Phil Egan It is a fascinating artifact of the final days of the Great War. A Journal reader recently shared it with the Sarnia Historical Society. Encased in glass to prevent further deterioration, the yellowed leaflet is written in English on one side and French on the other. Proclaiming to [...]
Tom Slater & Tom St. Amand Mary Moulden, 85, still recalls the moment her mother got the news. It was October of 1940 and Mary, then six, noticed a uniformed delivery boy get off his bicycle at the family home on Lydia Street. He was clutching a yellow telegram. Moments [...]
Phil Egan The procession of men heading westbound on Exmouth Street knew there could be trouble ahead. On the afternoon of April 18, 1940 at exactly 5:46 p.m. a police officer on a motorcycle began to lead the small parade. It included a bus carrying 22 hastily recruited men – [...]
Randy Evans & Gary Shrumm The sad story of Robert McDonald says a lot about how returning veterans were treated after the First World War. McDonald was born in April of 1888 and moved from England to Canada around the turn of the century. His life turned full circle in [...]
Phil Egan “The people’s righteous anger has been aroused,” the judge said testily, “And the thing for you fellows is to keep yourselves quiet.” With those words, Sarnia Magistrate C.S. Woodrow glowered down at the defendant, Pasquale Cosco. It was June 19, 1940. Just nine days earlier, Canada had declared [...]
Tom Slater & Tom St. Amand Pete and Cindy Ancevicius never suspected watching Don Cherry on an episode of “Coach's Corner” would help solve a family mystery. But during a Remembrance Day segment the patriotic Cherry displayed a large bronze coin and offered details about the so-called “Death Penny” or [...]
Tom Slater & Tom St. Amand German First World War veteran Erich Maria Remarque wrote in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ he'd seen men “unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.” He could have been describing the final days of The Great War, when the march to The Armistice [...]
Tom Slater & Tom St. Amand In the early hours of Monday, Nov. 11, 1918, Canadian soldiers learned that peace would officially begin that day at 11 a.m. After four long years of slaughter and starvation, the First World War was about to end. And it couldn’t come soon enough. [...]
Phil Egan Prior to the start of the First World War the British Army adopted what would become one of its most reliable weapons of war. It was known as the Vickers gun. Capable of firing 450 to 500 rounds per minute, the machine gun remained in production for the [...]
Tom Slater & Tom St. Amand When he leapt over the side of the HMCS Oakville and landed eight feet below on the deck of a crippled German submarine, Stoker Petty Officer Art Powell was acting on instinct. Wearing only his underwear and carrying a flashlight and .45 revolver, the [...]
