that McNaughton's inability to delegate disqualified him from his chosen profession of field commander. McNaughton gave Côté's career a major boost by sending him to study at a British Army staff course in September 1940. After graduating from the staff course in Minley Manor, in 1941 he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant-general of the 1st Division and then as chief of staff of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade. From May 1941 onward, Côté was assigned to the staff of Major-General George Pearkes, a highly decorated First World War veteran who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917, and was now commadning the 1st Division. Côté was the only French-Canadian on Pearkes's staff, and found himself missing the cozy and French-speaking atmosphere of the Royal 22e Régiment. To drive home the point, other staff officers sometimes told Côté to "speak white" when he tried to converse with them in French. Côté found Pearkes to be warm, sympathetic and very brave, but also found that Pearkes was intellectually outclassed by Simonds. In April 1942, Côté voted non in the referendum on overseas conscription, believing the current policy of only sending volunteers overseas was the best way of preserving national unity. In August 1942, Côté was promoted to deputy adjunct general for the I Canadian Corps commanded by Harry Crerar. In this capacity, he was marginally involved in the planning for the Dieppe raid staged by the 2nd Division on 19 August 1942. Côté recalled that the expectation was that the Dieppe raid was going to be a great success and that he together with the other officers were shocked with the raid ending in a debacle. Later in 1942, he was promoted to assistant adjutant general of the First Canadian Army. Much to his own surprise, Côté was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). In 1942, he visited Buckingham Palace to be presented with the MBE insignia by King George VI. In 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and appointed assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, making him responsible for supplying the 15, 000 men of the division with all their needs, an extremely important if unglamorous job. Côté wrote in his 2006 memoirs Réminiscences et Souvenances: “I believe we realized pretty quickly that I would be more useful in an administrative role than being in charge of operations, given