57 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca BURTON, Galvin Noble WWII Galvin was born in Franklin, Manitoba in 1921. His call to join the Army came in January 1942, when he was 21 years old and, on the farm north of Franklin. In Portage la Prairie, Galvin was put in with the Royal Canadian Fusiliers. A short time later, he switched over to the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps (later became the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) and was posted to Seaforth Barracks at Burrard Inlet, BC, when they found he was mechanically inclined. Galvin’s job there was maintenance and repair on army trucks, and general mechanical work. He also acted as truck driver instructor and took new recruits over to Sea Island (now Richmond). For health reasons, he missed a posting to Kiska in the Aleutians. The Japanese had already gone; they pulled out when Galvin’s outfit arrived. One time when he was stationed in Vernon BC, they were taken out on the parade square on a very hot and humid night in the middle of summer with full pack. Everything they owned was on their backs. They were taken on an all-night march, 23 miles! When the sun came up early next morning, they had gone as far as Kelowna on Lake Okanagan. The lake was so inviting, they were hot and tired, so they ditched their packs and clothes and jumped in. “That was the best swim I ever had in my entire life!” said Galvin. In due course of time, their outfit was posted to Debert, NS, in preparation for overseas. When the train got as far as Kitchener, ON, about 25 of them were pulled off for a special assignment - to winterize vehicles, track vehicles called “weasels”, to be tested way up north to see how they would start and perform under extremely cold weather conditions. This was Galvin’s job at Kitchener for an entire month. After he was finished with the “weasels”, he was posted to Debert and was attached to another RCEME outfit. “The cockroaches at Debert were of a very healthy and sturdy variety. They were especially active when the lights were turned on. One good thing about the cockroaches was that they kept the lice pretty well under control!!” Galvin was in Debert about a week or two, getting outfitted for overseas. He went over on the Mauritania; “rough as blazes but I wasn’t seasick.” Some of his friends were sick as soon as they got on the boat! The Mauritania sailed solo (no convoy) and kept on a zig-zag course for enemy u-boat avoidance. After seven days at sea, they docked at Liverpool on Christmas Eve, 1943. After they all piled off the ship, they were herded onto a train and taken to a camp Called Warrens Park, not far from Slough in the Aldershot area. This was the 1st Canadian Air Base Workshop. They worked on all kinds of motorized army vehicles - tanks, trucks, motorcycles, every breed of vehicle that had a motor in it - performing maintenance work, repair work and complete overhaul jobs. Galvin spent an entire month working on just motorcycles. Periodically he got away on leave but didn’t see too much of the farmland because he seemed to travel around England and Scotland in the dark. Mutton seemed to be a regular item on their camp menu. “I can’t say that I ever got used to it, but I managed to eat it anyway. I sure appreciated the parcels from home!” When the war was over, some of the outfit were sent over to Belgium and Holland to bring back army trucks to Warrens Park for servicing. After that job was finished, they got shipped home. They left from Liverpool, no blackout on board ship, and after four days at sea, they docked at New York Harbor. They were quite happy to see the Statue of Liberty! Galvin was discharged on March 29, 1946, in Winnipeg, and came back to the home farm four miles north of Franklin. Five days later, on April 3, while still wearing his army uniform, he was best man for his brother Ormond’s wedding. With army life now behind him, it was time to settle down at farming. Picking stones was his first job, working with his two brothers. After the mountain of stones was all picked, he got promoted to seeding with a 28-run drill. That spring, Galvin started farming on his own. As Galvin says, “In the fall of 1946 a new teacher came to teach at Cold Stream School. Her name was Sibyl Yerex. It so happened that she boarded at my mother and Dad’s place and it so happened, in July 1949, that her teaching career came to an abrupt end. I married her.” Sibyl and Galvin farmed many years and raised a family of four. Besides farming, Galvin’s main interest was nature and wildlife. He enjoyed moose hunting and feeding deer right in their yard. He was a lifetime Legion member at Gen. Hugh Dyer Branch 138 in Minnedosa. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, War Medal 1939-1945 and 1939-1945 Star. Galvin passed away in 2002.
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