Maxwell, Joe

Joe Maxwell was born September 4, 1925 in Glasgow, Scotland, the oldest of six children. The family briefly went to Canada in 1929 as Joe’s father had been promised work, but when that didn’t work out they returned to Glasgow, and subsequently Clydebank, and that is where Joe attended school. The war broke out when he was 14 though, and many of the schools were closed.  The children’s evacuation took place at this time, but the 14-year-old Joe decided to stay home.  He had wanted to go into an electrical engineering apprenticeship, but when that did not happen he went to work in a butcher shop.  The Blitz was going on by this time, and not long after Joe received his call up notice.  At first he reported to the Royal Navy, but he fell ill and ended up in hospital, and upon discharge he was put on a draft to Burma, as part of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.  They journeyed through the Atlantic and Mediterranean via the Suez Canal to India, where the men were greeted with some disdain due to the rising tide of Indian nationalism.  Joe was sent to the Kohima Imphal battle, and he joined the Allied forces pushing the Japanese into Burma. After the fighting was over Joe served in the Army of Occupation in Japan, where he was injured in an accident while searching for ammunition dumps.  He spent about two years there, and then he returned home to Scotland, ready to join the postwar world.  Joe married and started a family, and eventually made his way to Canada.  Joe Maxwell was interviewed by Scott Masters at his home in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec in October 2025.