Across the Nation
Reports from the Regions
BC Banter
Ab/Sk Action
Manitoba Moments
Ontario Offerings
Quebec Quotes
Maritime Memories
BC Banter ….
- Linda Stewart
Here's our regional report from beautiful British Columbia.
On December 13th, I was visiting in Winnipeg. My daughter-in-law, Teresa, grand-daughter and myself attended the Ladies Tea & Tidbits at the St. James Legion that day. It just so happened it was Ayla's first birthday. We had a fun time at the tea and the ladies were so sweet to Ayla.
Due to a heavy snowfall in Victoria (do you believe it?) we were forced to postpone the scheduled wreath laying to the following Sunday on December 28th. Our usually small gathering was smaller still, but a very enjoyable time nonetheless. Gerry and Ev Gerrard were there along with their daughter, Pat and her son, daughter-in-law and their child and Jim Trick and myself. There was a new family in attendance. They contacted us through our website. They are two brothers and a sister – Allan, Scott and Cheryl. They are the children of Winnipeg Grenadier Allan Mactier (deceased). One of the brothers has become a member and has volunteered to help out where he can. After the wreath laying, we went to Gerry's Legion to have coffee and cookies. It was a good opportunity to chat and get to know one another. It's a small Legion and not usually open on Sundays, but Gerry had the keys to allow us in to spend that quality time together.
Ida Speller has moved away from Victoria to Kamloops to be closer to her son and his family. They were thrilled to have her there to celebrate Christmas with them. I have her contact information, which she said I could pass along if you would like to get in touch with her.
Lee Naylor, our BC Education Chair, was in Princeton on the twenty eighth of January to be with Thomas P Jackson British Army Hong Kong Veteran on his ninety-seventh birthday. Tom appreciated that a member of the HKVCA was there to help celebrate.
Burke Penny, who is putting together a book on the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (RCCS), was in Vancouver and Victoria visiting with relatives and gathering research. He lives in Ottawa and is the nephew of Don Penny (RCCS). He spent some time with Valerie Rose (daughter of Jack Rose, deceased) and Leslie Henderson (daughter of Mel Keyworth, deceased) in Vancouver on March 3rd. On March 4th, he travelled to Victoria to have another of his many visits with Gerry Gerrard (RCCS). Gerry told me he found Burke’s information about the break-up of the different camps and tracking of the fellows coming home very interesting. He also said that Burke was working on the final chapter of the book. We are all eagerly looking forward to its completion.
The Phone Pals Program has now begun and we are very excited to be able to contact and chat with 7 veterans and 19 widows. It is a great way to keep in touch, find out how they are doing and, also, how they keep busy. Actually, they are a very busy group and it takes a few calls before we can reach them. Bev Campbell, our regional Secretary, would like to thank Sandy Brain for her help and time given to this project. Very much appreciated - thanks Sandy.
We remind our regional members who haven’t renewed their membership yet for 2009 to please do so in order to continue receiving news and to be able to participate in HKVCA events.
Mark your calendars for our Annual Spring Luncheons. They will be held on June 13th in Victoria and on June 27th in Vancouver at the same locations as last year. Details will be mailed out to the BC membership in April, including the decals for the HK vets and widows. If anyone from outside the province is going to be visiting BC on those dates, you are most welcome to attend. Just contact Murray or me and we will give you directions on how to get to the functions. We would love to see you there.
May God bless you and keep you, until we meet again. Best regards,
Submitted by:
Linda Stewart, BC Regional Director; on behalf of Murray Doull, Bev Campbell and Lee Naylor
Ab/Sask Action...
The AB/SK Executive send Best Wishes for the New Year and hope to see everyone in Ottawa in August.
Norma Fuchs,
Secretary AB/SK Region.
Manitoba Moments ….
Hello
to one and all.
I hope you had a good winter and are looking forward to an active and great summer. As you all know winter seems to slow many things down, so there is not much to report as far as any functions happening.
In December we did hold our Tea and Tidbits for the ladies and it was nice to see 16 ladies attend. Vince Lopata, Sgt at Arms of our colour party, had quintuple heart surgery but is well on his way to getting back to his old self. Keep well Vince, as you are very important to us, as all our members are.
Many of you might not know this but George Peterson is being indicted to the Canadian Veterans Hall of Valour on May 22nd in Ottawa. Congratulations George on this honour. George just celebrated his 88th birthday February 8th .
We hold our lunches on the 2nd Thursday of every month and are now having our general meetings at the same time - this has proven to be successful – more people, more ideas.
As far as myself I am just getting over my 3rd and last surgery since July and am doing well.
Due to the Convention in Ottawa in August we will be celebrating VJ Day on a later date, August 23rd at All Saint Church, and the unveiling of the new Name Plaque will take place at this time.
If you can make it to the Convention please do, as it is a wonderful experience and a chance to see our Veterans.
In the meantime take care one and all, my heart is with you as you are all my family.
Juliet Lafortune, MB Regional Director
Other Manitoba events:
The Education committee will be attending the Heritage Days at the University of Winnipeg in May and the Manitoba Social Studies Teachers Association in October.
We have some new items in Barry’s Emporium – HKVA flag, license plate holders and golf shirts – check them out online at http://www.hkvca.ca/store/index.htm
– MB Region Exec
Ontario Offerings….
Pat Turcotte gives this report from the Education Committee, which she chairs:
Since last September a number of events have taken place, and the important role of our volunteers needs to be highlighted. In September’s seminar at the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at U. of T. Nick Brune and Gordon Coyne assisted in providing special gifts for the presenters, and looking after the display table. Our two Hong Kong veterans, “Flash” Clayton and George MacDonell did a fine job with their two presentations.
On Nov. 1st, Nick Brune was himself a presenter at the ALPHA Conference, again assisted by Gordon Coyne at our display table. His discussion related to the “Ten Lessons” and other ways of connecting students with the Battle of Hong Kong. Our display table at the OHASSTA Conference on Nov. 7 & 8 would not have been possible without the help of several volunteers, including Shelagh Purcell, Linda Guglick and Sandra Strom. Mike Babin also assisted prior to his trip to Ottawa for the General Meeting of Ontario members being held there.
On December 6th and 7th, we made our first foray into fundraising at the Market Village Mall in Markham. Very few of our own members were available, and we needed to cover two full days from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Realizing also that we would be meeting a lot of people more comfortable speaking Chinese, we enlisted the help of the Royal HK Regiment Volunteers Ass’n.(ON), as well as several others who were fluent in Chinese. (The Royal HK Regiment was known as the HK Volunteer Defence Force during the Battle of Hong Kong.) With the help of Tony Au, President of the RHKR, Rev. Dominic Tse of the North York Chinese Community Church, and Angela Wan, History Head at Milliken Mills High School, we added 12 volunteers to the group of 6 from HKVCA. As a result, we had 18 people, three at a time, covering three-hour shifts right through the two days. It was quite an exhilarating experience. In the process, we raised $840.46 for the Memorial Wall. Thanks also to our own HKVCA volunteers, Sandy Madar, Bud and Ruth Mann, Tim Hodkinson, Mark Purcell and Sandra and Taylor Fox.
Since Christmas our focus has been the Cross-Canada Essay Contest. We hope to have an increased number of entries, and have been getting in touch with Superintendents of Schools, History Consultants, teachers, educational magazines and websites to be sure they are aware of the opportunity. If you go to TheBeaver.ca, and click on “Education”, and then “Living History” you will find the link to the article we have in that magazine. Also, there is lots of resource material in the Teachers’ Zone on the HKVCA Website, including the entry information. We hope HKVCA members across the country will encourage their children and grandchildren to enter. A special letter translated for Francophone schools, as well as the French version of the rules for the contest will be circulated across the country shortly. We have already received our first entry in the Essay Contest, and hope to see many more!
In more general news from the rest of the Ontario Region, Bob "Flash" Clayton was recently honoured by the Canadian Legion with the Legion Meritorious Service Medal (LMSM) in January at his home branch of the Legion, Brechin Mara (488) in Brechin, Ontario. Such an award is normally presented in Ottawa, however the Dominion Executive Council allowed for it to be presented to Flash in Brechin at their Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. The Vice President of Ontario Command, Ted Whan, was present to give the award. The LMSM is the highest medal you can receive from the legion and the Legion membership voted in favour of Flash receiving it last year in July. The medal recognizes Flash's work over the years with the Legion such as: Zone Colour Sgt.; community work; Memory Project; pilgrimages to Hong Kong; work with the HKVA.
From the South-West area, Barbara Cunningham-Drew reports a number of news items including that "Red" Harrington of the London area recently passed away on Dec. 31 in his 94th year. Red recently attended, in October, the local meeting with the Ontario Executive, which was also attended by 26 others including Alfred Babin, Harold Baker, and Lawrence Ross. Lisa Bird (daughter of Thomas Wardell, RRC) donated and laid the Hong Kong wreath at the Cenotaph in London on November 11, 2008. Lisa and her sisters, Heather Edwards and Jane Smith all live in London.
Lorraine Lawlis sends, Hi to her old friends and Lawrence Ross says best regards to the "boys". Les Canivet, RCOC says he is still keeping well and loves his choice to live in a small, caring community like Acton. He recently gave a talk to students on his HK experiences although they were mainly doing biographies on Juno Beach in France. Doris Hocking, sister of Edgar Smelts, WG, has a winter interest in watching birds where she lives out in the country and reports that wild turkeys fly up into the trees to sleep at night.
That's the news from Ontario!
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Quebec Quotes ….
Greetings again from Quebec. Hope you all enjoyed a nice Christmas Season and are well. We took a few weeks in the heat/sun to, as some might say, recharge our solar batteries and it does a world of good. The winter season is always a quiet time for us here, it gave us time renew contact with some of our veterans and widows. To name a few at this time, Edwina Doddridge at this time is home from hospital and stable. Joan Gillis is doing well and took time to visit her children and spend some time with her daughter on Vancouver Island, very good medicine. Patricia “Pat” Commerford is temporarily in a residence but doing well. Maybe someone can help us as we are still, without success even with the new telephone number, in trying to contact Mrs ‘Joseph’ Tennier of Montreal. If anyone knows where we could contact her/him, let us know, it would be greatly appreciated.
Deepest Sympathy to family and friends of all HK Veterans & Widows reported deceased since the last newsletter and special thoughts go to Austin Batley’s family. Austin was father to new members of the Association and uncle to our regional secretary Debbie Batley-Everett.
To new QC Region members, welcome to the Hong Kong Family.
Best Wishes to those celebrating or will soon celebrate a birthday or anniversary.
We will soon be holding our spring executive meeting. Other meetings will also be confirmed for a later date.
Many Quebec Veterans, widows and members are waiting anxiously for the Dedication/Convention news in order to make their reservations and plan their holidays as time is fast approaching. A great number of members are looking forward to this great event.
That will be all for this time. To all good wishes for good health, happiness and looking forward to meeting and sharing some time with you all in Ottawa next August. Take care.
- Lucette Mailloux Muir
- Lucette M.-Muir, QC Regional Director
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Maritime Memories…
On behalf of all the Atlantic Region Executive – we would like to wish all the Vets, spouses, widows and families all the Best in 2009.