Serving her Country

I was born in Toronto, but grew up in Hamilton and lived there until October 1942.

Because the war had been going on for three years and I had heard that the government was running short of eligible men to fight the war, I felt it needed my help, so I joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps as a stenographer. I completed a one-month course in army military procedure and was then sent to Kitchener for basic training. When basic training was over, I was transferred to Trinity Barracks in Toronto for a couple of weeks. Three others and I were, for over a year, posted to the Brampton Canadian Army Basic Training Centre for men, later called the Canadian Armoured Corps Basic Training Centre, and there were hundreds of men there coming and going. One other girl and I were put in charge of the recording of anything that took place in camp, and with each soldier personally, to be entered on his records. In 1943, I was sent to army camp in Brockville for a month for an army officer’s course. When this camp closed in 1944, we were all posted out, and I arrived at Military District #2, Stanley Barracks (CWAC) at Exhibition Place in Toronto, in a fenced-in compound for 13 months. In early 1945, my commanding officer asked if I would like to go to St. Anne’s near Montreal for officer’s training or drop two stripes as corporal and go overseas. Of course, I chose overseas, which my commanding officer expected and had already started the procedure for.

In May 1945, I was posted to the Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) in London, England, for a year. I was on a troop ship in convoy when, halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, peace was declared, but that ship carried on to England because the men on board had yet to be placed. I have been surprised that, to this day, I have not yet met anyone who was also on that ship.

After disembarking, I carried on to the Canadian Military Headquarters in Trafalgar Square in London and started my job there as secretary to a captain who issued the orders to send the Canadian war brides to Canada after the men had been sent home.

Incidentally, I was rewarded with my corporal stripes after a few weeks and a third stripe (sergeant) later.

By June 1946, most of the troops and their war brides had been sent to Canada, so my work was done. I was in the secondto-last group to be returned to Halifax, via the ship SS Île de France; then, I travelled by train to Toronto and by army truck to Hamilton. In July 1946, I was discharged but, for me, October 1942 to July 1946, was a good four years. Norma Mowat, Selkirk, Ont.