John Diamond

John joined Optimists in 1963. He was one of those guys who always had a joke to share. In his first year he carried the Quebec flag. Of course John wasn't satisfied with just carrying a flag so, while he did an excellent job on flag, he pursued one of his passions - rifle.

John started practicing rifle during that first year, and, in his second year with the corps, he joined the rifle line, tossing a real rifle - one of the chrome-plated Lee Enfield 303s that were used by Optimists. Back then the corps not only used real rifles but they also did a "duck and spin" and tossed those beasts while rather sharp bayonets were attached! (Yes, we were a crazy lot!) As the photo shows, John was quite successful (Sorry, but I couldn't find a shot of John with a bayonet on his rifle.