‘I was torpedoed’
Second World War veteran shares his story
The 2017 Remembrance Day Parade and Ceremony took place on Saturday in St. John’s.
Hundreds surrounded the National War Memorial, showing support for those who fought for our country.
Charles Moores is 100 years old, and says this is the first year he was unable to make it downtown for the ceremony.
“I was torpedoed,” said Moores. “I spent two days in the water, and another two days in a boat waiting to be found, in 1942.”
He is a veteran of The Second World War, who served in the Merchant Navy.
“Today is an important day for everybody to get together and talk about their memories,” he said. “But it’s very hard.”
Moores saw a lot of the world in his five years of service.
He spent two years in South Africa, and the rest of his time between England and New York.
“The first two trips you wouldn’t know there was a war on,” he said. “But on the third trip, we met the enemy.”
Moores told The Telegram that he was forced to leave his convoy and travel on his own.
After that trip Moores was injured, and spent a month in a hospital in Liverpool, England.
Keith Moores said 23 years ago his father Charles collapsed at the War Memorial in St. John’s during a Remembrance Day ceremony.
“That was the first time he had been in hospital since his time in England,” Keith said.
Charles now resides at a retirement home in Paradise, where they had a Remembrance Day ceremony of their own on Saturday morning.
Irving Wareham of Carbonear is also a resident of the retirement home, who participated in Saturday’s ceremony.
Wareham was a Lt. Cadet Officer for many years. Since he was a schoolteacher at the time he was able to get many of his
students involved in the cadet movement.
After he retired at 56, he joined the Canadian Rangers, as a commanding officer of a platoon, which took in members from Trinity Bay, Conception
Bay and as far as Bell Island.
Wareham received a silver pin from the Legion, to represent his 30 years of service.
He says he remembers seeing action during the war in Newfoundland when he was a young
boy.
“I saw bombers who came from Torbay, Gander and Halifax,” he said. “These kind of things really stay with you.”