Colonel John Tattersall, CD was born in Chilliwack, British Columbia. The son of an engineer, at a tender age he joined the militia engineers as a Sapper. He was released from the militia to attend Royal Roads Military College and the Royal Military College of Canada.
As a newly commissioned engineer officer, he joined 4 Combat Engineer Regiment in 1981. This regimental tour included command of a mechanised field engineer troop as well as two staff appointments in Regimental Headquarters. As a Captain, he was the Deputy Base Construction Engineering Officer at Petawawa, and subsequently the Special Service Force G3 Training officer.
After promotion to Major, he commanded first, in 1988, Field Engineering Training Squadron and second, in 1991, the Base Construction Engineers in Calgary.
Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1995, he was appointed Land Force Atlantic Area Engineer and was later assigned the additional appointment of Senior Staff Officer for Resource Management. From June 1998 to June 2001, he was Commandant of the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering. Colonel Tattersall was next, a senior staff officer in the Directorate of Army Training responsible for Army individual and collective operational readiness standards.
On promotion to Colonel in 2002, he was appointed Chief of Staff for Land Forces Western Area. From October 2003 to April 2004, Colonel Tattersall commanded Operation PALLADIUM’s Task Force Bosnia-Herzegovina. Commencing 12 July 2004, he is appointed Director Military Engineer Operations/J3 Engineer Operations and Branch Advisor for the Canadian Military Engineers. Since July 2006, he is appointed the first Operational Support Engineer.
Colonel Tattersall is a registered Professional Engineer with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Civil). Additionally, he is a graduate of both the Army and Canadian Forces’ staff colleges. Colonel Tattersall is a running enthusiast, but cognizant of the phrase, “The older I get, the better I was.”