Legions entertained by madcap CWAC
Joined Canadian Army Show at 23 Travelled England in an ambulance
At age 84, Margaret Ackroyd still exudes the humour and star quality it took to cheer legions of Canadian troops at home and overseas during the dark days of the second world war. A self- proclaimed ham who loves to entertain, she joined the army in 1943 after her husband, Bill Cross, was sent overseas the year before.
“ Most of the girls in the show were dancers or singers. I was the comedienne,” says Ackroyd, who now lives in Markham. “ I used to begin by entering the stage very seriously and announce that I would sing an aria from Verdi’s Aida. Then I’d let out a bellow and kick my leg straight up sideways and start my comedy songs. I can’t kick quite that high now.”
After her basic training in Kitchener, she was stationed in Halifax where she was performing comedy skits when organizers of the Canadian Army Show asked her to join. She was 23.
Ackroyd toured Canadian army, air force, and navy bases until 1944, when she was posted to England. Her first show was called Three Jacks and a CWAC (the acronym for Canadian Women’s Army Corps), since she was teamed up with three men. They travelled around Britain in an ambulance entertaining the wounded in hospitals.
“ We had a little mini piano and we went from ward to ward,” she says. “ One of the hospitals was on the estate of the Astor family. Lady Astor somehow heard about us. She was very proCanada and she asked us for tea.”
After her stint in Britain, Ackroyd performed two shows a day with the Canadian Army Show in Holland, Belgium and Germany. Daily life on the wartorn continent was hazardous and they were often very close to combat.
“ We saw the red horizon and heard the bombs and gunfire,” she says. “Sometimes we’d have to stop the show. One time we went out on a show from a camp and when we returned the camp had been demolished.”
Ackroyd’s most wrenching memories are of the children of Holland.
“ They were starving,” she says. “ Holland had been demolished. All the dykes had been bombed out and the land flooded. We would leave them a few beans in our mess tins and they’d lick it up and eat with their hands. They’d eat tulip bulbs, grass and weeds. One time all our cook had was a sack of mouldy bread. He said he hated to give that to them but they were begging. You know, they fought over that mouldy bread like dogs fight over a bone and I saw it. I’ll never forget it.”
Ackroyd saw her husband only five times for the duration of the war. In 1945 he returned to Lethbridge, Alta., while she stayed on in Europe until 1946. When she eventually did go home they found the war had turned them into different people and they divorced.
In 1954, Ackroyd re- enlisted in the army and toured Korea and Japan during the Korean War.
“ I thought, here we go again,” she says. “ But the reception of the troops was tremendous. I’d come out, you know, and I couldn’t say anything. You just had to wait until it died down. I’d say, ‘ My gosh, I’m here to boost your morale, what do you think you’re doing to me.’ ” A year later she married Bill Ackroyd, a civilian she met in Toronto upon her return, and became stepmother to his five children. He died in 1982.
Ackroyd has been back to Holland twice. Last year she attended the Juno Beach Centre celebrations. In 1995, which marked the 50- year anniversary
of the end of the war, she approached by her first husband in
a parade in Apeldorn.
“ He said, ‘ I walked behind you, I
walked past you, I turned around
and looked at you. I knew it was
you.’ ”
Ackroyd is now involved in the
Royal Canadian Legion’s Living History speakers group that tours schools and recounts war experiences.
“ I was very fortunate to go,” she says. “ A lot of it’s sad, but not all of it. I’m so lucky. I think I’ve had such a complete life.” Elizabeth Shearer is a freelance writer living in Newmarket.