The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - B1

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DUSTIN
‘QUEZADA

638-7283

Around Town

Year of the Veteran’s
peak this Friday

REMEMBRANCE DAY services in Terrace will
take place on Friday, Nov. 11, 2005. ‘

The parade will form at the Safeway parking lot
at 10:15 a.m. and march to the Tillicum Twin The-
atres for the service.

» At approximately 11:30 a.m.’ ~ there will be the

wreath laying ceremony at the cenotaph. -

There will be a reception at the Happy Gang
Centre for all children on parade.

Parents are asked to pick up their children no

later then 1 p.m.

All Legion members and guests are reminded :
that the Branch is open at. noon. Lunch will: be |

- available and a‘dinner will be served at’ 5 p.m.
Tickets will be available throughout the afternoon

* for the dinner — come and dance to the music. of :

the Mothballs, and listen to the voices of the Sweet
Adelines.

CBC Radio host to
talk greatest British
Columbians.

JOIN CBC. Radio’s Mark Forsythe for a talk about
his new book, The BC Almanac Book of Greatest .-

British Columbians, at Misty River Books,
Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m.

CBC Vancouver’s radio show BC Almanac, not
to be outdone by the parent corporation’s nation-

wide search for the’ 100 Greatest Canadians of all .

time, called upon its listeners in 2004 to nominate
the 100 Greatest British Columbians of all time.
This cornucopia of West Coast characters col-

lected and bound by Forsythe and BC Almanac di--

rector Greg Dickson i is the edifying and entertain-
.ing result.
“Divided | into’
such categories as
' Crusaders and Re- |
_ formers, Scientists
and — Innovators -
and Rogues and
Rascals, the book
throws new light

on ‘such well-es-
tablished names. as
David Suzuki, Em-
ily Carr and Terry
Fox. |

Equally intrigu-
ing are the “wild-
card candidates,”
including such
little-known gems
as the indomitable
” overlander Catherine Schubert and Fightin’ Joe
Martin, one of BC’s shortest-lived premiers. Other

Mark Forsythe

. highlights ‘include Percy Williams, unlikely hero

of the 1928 Olympics and pretender to the title of
BC’s greatest athlete; gold rush jack-of-all-trades
C.D. Hoy, who ‘overcame racism to leave a pho-

tographic legacy; Joseph Leopold Coyle of Al-:

-dermere, inventor of the egg carton; and Lucille
Johnstone, the secretary who rose to CEO in the

testosterone-laden towboat industry. Full of histor-

ical sidebars, anecdotes, illustrations and archival

photographs, The BC Almanac Book of Greatest.

British Columbians is a spirited celebration of the
people who built the province,

Mark Forsythe is the long-standing | host of CBC .

Radio One’s BC Almanac and co-author of British

Columbia Almanac. Raised in Toronto, Forsythe :

moved to BC in the mid-seventies and has come

‘to know the province weil through broadcasting.

assignments in Smithers,. Prince George, Prince

Rupert, the Okanagan and currently Vancouver. He ©

lives in Fort Langley, BC.

Greg Dickson, director of BC Almanac, has been
a journalist with the CBC for almost 25 years. In
The BC Almanac Book of Greatest British Colum-

bians, he combines his years of experience inter- .

viewing politicians, business leaders, artists, sports
figures and First Nations leaders with his passion
for history. He lives in Coquitlam, BC.

’ Partial proceeds from The BC Almanac Book of

Greatest British Columbians will be donated to the
Friends of the BC Archives. This event is made
possible in part by the support of the Canada Coun-

cil for the Arts. For more information, call Misty —

River Books at 250- 635-4428.

| The shoebox fits.

TERRACE postal workers line up to show their staff's accumulated goods
for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox program. Organizer Eleanor Fro-
ese reminds the community that the program deadiine is Nov. 12. For infor-
mation, calt Eleanor at 615-3253. DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO

= 3 vr

hen London was hit
’ by terrorist bombings
earlier this year, it was

would not be intimidated.
That stubbornness was born main-

. ly from London’s survival through

the constant bombardments between
July and late October 1940."
Renée Cox’s family moved out of.
the British capital nine months after
the September breakout of war and
little more than a month from the be-

ginning of the Battle of Britain.
. Cox, 16 at the outset of the war, —

moved with her father, mother ‘and
brother to the London suburb of
Northolt.

Her father worked ‘as an air raid.

warden in a munitions factory, while

her mother stayed at home to look *

after her and her younger brother.
In the garden apartment where

. they lived, they rented out the upper

floor.
Cox, 82, says they housed many
refugees — mostly Jews — but a Ger-

. Man man would stick in her mind
forever.
» Hans was a. friendly man, says ©

Cox, who would draw pen and ink
pictures “so real you could touch _

- them.”

He used to draw children in 1 the

~ park.
One day, police arrived at the -

apartment and arrested Hans and
three others that had joined him.
‘It turned out Hans had been fol

. lowed by police. ok,

“His drawings of children i in the
park had (defence artillery) guns
camouflaged in the pictures and
he was sending them back to. Ger-
many,” Cox, says. “They were ar-

rested as spies and taken to the Isle °

of Mann.”

Incidentally, the next time the
family moved, they discovered a slip
of paper between the glass mirror
and its wooden back that contained

marks that were identified as a Ger-

man code..
~ In that climate, 19- year-old Cox

. enlisted in the army after working

for two years as a bomb inspector in

a munitions factory.

Enlisted women were mostly
cooks, but Cox said she flatly refused

. the job in favour of being a driver.

She was trained and. soon found
herself in a car pool driving ambu-

- lances, coal and mail trucks and Staff

cars. If it had four wheels, Cox could
drive it.
“One time I drove a bus full ‘of

men to sick bay and they were scared .

to death that a 100-pound woman
was driving,” laughs Cox.
Just 16 miles from London, ‘she

had a front row seat in the theatre of ,

war. 9

“Ti was tragic but exciting to be .
says Cox. “The fires were -
terrible — we could see’ the flames:

there,”

from 16 miles.”
She and others used to ‘watch the

planes as they flew out to the Eng- |

lish Channel to meet their German

counterparts in dogfights.

“We would count them on the
way out and on the way. in,” Cox

. says. “The returning planes would
doa loop for every enemy they . shot
- down.”

Mostly, says Cox, life went on in
a normal fashion.

“Every now and then we’d eet a.

bit of news, like when Buckingham

. Palace was damaged,” Cox says.

“We didn’t listen to the radio.”

The severity of the war and the
allied casualties would reveal itself
more when Cox would get to go
home on leave for 10 days every.

‘three months.

She says she remembers taking

over a vehicle from a young man
who was departing for the front in:

France.

Knowing he.may not have had to
go if she wasn’t taking his job made
her feel sick.

After ‘a year of driving, she went
up to North Wales, 200 miles from

- London, where she trained drivers

until 1945.

She met her husband Leslie Cox,
a sergeant with the Royal Canadian
Electrical and Mechanical Engi-

said the city had been .
through it before and its residents

Q Le

° Three local women veterans recall their participation in the Second World War
| Stories and photos by Dustin: Quezada

N

Renée Cox | peers out t the window of her.Lakelse Lake home. Her war experience’ included 1 meeting her ie
Canadian husband at a dance.. They moved to Quebec when the war ended.. . oe,

neers, during ‘the war and they mar- .

ried in June 1945. .

“We met at a dance,” Cox says.
. “War or not, we still had fun.”

They moved to Lachute, Que.
where they had.a son and daughter.

After Leslie Cox helped to build
the tunnel at Kemano and the high-
way connecting Kitimat and Terrace,
the couple settled here in 1963.

Before losing her husband in
1990, Cox say they rarely talked
about the war that changed their
lives. .

“The war was over. It was the
past, you put it behind you.”

Nor did they gather with other
war veterans.

However, Cox has marched in the

November 11 parade, acting once as.

mother of the year and laying the
wreath at the cenotaph for the B.C.
Old Age Pensioners.

WINNIFRED Coburn was not the
first in her family to don the uni-_
form of Canada’s armed forces.

rar has been a big part

of who Winnifred Co- “

burn is.

Her modest living -
room gives prominence to two gen-
erations of service to Canada in the
First and Second World Wars.

“Mainly, I joined ‘because of

dad,” says the 82-year-old who
served,in the Second World War. “I
was so proud when he came home,
I'll never forget it.”

At Vimy Ridge, her father,
Charles Howship, lost.a leg and his

_ brother, Cyril Howship, lost his life. +

Coburn says her father didn’t like
to talk much about the Great War
but that didn’t stop her from enlist-
ing.in Regina in 1942.

From her hometown of Kincaid,

' Sask. she went to. Vermillion, Alta.

for basic training, learning to type
and to write shorthand.

She was then sent to Nanaimo

where she worked as an office as-
sistant for the Royal Canadian Ordi-
nance Corps.

. Her’ duties surrounded the ‘mail

system. Aside from private mail for
commanding officers, Coburn had to
keep track of the content of letters
coming in and going out.

She had to red; and in‘some cas:
es of sensitive information, re-write

"letters and keep track of it all.

“Of the letter edits, she says it was
personal censorship. The sensitive
information’ that needed to be cen-
sored would be something in the war
that was happening or was about to
happen.

“The duties were good,” says Co-
burn. “I met so many women from
around the country.”

Life in the Nanaimo barracks, no. ;

30 camp, was exciting.

She and other women learned

to use rifles and for a while it was
thought those skills were ‘going to
have to, be employed.

When the Japanese attacked ‘and -
occupied the Aleutian Islands of
Kiska and Attu (off Alaska) in June:

1942, the Nanaimo camp underwent
a four-day blackout. :

“If the Japanese had hit the area
_it would have been really bad,” says
Coburn.

was transferred to camp no. 28. in

Vancouver where she got to trade

barracks fora hotel room. . ‘

. In Vancouver, she continued with
office duties but took advantage of
the bigger city on her off-time, go-
ing.for walks and bus rides to differ-

ent places and as she says, “getting .
_ into trouble.”

- Her fondest and most vivid mem-

~ ory is hearing the war had ended..

Coburn was at work when the
‘news came over the wire.

“We rolled out toilet paper from
:the windows and there was a parade
—T’ll never forget it.”

At war’s end, she also ‘got. a
telegram from her husband Arthur,
‘whom she had married. just four
. months earlier.

Arthur Coburn served on - the -

Prince David in the Navy and was
‘back in Halifax. ,

__ “Those were damn good days but
it’s so sad so many were dead,” she
says. “But why? What for?”

Coburn says she wishes she had

been given the opportunity to go.

overseas, but that doesn’t tarnish her
feelings of her wartime experience.

“It was wonderful...at least you
tried to help. your country,” she
‘says.

After she and her husband were
discharged, they moved to Nanaimo,
where Arthur Coburn worked as a

fisheries researcher.

Together, they moved to Terrace
in 1958, along the way having three
boys and three girls.

Coburn plans to attend this year’s
Remembrance Day ceremonies as
she always does.

In January 1945, Coburn’ s ahi

n February. of 1942, Connie -
Porter was just 20 years old
when she enlisted in the armed
forces.
The minimum age for enlistment

. was 21 and she ‘wouldn’ t be 21 until. «

October of that year but. exceptions
were made for positions in need. °
“Those (women) who joined
were part of the Canadian Womens’ ,,
Army Core,” Porter says. “It was

. different fromthe Air Force, the

Army or the Navy — we didn’ t serve
on the front.”

| After being trained in Vegreville,
Alta., Porter was employed as a sec-
fetary in the Calgary-based service
flying training school, part of. the
British Commonwealth Air Training
Program. .. :

With more” than 60 branches’ 3

spread through Western Canada and
Toronto, Porter says all the forces’.
had office work that: needed to > be.
done. " ve,

“The basic reason for. womens’
service was to replace men in jobs. .
they could perform,” says, Porter,

, 84.

She worked in. the “Curry bar- .
racks” from 1942° to November.
1944, when she talked her boss into
going overseas — a move that came
at the expense of dropping ranks
‘from sergeant to private.

She says she was like the other. _

. young people who wanted the expe-"

rience of going overseas. .
The Atlantic crossing proved to
be an experience in itself. eS
“You don’t want to be in a boat
in November in the North Sea,” says .

_ the spirited Porter.

Accompanied by a spitfire squad,
they went two days straight out to’
the North Sea before heading south
to Bermuda, a circuitous route made

_ necessary due to German U- boat

submarines.

Continued Page B3

CONNIE Porter was just 20 in
this picture of her group in the
Canadian Womens’ Army Corps.

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