Victor Odlum Victor Wentworth Odlum , C . B . , C . M . G . , D . S . O . ( 21 October 1880 – 4 April 1971 ) was a Canadian journalist , soldier , and diplomat . He was a prominent member of the business and political elite of Vancouver , British Columbia from the 1920s until his death in 1971 . He was a newspaper publisher , a Liberal MLA from 1924 – 1928 , co - founder of the Non - Partisan Association in 1937 , temperance advocate , one of the first directors on the board of governors that oversaw the new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , and a Canadian ambassador . He fought in the Boer War , the First World War and Second World War Early life . Odlum was born in Cobourg , Ontario , the son of Edward Odlum ( 1850 – 1935 ) , a notable historian and supporter of the Zionist movement . ( A small street in Vancouver is named after the senior Odlum ) . When Victor was 6 , his family moved to Japan for four years before moving to Vancouver , British Columbia in 1889 . At age 19 , Odlum fought in the Boer War with The Royal Canadian Regiment ; upon his return , he became a newspaperman , serving as a reporter and then editor - in - chief of the " Daily World " . By the time he was 25 , he was editor of the " Vancouver World " . First World War . With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , Odlum received a commission as major of the 7th Battalion of the First Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force . His battalion moved into the front lines in April 1915 , and only days later was subjected to the first gas attacks on the Western Front that heralded the Second Battle of Ypres . Odlum ' s brother was killed during the battle . Odlum ' s abilities were noted by General Arthur Currie , and Odlum was promoted regularly , eventually attaining the rank of Brigadier General by the end of the war . He often was in the front lines with his men , personally led several attacks with pistol drawn , and was wounded three times during the war . Because he was a strict teetotaller , he insisted on non - alcoholic substitutes for his troops ' traditional daily rum ration , earning him the derisive nicknames " Pea Soup Odlum " and " Old Lime Juice " . In 1917 , Odlum , along with fellow officer David Watson , helped their commanding officer Arthur Currie avoid charges of embezzlement by loaning Currie enough money to repay a large sum he had borrowed from regimental funds before the war . Prominent citizen of Vancouver . After the war Odlum returned to Vancouver , where he became a prominent financier , founding the investment firm Odlum Brown in 1923 with Colonel Albert " Buster " Brown . He also served as a member of the Provincial Legislature from 1924 – 1928 . At the same time , he returned to the world of journalism , becoming the owner of the " Vancouver Star " . As with his rivals in the business at the time , Odlum used the paper to aggressively promote his views and advance his pet political causes , such as the temperance movement , as well as descending to sensationalist yellow journalism to boost circulation . In 1924 , his paper stirred up anti - Chinese fervour by suggesting a Chinese houseboy employed by a posh Shaughnessy neighbourhood couple had murdered a Scottish nursemaid , Janet Smith , employed in the same household . Although the evidence instead suggested that the nursemaid had been accidentally killed by one of her employers during a domestic dispute , Odlum ' s paper suggested the Chinese houseboy , Wong Foon Sing , who had discovered the body , was the guilty party . Wong was subsequently kidnapped by vigilantes and tortured to elicit a confession ; upon being freed , he was charged by police , but eventually released due to a total lack of evidence against him . Odlum was virulently anti - Bolshevik and anti - union , and shut down the " Star " rather than give in to his employees , who had unionized and refused to accept a pay cut . During the 1930s , he helped coordinate and train Special Constable s hired to break a strike on Vancouver ' s waterfront . After the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was formed in 1936 , Odlum served on its board of governors until the outbreak of World War II . Soldier turned diplomat . Although Odlum had left the Canadian Army in 1919 and had also resigned his commission in the militia in 1924 , with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 , he lobbied the government for a position in the expanding Canadian army . Eventually , through the efforts of his friend Ian Mackenzie , who was in the federal cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King , Odlum was promoted over several Permanent Force officers to the rank of Major General and command of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division . However , instead of preparing his forces for modern warfare , Odlum devoted much time to " extraneous matters " such as regimental brass bands and arm patches . General Alan Brooke , the Chief of the Imperial General Staff , thought him a " political general " , and was prompted to write to General Andrew McNaughton that Odlum was " too old . . . too set . . . to adapt his ideas " for the war . In order to remove him from command , Odlum was appointed the High Commissioner to Australia from 1941 to 1942 , and from 1942 to 1946 , he was the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China . In 1947 , he was appointed Canada ' s first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Turkey , where he served until 1952 . Personal . Odlum was a zealous reader , and in 1963 , he donated his collection of 10 , 000 books to the library at the University of British Columbia . His son , Major Victor E . C . Odlum studied at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston , Ontario in 1923 , student # 1713 , and served in the Royal Canadian Engineers during the Second World War .