By Glen Turner – Special to the Sydenham Current
November 11th. Remembrance Day. It means a lot to me.
My parents both served in the Second World War. My father was in the Canadian Navy, and served on Convoy Patrol in the North Atlantic, and was wounded. My Mom rose to be a sergeant in the communications department.
Her older brother was shot down and killed over Germany on a bombing run in 1944, flying with the RCAF.
My dad’s oldest brother was gassed in the trenches in WWI, and luckily survived.
I don’t like weapons of any kind, am quite a pacifist, yet I’m intrigued by war history, probably because of my family’s involvement.
Former students of mine have been killed overseas. Other family members have served as well, and not all returned in one piece, either physically or mentally.
How many times have we heard the John McCrae poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’?
How many times have we heard ‘the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month’?
Those things still don’t seem to sink in to so many heads.
Poppy boxes get stolen. Poppies aren’t worn. The ceremonies of Nov. 11th are largely ignored.
Try doing what I do. On each Nov. 11th I’m sometimes in an office, or in a retail store – and just before 11 a.m., I stop moving, bow my head, and think of my family members who served, and think of the deaths, the pain and the suffering. I’m not trying to make a public display of any kind, I’m just trying to show my respect.
Not many others do that. They just go about their business.
Maybe if every store, business establishment and office with a loudspeaker system could just ask everyone in their establishment to take two minutes out of their busy lives to remember?
I don’t know if it would help.
But… it IS called Remembrance Day.
Our father was first in the Canadian Air Force. He joined in what is now Thunder Bay. He was de-mobbed and had told our Mom it was a compassionate de-mob as he had to look after his father who was ill. I read the file. He was released involuntarily for medical reasons as he had been in hospital with pneumonia almost since the day he enlisted. So he lied.
In Ottawa he then re-enlisted in the Canadian Navy, and did not mention his previous service. Every posting he had was to a shore posting. In confusion, I took the record to a chum who was career Navy, retired as a Lieutenant Commander, who also couldn’t figure it out. It was referred to his chum who was senior in the History section. His response was that there was a little known navy reg that said that anyone in a shore posting, who, in an emergency, could have been rapidly sent to sea, was therefore eligible for a Service on the High Seas ribbon. There was no record of any sea posting, ever. So he had lied about that too. He suffered from scabies a lot. That was unusual in a shore posting, where being clean was possible.
His injury was received from a knife in a bar brawl in Calgary. I learned that from a an old Navy chum of his who visit the house on Byron in the early 1960s. The fellow laughed and laughed. Dad was so furious he had told me, he threw him out of the house. Another lie.
Your lying and theft from me of my portion of our mother’s estate appears to have been right in line with what you seem to have inherited.
If you are still around in 2027 when her whole file is released under ATIP legislation I will tell you the truth about our mother’s service too.
BTW, I live in England now.