Marie Warren (nee Neilson) was born August 25, 1924 in Toronto. She grew up with four sisters and a brother against the backdrop of Depression-era Toronto. Marie attended Osler Avenue Public School and later Western Tech, though she left after Grade 11 as her family was unable to pay for her books. Marie went to […]
Alexander Graham was born October 12, 1922 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. He had two brothers and a sister, and their parents brought the family to Canada in 1927. They settled on a farm at first, but after a few years the family moved to Rockwood, Ontario, and that is where Alex and his siblings grew […]
Jean Garrity was born January 27, 1923 in Jamestown, Newfoundland. Her father was a bookkeeper for a logging company and her mother was a teacher who ran the post office out of the family home in that small fishing village. Jean grew up alongside her six siblings during the Great Depression, which she remembers were […]
Roger Blais was born September 28, 1925 in Montreal. He grew up alongside his four siblings in the city’s Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood, attending school and playing baseball and hockey and going to occasional movies at the Monkland Cinema. The start of the war in Canada did not make too much of an impression on Roger, but […]
David Barkun was born June 1, 1923 in Montreal. He grew up in the city’s east end, the son of immigrants from Russia who had to Canada in the 1920s to escape antisemitism. David recalls growing up in an English-speaking enclave surrounded by largely French neighbourhoods – and that the two communities did not mix. […]
Elmer Friesen was born March 3, 1922 in Saskatchewan, and he grew up there in the town of Aberdeen, alongside his nine siblings. His father was a teacher, but he developed eye trouble, he had to retire, and the family moved to their grandfather’s homestead, where Albert’s father organized the farm. Albert quit school at […]
Gordon “Bud” Hardwick was born March 12, 1926 in Toronto. He grew up in Toronto’s west end, in the Dovercourt and Bloor neighbourhood, and he attended Central Tech high school. Bud played sports – baseball and hockey – and he was a fan of the Maple Leafs. During the Great Depression Bud shoveled snow or […]
Len Kubas was born May 15, 1937 in Winnipeg. He grew up there during the Second World War, living with his grandparents and tending their victory garden. His father was in the RCAF at the time, and was stationed in nearby Brandon, doing his part in the BCATP. Len’s schooling continued into the postwar years, […]
Josephine Woods was born September 25, 1923 in Königsberg, East Prussia. Her family left the area about the time Hitler was coming to power and Germany was in economic chaos, and they chose to come to Canada, settling in Avonlea, Saskatchewan. Her father had a farm there, and Josephine grew up there during the decade […]
Herb Brown was born August 7, 1925 in Chatham, Ontario. He grew up on a farm a few miles outside the town, attending school via Greyhound bus! The difficulties of the Great Depression forced Herb to leave school in Grade 11, and he took work at the Chatham Daily News. During this time Herb’s two […]
Charles Arcand was born January 4, 1925 in Montreal, where he grew up in the city’s east end, near Mont Royal and DeLorimier. His father was a CP Rail yardmaster at that time, so even during the Great depression the family did relatively well. Charles left school in Grade 9, taking work in local grocery […]
John (Arnold) Bedard was born April 19, 1924 in Montreal, and much of his early life was spent in the city’s NDG neighbourhood. His father was a Great War veteran who had been in the Royal Flying Corps, and he continued to serve as an RCAF officer in World War Two. The family had some […]
William Talbot was born in Montreal’s General Hospital on December 31, 1922. He grew up in the Verdun neighbourhood, attending school until Grade 10 and following the Montreal Maroons – and later the Canadiens. His father was a railroad locomotive engineer, so the family got through the Great depression well enough. William’s older brother joined […]
Annie Good was born November 4, 1921 in Verdun, Quebec. She was active as a dancer in her teens and consequently left school early; she went to work for Northern Electric Company in the early years of the war, where she did her part in war industry. While she enjoyed the work she did not […]
Howard McNamara was born January 9, 1920 in Montreal. He grew up there during the Depression years, but with both parents working – father for the CNR and mother as a telephone operator – the family got by. Howard went to school and graduated from Darcy McGee High School, after which he took a job […]
Gordon Precious was born May 26, 1924 in Hamilton, Ontario. He had an older brother, Harry, who was six years older, and when Harry joined the RCAF Gordon was inspired to do the same – though he had to wait until he was 18. He went into the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and Gordon […]
Elizabeth Samson was born June 20, 1922 in Coleman, Alberta. Her maternal grandparents were indigenous: they were non-registered Cree First Nations. Elizabeth’s father was of German descent, an immigrant from the U.S. She grew up in a large family with five siblings; it was a mining area where the workers came from everywhere – a […]
Harold McLean was born September 11, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario. He grew up in the city’s Mount Pleasant area, attending Northern Collegiate. His father worked for the Otis Elevator Company, so the family was able to make ends meet during the hard days of the Depression. Harold was in Grade 9 when the war began; […]
Real Dumoulin was born November 7, 1924 in Timmins, Ontario. He grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but as Real recalls his father was employed in the Hollinger gold mine, so the family was relatively well off. Real attended Catholic schools and he grew up speaking French and English, doing all […]
Stan McCormack was born July 14, 1936 in Oshawa, Ontario. He grew up just outside that community during the wartime and postwar years. After high school he worked for General Motors for a time before enlisting in the military; he also married Lois in 1953. Stan chose the RCAF and he became an avionics technician […]
Burdett Sisler was born April 14, 1915 in Akron, Ohio. His father worked for the Goodyear Rubber Company, and early in the century he was tasked with finding a location for a factory in Canada, and the family ended up settling in New Toronto (present-day Etobicoke). That is where Burd and his siblings grew up, […]
Tom Vance was born July 26, 1922 in Ottawa. His father owned a general store at the crossroads in Woodlawn, and when he left school at age 16 Tom drove his father’s truck, doing all kinds of deliveries in the local area. As the war approached, Tom saw many young men enlisting, and he decided […]
Jack C. Thomas was born on June 4, 1923, in Blenheim, Ontario, where he grew up in a family of 7. Jack’s early life was tough and he quit school and started at construction and factory work. Well aware of the war in Europe Jack was eager to join, particularly the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air […]
Robert (Bob) Hoover was born May 3, 1924 in South Cayuga, Ontario. He grew up in a large farm family there, one of 12 children. When the war came, Bob went into the RCAF and the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, where he was trained as an aero engine mechanic. Bob serviced the great bombers […]
John Neu was born August 21, 1923. He grew up in a German-speaking region of Romania, where his family had deep roots. Conditions were difficult there in the post-Great War era though, and John’s parents made the decision to emigrate to Canada in 1928. They initially headed to the Prairies, but they ended up in […]
Ed Neal was born January 28, 1940 in Montreal. His father was a veteran of the Second World War, and he missed all of Ed’s early life as he was overseas for the first five years. Ed grew up in the care of his mother and grandparents, Scottish immigrants where his grandfather was a veteran […]
Richard James Earl was born July 3, 1924 in Winnipeg. He was the youngest of six brothers and three sisters – in a family that covered a wide range of ages. His father was a tailor who made uniforms for Canadian National Railroad employees, particularly the porters, conductors and dining car staff. He had served […]
Bill Seifried was born May 3, 1925 in Ariss, Ontario, a rural community. His early years were spent on a farm with his many siblings, and the family moved to nearby Guelph when Bill was 14. He and a brother worked at Leland Electric, and when his brother went into the RCAF Bill joined up […]
Douglas Stinson was born October 30, 1922 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His father was a Great War veteran who served in the Canadian navy, and after the war he continued as a wireless operator, and Doug recalls that the family was often on the move during this time. Doug was the oldest of six, and […]
Peter Growen was born December 1, 1939 in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up during the Second World War, and he remembers getting ration books alongside his mother; he also remembers his Norwegian father teaching Canadian troops to ski, readying them for potential winter warfare. At war’s end Peter recalls seeing his father in a parade […]