129 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca GRAHAM, John WWII John was born in Neepawa, Manitoba on January 11, 1900. He enlisted in the Army on September 11, 1939 and served with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders in the United Kingdom and in France during World War II. Private John Graham was killed in action in Dieppe on August 19, 1942 and is buried in the Dieppe Cemetery. GRAHAM, Robert Murray WWII Robert enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in May 1943, at the age of eighteen. His initial training took place at Manning Pool in Edmonton, and he was posted to #3 S.F.T.S. Calgary on general duties. He went back to Edmonton before being posted to Regina for a six-week course. After this, Robert was sent to Mt. Pleasant, PEI for air gunnery training, “shooting with 303’s at drogues being towed by Bolingbroke aircraft”. Cameras recorded the entire operation. He graduated from air gunnery school as Sgt. Air Gunner. He received embarkation leave and was posted to Three Rivers, Quebec where he took a month’s commando course which was very strenuous. Following a posting at Lachine, Quebec, he was sent to Mt. Pleasant again to instruct personnel on flares and duties. After a posting to Moncton, NB, he went overseas on the troop ship New Amsterdam, early in the spring of 1945, from Halifax. Robert trained in Wellingtons and Lancasters, as either the upper or rear air gunner, at Honeyborne and Tholthorpe. After the war ended, he volunteered for the Pacific war, landing back in Halifax in June 1945. A huge reception awaited them at the CNR station in Winnipeg on June 30, as they were the first repats from the Pacific to return to Canada. After a leave, he was posted to Truro, NS to train for the far-east.When the H-bomb exploded over the Japanese seaport cities of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, the Japanese military forces capitulated, and this ended the final chapter of World War II. Robert returned to Winnipeg and obtained his discharge in May 1946, with the rank of Flight Sergeant Air Gunner. With his return to civilian life, Robert worked at George Grant’s Café, Cleverley’s Bakery and joined the Department of Highways in June 1947. On July 9, 1949, Robert married Phyllis Milton of Newdale, and they raised three children. Robert retired from the highways in 1985, and they retired to Minnedosa where he looked after the golf pro-shop for a time. Robert received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, Air Gunner’s Badge and War Medal 1939-1945.
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