully, as the Progressive-Conservative Party candidate in the 1945 and 1947 federal campaigns for the New Brunswick riding of York-Sunbury. During the 1950s and 1960s, he served on the board of a number of benevolent bodies and charities. Amongst these were the Army Benevolent Fund, the Canadian March of Dimes, the Combined Appeal for the Handicapped, and the St. John's Ambulance. He also served as the Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of The Carleton and York Regiment (Militia). Active with the York-Sunbury Historical Society and the National Historic Sites Board of Canada, he was instrumental in the preservation of the Old Officers Quarters in Fredericton and in the restoration and opening of the Military Compound there.
Ernest Sansom married twice: first, in 1918, to Eileen Curzon-Smith (d.1927), by whom he had two daughters, Hazel Ernestine Sansom and Charmian Odette Sansom; and secondly, in 1930, to Mary Lucy Winifred Aymor Waddell (d.1974), by whom he had one daughter, Anne Gwendoline Sansom. His second wife, Lucy Sansom, was a founding member of the Progressive-Conservative Women's Association of Canada. She also served a term as President of the Women's Atlantic Council.
