Duty, courage and service shape Oswald Reece's life
November 14, 2025
For Oswald Reece, Remembrance Day is a deeply personal reminder of his military service and peacekeeping missions, honouring the courage and dedication of all who work to preserve peace.
Growing up in a family with a strong military background, he was naturally inspired to pursue a career in the armed forces.
Several of Reece’s relatives served alongside British troops during World Wars I and II.
His connection to Remembrance Day began early.
At just five years old, he accompanied his mother to the Cenotaph in Georgetown, Guyana, to watch the wreath-laying ceremony. Also, the reviewing stand for military parades was located just up the road outside his home on Main Street, giving him a close view of the ceremonies that celebrated service and sacrifice.
When Reece came to Canada in 1969 to join his mother, his only objective was to become a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Not even her sudden death five months later could deter him. Despite living alone while in high school, he never wavered from his goal.
“Structure and discipline were instilled in me at a young age, and that is what kept me grounded,” Reece, the younger of two brothers, said. “I raised myself here from age 14, and it could have been easy for me to go off the straight and narrow and run with the wrong crowd. But I knew what I wanted in life, and nothing was going to prevent me from achieving it.”
Straight out of Central Tech, he enlisted in the Army.
“That was such a happy day because I was finally about to embark on my military journey,” Reece recounted. “After I did the test, the interviewer came back saying he had some bad news. I thought I had failed, but he said that was not the case. He told me that the Navy, which I was trying to get into, was not accepting applicants. I started crying and he said, ‘Don’t worry son, I will get you in’.”
When told that the 48th Highlanders were looking for recruits, he jumped at the opportunity, even though he had no idea who they were.
Based in Toronto, the Canadian Forces Primary Reserve infantry regiment is part of the 4th Canadian Division’s 32 Canadian Brigade Group.
Reece perked up when he learned that the regiment honoured Scottish heritage and wore kilts as part of their uniform. He knew that the Black Watch, a Scottish regiment stationed in British Guiana (now Guyana) in the 1950s, wore kilts.
Oswald Reece was a member of the 48th Highlanders of Canada for over three decades (Photo contributed)
He achieved his dream job and, in his third year, was deployed to West Germany where he participated in training exercises with NATO forces. He also took part in several United Nations peacekeeping missions, serving in Cyprus, the Golan Heights, Denmark and Egypt where he helped maintain fragile ceasefires in conflict-prone areas around the Mediterranean.
Back home after 18 months with UN missions, Reece was promoted to Regimental Quartermaster, responsible for ensuring that military units had all necessary supplies, ranging from rations and ammunition to equipment and maintenance, ready and available to support operations efficiently.
Oswald Reece shortly after returning from Cyprus (Photo contributed)
He was also Master Instructor, ensuring that skills, tactics and operational knowledge were taught to the highest standards, and a subject matter expert in ceremonial drill, formations and movements.
Unplanned accidents are a big part of military service.
While on patrol at Petawawa, Reece fell off a cliff.
“I wasn’t familiar with the terrain and accidentally went in the wrong direction,” he pointed out. “I ended up tumbling over the edge of a cliff. Luckily, a tree stopped my fall. If it hadn’t, I might not be here today. That moment taught me how quickly things can go wrong, how fragile life can be and how lucky we are sometimes.”
On another occasion during a Chinook rope descent display for Queen Elizabeth II at CNE grounds in 1997, he had to descend a rope with his full military kit and then come back down on the same rope.
“I didn’t have gloves, so I couldn’t grip the rope properly,” he recounted. “I fell hard, almost breaking my back.”
Queen Elizabeth II held the ceremonial role of Colonel-in-Chief for the 48th Highlanders of Canada.
Though Reece enjoyed the training and challenges of military life, one of the things he values most is encouraging young Black men to consider joining the armed forces.
While stationed at Moss Park Armoury, he met Ainsworth Dyer who resided in nearby Regent Park.
“One day, he came to see me at the Armoury and asked how he could join the military,” Reece, who also served with the Corps of Commissionaires, recalled. “I told him I could help, so he took the test and passed.”
Dyer began his military career with the 48th Highlanders as an infantry soldier in 1996 but soon transferred to the Airborne regiment because he was eager to make parachute jumps. He qualified as a paratrooper and took part in Canadian Forces peace support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000.
In 2002, during night training in Afghanistan, Dyer’s position was struck in a friendly fire incident. He and three of his colleagues died. They were among the first Canadian soldiers killed in combat since the Korean War, which ended in 1953.
“It was a very sad day for me when Ainsworth passed,” said Reece. “But I was grateful for the chance to mentor him and other young men, since I didn’t have a mentor when I grew up in Canada. My only mentor was my dad.”
Oswald Reece attended the Guyana Awards (Canada) gala in Scarborough in May 2008 to celebrate the country’s 42nd independence anniversary (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The 74-year-old veteran takes great pride in seeing his eldest daughter carry on the family’s military tradition. Roxanne Pellew is a member of the Canadian Rangers, a sub-component of the Canadian Army Reserve.
A Manitoba resident for the last nine years, the school teacher said her father’s passion for service inspired her to be a volunteer Ranger.
“Through my father, I learnt a lot about military history,” said Pellew, the niece of retired Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Ingrid Berkeley-Brown. “I didn’t know what a Ranger does, but dad knew and when he explained it to me, I realized it was something I wanted to do.”
Outside of military life, Reece played soccer, designed and built carnival costumes for the defunct Arnold Hughes & Associates mas’ band and later Toronto Revellers and enjoys painting.
Oswald Reece’s painting of the French Alps that he visited while in the military
Retired from the military in 2002 as a Sergeant, he has been living at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Veterans’ Facility for the past three years. He is the only Black veteran in the George Hees L-Wing.
“My time in the military was more than a career,” Reece said. “It was a journey that shaped who I am. I carry the lessons, the friendships and the experiences with me every day, and I look back on that time with nothing but gratitude. I have no regrets, only pride in having served and in the person I became because of it."
From peacekeeping missions abroad to mentoring young soldiers at home, his life reflects the values we honour today which are duty, resilience and the enduring pursuit of peace.
