A group of young men from Cranbrook, British Columbia, members of the Rover branch of the Boy Scouts, built this cabin deep in the forest to use as their private clubhouse in the happy days before the Second World War. Four of them died while serving their country. Now all that remains is the stone […]
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Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! After seeing this program in Ontario, I pitched the idea of honouring our local veterans by putting their photographs on individual banners. It meant months of hard work by my partner Sandi Jones and me, but the banners are now hanging downtown in our dear little town of Invermere, British Columbia. Read […]
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Thousands of lumberjacks, members of the Canadian Forestry Corps, logged the forests of Scotland during the Second World War to produce desperately-needed lumber for the war effort. Among them were Carl and Jack Jones, two brothers from Invermere, British Columbia. The Canadian Forestry Corps In a world filled with manmade materials, it is easy to […]
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My admiration is boundless when it comes to the Canadian nurses who bravely carried out their grim duties in wartime – so it was an honour to interview Jessie Middleton of Abbotsford, British Columbia. I was especially keen to meet Jessie because my column has not paid enough attention to nurses – our Canadian women in uniform who were the […]
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A chance sighting of an old grave marker in Fernie, British Columbia, awakened fresh sympathy for a family who suffered the worst blow of all — not once, but twice. Today’s guest blog post was submitted by my fellow writer and historian, John Chalmers of Edmonton, Alberta. By John Chalmers Most of my writing is related to aviation and […]
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Almost 11,000 Canadian conscientious objectors refused, mainly for religious reasons, to perform military duties during World War Two. So the government required them to do “alternate service” in work camps, many of them in Western Canada’s national parks. Ray Crook, shown here in this recent photograph, was not a conscientious objector. He was rejected from military service […]
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Arthur Bradford’s Spitfire was shot down over Normandy on D-Day, and he parachuted into the sea where he was promptly “rescued” by a landing craft, steaming towards the beach. He was unarmed, unprepared, and very, very unhappy. I interviewed Arthur Bradford at his comfortable lakeview home in Invermere, British Columbia before he passed away in […]
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Jim Ashworth of British Columbia wanted to become a fighter pilot so badly that when the Royal Air Force ordered him to become a flight instructor, he deliberately failed the test – twice! His plan worked. He was sent to India, where he flew his Hurricane 11D fighter over occupied Burma, strafing Japanese supply boats. I […]
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Fearing an enemy invasion, thousands of Canadian girls as young as sixteen joined volunteer militia groups in wartime, learning how to conduct air raid patrols, use firearms and incredibly, how to handle exploding bombs! I haven’t unearthed much about women’s militia groups, because they weren’t part of the armed forces and thus aren’t included in […]
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When war broke out, Canada’s Parliament refused point blank to allow women into the armed forces. Two years later, it finally gave in and women flocked to recruiting centres by the thousand. But only a small percentage earned the coveted overseas posting. Nancy Lee, from a remote ranch in the Rocky Mountains, was one of […]
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