Lawrence Moore Cosgrave - Services To Canada

Services To Canada

He served as the Assistant Canadian Government Trade Commissioner in London, England (1922–24); Canadian Trade Commissioner, Wembley, London, England (1924); Shanghai, China (1925–1935); Melbourne, Australia (1925–1937); and Sydney, Australia (1937–1942).

In World War II he was the Canadian Military Attache to Australia, S.W.P.A. but his most notable moment came on September 2, 1945 when he was the Canadian representative who signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri. He caused a little known mishap; Colonel Cosgrave inadvertently placed his signature one line too low on the Japanese copy of the documents. He signed on the line for the French Republic. This was attributed to he being blind in one eye (as lost its sight in WW I). This set off an unfortunate chain whereby each succeeding signer also signed one line too low on that copy of the documents. Air Vice-Marshal Leonard Monk Isitt, the Dominion of New Zealand representative, left without a blank to sign, had to have his name and country written in at the bottom margin of the document. Cosgrave did not repeat this error on the American copy. The error was "corrected" by General Sutherland who crossed out "French Republic" and wrote in "Dominion of Canada" then made similar corrections for the rest of the document. Both US and Japanese copies of the surrender are on display on the USS Missouri, berthed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Lawrence Moore Cosgrave D.S.O. (Signatory for Dominion of Canada, accepting the Japanese Surrender) knew Mamoru Shigemitsu (who accepted The Surrender of Japan for the Japanese Emperor and Government) from their diplomatic days in Shanghai, their eyes crossed when Mamoru Shigemitsu boarded the Missouri, they mutually smiled with recognition, and then Mamoru Shigemitsu realized where he was and became stern and serious. They met each other again many years later in London U.K., at the Coronation of Elizabeth II, 1953. (recited by Col. Lawrence Moore Cosgrave DSO, to his Grandson).

Cosgrave stated that the poem "In Flanders Fields" by fellow Canadian and friend Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was written upon a scrap of paper upon the back of Colonel Cosgrave during a lull in the bombings on May 3, 1915 after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before. The poem was first published on December 8 that year in Punch magazine, London. The Colonel John McCrae Memorial, was opened on the 5th. October 1963, by his friend: Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave D.S.O.

Cosgrave wrote "Afterthoughts of Armageddon, the gamut of emotions produced by the war, pointing a moral that is not too obvious", published 1919 by his wife Beryl (née Hunter Jones), Toronto.