Martin, Jack

Jack Martin is from Toronto.  He grew up the city’s east end, dealing with the realities of the Great Depression.  From a military family, Jack was in it from the beginning; he enlisted in the Queen’s Own Rifles, and set about training.  A training accident left him deaf in one ear, but as his officer noted, he could hear out of the other one…Jack remembered that officer’s words:  “Send him over!”  Jack spent much of the war in England, serving on the south coast and training for the inevitable invasion.  When the time came, Jack’s unit went over in the first wave, hitting Juno Beach just after the rifle companies.  They set up their mortars just off the beach and were instantly in the thick of it, fighting their way through Normandy and into Caen.  Jack saw a lot of suffering and death, but the Canadians managed to push through, liberating the people of France and the Netherlands.

Jack Martin was interviewed for this project in April 2015;  Mr. Masters had the privilege of seeing Jack in his room at Sunnybrook.