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Veteran recalls war --with a stroke of his paintbrush TED BROWN Staff Writer Bruce O'Connor is an artist. He has been an artist for a good many years, and worked in the graphic design part of the industry for many years. And after all those years creating portraits, landscapes, illustrations and still life studies, there is another type of art he creates. It's war art. He admits it's a labour of love, and over the past 10 years, O'Connor has created numerous depictions of battles, aircraft, and military events, his latest being a picture of Maj. David Currie accepting surrender from a group of German soldiers as Currie and his small force took St. Lambertsur-Dives, during the Second World War, an action that would result in Currie being decorated with the Victoria Cross. "I found the photo of the surrender in a book and decided to recreate it in colour," said O'Connor, "I looked at the original, and thought `this man won the VC-- at least his action should be shown in colour'." O'Connor made sure his colours were correct, researching the South Alberta Regiment's colours to make the image true to history. He intends to donate the image to the South Alberta Regiment's museum, or Peel Region Museum. In addition to the Currie drawing, O'Connor has created many others, some of them featuring the air force, particularly with Lancaster bombers. One hangs in Greenwood Air Base Museum in Nova Scotia, while another is featured at the Flying War Museum at Hamilton. Both depict aircraft, which is no surprise-- O'Connor is a Second World War veteran, a veteran rear gunner from a Lancaster bomber. The O'Connor family has a deep-rooted military background. Bruce's father, Hebert Henry O'Connor, was a veteran of the First World War. He joined the 124th `Pals' Battalion, (which enlisted friends or co-worker together in the same unit-- a concept that became disastrous when a regiment faced heavy casualties, since an entire town's men would be wiped out.) See VETERAN, pg. 7 Second World War veteran Bruce O'Connor of Georgetown displays his image of Maj. David Currie accepting surrender from a group of German prisoners (for which Currie was later decorated with the Victoria Cross.) O'Connor has been painting war art for more than 10 years, often reflecting his own experiences as a rear gunner on a Lancaster bomber. Photo by Ted Brown