This page is dedicated to the women of Manitoulin Island who served in various branches of the Armed Forces. At present the majority of material has been generously donated by Rick McCutcheon, publisher of the Manitoulin Expositor and taken from a current publication Women of Valour which honoured the Women Veterans of Manitoulin. This issue was released prior to the dedication of the Women's Memorial at Veterans' Memorial Gardens on Saturday, September 15, 2001. If you find these stories interesting, why not drop Mr. McCutcheon a line and let him know you appreciate his contribution.
Anyone having stories, letters or remembrances of Manitoulin women who served their country is invited to share those memories here. Please submit to Manitoulin Women Veterans .
EDNA MILLMAN
Flying Officer, RCAF Nursing Service
Flying officer Edna Millman, a 1932 graduate of the Hamilton General
Hospital School of Nursing was working for the Department of Veteran
Affairs at the old Christie Street Veterans' Hospital in Toronto when she
enlisted in the RCAF Nursing Service in December 1941. She was born in
Blind River and grew up in Meldrum Bay when her family moved there.
After serving at No.1 Technical Training School, St. Thomas, Ontario she
was posted overseas to No. 6 (RCAF) Bomber Group, Yorkshire, England.
After a term at the Conversion Unit, Wombleton, she joined the Mobile
Field Hospital to prepare for duty on the Continent after the invasion.
While at Wombleton, a pilot who was flying bombers came to visit Millie.
He name was Millman too, Ralph Millman. He wondered if they were
relatives. No, they weren't but they became friends and later married in
East Grinstead. After a brief honeymoon they went back to their
respective units.
The term of service on the Continent was limited and Millie was sent back
to England to the repatriation depot at Warrington. While there she was
notified that her husband had been killed in action.
Later she went to serve at the RCAF hospital at East Grinstead.
She was one of the first nursing sisters on the beaches of Normandy after
the 1944 D-Day Assault. She helped many brave soldiers recuperate from
their wounds, throughout France.
She was repatriated to Canada and discharged in August 1945. After
attending university she worked with the Red Cross doing Public Health
Nursing on Manitoulin Island.
Earlier in her career, following graduation, she had worked as a private
nurse in Toronto East General Hospital as a supervisor on the surgical
floor.
Following repatriation to Canada and her discharge in 1945, she attended
university and then nursed for the Red Cross in many towns across
Northern Ontario. She first nursed at Apsley, followed by Hawk Junction,
Callender, and finally for many years in Gore Bay, where she travelled
all over the Island.
After her father died in 1963, Edna returned home to Meldrum Bay, to look
after her mother for her remaining years.
Edna lived alone in her family home for many years until she moved to
Espanola, to an apartment connected to the nursing home and hospital, for
a few years, until she moved back to the Island to reside at Manitoulin
Lodge, in Gore Bay, in 1990. She lived at the Lodge until her death on
June 8, 1999.
Edna was an inspiration to many of the staff at the Lodge. She is greatly
missed by her many friends, caregivers and family.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
JOAN CORRIGAN (Lemons)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Joan Corrigan (Lemons) left Mindemoya in January 1944, planning to trade
work in her father's hometown bakery for work in Toronto.
In May 1944 she enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corps and was
called up in June of that year.
She saw service at three postings: 102 Depot Company, CWAC, Trinity
Barracks, Toronto; Basic Training, 'D' Company, 18 Platoon, No.5 CWAC
Basic Training Centre, Kitchener; No. 12 Company, Kildare Barracks,
Ottawa and attached to CPC (Canadian Postal Corps) in Ottawa at the Base
Post Office where the final sortation was done on all army and air force
mail going overseas.
She was discharged from active service in May 1946, but not before
marrying Robert Lemons, U.S. Navy, in a military wedding on February 9,
1946.
Following the war, her husband remained in the U.S. Navy so she lived
with him on postings in Florida and Illinois. Following Mr. Lemons
discharge they settled in Illinois and raised a daughter Frances, son
Stanley "Cork" and foster son Ed Jasefchuck.
She was widowed in 1972, retired in 1989 from a career as a Registered
Medical Assistant and returned home to Canada permanently. She now
resides in Bracebridge, Ontario with summers on Manitoulin.
She is active in veterans groups, including the Canadian Corps
Association, CWAC Unit No. 47 and the War Pensioners of Canada.
Joan Lemons has also been an active member of the committee organizing
the Manitoulin Women's Memorial.
She notes that "I've given up ice skating and dancing and swimming! I
just stand in the lake with a hat on!!"
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
JOAN CORRIGAN (Lemons)
An honoured veteran recalls her service years
By Ruth Farquhar
MINDEMOYA-When Joan M. Corrigan (Lemons) was a teenage girl in Mindemoya
during the early years, she dreamt of enlisting in the air force.
Everyday after helping her parents, A.L.S. "Cork" and Alice Corrigan in
their bakery she joined the groups of women rolling bandages and knitting
socks to send to the men overseas. "I tried to knit a sock a day," says
Ms. Lemons.
In January of 1944, Ms. Lemons went to Toronto to work and in May of that
year she enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corps and although it was
not the air force it didn't matter for she knew that she was meant to
help her country. She was called up in mid-June and reported for medicals
at the beginning of July.
"I was sworn in on July 5, 1944 and reported to the Trinity Barracks in
Toronto following a enlistment leave at home." Receiving her uniform and
kit from Stanley Barracks, within days of her draft she was sent to Basic
Training Centre No. 3 in Kitchener, Ontario. Basic training took six
weeks and on the day she graduated her great-grandmother and aunt were
part of the audience to congratulate her.
To show off their skills a gas drill was scheduled and the powers-that-be
were careful with the placement of the chairs for the audience. "We were
snappy as we could be, the drill came and we were ready but the wind
changed and it went over the whole audience. My 95-year-old great-
grandmother was tear gassed. Everyone was okay though."
Then Ms. Lemons was sent to #12 Company, Kildare Barracks in Ottawa and
was attached to the Canadian Postal Corps at the base post office. "This
was the final sorting of all mail going to the army and air force
overseas. The ail was sent to Field Post Offices for distribution to the
troops wherever they were, in battle or behind the lines."
Ms. Lemons knew this work was vital, that receiving mail kept the morale
of the troops up, but there was another reason Ms. Lemons asked to be
attached to the postal corps. "We heard that we could get sent overseas
faster; but you couldn't go until you were 21. We "girls" were always
hoping to be on the next overseas draft to deliver the mail over there."
It was not to be, however Ms. Lemons was on orders to go overseas when
the war ended.
In Ottawa, Ms. Lemons lived in a house which used to belong to diplomat
and she shared the master bedroom with 22 other women. "We created our
own entertainment by putting on dances and playing charades." Ms. Lemons
remembers that there was always lots of things for the service men to do
but nothing for the service women. "They wouldn't let service women into
the dances for the service men and at times we did feel like social
outcasts."
There was definitely prejudice against women in the military, Ms. Lemons
remembers incidents where officers wouldn't get into Jeeps if a woman was
driving, and many people believed that a women's place was in the home
not in uniform. Despite the feelings of some tht being in the armed
forces was not a job for a woman, would Ms. Lemons do it all over again?
Absolutely. "If I had to do it over again I would have lied about my age
and gone in sooner. And I would have throttled McKenzie King and stayed
in the army following the war."
According to Ms. Lemons, Prime Minister King was known for not wanting
women in the military, After V.E. Day in May 1945 Ms Lemons continued at
the base post office as repatriation was just in the beginning
stages. "During this time we were asked to volunteer for the Pacific
Forces which I did. We received the Pacific Patch containing the colours
of each Canadian Division to sew onto our sleeves."
But before Ms. Lemons could participate in the training programs the war
ended in August 1945 in the Pacific. As repatriation got into full swing
the work load at the base post office decreased and the staff was reduced
by demobization. "I was discharged the end of May in 1946 and on
September 30, 1946 the last women were discharged from the Canadian Armed
Forces. There was not one woman left in the Army, Navy or Air Force."
Ms. Lemons currently lives between Bracebridge and Manitoulin Island. She
is a member of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 177 and the Cenotaph
Committee, active in the United Church, belongs to the War Pensioners of
Canada and the Canadian Corps Association Unit #47. She is also a
registered Medical Assistant, a Fellow of International College of
Medical Technology and a Life Member of the American Association of
Medical Personnel.
Ms. Lemons is justifiably proud of her role in the military and she says
it best, "Those women who served Canada in the military have become a
significant part of Canada's history."
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
EDITH KRUGER (Bailey)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Edith Kruger (Bailey) wa born in St. Sjorup, Denmark but came with her
parents to Gore Bay as a small child.
She enlisted at the age of 19 in the CWAC in Toronto and had postings
thre and in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Se was discharged from active service in August, 1946 from her last
posting in Fredericton.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
LIEUTENANT HELEN LEWIS JOHNSON (Michell)
Nursing Sister
Lieutenant Helen Lewis Johnson (Michell) graduated from Toronto General
Hospital nursing program in 1940. In 1942 she was accepted as a nursing
sister at the rank of Lieutenant with the Canadian Army.
She worked at Chorney Park Hospital for returning veterans and at the
prisoner of war camp in Monteith in Northern Ontario.
After the war ended, she remained in active service until her discharge
in June, 1946.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
COLLEEN McGREGOR (Font)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Frances "Colleen" McGregor was born on June 3, 1925 in Birch Island,
Ontario. She was the fourth child of ten. She had a Grade 10 education
and certificate in St. John's Ambulance as well as the Red Cross Home
Nursing.
Colleen McGregor joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) on October
31, 1944. As a private, she did her basic training in Kitchener, then
worked as a cook in the Officers Mess at Niagara Camp and No. 26 Admin.
Unit.
She worked as a cook for two years in the private home of Justice R.L.
Kellock, in Toronto.
She married Albert D.A. Font on September 16, 1946 and lived in Toronto.
They had eight children but only six survived.
Colleen was accepted at the Ontario College of Art but unfortunately was
not able to attend due to Army service. She instead, became a good wife,
loving mother and devoted grandmother.
She passed away on March 22, 1988 and rests in Toronto with her husband.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
LUCIENNA MILLS (Yates)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
"I enlisted in the CWAC in 1943 along with my friend Edith Delaney. We were sent to Kitchener, Ontario for our basic training. From there I was sent back to Toronto to work at Army Headquarters and Edith was sent down East.
"While at Army Headquarters I met my husband and we were married later
that year. In 1944 I moved to Barrie, Ontario and after the war we moved
into Camp Borden married quarters.
"In 1950 my husband was posted to the Far East (Japan/Korea) as an
Administrative Officer and for the time he was away I moved back to
Little Current with my two children."
"When my husband returned he was posted to Army Headquarters in Kingston,
then Ottawa again as an Admin. Officer. We stayed in Ottawa for 11 years
where we finished our family: two boys and a girl."
"My husband returned from the Armed Services in 1963 and we moved back to Toronto."
"I was always a full-time homemaker and thoroughly enjoyed my role as
such."
"In 1999 my husband passed away and the following year I moved to
Kitchener to be nearer my younger daughter. I am very comfortable here
and enjoy reasonably good health at the present time. Hopefully it will
continue for a few more years."
"I am looking forward to being present at the ceremonies in September."
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
IDA FERGUSON
Nursing Sister (First World War)
Manitowaning produced a First World War heroine, Miss Ida Ferguson who was a graduate of the New York Postgraduate Hospital.
Miss Ferguson enlisted and went overseas with Postgraduate Unit to Base
Hospital No. 8 in 1917. She showed what she was made of when, on October
8, 1918 she was on duty at Field Hospital No. 12 in Chippy, France when
the hospital was shelled for an entire day. Miss Ferguson remained
constantly at her post in the operating room which was repeatedly
showered with fragments of bursting shells. By this bravery, risking her
own life, she aided greatly in saving the lives of several wounded men.
When she returned home to Manitowaning at the close of hostilities, she
received, deservedly, a heroine's welcome: the town was decorated and a
huge crowd turned out to meet her. In the evening, a reception was held
in honour of her return.
During the Second World War she was a tireless volunteer for the Red
Cross Society in Manitowaning.
Her uniform and medals are an important part of the collection of the
Assigniack Museum in Manitowaning.
Her follows Miss Ferguson's own account of her wartime experiences: "In
June 1917, I enlisted for war service as an army medical nurse with the
New York Post Graduate Hospital Unit. We embarked July 29th on S.S.
Saratoga and next day while awaiting of Tompkinville for the formation of
a convoy, the vessel was rammed by the steamer Panama coming from Cuba.
The pilot was German, it was found out, and the accident deliberate as we
were anchored and it was broad daylight. We had a personnel over 2,000
Drs., nurses and corps men. The hospital equipment and personal baggage
was destroyed by water. We had to wait until August 7 to get re-equipped.
"We sailed on the S.S. Finland and 13 days later landed at St. Nazaire,
France. On Sunday, August 19the, the 12th day from New York, a message
was received from British destroyers as to the whereabouts of a flotilla
of German submarines. At 2:11 p.m. the San Jacinto, one of the transports
in the convoy, sighted the submarine and immediately the destroyers
opened fire.
After considerable movement the convoy was reassembled, passed into the
Bay of Biscay, and proceeded undisturbed until Monday, August 20th. At
8:50 a.m., while within sight of land, a major submarine engagement took
place in which all the transports and six torpedo destroyers participated.
The Finland fired 38 shells and if officially credited with having two
torpedoes discharged at her. After an hour and forty minutes the convoy
was reassembled and at 7 p.m. arrived at the dock at St. Nazaire, France.
The next morning the nurses went by train and the officers and men
marched to Base Hospital No. 8, Savenay, a distance of 18 kilometers.
On April 19, 1918 Miss Cornwall and I, another Canadian, left Base
Hospital No. 8 on a surgical team for duty at the front. We followed the
Gibsey Division in its history-making days through Amiens, Cantigny,
Soissons, Chateau Thierry, St. Michel, and the Argonne, etc. For seven
months we lived under unbelievable hardships and dangers. Day after day
and night after night we traveled by motor truck train. Our food hard
tack, bully beef and monkey meat. Our bed, any convenient building, hay
stack, or often, open fields and woods. Sometimes there was no stop for
sleep which meant drowsing away all night on the cold wet seat of an any
army truck dashing madly through the darkness with every light doused. At the end of the trip, we slaved for long hours at the operating table and when completely exhausted, stove to snatch such sleep as the Boche
shells, gas and bombs would permit.
We were at the front until after the Armistice and then back to Base 8.
We sailed home March 2nd, 1919 on the S.S. Mount Vernon and arrived in
New York March 11th. I arrived home to Manitowaning March 21st and was
relieved from active service on May 4.
On October 8, 1918 at Chippy, France in the Argonne the hospital was
shelled for an entire day. Miss Cornwall and I remained constantly at our
post of duty in the operating room for 12 hours. For courage and bravery
we each received a citation Certificate and a Croix de Guette Medal."
The Croix de Guerre and citation that she received are on display in the
War Room of the Assiginack Museum. Also in this display are numerous
items that she brought back from France.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
NAOMI AINSLIE
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Naomi Ainslie served with the Ordnance Corps for the entire period of her
enlistment, which she spent at a single posting, in Ottawa.
She worked on Hollerith machines for the entire period and lived at
Kildare Barracks.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
EFFIE CONLEY (Carlisle)
Royal Canadian Air Force
(Women's Division)
Effie Conley (Carlisle) had already left her Mindemoya home and was
working in Hamilton when she enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force
(Women's Division) in 1943.
She was posted to the Uplands Air Force Base, Rockcliffe Park (Ottawa)
for basic training and then sent to Toronto and finally to Lachine,
Quebec.
She worked in Admin Ops (administration division) with 17 sergeants, one
LAC, "and myself."
"We looked after the administrative details of airmen either being posted
overseas or being posted back to Canada. They came through our office,"
she recalls.
She married a soldier just back from the war in 1945 which automatically
gave her her discharge. "I was married in June and got out in August."
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
EVELYN CAMPBELL (Yurick)
Canadian Women's Army CorpsEvelyn Campbell (Yurick) joined the CWAC in early 1942 and wash
discharged in April 1944.
She served as a messenger, a driver and a receptionist with postings in
Toronto, Newmarket and Hamilton.
She married Peter Yurick in Toronto in June 1944 and moved to British
Columbia in 1945.
Her family consists of four girls and one boy.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
REITA MAY BAILEY (Lemieux)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Reita My Bailey (Lemieux) was born in Kagawong.
In 1942 she enlisted in the CWAC working as a nurse.
Following her discharge from service and her marriage in 1946 to Andrew
Lemieux, she continued to work in the field of nursing in the Sudbury
area while at the same time raising a large family of eight children.
She passed away in 1988 at the age of 64.
Her children are very proud of their mother's wartime service.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
DOROTHY G. TURNER (Sloss)
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
"When I enlisted, Hitler heard me coming, so he threw in the towel," was
Dorothy Turner (Sloss) comment on her brief stint in the RCAF(WD). She
enlisted in October 1943 in London, Ontario in Clerk Ops (clerical
operations) having only recently left Little Current to enroll at the
University of Toronto.
The job involved she said, "standing on ladders and plotting the course
of aircraft."
She said a friend of hers and herself, got the last two positions in
clerk ops as the war was coming to an end and that division was being
shut down. "That's whey we went to London because that's where the
positions were open."
After clerk ops, she was remustered to Ottawa to the clerk general's
office to type and file until war's end.
She said she had hoped to be sent overseas but the war ended before that
could happen.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
RUTH BAXTER (Caldwell)
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
Ruth Baxter was the daughter of Little Current hardware merchant George
Baxter and Mildred Baxter.
Following graduation from high school in Little Current, she attended
Toronto Teacher's College and had teaching positions in Little Current
and Sheguiandah, then in the late 1930s, in Kirkland Lake.
By 1942, Ruth Baxter was working in the Ontario Government's Vital
Statistics Office in Toronto.
She enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division) in the
fall of 1942, and was trained as Clerk Operations - Bomber Reconnaissance.
In Halifax she was serving as a member of the Operations Room Staff,
working in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Navy, plotting flights
over the North Atlantic convoys.
Ruth Baxter was discharged from the service in August 1945.
In September of that year she married Bert Caldwell in Little Current.
She and her husband lived in Kingston until 1949 while he attended
Queen's University.
They raised two sons, Gordon and Jim in various Ontario communities where her husband taught school.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
JEAN NORQUAY (Morrison)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Jean Norquay (Morrison), a native of Manitowaning, enlisted in the CWAC in Ottawa in 1943. She had previously been working in the capital for the government for a year.
She received her basic training in Kitchener and following further
instruction as a clerk and stenographer in Ottawa and Montreal, she was
posted to the Royal Military College in Kingston and worked there as a
stenographer.
She joined the Pacific Force in June 1945, and was stationed in
Brockville, Ontario until war's end.
She was discharged at Longbranch in November 1945.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
GWENDOLYN STEELE (Whelen)
Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service
Gwendolyn Steele (Whelen) joined the Navy (WRCN) in January 1944.
She trained in Galt, Ontario and from there was posted to HMCS,
Cornwallis, to Halifax, to Ottawa and to Montreal.
She was discharged from active service in June 1946.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
ZOE VIRGINIA TRUDEAU
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Zoe Virginia Trudeau left Wikwemikong in 1941 to enlist in the Canadian Women's Army Corps. Her posting was in Southern Ontario.
She was, in fact, a casualty of her experience as she contracted
pneumonia while still in service and passed away in 1943.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
DOROTHY MARSHALL (Long)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Dorothy Marshall (Long) served with the Canadian Women's Army Corps from 1943 until war's end in 1945.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
DOREEN ASHLEY (Wood)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Doreen Ashley (Wood) enlisted in the CWAC in August 1943, taking her
basic training in Kitchener.
The remainder of her service was in London, Ontario where her duties were primarily office work and canteen duties.
"I mostly enjoyed the routine, although it was quite hectic at times. I
worked mostly in large canteens with two girls from Newfoundland."
She served with 'D' Company, No.3, BTC, CWAC.
She left the service in May, 1945.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
ELSIE WILSON (Cichelly)
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
Elsie Wilson (Cichelly) left her Providence Bay home to enlist in the
RCAF where she saw active service during the Second World War.
Following war's end, she attended university and worked at the Red Cross
Outpost Hospital in Nakina in Northern Ontario.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
CHARLOTTE McARTHUR
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
Charlotte (Lottie) McArthur was born and raised in Providence Bay.
She enlisted in the RCAF in September 1942, and was discharged from the
service in October 1945.
Following her basic training, her posting was to Halifax.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
EDITH DELANEY 911 (Dillane)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Edith Delaney was born and raised in Little Current.
She enlisted in the CWAC and following basic training in Kitchener was
posted to Eastern Canada.
Following the Second World War she married a veteran and lived in
Sudbury, raising her family there.
She has since passed away.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
JESSIE CLARK
Nursing Sister - First World War
Miss Jessie Clark, a native of Gore Bay, arrived back in Canada, at the docks, in Halifax, Nova Scotia well after war's end.
By June 20, 1919 she was a veteran of four years nursing service overseas.
She had gone over in June 1915 with the Harvard Unit of the Medical Corps working in hospitals in England and France until February 1916 when she returned to England and joined the Canadian Corps. While with the Canadian Sisters, Miss Clark nursed the wounded in many Casualty Cleaning Stations in France.
While overseas, Miss Clark kept track of the Manitoulin boys and
remembered them quite often by sending them boxes of cakes and candy
which had been sent to her from Canada, and by writing letters to them,
especially to those who were wounded or in hospital. She received many
letters of thanks and appreciation from the soldiers and many wrote home
of the good and thoughtful work Miss Clark was doing.
She was made an honorary member of the Royal Canadian Legion and was also a member of the American Veterans of Foreign Wars organization.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
MARGARET L. McCAIG (Noble)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Margaret L. McCaig (Noble) was born on Cockburn Island, the fifth child of 10. Her parents were Thomas and Nellie McCaig.
Margaret McCaig (Noble) joined the service in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
in 1942.
She achieved the rank of Corporal.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
GERALDINE ARNOLD (Andrychuk)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Geraldine Arnold (Andrychuk) was 21 when she left Sandfield to enlist in the CWAC in July, 1942.
She had two years of service in Toronto before her discharge in 1944,
attaining the rank of Lance Corporal.
She received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, 1939-1945.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
NORMA ORFORD (Martin)
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
Norma Orford (Martin) was born in Mills Township, Manitoulin Island on May 31, 1924.
In 1943, she enlisted in the RCAF and following training, was designated
the trade of Leading Airwoman. She performed the vital task of packing
parachutes.
On October 18, 1945, she married William Alexander Martin.
By dint of hard work and dedication, she raised her seven children
herself. She cooked in restaurants before returning to school and
qualifying as an accountant. She worked in that capacity for Family
Services in London for 14 years.
Norman Orford (Martin) is characterized by her dedication to her children and by her wonderful sense of humour.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
MARY K. BRYAN (Wager)
Canadian Women's Army Corps
Mary K. Bryan (Wager) was born in 1925 on Barrie Island and raised in
Gore Bay. She enlisted in the CWAC in 1943.
Following basic training, she was posted to Camp Borden where she served
as secretary to a General in the army, a position she held until her
discharge from the army in 1945.
She met her husband Lloyd Wager, in Parry Sound before she enlisted and
they were married after war's end, in 9145. He was also an army veteran
and a war amputee.
Mary Bryan (Wager) went to live in the Oshawa area after her marriage and resides there still. She has three children.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
MARY GEORGINA BAXTER
Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division)
Georgina Baxter, born in Little Current in 1924, was "the only Haweater in my family."
In 1942, she enrolled at the University of Toronto then joined the RCAF
(WD) in January 1943, receiving training as a Navigator, Equipment
Assistance. She was sent to No. 1 Wireless School in Montreal.
She says candidly that, "it became obvious that equipment was not my
thing, and when asked what I really wanted to do, I replied, 'anything to do with aircraft."
"Thanks to that Women's Division Officer and the OC (Officer Commanding)
of the Flying Squadron, it was arranged that I would start contact
training as an Air Frame Mechanic at St. Hubert, Quebec.
"I learned on the job, thanks to a very considerate group of tradesmen,
mostly French Canadian, who helped this unusual WD to actually attain her A group AFM (Air Frame Mechanic)-the top. That achievement has remained my most appreciated one.
"In the late summer of 1944, I was transferred to No. 8 Repair Depot in
Winnipeg. In the summer of 1945, I received my discharge notice, spending a fascinating leave in New York before final discharge in August."
Georgina Baxter attended Queen's University following the war's end.
Following graduation, she again headed west to the Forest Insect
Laboratory in Indian Head Saskatchewan, but "deciding that research was
not an overly interesting occupation, I left for Richmond, Virginia in
1952 to train as an Occupational Therapist in their graduate program."
She accepted a position in Edmonton in 1954.
"When I had had 18 years as an Occupational Therapist (Edmonton and
England), I retrained in Edmonton as a Library Technician, graduating in
1979 and working at Regano College in Fort McMurray until 1989.
Retirement was (and is) in Edmonton.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
DOROTHY SANDERS (McKeen)
Royal Canadian Air Force
Dorothy Sanders (McKeen), a native of South Baymouth served with the RCAF (WD) as a cook.
She had many postings across Canada during her time in uniform, including Toronto, St. Thomas, St. Hubert (Quebec), Prince Rupert (B.C.) and Vancouver (B.C).
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
LIEUTENANT MARJORIE WIBER (Dutton)
Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps
Lieutenant Marjorie Wiber (Dutton) served in the army medical corps from 1943 until her discharge in June 1945.
She graduated from nursing school in 1940, joining the army in 1942 with
two years experience.
Her experience in the army included nursing service at London, Ontario
and then on a hospital ship, the Letieia.
She recalls this last posting as, "an exceptional traveling experience
for me. It included Atlantic crossings to Southampton (England), Scotland and France.
"Each crossing gave me a week's furlough as the skipper always had to go
to the ship yard for complete inspection and repairs. Since it was
wartime, traveling was limited. However, this service, including the
traveling was the highlight of my nursing career.
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
KAY CHRISTIE: First POW Nursing Sister
A Manitoulin heroine survives capture by the Japanese in 1941 Hong Kong
By Cheryl Waugh
December 7, 1941: "A day that will live in infamy," proclaimed US
president Franklin D. Roosevelt as shocked Americans woke on what should
have been a peaceful Sunday morning to discover that Imperial Japan had
attacked Pearl Harbor.
This December, 60 years will have passed since that eventful morn, and
President Roosevelt's prophecy will be proven once again; December 7,
1941 and Pearl Harbor are synonymous with each other, almost forgotten in the overwhelming atmosphere of honouring the American tragedy are the
other Japanese attacks in the hours after Pearl Harbor, the Phillipines,
Malaya, and Hong Kong.
For Kay Christie, a nursing sister who was stationed at a British
Military Hospital in Hong Kong, December 7, 1941 was a day of personal
infamy as the events that would make her the first nursing sister to
become a Prisoner of War began.
It's a far cry from the blue waters and peaceful, rolling hills of
Manitoulin to war-torn Hong Kong in 1941, but Ms. Christie made that trip as a dedicated nursing sister, working with the Royal Canadian Army
Medical Corps as a Lieutenant.
Born in Little Current on June 10, 1911, Ms. Christie is fondly
remembered by those who knew her. (She died in February 1994 from
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.) "I remember she had beautiful flaming red hair," said Betty McHarg, of Little Current. "She was a very nice young lady, very friendly. Her father worked at the old mill that was here."
Her mother died when Ms. Christie was still a child, and soon after her
father moved her, along with her two brothers and sisters, to Toronto
where she was raised by her aunt, a registered nurse to whom she credits
her own desire to enter that profession. But Manitoulin was not left far
behind as the Christies made the Island their summer home, and visited
here on holidays.
Ms. McHarg remembers that her sister Peggy, who also studied nursing but
at a different hospital in Toronto, became great friends with Ms.
Christie, they would often return to Manitoulin together.
Ms. Christie graduated from the School of Nursing of the Toronto Western
Hospital on May 25, 1933, and spent one year on the general staff of the
hospital before entering private nursing. She was encouraged by the
Superintendent of Nurses of the Toronto Western Hospital to enlist after
the Second World War started. She did so on November 27, 1940 and was
assigned to the Toronto Military and Chorley Park Military Hospitals
before she was posted to a then-unknown overseas destination in October
of 1941. She was enroute to Vancouver by train when she met nursing
sister Anna May Waters of Winnipeg, who not only joined her on her
journey to western Canada, but also to Hong Kong, and then when Hong Kong fell, to a Japanese Prisoner of War camp.
In Vancouver, the two nurses had to report to Military Headquarters each
day at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Eventually, they were told to go out and buy
all the summer clothes they could find. In an interview with Bill McNeil
of CBC Radio in 1922, Ms. Christie said it was great fun trying to find
summer clothes in October. Ms. Christie managed to find one outfit. She
and Ms. Waters were assigned to the troop ship AMT Awatea..destination
still unknown.
On October 27, 1941, the two nurses and 1,975 Canadian servicemen sailed
from Vancouver. A difficult crossing of the Pacific Ocean followed as
rough weather assaulted the ship. Having to set up a 54-bed hospital, and dealing with ill crewmen (including one death) kept the two nurses busy on the ocean voyage. A brief stay was made in the Phillipines, although no one was allowed to disembark. Finally, in Honolulu, they discovered the ship was being assigned to Hong Kong for the purpose of reinforcing the British Colony in case of a Japanese attack.
Imperial Japan's attack on Hong Kong in December of 1941 was the focus of a controversial documentary called, "A Savage Christmas: The Fall of Hong Kong," developed by Terence and Brian McKenna, of Montreal. It was one part of "The Valour and The Horror" war series they created in the early 1990s. The Hong Kong assignment was a "hopeless mission," said script-writer Terence McKenna.
By December of 1941, Japan had already swept through China and was moving south towards the Chinese border with the British Colony of Hong Kong. According to the documentary, in early 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had said privately that there was not the slightest chance of holding Hong Kong or of relieving it if the Japanese attacked. However, his military persuaded him that it was worth at least a symbolic attempt to hold Hong Kong, but rather than risk British troops, Canada was asked to do the job.
The Winnipeg Grenadiers, who were on garrison duty in Jamaica, and The
Royal Rifles of Canada, the troop Ms. Christie was assigned to in
Vancouver were shipped out to Hong Kong.
"Incredibly, Canada answered England's call without making an independent assessment of the peril, accepting the mother country's assurance that the men would be in harm's way," said Mr. McKenna.
The Grenadiers were officially classified as "unfit for combat" by the
Canadian defence department, as many in the unit had never thrown a
grenade or even fired a rifle before they were assigned to Hong Kong. The Royal Rifles weren't much better.
"Outside our cabin they're giving them lectures, telling them what this
end of the rifle is called, where to put the bullet in, honestly, it's
just appalling," said Ms. Christie when she was interviewed for the
documentary.
Three weeks after leaving Vancouver the AMT Awatea arrived in Hong Kong,
on November 16, 1941. The two nursing sisters were posted to the British
Military Hospital then staffed by Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military
Nursing Sisters.
As the Japanese approached the Chinese border with Hong Kong, British
intelligence had estimated there were only 5,000 Japanese soldiers in
position to threaten Hong Kong, in fact there were 10 times that amount
as 50,000 Japanese soldiers were assembled on the border.
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese high command ordered its forces to attack across Asia, first at Pearl Harbor, then the Phillipines, Malaya and Hong Kong.
The British Colony of Hong Kong was not just an island, but a chunk of
mainland as well, which included the city of Kowloon. The mainland
territory stretched 40 kilometers to the Chinese border. In order to get
to Hong Kong Island where Ms. Christie and the hospital were stationed,
the Japanese troops had to cross the 40 kilometer mainland strip, where
British defence forces were set up, go through the city of Kowloon and
then cross the harbour onto the island.
Air raids, though, began immediately on the area and on December 8 the
British Military Hospital was bombed. There were 111 direct hits on the
hospital and the other buildings on the ground. The air raid siren was
hit by the first bomb so those posted there had no warning of the coming
onslaught until the planes were overhead.
As the bombings continued on the island, the Japanese troops were
storming British and Canadian troops on the mainland. Although British
Intelligence had predicted it would take the Japanese weeks to cross that 40 kilometer stretch of mainland, it took them only five days. The
Japanese easily captured Kowloon as surviving British and Canadian troops retreated by ferry to Hong Kong island.
At 10 p.m. on December 18, 1941, 7,500 Japanese soldiers crossed the
harbour onto Hong Kong island. They forced the Canadian defenders back up the mountains in the center of the island. The "unfit for combat"
Grenadiers, about 100 of them, were holding off two regiments of Japanese soldiers as they struggled to keep the high ground.
Outnumbered 50 to 1, the Canadian troops stood their ground for five days before the Japanese troops finally broke through on December 23. The Japanese suffered 800 casualties in the standoff.
With the British Military Hospital shelled in the air raids, a Hong Kong
private school was set up as a hospital for the wounded. Two doctors and
11 nurses staffed it, including Ms. Christie who had managed to survive
the bombings.
In "A Savage Christmas," she told the story of a young soldier she was
treating who had lost his left arm, right up to his shoulder, ".he
doesn't know yet (about the loss of his arm). And, I'm thinking, 'Dear
God, what am I going to tell you when you come to.?'"
The soldier then stirred and looked at his shoulder, and asked Ms.
Christie, "How am I doing?"
"You're doing just fine," said Ms. Christie. "He said, 'You mean what's
left of me is doing fine.' I said that's exactly it."
"Well, that's kinda the way I figured," said the soldier; who then turned over and went back to sleep.
On Christmas Eve 1941, the Japanese were on the grounds outside the
hospital. At 5:30 a.m. on Christmas Day they broke through. The doctors
tried to surrender the hospital and were killed. The nurses were raped;
five of them were killed.
At 3 p.m. on Christmas Day, the British surrendered Hong Kong. The
defending troops, wounded and nurses were now Prisoners of War. Canada
lost 557 men defending Hong Kong.
"That term 'surrender', I can't tell you what it does for you," said Ms.
Christie in an interview with Jean Bruce, author of "Back the Attack!
Canadian Women during the Second World War.' (Macmillan, 1985)
Ms. Christie continued to work at the school/hospital for another eight
months as a Prisoner of War. On August 10, 1942, she and the other
surviving nurses were sent to a civilian camp, Stanley Camp, on the
southside of the island. "We had to leave our patients without nursing
care. We were loaded into trucks just like cattle going to market," said
Ms. Christie.
Stanley Camp housed about 2400 men, women, and children. The POWs were
given two meals a day, a half serving of rice in the morning and some
soup, and fish at night. She shared a nine-foot by 12-foot room with two
other women. It was completely bare. The windows had bullet holes, while
the walls had blood stains. With no bedding, the men in the camp got them some army cushions, which they used to sleep on.
The days consisted largely of boredom. There was nothing for the POWs to
do, but with two French Canadian Nuns in camp Ms. Christie went to one of them each day to learn French. She also learned how to play bridge. After awhile, the interned nursing sisters were asked to help out on night duty at the small hospital in Stanley Camp. Each were more than happy to help out.
Finally in September 1943, 21 months after being captured by the
Japanese, Ms. Christie became part of a prisoner exchange between the
Japanese and the Americans. The two countries had agreed to an exchange
of civilian prisoners through the International Red Cross. On request
from the Canadian government, the US included Canadian civilians in the
exchange. British, New Zealand and Australian prisoners had to wait it
out for another two years. They asked their Canadian counterparts to
write down the names and address of their families so they could get word to them.
"The Japanese wouldn't let us bring out anything written, and we were
worried about the consequences if we were caught," said Ms. Christie to
Ms. Bruce. "I wrote the names and addresses down, and then I learned them all by heart while we waiting. When we were lined up, eventually to board the Japanese exchange ship. I very deliberately and obviously threw my notes away, scattering them in the wind, while I repeated and repeated those addresses to myself in my head. When we boarded, we were handed an unusual thing, a roll of orange-coloured toilet paper, and as soon as possible I wrote down as many of those names and addresses as I could remember.
The Japanese ship docked at the port of the neutral Portuguese colony of
GAO, where the exchange took place. Her return voyage was a long one
around the Cape to Rio de Janeiro, to New York City, and from there, by
train to Montreal. Ms. Christie arrived home in Toronto on December 3,
1943, more than two months after boarding the Japanese exchange ship.
By February of 1944, Ms. Christie was ready to return to her nursing
sister duties, and she was further posted to Chorley Park, Oakville, and
Brampton Retraining Center, before being re-posted to Chorley Park.
After VE Day, Ms. Christie received a position with a prominent Toronto
heart specialist as a medical nursing secretary. She was granted a
discharge from the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps on October 30, 1945. After her discharge, she worked as a medical secretary for a
neuropsychiatric specialist until retirement.
She was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross medal for her distinguished service, and in ensuing years she was named Honorary Patron of the National Council of Veterans, Honourary President of the Nursing Sisters Association of Canada, and in 1995, both she and Ms. Waters were honoured by a plaque erected in the Police Academy in Hong Kong in recognition of their outstanding service.
Ms. Christie was asked once if she had been scared while she was a
Prisoner of War; her reply was, "There were others in the same boat - I
wasn't alone."
Although she died seven years ago, the nursing sister who once lived and
played on the shores of the North Channel here in Little Current is
remembered for her courage and grace under fire.
"I remember how proud I was to have known her," said Ms. McHarg, "because she went through hell over there."
Manitoulin Expositor
Women of Valour
September 12, 2001
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