235 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca WIDDICOMBE, Clifford Jack WWII Jack was born in 1921 in Birtle, Manitoba. He received a COTC 2nd Lieutenant Commission at the University of Manitoba thenenlisted in theRCAFand trained inEdmonton, Saskatoon, andPrinceAlbert. In July 1943, Pilot Officer Widdicombe went overseas and landed at Clyde River Harbour in Scotland before being stationed in Bournemouth, England. On Christmas Day in 1943, he received his Flying Officer rank, then was stationed at Little Rissington, Cheriton Carew, Ossington, Dishforth, and Middleton St. George. Flight Lieutenant Widdicombe flew Oxfords, Ansons,Wellingtons, Halifaxes, and Lancasters.Attached toMooseSquadron 419, he flewLancasters on raids over Germany and shot down an enemy fighter on the Chemnitz Raid. In June 1945, he flew a Lancaster and crew to Gander, Newfoundland. Jack volunteered for the Pacific Campaign and was stationed in Halifax. He and his wife Florence Peterson raised three children and they farmed in Foxwarren for 50 years before retiring in Russell, Manitoba in 1996. He has been a member of Foxwarren Legion Branch 152 for more than fifty-one years. WIDDICOMBE, Robert Roland WWII Roland was born in 1914 in Birtle, Manitoba. Prior to the war, he was a member of Widdicombe Bros., who were famous Short-horn breeders. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Winnipeg and became ill at Manning Depot in Toronto. He was sent home to Foxwarren and was honourably discharged due to rheumatic fever. Roland worked at Stevenson Air Field in Winnipeg during the war. In 1948, he married Gene Weir and they farmed in Foxwarren for three years before moving to the United States, where he worked as a herdsman, first in Britton, South Dakota for four years and then in Glendora, California. He purchased a franchise for the first McDonalds restaurant #52 in southern California, opening in March 1957. Roland died accidently in 1966. WILLIAMS, Fred WWI Fred was born in Wiltshire, England in 1893 and immigrated to Canada in 1908. After joining the CanadianExpeditionary Forces inToronto onMarch 22, 1916, he servedwith theTorontoBeavers 204th Battalion and spent some time in England, then was sent to France and Belgium. Severely wounded in the chest, Fred lost part of his left hand and carried shrapnel one inch from his heart and in his elbow until he died at the age of 85. He hadmet his wife Daisy, fromEast London, while in hospital in England, as she was one of themany young women who visited the wounded. They married there and returned to Canada after the war to farm, which Dolly found very hard, being a city girl. They raised three daughters and a son who served in the RCAF during World War II, but died with his crew when his Lancaster bomber was shot down over Holland in 1944. Fred was a Life Member of Souris Legion Branch 60 until his death in 1978. WIDMEYER, Stuart Robertson WWI Stuart was born in Dauphin, Manitoba in 1895. He joined the Royal Canadian Army and served in Europe in the Canadian Infantry, 16th Battalion, Manitoba Regiment. He was awarded the Military Medal for Bravery. Lieutenant Widmeyer was killed in action in 1918. His Grave/Memorial Reference is D-5. His body is interred in the Éterpigny British Cemetery in Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France.
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