Hugh Dyer got the usual number of decorations for which a courageous and considerate Brigade Commander might be gazetted, but he evaded attending the King's levee to receiver his honours till only a day or two before returning to his beloved Minnedosa.
His brother was the Captain Dyer R.N., who was navigator in H.M.S. Ophir, when King George and Queen Mary toured the world as Duke and Duchess of York. Of course they met Captain Dyer's brother when they reached Manitoba, and King George met him several times afterwards, and remembered him well when he came up to be given his decorations. "Why so many at once, Dyer?" the King asked Minnedosa's Brigadier-General. "What do you mean by not coming sooner to see me?" Dyer said something about not wishing to trouble His Majesty. The King laughed, and put his hand affectionately on Dyer's shoulder. "Ah, Dyer," he said, "you'll never change. You're the same old radical. But don't stay away so long after this."
None in Manitoba who ever knew and liked Hugh Dyer ever thought of him as a radical, but everyone tasted with pleasure something of a pure democracy fused into a simple courtesy and manly courage of this fine old man who left his farm to go soldering.
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