95 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca COTTINGHAM, Peter Layton WWII Peter was born on November 23, 1921, to Edward and Anne Cottingham in the Municipality of Minitonas, Manitoba (Swan River). He grew up in Northern Ontario and moved back to the Swan Valley area in 1930. He attended school there and then later attended St. John’s College in Winnipeg. Staff Sergeant Peter Cottingham enlisted in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in Winnipeg on June 6, 1940. He transferred to the Regina Rifle Regiment in September 1941 and went overseas to Britain. After one year with them, he was accepted for Airborne Training and trained with the Royal Air Force at parachute school at Ringway in 1942. He then returned to North America as a member of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion for further training at Fort Benning, Georgia. From there, he transferred into the First Special Service Force in December 1942. Peter fought in the Northern Pacific, Italy and France and served with the Special forces for the duration of World War II until it disbanded in the south of France. He was then shipped to England for training in Officers’ School. This was cancelled as the war was ending. Peter and his wife, Muriel Gill, were married in 1946, moving to Neepawa in 1950. In 1996, he wrote and published his memoirs in a book “Once Upon a Wartime”. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion Neepawa Branch 23 for 57 years from 1957 to 2014. Peter passed away on August 18, 2014, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery. COWIE, David Gordon WWI David was born in Forfar, Scotland on April 21, 1893. In 1914, he sailed to Canada to start a new life and join his brother and his wife and sister and her husband in Pipestone, Manitoba. He was not in Canada long before the start of World War I and on November 12, 1915, he enlisted with the 78th Battalion in Winnipeg. Lance Corporal David Cowie was leading a small team in the first assault on Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917. The report of his bravery was forwarded in a letter to his sister in Pipestone fromWilliam Scott Kennedy, another Pipestone lad. David is buried in the Canadian Cemetery No. 2 a short distance from the Vimy Monument.
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