Hodgins, Richard

Richard Hodgins was born in Toronto in 1919.  He grew up in the city’s east end, in the Danforth and Jones neighbourhood.  He has been a hockey fan his whole life, and many of his prewar memories centred on the Toronto St. Pats and the Mutual Street Arena, and then the Leafs at the Gardens, where he delighted in seeing Charlie Conacher, his favourite player.  Even when the Depression was underway, he managed to see a game.  When the war came, Richard knew he did not want to go into the army; his father had served in the First World War, where he was gassed at Ypres.  While his father did not talk about the experience, Richard knew he wanted something else, so he opted for the RCAF.  He was assigned to be an airframe mechanic, and after training he served at a variety of bases in Canada, keeping the planes in the air for the pilots in training.  Though he volunteered to go to Burma, Richard was not selected to go overseas, and he moved between bases in Ontario and Manitoba.  With the war’s end, Richard returned to Toronto and married, falling into the rhythms of postwar Canadian life.

Richard was interviewed at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Wing in March 2019 by Kian Torabi, Helen Liu, and Aries Wang.