Duane Hicks
The new exhibit at the Fort Frances Museum already is proving popular—drawing keen interest from those connected to local men and women who served in the two world wars.
One of the many people who contributed family keepsakes for “We Remember Them” was Greg Ross, who brought in a photo of his grandfather, Archibald O’Donnell Ross, and the bugle he used as a soldier in World War I.
Archibald O’Donnell Ross enlisted when underage, claiming he was 16 years old when, in fact, he was just 14.
Greg Ross said he cherishes the bugle, and has it prominently displayed on his living room wall at home.
“In two years, that bugle is going to be 100 years old. It’s my most prized possession,” he remarked, admiring it in the museum display case where it sits next to a photo of his grandfather and a uniform similar to one he would have worn.
Ross said the bugle and photo are “powerful reminders” of how his late grandfather’s life must have been, and it provides him with a reality check.
“When I coached the kids in hockey, I showed them that picture when they thought they had it tough,” he noted. “‘Here’s what my grandpa was doing when he was 14.’
“If you look at the picture, he’s just a boy,” Ross said.
But the bugle also has been used for its original purpose since the Great War.
“When we were kids, we used to blow it on New Year’s [Eve],” Ross chuckled, adding it receives more respect as a nearly 100-year-old artifact these days.
“I’ll make sure our family doesn’t lose it,” he vowed.
Some local soldiers included in the exhibit actually served in both world wars.
One such individual was Sgt. Maj. Neil Galbraith, who fought in WWI from Feb. 29, 1916-June 3, 1918, and then served in the 17th Co. Forestry Corps in WWII from Aug. 25, 1940-March 14, 1944.
His daughter-in-law, Beatrice Galbraith, noted Sgt. Maj. Galbraith, who was 43 by the time World War II began, trained the company in Fort Frances at local ballparks and the old arena before they were deployed to Scotland.
The Forestry Corps’ job was to cut, square, saw, and transport large quantities of wood for various military uses.
Galbraith, who belongs to the Legion and helped with part of the exhibit, gave it a thumbs-up.
“I think it’s great. Sherry George does an amazing job,” she enthused. “It’s just wonderful.”
Galbraith feels it’s very important to have such an exhibit, both for those touched by the wars and those who weren’t but need to learn about them.
Pamela Oliver, meanwhile, was one of the war brides who came to settle in Fort Frances following WWII after meeting her late husband, Bert.
He had enlisted with the 17th Field Regiment, 37th Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery as a Gunner Bombadier. While overseas, he met Pamela in Wales in 1941.
“I was a lifeguard at the swimming baths, and this soldier came along and talked to me and said he was staying with relatives at Sunnybank,” she recalled.
“And I said, ‘I live at Sunnybank.’ So he walked up to my house with me and talked to my mum and dad, and then he asked if I would write to him because soldiers like to get letters,” Oliver added.
“I wouldn’t see him again for two years. He was off in the fighting,” she said.
“Then I joined the land army when I was 17, and all of a sudden he showed up at the camp because they’d been given respite after the big battle at ‘A Bridge Too Far,’” she noted, referring to “Operation Market Garden” that unsuccessfully tried to liberate The Netherlands.
“He asked me to marry him and then I didn’t see him again for about three months,” Oliver noted.
“Then he came home and we got married in 1945],” she chuckled.
They moved to Fort Frances in 1946.
Oliver said 48,000 war brides and 22,000 children came over with them on 70 ships to Canada after the war.
The War Brides Club started in Fort Frances in 1950. May Crowe put an ad in the paper and a number of war brides, including Oliver, went over to her house and formed the club then.
There were 38 war brides who belonged to it.
The exhibit, meanwhile, is expected to grow as more and more people contribute their wartime memorabilia.
It will run until Christmas.
