Dwyer, Liam

We met Liam Dwyer at the Castle Peak Retirement Suites in Bracebridge, where he presently lives.  Liam is one of several authors/editors who assembled At Your Age, a collection of stories of those who live there.  The residents felt it was important for them to record their stories, which serve as a great entry point into their generation’s collective experiences.  As a published author, Liam took the lead in the process, and the attention it generated north of the city caught the attention of the Crestwood community, leading Mr. Masters to investigate.

Liam was born April 5, 1923; he served in the RCN during the Second World War.  He came of age and enlisted, and began his training right away, studying to be an engineer aboard ship.  His studies were cut a bit short though, as the Battle of the Atlantic had created pressing need, and Liam was called upon to serve.   He was posted to a minesweeper in the western part of the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clearing the way for the many convoys passing through the region.  He recalled many tense times from that part of the war, and remembers the tremendous pressure the crews felt.  From there he was posted to the Sarnia, and he began convoy duty, patrolling the western reaches of the open ocean.  On one of those missions, Liam’s ship the Sarnia came upon the remains of the Esquimault, their sister ship; it had been torpedoed by a U-boat and had lost a good portion of its crew.  Liam’s ships helped with the rescue and the survivors, returning them to Halifax.  With the end of the war, Liam returned to his young family, and along with others of his generation, he fell into the new rhythms of civilian life, and helped Canada to forge its postwar identity.