Lest We Forget VI

Let us take a few moments to also thank those who served who are still with us.  We appreciate their allowing us to honour them here.

The Wolff brothers - Tom & Sewart

Tom Wolff on board ship, 1946

Herb Young...

Airman 2nd Class Herb Young, USAF, Moses Lake AFB, WA, USA

and Greg Holt...

Greg Holt, US Army, Afghanistan

We appreciate and thank you for all you had to do and we look forward to seeing you next summer at The Point.

Lest We Forget V

On pages 20-21 of his booklet A Short Historical Sketch of The Village of Sturgeon Point, Village Clerk Gavin Lucas wrote:

Serving Canada and the Empire on land, on sea and in the air are many young volunteers from the Point.  Johnston Ellis Taylor, son of Mr. Frank Taylor is reported missing in an air raid and presumed dead. [103rd (RAF) Squadron, RCAF, killed in action 06/08/1941, burried Calais Canadian War Cemetery.]  His brother Stewart is also in the Air Force.  Don Cooper is an officer in the Artillery overseas.  Jack Scholes is in the RAF [Flight-Lieutenant John Francis Scholes, RAF, killed in action 28/12/1943, burried Bath Haycomb Cemetery] and Lou is the RCAF.  In this service are also Flavelle Barrett and Frank McEachren.  Donovan and Romney Lowry are Flight-Lieutenants while brothers Grant [Warrant Officer Class II (Air Bomber) Frederick Grant McCardle, 51 (R.A.F.) Sqdn., RCAF, killed 14/04/1943 over Czechsolvakia, burried at Burnbach War Cemetery] and Bud McCardle are in air training camps.  David Flavelle is in the Navy.  Besides these there are Captain F.J. Smith, Flavelle MacMillan, Gilbert Campbell, Jack Cooper, Harold Sutton, Hec Crighton, Clarence Fisher, Dr. Mulligan overseas, Captain John A. Baine of the 63rd Battery, Jack Brown of the YMCA, and also Charlie Stewart who is in the US Army.  Colonel Phillips and Mr. J.S. McLean occupy very important executive positions not to mention the many ladies who give so generously of their time and labours, Mrs. Milner, Mrs. Ryerson, Mrs. Wisener, Lady Flavelle, to mention but a few of the scores engaged.  Mrs Clara F. McEachren has been overseas on Red Cross Service while Miss Ethel Neelands' niece Mrs. Strachan, a passenger on the ill-fated "Zam-Zam", is now a prisoner in Germany.

Photo of "The Berlin Seven", Winter 1941-1942 (left to right): Kathleen "Kitsi" Strachan, Vida Steele,

Clara Guilding, Isabel Guernsey, Olga Guttormson, Doreen Turner, and Allison "Jamie" Henderson.

Courtesy of Carolyn Gossage from her 2009 book Wild Journey: The Odyssey of Seven Canadian

Women in the Third Reich

The Montreal Gazette – 27 Jun 1941

TORONTO WOMAN HELD

Mrs. Robert Strachan Was Zamzam Passenger

Toronto. June 26 – Word that Mrs. Robert Strachan of Toronto, a passenger on the Egyptian steamship Zamzam which was sunk by enemy action, has been taken to Berlin and will be interned in Germany for the duration of the war, was received by relatives here today.

The Zamzam was sunk by a German raider in the South Atlantic April 17 and in May her surviving passengers and crew were landed in Occupied France.

Miss Alice Landis of Lancaster, Pa., another passenger left Mrs. Strachan at St. Jean de Luz, France, and has just returned to her home.  She wrote that the American passengers were separated from the Canadians at St. Jean de Luz.  “Authorities assured us the Red Cross would look after the Canadians at Bordeaux, and then they were to go on to Berlin and to an internment camp.”

Miss Landis wrote that Mrs. Strachan “was terribly brave about the whole thing.”  Mrs. Strachan’s baggage was transferred from the Zamzam before the sinking and she saved many personal belongings.  Mrs. Strachan left here early in the spring for Arabia, where her husband is financial advisor to the Sultan of Seiyun.

The sinking of the ship would likely have not received more than a foot note except that on board happened to by a Life magazine photographer, David E Scherman, and Fortune magazine editor, Charles J.V. Murphy, who were headed to South Africa on assignment.  Their article on the sinking of the ship, complete with photographs, appeared in the 23 June 1941 issue of Life magazine.  Kitsi Strachan wrote of her experiences in an article entitled "I was a German Prisoner" which appeared in the September 1942 edition of the Canadian Red Cross Despatch.

Lest We Forget IV

As we continue during this Week of Remembrance... I like how it have become a week of remembering... we remember those who lived and cottaged at Sturgeon Point.

From the Hopkins family, Fred Hopkins...

and his twin brother, Charles Hopkins...

in uniform at The Point

and their brother-in-law, Trevor Roberts.

One war earlier, another generation of Hopkins brothers served. Robert Hopkins, father of Fred & Charles...

his brother Lt-Col Fred Hopkins...

Also their brother Dr. Bruce Hopkins served.

The Ryerson brothers, close friends and sailing rivals of the Hopkins, also served in WWI.  The eldest George Crowther Ryerson...

His brother Lieut Arthur Ryerson...

courtesy of The University of Toronto

Their father, Major-Gen Dr. Sterling Ryerson wrote in his book, The Great War (pub. 1924):

"On August 4th at midnight Great Britain, true to the treaty with Belgium, of which treaty Germany was also a signatory, declared war. We realized that when England was at war we were at war, for the Empire is one. England's king is our king, her flag is our flag, all of which facts Germany discovered to her cost.

The Government of Canada at once offered a contingent of one division to be sent to the assistance of the mother country. The offer was gratefully accepted by the British Government and our home Government called for volunteers on August 8th, four days after the declaration of war.

Between forty and fifty thousand men sent in their names, and among them my sons George and Arthur. George was a captain in the Royal Grenadiers, and Arthur, who was a graduate of the Royal Military College, was also attached to that regiment, but was immediately transferred to the artillery and appointed to the charge of the ammunition column of the 9th Field Battery.

I will never forget the fateful moment when they came to me and asked my permission to join up. I was greatly moved, for I realized the seriousness of the situation, but I was proud of the patriotic spirit they displayed and told them it was their duty to serve Canada and the Empire as their forebears had done. "

The Major-General Dr Stirling Ryerson had also served in the Fenian Raids, the North-West Rebellion and the Boer War before serving in WWI.

A third Ryerson son, Capt Eric Egerton Ryerson also served and was mentioned in dispatches. He managed to be at just about every major battle and emerged from that nightmare to return to Toronto and Sturgeon Point.

His son Lieut. Stirling Ryerson also served in WWII.  He was captured at Dieppe and spent the rest of the war as a POW at Oflag 7B.