From the start I know Great Grandpa William James was in the Army and served in the 1st WW. As the stories go he was gassed while in a trench and was never the same. It effected his mind.
Grandpa George William served in WW2
Brother, John Francis served as a Flight Sergeant, a gunner who was shot down April 30, 1943, age 20 years. Buried in Keil, Germany
Sister, Dorothy joined the R.C.A.F.(W.D.) in 1943 and was stationed at Guelph, Ontario
William joined the army in 1944, He was waiting to be deployed overseas when the war ended. He was posted to a POW prision in Medicine Hat and retired in 1979 from Nameo, Edmonton.
POW Camp 132 in Medicine Hat, Alberta - Article by Editing LukeIt depends on who you talk to, but there are many people (including a surprising amount of local residents) who aren't aware that Medicine Hat, Alberta was home to a prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was located at the site of what is now Medicine Hat's Exhibition and Stampede grounds. Perhaps lesser known however, is that Camp 132 (officially known as the Medicine Hat Prisoner of War Facility) was one of the largest P.O.W. camps in North America and brought thousands of Nazi prisoners into this remote southeast corner of Alberta.
Opened in 1943, Camp 132 spanned 50 hectares and was supposedly capable of holding over 12,000 prisoners. This is especially incredible when you realize that the population of Medicine Hat in 1943 was about the same. With Britain fearful of a German invasion, they sent over 37,000 prisoners of war to remote camps across Canada. The two largest camps were in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Camp 132 was noted for holding many high ranking Nazi officers, and remained in operation until 1946.
Many of the P.O.W.'s were able to work outside of the camp doing farm labour and assisting local businesses.
Medalta Potteries was one of the factories noted for their role in employing P.O.W.'s from Camp 132. Despite these agreements, there was still a lot of conflict inside the camp between hard-line Nazis and lesser members of the SS. Two prisoners were murdered here at the hands of fellow inmates for speaking out against Nazism and Hitler. With such a large inmate population, much of the camp still operated under the hierarchy of the officers.
Treatment of inmates from the guards within the camp was fair, and some of the inmates even returned to Medicine Hat after the war because they found the conditions and opportunity favorable. Many of the P.O.W.s who worked the fields developed a close bond with the families who were desperate for strong farm hands during those years. Naturally, many of these relationships carried on after the war had ended.
With exception to the armoury, today the most recognizable remnant of Camp 132 is the drill hall (also known as Rhine Hall). It is visible in a number of the archival images I posted below, and I enjoyed photographing the location with glimpses of the prison camp in mind. Rhine Hall now holds commercial booths every year during the Exhibition and Stampede. It's certainly a stark contrast to what the location would've been like in the 1940s. Despite the decades gone by, there's no question that the story of Medicine Hat's P.O.W. camp remains a captivating point in our local and provincial history.
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My parents made many friends in the military, the last being a group of I guess about 16 who called themselves the Black Feather Gang.
During his retirement Bill hosted Remembrance Day celebrations at his residence at Shepard's Care at Kensington. For him it was a very formal event including his dress uniform and the duty of polishing buttons, medals and shoes. Though proud to wear this uniforms he admits it is not a comfortable option and in these days he much preferred his jeans and a t-shirt.
I have followed in his footsteps and have hosted a Remembrance Day celebration for 10 years at SEESA.
My mother and father are buried in the Field of Honor at the Northern Lights Cemetery in St Albert. Every year he and all the other military graves are honored by No Stone Left Alone, one of my charities of choice.
We had a full military service when he passed. His casket was draped in the Canadian flag and carried in by veterans with white gloves. Everyone was given a poppy upon entering and these poppies were put in as we were lowering his casket. The bag pipes played a lament. One of the veterans stood and said when Chief Warrant Officer Barnes was in the room you knew who was in charge..