If Freedom Means as Much to You

By J. Garry McEachern

If Freedoms Means as Much to You is the story of the contribution of the two World Wars by the citizens of the town of Meaford and St. Vincent Township. The enthusiasm of the first men who signed up is balanced with the pain inflicted by the cruelty on prisoners of war in both wars. Letters from England show their pluck during the Blitz. Letters from soldiers in all the theatres, in both wars, bridge the oceans. When the Tank Range was created in 1942, the owners of farms and orchards become war refugees. Interviews of women who served in the armed services show their accomplishments; and interviews of war-bride couples reveal the hope of a new life away from the restrictions of rationing in Britain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483664910

Book preview

If Freedom Means As

Much To You

J. Garry McEachern

Copyright © 2013 by J. Garry McEachern, 1937-

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Map Illustrations by Marvin Tabacon

Rev. date: 06/18/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

Part I The Great War 1914-1919

1. THE BRITISH CONNECTION

Districts of Little England and Kent, Empire Day, A Touchy Atmosphere

2. THE CALL TO ARMS

The First, Second, and Third Contingents

3. THE SUPPORT OF THE CLERGY

The Reverends Rutherford Beale; Joseph S. Cook; H. A. Reid; and Robert A. Spencer: The Libel Lawsuit Against the Express

4. RECRUITMENT AND PATRIOTIC MEETINGS

The League of One Thousand

5. THE SUPPORT OF ST. VINCENT TOWNSHIP

Farmers Losing the Labour of Their Youth, The Township Rolls Up Its Sleeves

6. NURSING SISTERS WHO SERVED

7. HELP FROM THE HOME FRONT

The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, The Ladies’ Patriotic League, The Women’s Institutes, The Red Cross, Children Help Out

8. LETTERS BRIDGING THE OCEAN

The Trip Across the Atlantic, London – the Capital of the Empire, British Citizens Keep in Touch, An English Baker, A Father’s Faith, Conditions in England, French Farms and Countryside

9. THE COURSE OF THE WAR

Ypres, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Life in the Trenches, The Push of the Last Hundred Days, The View toward the German soldier, Beyond the Western Front: Africa, India, Northern Russia, Palestine, Serbia

10. WELCOMING THE HEROES HOME

Pte. Fred Durant, Reluctance to Share All Memories, The War Brides, The Bells of Peace Ring Out, Dominion Day 1919 Celebration, Soldiers’ Day

11. PAYING THE COST

Multiple Injuries, Amputations, being Shell-Shocked Prisoners of War: Alfred Raper, Harry Walsh, The Grim Truth Comes Out, The War Dead In Canada and in Europe, The Deadly Influenza, The Victory Loans

12. THE ANGRY FARMERS OF ONTARIO

13. HOW SHALL WE REMEMBER THEM?

Debating the War Memorial, The War Veterans Organize

Part II World War Two: 1939-1945

14. THE ROYAL VISIT OF 1939

15. SIGNING-UP AND CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY

Rumours, Slander, Having a German Name, Violence toward Jehovah’s Witnesses

16. WOMEN IN THE ARMED SERVICES

CWSF, Reasons for Joining Up, The Talents They Gave, Using the New Technology, Driving Truck in Toronto, Overseas, Victory in Europe Celebration, Nursing Sisters and Florence Theakston

17. APPLEYARD AND MITCHELL BECOME CHAPLAINS

The Disaster of Dieppe

18. HELP FROM THE HOME FRONT

The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, The Ladies Patriotic Auxiliary, The Women’s Institutes, There’ll Always Be an England, Sewing Circles in Meaford, Relieving Shortages of Farm Workers, The St. Vincent Red Cross, Blood Donor Clinics, Saving Douglas Boyes, Victory Loans, War Saving Stamps

19. CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN THE SCHOOLS

Welcoming a War Guest, A Fourth Former’s Diary, Ditty Bags, Let’s Un-heil Hitler! Youth and Religion

20. SALVAGING, RATIONING, AND MEATLESS DAYS

21. SAYING FAREWELL

From the Neighborhood and at the Station

22. THE ROYAL FAMILY

Sewing Bees in Buckingham Palace, It Is Life and Death for Us All, Princess Elizabeth Speaks to the Children of the World, News Items at the Movies

23. THE CHURCHES

Prayers During the Battle of Britain, The Invasion Prayer

24. HOW THE MEAFORD EXPRESS HELPED TO WIN THE WAR

Sending the Express to Servicemen, Pictures of the Service People, Letters from Europe, Bingo for Cigarettes

25. THE ROTARY CLUB

Speakers, How Rotary Spent Their Money, Shelling Out for the Children of Britain, A Distinguished Flying Cross

26. SERVING IN THE FORCES WITHIN CANADA

Staffing the Royal Commonwealth Air Training Plan, Sport Officers: The Brown Twins, Two Teachers and a Lawyer Do Their Part

27. LETTERS THAT BRIDGED THE OCEANS

Safe Arrivals, Reception in English Homes, Going on Leave, A Preference for Scotland, Two Poignant Letters, Letters from British Relatives

28. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER

Battle Drill, The Limber Gunner, Driving Ambulance, Celebrating the Good News

29. FIGHTING ON THE VARIOUS FRONTS

The Navy and the Merchant Marine, the Murmansk Run, Sicily, Italy, A Table for the King, The Holy Land, From Faraway India, D-Day, France, Holland, Putting in Time in Holland, Entering Germany, Occupational Troops in Germany, Canadian Hospitals in England

30. GOODBYE TO CAPE RICH

A Stressful Summer, How It Affected the Farmers’ Health,

The War Explodes in the McCallum Kitchen

31. ENDURING THE PAIN

Prisoners of War; George Bishop, Bert Mackenzie, Glen Schwegler, The Injured, Alcoholics Anonymous, The Thirty-four Who Never Came Back, A Brother Makes a Pilgrimage, The Officer and Baseball Chum Dine Together, The Long Bicycle Trip Alone

32. THE WAR BRIDES

33. VICTORY IN EUROPE

Meaford, Walters Falls and Rocklyn, The Victory Song, A Soldier Remembers His Mother on Mother’s Day

34. SPECIAL HONOURS AND THE MEMORIAL WINDOWS

35. THOSE WHO SIGNED UP

The 147th and 248th Grey Battalions: Canadian Women’s Army Corps, Women in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Women in the Royal Canadian Navy, The Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, Canadian Navy, Merchant Marine

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This book is dedicated to the local men and women and their families who enlisted and worked for the success of the Allies in the Two World Wars. These pages are also dedicated to Frank E. Secord, who in the pages of the Meaford Express recorded their story.

FOREWORD

After the French forces of Napoleon were defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Europe enjoyed a century of relative peace. Britain emerged as the most powerful country in the world. The Royal Navy controlled the seas; this, coupled with Britain’s large and powerful industrial economy, made Britain the first truly global superpower and ushered in the Pax Britannica that lasted for the next hundred years.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out between France and the Kingdom of Prussia, aided by the various German states. In a five-month campaign, the French armies were defeated by the German forces. Germany established itself as the main power in continental Europe with one of the most powerful and professional armies in the world.

After 1850, Germany rapidly industrialized; and as the new century approached, in less than a decade, its navy went from being negligible to second only behind Britain’s Royal Navy. Chancellor Otto Bismarck acquired colonies in Asia and the Pacific, but mostly in Africa. The Kaiser wanted Germany, like Britain, to have her place in the sun.

Kaiser Wilhelm sought closer economic ties with the Ottoman Empire, helping to build the Baghdad Railway. Under his leadership, the treaty with tsarist Russia lapsed. Germany was left with no firm ally except Austria-Hungary. He missed the opportunity to secure an alliance with Britain in the 1890s. He further alienated British statesmen by openly supporting the Boers in the South Africa War and building a navy to rival Britain. By 1911, the Kaiser had completely picked apart the careful power balances established by Bismarck.

THE SPARK THAT GREW INTO THE WAR

Long-term causes of the war included the imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe. By 1911, Europe was divided by several empires that had treaties supporting each other in time of war. The spark came on June 28, 1914, when the archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It resulted in Hapsburg’s ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia. The Kaiser offered full support for the Austro-Hungarian plans to invade the Kingdom of Serbia, which was blamed for the assassination. Several alliances formed over the previous decade – the Entente Cordiale in 1904 between Britain and France and the alliance between Britain and Russia in 1907 – were invoked. The tragic result was that within weeks, the major powers were at war and, through their colonies, the conflict spread around the world.

Germany began the war by targeting its chief rival France; the French entered the war mainly for revenge for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871. The forces of Germany invaded neutral Belgium that Britain had guaranteed by treaty.

When Britain declared war on Germany on August 4,1914, Britain, France, and Russia were pitted against the Central powers: Germany and the Austria-Hungary and Ottoman empires. German forces were stopped in Belgium, and the two sides became bogged down in a stalemate. The conflict on the western front became a war of attrition as the two sides dug in their trenches, safe from the barrage of artillery that killed hundreds of thousands.

THE EASTERN FRONT

On the eastern front, the badly organized Russian army faltered, so the German and Austro-Hungarian armies steadily advanced eastward. In March 1917, the Tsar was ousted from the Russian throne; and in November, the Bolshevik government came to power under the leadership of Lenin. He decided to end Russia’s campaign against Germany in order to redirect his energy to eliminate internal dissent. Russia gave Germany and the Ottoman Empire enormous territorial and economic concessions in exchange for an end to the war on the eastern front.

With Russia out of the war, Germany was able to transfer hundreds of thousands of combat troops from the east to the western front. She hoped this numerical advantage would help her to break through before the armies from the United States had arrived on the side of Britain and France. The German offenses in the autumn of 1917 and spring of 1918 all failed. In the summer of 1918, with the help of the Americans, the Allies pushed the Germans back until the armistice of November 11 stopped all the killing.

THE WEAPONS OF THE WAR

More than seventy million military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than nine million combatants were killed, largely because of the technological advances that led to the enormous lethality of weapons without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility.

Trench warfare on the western front provided an impressive defense system, which the enemy could not break through. Barbed wire was a lethal hindrance to massed infantry advances. Artillery, coupled with machine guns, made crossing open ground extremely difficult. The Germans were the first to use lethal poison gas on a large scale; it soon became used on both sides. Its effects were brutal, causing slow and painful death. The tank was the new offensive weapon, used by the British on September 1916. The French introduced the revolving turret in late 1917. Aeroplanes were used for light bombing and photo reconnaissance.

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain began a naval blockade of Germany. This strategy proved effective, cutting off military and civilian supplies, although the blockade violated accepted international laws. Britain asserted their control of the seas, and the bulk of the German surface fleet remained confined to port for the duration of the war.

TOTAL WAR HASTENS THE END

The concept of total war meant that supplies had to be redirected toward the armed services, and with German commerce being stopped by the British naval blockade, German civilians were forced to live in increasingly meagre conditions. First, food prices were controlled, then rationing was introduced. During the war, about 750,000 German civilians died from malnutrition.

Toward the end of the war conditions deteriorated rapidly on the German home front, with severe food shortages reported in all urban areas, The causes included the transfer of many farmers and field workers into the military. The winter of 1916-1917 was known as the turnip winter because the people had to survive on a vegetable more commonly reserved for livestock as a substitute for potatoes and meat, which were increasingly scarce. Thousands of soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry, who grumbled that the farmers were keeping the food for themselves. Even the army had to cut the soldiers’ rations. The morale of both civilians and soldiers continued to sink.

Many of the Germans wanted the war to end. When the United States entered the war in April 1917, the balance of power changed in favor of the Allies. The end of October 1918, in Kiel, in northern Germany, saw the beginning of the German Revolution. Units of the German navy refused to set sail for a last and large operation in a war that they saw was as good as lost. On November 3, the revolt spread to other cities and states of the country. Meanwhile, Hindenburg and the senior generals lost confidence in the Kaiser and his government. The Kaiser and all German ruling princes abdicated. The new government led by the German Social Democrats called for and received an armistice on November 11.

German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. In early 1917, Germany adopted a policy of unrestrictive submarine warfare. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships began travelling in convoys, escorted by destroyers. Hydrophone and depth charges were introduced. Troop ships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys. The U-boats sank more than 5,000 Allied ships, at a cost of 199 submarines.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

When Britain declared war on Germany, on August 4, 1914, her colonies and Dominions were automatically at war. The British Empire provided invaluable military, financial, and material support. Over 2,500,000 men from Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand fought for the Mother Country.

The Indian army outnumbered the British army at the beginning of the war; about 1,300,000 soldiers and laborers served in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East while both the central government and princely states sent large supplies of food, money, and ammunition. All in all, 140,000 served on the western front and nearly 700,000 in the Middle East.

The Canadian Corps, under generals Arthur Currie and Julian Byng, produced the only significant military success when Vimy Ridge was captured in April 1917. Canada was part of the Hundred Days’ offensive in August 1918 that became a war of movement, capturing the towns of Arras, Cambrai, and Mons.

A VERY DESTRUCTIVE WAR

The number of soldiers killed in action or who died of wounds exceeded that of all other wars known up to that time in history. The Central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey lost 3,500,000 soldiers on the battlefield. The Allied powers of Russia, France, and Britain lost 5,100,000 men.

The number of German civilians who died as a result of the Allied blockade has been estimated at more than three-quarters of a million. The attack of the influenza in the last months of the war swept away as many as those who were killed in battle. In England, 150,000 Britons, soldiers, and civilians fell victim to the epidemic. In the United States Army, more soldiers died of influenza than those killed in battle: 62,000 to 48,000.

The British Dominions paid a heavy price in military deaths: Canada, 60,000; Australia, 59,000; India, 49,000; New Zealand, 16,000; South Africa, 8,000.

On November 11, 1918, the armistice ended the fighting. Four empires were no more. The Tsar of Russia was murdered by the Bolsheviks. The Austria-Hungarian Empire was split up into countries wanting to be in charge of their nationalities: Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Germany lost her colonies. The Treaty of Versailles came into force on January 10, 1920. The League of Nations was established.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Unlike the Great War, Europe did not stumble into the Second World War in September 1939. In many ways, this second war was an extension of the first.

France and Britain, the winners of the Great War, were exhausted and determined at any price not to repeat the experience. Central Europe, fragmented by new frontiers drawn up by the Treaty of Versailles, faced the humiliation and poverty of defeat. Most German officers and soldiers were bitter at their defeat made more intense by the fact that by July 1918 their armies were unbeaten, and that made the sudden collapse at the home front appear all the more puzzling. The mutinies and revolts during the autumn of 1918, which precipitated the abdication of the Kaiser, was mainly caused by war weariness and hunger, partly caused by the blockade by the British navy.

THE RISE OF ADOLF HITLER

Germany was further weakened by the hyperinflation of the mid-1920s. The Wall Street crash of 1929 hit Germany when protectionism cut off German export markets. This led to mass unemployment, which increased the opportunity for demagogues like Adolf Hitler promising radical solutions. In the September 1930 election, the National Socialist Party under Hitler received 18 percent of the vote. Gravely underestimating Hitler’s ruthlessness, the electorate thought he would defend the pride of Germany. In January 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor, and he began to take back the power that the Treaty of Versailles had stripped Germany of.

Once he had consolidated his power, Hitler turned his attention to breaking the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, he reintroduced conscription. Britain agreed to an increase in the German navy, and the Luftwaffe was openly expanded; Britain and France made no serious protest over the large increase in this rearmament. In March 1936, German troops occupied the Rhineland in the first breach of the Versailles treaty. This step ensured widespread adulation of the Führer in Germany. Single-handedly, he restored German pride, and rearmament halted the rise in unemployment.

In the summer of 1936, he supported General Franco in the Spanish Civil War, experimenting with new aircraft and tactics in bombing. In March 1938, the British and French, horrified by the idea of another European war, allowed him to annex Austria, feeling that it was a small price to pay for the continuation of peace. In September 1938, at the negotiations in Munich, Chamberlain and the French Daladier offered Hitler the Sudetenland in the hope of preserving peace. In November, the real nature of Hitler’s regime was revealed when the Nazi storm troopers unleashed the German pogrom known as Crystal Night when they burned synagogues, attacked and murdered Jews, and smashed the windows of Jewish shops.

In March 1939, Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia, and British outrage forced Chamberlain to offer guarantees to Poland as a warning to Hitler against further expansion. On September 1, German invaded Poland and Britain, and France declared war on the Third Reich on September 3.Seven days later on September 10, the Parliament of Canada declared war on Germany.

CANADA PROVIDES VITAL HELP

Prime Minister Mackenzie King did not want to commit Canada to sending troops to Britain. Instead, Canada’s major contribution was the creation of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan that trained pilots from the Commonwealth and other countries. Starting in October 1940, in air bases all across Canada, over 131,000 air force personnel, including 49,808 pilots, were trained.

A second primary contribution of Canada was providing ships during the battle of the Atlantic, the longest ongoing battle of the war. Starting with a handful of ships in1939, by the end of the war, the navy of 400 ships was the third largest surface fleet in the world. Her navy helped to keep the vital shipping lines open across the Atlantic. The Canadian Merchant Navy completed over 25,000 voyages across the Atlantic, carrying badly needed food and supplies. The Canadian navy made 25,343 successful escort voyages, delivering 164,783,921 tons of cargo. The navy was responsible for the loss of 52 enemy submarines; in return, 59 Canadian Merchant ships and 24 warships were sunk. Working with the flying boats of the air force, the navy protected the supply lines off the coast of Greenland, using Iceland as a refuelling point. Just as daunting, the navy provided control of the English Channel during the operation of the Normandy Invasion of June 1944.

Whereas in the Great War Canada’s war production was limited to shells, in the Second War, Canada provided food supplies, raw materials, munitions, and mostly wheeled vehicles and bombers. Canada’s 800,000 trucks exceeded the combined total of the truck production of Germany, Italy, and Japan; and only the United States produced more. The medium tank, the Ram, was used in training; and 1,390 tanks were shipped to the Soviet Union. Fourteen thousand Lancaster and Mosquito bombers were made in Canada. Our shipyards launched destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and 345 merchant vessels. At the war time peak, the aircraft industry employed 116,000 and the ship building industry employed 126,000. Canada produced half of the aluminum and 90 percent of nickel used by the Allies.

BATTLES INVOLVED BY CANADIANS

In January 1940, the Canadian Artillery was deployed in France and Belgium protecting the British Expeditionary Force and taking part in the miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk. The raid on the town of Dieppe on August 19, 1942, landed nearly 5,000 inexperienced Second Canadian Division men and 1,000 British commandos. Over a thousand were killed, and another 2,340 were captured. The value of the Dieppe raid is debatable, but lessons learned at that time helped to make the invasion on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 a success. The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and the mainland of Italy in September 1943 began the long and difficult Italian campaign that included entering Rome in June 1944 and cost over 25,000 casualties.

Canada secured one of the six beachheads at Juno Beach on June 5, 1944. At the end of D-day, the Canadian forces had penetrated deeper into France than either the American or British troops did at their landing sites. Several costly operations were mounted by the Canadians to fight and capture the pivotal city of Caen and then south to Falaise, linking up with the American closing the Falaise pocket, destroying most of the German army in Normandy.

The British liberated the port of Antwerp, but the harbour could not be used until the Germans were driven from the heavily fortified Scheldt estuary. In heavy fighting, the Canadians succeeded in defeating the Germans holding it. Turning east, the Canadians played a central role in the liberation of the Netherlands.

CANADA’S ARMED SERVICES

Over the course of the war, the army enlisted 730,000; the air force, 260,000; and the navy, 115,000 personnel. In addition, thousands of Canadian served in the Royal Air Force, with 86 flying during the 1940 Battle of Britain. Approximately half of Canada’s army and three-quarters of its air force personnel never left the country. Over the course of the war, 1,100,000 Canadians served in the armed forces. Of these, 45,000 lost their lives and another 54,000 were wounded. The financial cost was over twenty trillion dollars.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR

In June 22, 1941, Hitler launched his invasion of Russia with the goal of securing the bread basket of the Ukraine and the oil fields of the Caucasus. Despite attacking and besieging for two years, the cities of Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, the Russian winters, the long supply lines, and the determination of the Russians were too much for the German army. In the end, Hitler had to withdraw some of his battalions to defend Italy when the allies landed in the summer of 1943. Several million German and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the Russian campaign and in the Soviet offensive that took them to the centre of Berlin.

The bombing of the British cities by the Germans and the bombing of German cities by the Allies killed nearly a million civilians. In August 1945, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing the total number of Japanese civilians killed during the bombing close to a million.

While some twenty-five million soldiers, on both sides and in all the theaters, perished, over thirty-three million civilians died in this war, including about six million Jews in the German death camps. These figures include nearly eight million Chinese, four million Indonesians, and over five million Polish, four million in the Ukraine and one million each in Vietnam and Yugoslavia.

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Much is unknown of the horrors of war until one is immersed in it by military service or civilian loss of life and property. If Freedom Means as Much to You is an outline of the activities of the citizens of Meaford during the Great War and the Second World War.

It becomes very personal as one reads the letters from the men and women in military service to their family members. Maintaining morale was one of the principles of war as churches, service clubs, community organizations, and individuals sent parcels of food, clothing, and other necessities to war-ravaged areas.

A very important situation arose in 1942 when the area north of Irish mountain, consisting of the land east of the Sydenham– St. Vincent Town Line to the waters of Georgian Bay, was expropriated from the owners for an armoured fighting vehicles range (the tank range). The farmers were not very happy, but in time, some accepted the situation. The tank range was used for the live firing of tank, infantry, and field artillery weapons to promote trained crewmen for active units fighting overseas and continued in use until October of 1970 when it was closed.

In the 1980s, a new training facility, the Land Force Central Area Training Centre, was created; and when Canada sent personnel to fight in Afghanistan, they were trained in this facility. Meaford has benefitted tremendously from the range that has provided employment for a number of civilians and from the military staff and their families living in the community.

Donald Morton Doran

Donald Morton Doran joined the Canadian Army in January 17, 1944. In 1955-1957, he served in Werl, Germany, in the Congo 1960-1961, and at the Meaford Tank Range 1965-1970.

This book brings back a flood of memories from that terrible time in our history. For myself, with the loss of my two brothers, RCAF Flying Officers Kenneth and Merton Chapman, it recognizes and preserves the memory of the sacrifice made for all of us and a strong reminder of the lasting pain that those at home had to live with. The book chronicles how the residents of Meaford did their part in the war effort, writing letters and sending clothing to our Allies.

Through research and many interviews, this book preserves the memories and experiences of my generation for future generations. So much has been written on the war years worldwide, but this local history preserves a very thorough and detailed record of the effort of the people of our town and township.

Walter G. Chapman

Walter G. Chapman, was one of three brothers who enlisted in the RCAF. After the war he returned to Meaford and, as a member of the Meaford Amateur Athletic Association, he worked for the sponsorship of hockey teams for boys of all ages, and the creation of the Wm. Croft Athletic Field and the Blue Dolphin Pool.

INTRODUCTION

I was born just in time to help win the Second World War. Had my father not lost his Meaford job in 1941, our family would not have moved away. Then I probably would have enjoyed being part of the war effort in a small town that I describe in this book. I would have enjoyed helping to place a line of pennies on the sidewalk on the main street raising money for the Red Cross. I would have taken great delight when local bands led a parade for the success of the victory loan campaigns. During the Halloween of 1944, instead of collecting candy and nuts at the doors, the children collected tickets to send milk to Britain and later joined a gala parade headed by the citizens’ band that took them to the town hall. To have been part of that Halloween would have been great fun.

While attending John Wanless School in northern Toronto, I gathered cigarette boxes that had been thrown away on the street, for they contained the valuable tinsel wrapping that we turned in to our teachers. From time to time, I carried a twenty-five-cent piece to school to purchase a war-saving stamp.

When we moved to downtown Toronto, near the end of the war, I attended a school that had a strong war tradition. Our principal Major Wm. Kirk distributed to the boys khaki uniforms, including puttees that we wrapped around our legs from our ankles to just below our knees. During the second week of May, when victory in Europe was declared, the student body lined up in front of the school, and we marched from Jesse Ketchum School to participate in a service at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Bloor Street.

Whenever the student body held an assembly at Jarvis Collegiate Institute, we students faced the large panels entitled Patriotism and Sacrifice painted in the late twenties on each side of the front stage. The theme of the World War Two memorial, painted on the east side of the auditorium, was Convoy Duty in the North Sea with huge and endless waves heaving about supply boats.

When I began my high school days, the end of the war was only five years away; but in our history classes, we did not hear anything about the internment of the Japanese Canadians of 1942, although there were several students with this background in our classes. We boys devoured The Last Days of Hitler and The Wooden Horse, the true story of prisoners of war who tunnelled their way out of a German prisoner-of-war camp. We memorized the poem High Flight. Some of my classes were dotted with students whose parents had arrived from war-worn Europe. During some of our grade-ten history classes led by Mr. J. Nelson, a veteran of the Great War, we saw him leap on his desk to illustrate planes swooping down and men shooting from the trenches. We quietly nicknamed him Jumpy Nelson. Our United Church minister tried to counter the stigma of displaced persons, pejoratively labelled as DPs, by referring to recent immigrants as New Canadians.

My immediate family had emotional ties to the two wars. Uncle Milton McEachern was underage when he signed up for the Great War from a prairie farm. When his mother found this out, he was soldiering in Britain, but she made sure he remained in England but only as a bugler. My brother and I, age four and five, wore a sailor and an air force uniform that my parents bought through the Eaton’s catalogue. Like so many Canadians, my father was anticipating the invasion that came in June 1944. My cousin Jack McEachern of Midland was killed flying his Spitfire in September 1944.

Perhaps my father was the greatest influence on me. By the summer of 1940, many people in Meaford were singing the new patriotic song There’ll Always Be an England at the meetings of Women’s Institute and at rallies at the Opera House. My father, who had grown up in Victoria, British Columbia, with his English grandmother, sang and hummed this song among other old war songs such as Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies, as we drove with him in the family car. I pay tribute to him as I paraphrased one of the lines from the first song for the title of this book.

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There are several people who contributed to the success of the creation of this book, and I wish to thank them. Foremost is Frank E. Secord, editor of the Meaford Express from 1905 to 1952, who faithfully recorded the local events of both the Great War and Second World War and described the comings and goings of local men and women who served in the armed forces. Mr. Secord captured the high levels of emotion during the first few months of the Great War. On the front page, arguments of the local clergy defended the British cause. The men who first enlisted were cheered on by well-wishers as they marched to the edge of town for transportation to Owen Sound. It should not surprise the reader that in such an atmosphere, the editor faced a libel case because he printed a letter about a local padre serving in France. I have relied heavily on the main outline that Mr. Second recorded week by week during both wars.

I also wish to thank Kate Walsh and Robert Aitken who interviewed several women who served in the armed services. Robert also interviewed many Cape Rich families¹ who lost their farms and orchards when the Canadian government expropriated the area for the creation of the tank range. Our team of Kate, Robert, and myself interviewed the thirty war brides married by local men.

Bill Vankeuren, chief librarian of the Hanover Public Library, Kiren Noble of the Grey Roots, Archives, and the staff of the Meaford Express were all helpful in printing out countless pages from the microfilm of the Meaford Express. Lynn Fascinato obtained several books through the interlibrary loan and the Meaford Library. George Auer, author of Soldiers of the Soil: Grey County goes to War, helped me to draw up names of local soldiers who enlisted in World War One.

Without the technical knowledge and help of Barry Elias, I could not have brought the manuscript in proper form to the printers. I am in his debt. Greta, my high school sweetheart and wife and partner of fifty-three years, brought me into the twenty-first century with the gift of a new laptop, replacing my old clunker of a word processor. Greta and Marjorie and Don Rogers provided valuable proofreading.

If errors remain, I take full responsibility. To those who find errors, I would be grateful if you would tell me. I can be reached at 519-538-3360 and [e-mail]. Corrections will be made in subsequent editions.

I wish to thank Walter G. Chapman and Donald M. Doran for writing a foreword to the Second World War.

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During the two World Wars, individuals, both citizens and those who enlisted, had to direct much of their daily lives to the war effort. To counterbalance this fact of modern war, I have included many of the six hundred letters that Meaford men wrote from Europe that were printed in the Express that gave the people back home and the reader today some insight into their thinking.

During the Great War, in contrast to the Second World War, letters were much more graphic about the conditions under which they fought. A few honestly described the killing of German prisoners in the trenches. Many referred to the muddy quagmire and the rats in the front lines.

During the Second War, the censors kept the letter writers from giving details of their military activities. Many a letter, however, gave a personal testimony of a son or husband meeting someone from their hometown and what impressed them about the geography and customs of Britain, Italy, India, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

I have attempted to personalize those who served in the armed services with revealing details in the manner in which they signed up, the nature of those who were badly injured and the circumstances of those who were killed. Hopefully, my account of the contribution of the people of Meaford and St. Vincent will honour the individuals at a time when many citizens of Canada put their personal lives on hold to fight for Britain, the Mother Country, during the Great War and to fight for the cause of freedom in Europe during the Second War.

Part I

The Great War 1914-1919

THE BRITISH CONNECTION

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Little England Margaret Street. Photo courtesy of Barry Elias.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the British connection of the town’s inhabitants became stronger. In a decade when the population mushroomed from 1, 916 to 2,811 and four new factories were built, six new families had arrived from Ireland, fifty-nine from England, and eight from Scotland. Approximately 160 residents had come from Britain in the decade. By the 1930s, teenagers chanted this ditty to celebrate the eastern end of Margaret Street, known as Little England:

I went to the Meaford Fair and who do you think was there?

The Cowell’s

The Tippin’s

The Irvine’s

The Shaw’s

The Wright’s

The Hillis’

The Lovett’s

The Govett’s

The Ocher’s

and the Barr’s

were all standing around,

combing their auburn hair!!²

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Charles E. Ellis 1836-1911. Photo courtesy of David Ellis.

The district known as Kent at the southern end of the town included the streets of Centre, Union, and Louisa. It was known as Kent because of Charles E. Ellis, who had, in 1857, emigrated from the garden county of Kent in England; and since he was the first resident in that area and was a gardener of some repute, Kent was named after him. He had established the station nursery on Farrar Street just a little south of Station Hill and sold apple, plum, and cherry trees to men who developed the first orchards in the area.³

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The home of C. E. Ellis, Union and Farrar Streets.

Photo courtesy Barry Elias.

EMPIRE DAY

At the turn of the new century, in 1899, a new holiday was observed by the elementary schools in the month of May. Empire Day fostered patriotism and love of country among the children. A platform was erected on the school grounds for speakers to address the crowd of pupils and parents. The children sang several patriotic songs.

Within ten years, the children, many of them carrying flags, would be marching as a body to the town hall in the afternoon for a program of songs and speeches that celebrated their connection to the British Empire.

On the eve of the declaration of war, the local