During the Italian Campaign in WWII the Canadian Army held a “Sports Parade” for the troops somewhere in Italy. An enterprising PR photographer assembled the boys from Oakville that were attending and sent their photo to the Oakville papers.
The rest of our family “also served”.
My sister Ilene worked at the Small Arms plant in Long Branch and later at John Inglis in Toronto. By 1943 the Inglis factory was turning out 60% of the world’s supply of the Bren gun.
Her husband Frank Harris paid the supreme sacrifice in Holland in the closing days of the war with the 48th Highlanders. Frank is buried in the Canadian Cemetery, Holton, Netherlands, which I visited in 2004. There are 1355 Canadians buried there.
Brother Jim started out at Galt Aircraft School and entered the RCAF as an Aero Engine Mechanic. He later remustered to Aircrew and after a stint as a Flying Instructor, headed off to Europe to fly night raids over Europe in a deHavilland Mosquito. The picture above was taken after he returned from one such flight.
Sister Margaret first drove a delivery truck for Bambers grocery store on Kerr Street, then joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corp as a driver. Her “overseas” posting was to Washington DC ! Her last posting was close to our home on Brant Street, the old I.O.F. Home on Bond Street which had become Ortona Barracks. She would sometimes stop by in her staff car to say hello to Mother.
Brother Jim brought an Oakville boy home to dinner after the war; someone who had served with him on 418 Squadron overseas. Marg ended up marrying that dinner guest, Stafford Hill, son of a popular grocer/butcher in Oakville. William Hill had a store across the road from the Gregory Theatre, next to the office of the doctor that brought me and my siblings into this world, Dr. John H. Stead. (Except for brother Jim who had Dr Wilkinson). Francis Ahern, in her 1981 book "Oakville, A Small Town" said of the Hills: "Mr. & Mrs. Hill were real friends to everyone of their customers- - -and they were legion."
I wanted to follow my Brother Jim into the RCAF but they had stopped recruiting by the time I became of age, so I spent the closing months of the war in the Canadian Army. I volunteered to serve in the Pacific and was on my way to Alabama to train as a lineman when the war abruptly ended.
Bob Hughes
