Indigenous Navy Wren guarded wartime secrets
PRINCE ALBERT For Gertie Pratt, it was deeply personal.
Each Remembrance Day in the 1920s and ’30s, she saw the anger in her father — anger that his brother, George Fraser, died from a bullet wound he sustained while fighting at Passchendaele in the First World War, during the third battle of Ypres.
“He died shortly after,” she said of her late uncle. “My uncle Tom Fraser came home deaf from the war, as well. That inspired me to join the services.”
Soon to be 94 years old, Pratt is likely the oldest Indigenous female veteran in Saskatchewan.
Her work with the Canadian Navy was honoured on Friday during the Prince Albert Grand Council’s Remembrance Day ceremonies.
Pratt laid a wreath on behalf of the Silver Cross Mothers, which represents women whose children died while serving in the Canadian military.
The council also wrapped her in a handmade star blanket to commemorate her work as an Indigenous veteran.
In 1941, and only 17 years old, Pratt had had enough. She enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service — also known as the Wrens — in Port Arthur, Ont.
“After training, I was assigned to Galt, Ontario, as a cook, which I felt I was well qualified for. Due to health issues, I was assigned many other duties,” she said.
“I was transferred to Ottawa, and my duties included handling and delivering many high-security documents within Naval and government headquarters.”
Pratt stayed there until the end of the Second World War, in June 1945.
In a book chapter about Indigenous women in the Canadian military, she elaborated on the secrecy expected of her and the Wrens.
“I was assigned to go out to a high secret wireless station, and had to sign a secrecy affidavit.
“There were three Wrens per shift — two were responsible for the locked steel box containing codes, and two drivers took turns driving about 70 miles at 40 miles per hour, and there was no power steering in those days.
“Sometimes, parts of the letters home were blacked out. We couldn’t tell anything about what we were doing.”
Her account comes from Grace Poulin’s book chapter, Invisible Women: Aboriginal Servicewomen in Canada’s Second World War Military, which was published in 2007 as part of an anthology of essays about Indigenous veterans.
Born on June 3, 1924, Pratt identifies as a Metis woman from the Shell Lake area, where her father, Norman Fraser, farmed.
Her father was Scottish and her mother was a Cree woman from the Ahtahkakoop First Nation, sometimes referred to as Sandy Lake.
Of the memories that Pratt can share, she spoke of a frightening night in 1944.
“I was on security watch in Ottawa. We felt these strong tremors in the ground. It was about 5.7 (Richter magnitude) that was felt. We all thought Canada was being invaded,” she said.
In those immediate hours, without the communication technology of today, there was little else to do but keep working.
“We were ordered to carry on, not to worry about it,” she said.
Gertie eventually returned to Saskatchewan after the war ended. She said she found it difficult, because the Navy offered her no retraining or education to enter the workforce. She also received no pension from the Navy.
However, Veterans Affairs did cover her transportation costs by train between Saskatoon and a military hospital in Vancouver for ongoing skin treatment and skin grafts on her hand and elbow.
Gertie married Harvey, a fellow war veteran, when she was 24 years old. He obtained and leased land on the Muskoday First Nation, southeast of Prince Albert. He also earned a pension from the Canadian military.
Looking to the future, Gertie said she wants everyone to be aware of the consequences of war, especially younger people who have never grown up during a period of conscription.
She said she wants to see more people, especially young people, supporting the Royal Canadian Legion’s work for veterans and learning about war’s effects on people.