Sydney Francis Wise OC FRSC is a Canadian historian who became the official historian of the Canadian military in 1966.

Career

He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942 and became a pilot.^[1] He enrolled in the Royal Military College of Canada.^[2] After graduating he became a professor there, Queens College and Carleton University.^[1] In 1966, he was called upon and accepted the position of the official historian of the Canadian military. In 1989 he received the Order of Canada.^[3]

Operation Spring scandal

The destruction of the Canada's Black Watch unit during the Operation Spring of the Normandy invasion was seen as a scandal and there were rumours of a Canadian coverup. These rumours were made worse by Stacy and Sydney F. Wise conspired to "keep the only surviving copy of the preliminary report on Operation Spring from Major Griffin’s relatives." The two had actually saved the surviving copy of the report against orders.^[4]

Written work

• Wise, Sydney F.; Brown, Robert Craig (1967). Canada Views the United States: Nineteenth-century Political Attitudes. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295785509. - Total pages: 139
• Preston, Richard Arthur; Wise, Sydney F. (1979). Men in Arms: A History of Warfare and Its Interrelationships with Western Society. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. ISBN 9780030456817. - Total pages: 450
• Wise, Sydney F. (1980). Canadian Airmen and the First World War (1980 ed.). University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802023797. - Total pages: 771
• Wise, Sydney F. (1980). Canadian Airmen and the First World War: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Volume I (PDF). University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802023797. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
• Preston, Richard Arthur; Roland, Alex; Wise, Sydney F. (1991). Men in Arms: A History of Warfare and Its Interrelationships with Western Society. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 9780030334283. - Total pages: 458
• Wise, Sydney F. (1993). McKillop, A.B. (ed.). God's Peculiar Peoples: Essays on Political Culture in Nineteenth Century Canada. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 9780773595712. - Total pages: 287
• Wise, Sydney F.; Greenhous, Brereton; Harris, Stephen J.; Johnston, William C.; Rawling, William C. (1994). The Crucible of War, 1939-1945, Volume 3. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802005748. - Total pages: 1096