167 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca PARRES, Alfred Lewis WWII Alfred was born in Richard, Saskatchewan on February 19, 1915. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in North Bay, Ontario on October 21, 1943 and served in Canada during World War II. LAC Alfred Parres was discharged in Winnipeg on May 31, 1945. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal. He and his wife Dorothy had a son, James, and a daughter, Beverly. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion Flin Flon Branch 73. Alfred passed away on December 10, 2004. PEARSON, Arthur Valdemar WWII On March 26, 1942, Arthur enlisted in the Army inWinnipeg, at the age of 21. He enlisted as a Military Policeman (M.P.) in the Canadian Provost Corps. His home was in the R.M. of Odanah and his parents were Carl Pearson and the former Emmy Carlson. He was sent to the Provost Detachment on Princess and McDermott in Winnipeg. He received his Army issue while at Fort Osborne Barracks. He wore an armband with “M.P.” in red letters. Arthur was with other trainees, and they were put on street and train patrol, travelling to such places as Thunder Bay, Ontario and covering locations as far west as Regina, Saskatchewan. Their main duties included checking army personnel for passes, AWOL, disorderly conduct and desertions. Two M.P.s worked on patrol together. The Air Force had their own Service Police, as did the Navy. Arthur was posted to Camp Borden, Ontario for basic and advanced training. He and five others were selected to go to the Royal York Hotel in Toronto to put on an exhibition in Judo. He was then posted to Valcartier, Quebec for more training. A more vigorous kind of training took place while at Debert, Nova Scotia. This was a holding unit for overseas drafts. He was a reinforcement in the Provost Corps. Arthur did a lot of highway patrol on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, checking army personnel, trucks and doing convoy duty. The Harleys whizzed along at 60-70 miles per hour. In December 1944, Arthur was posted overseas on the Mauritania, which was a ship also used as a troopship in World War I. There were knife carvings to this effect on the ship’s railings. They crossed the Atlantic without a convoy. About 15,000 troops were jammed aboard like sardines. The grub was not very good. Sleeping in hammocks, swaying back and forth constantly, was quite an experience. After four or five days, they docked in Liverpool, England. The train trip to Aldershot took five or six hours. The barracks were damp and cold; fuel (coke) was scarce. The food was somewhat better on-board the ship, but he still couldn’t eat mutton fifty years later. There they received more motorcycle and traffic control training and highway convoy and intersection control. Anytime there were army maneuvers they had to be on duty as well. About this time, the war in Europe was winding down. Arthur volunteered for service in the Far-East (the war with Japan). After V. E. Day, May 8, 1945, he prepared to go back to Canada, they left Liverpool on the New Amsterdam, a Dutch ship. His medals include the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, Defence of Britain Medal and War Medal 1939-1945. On March 28, 1946, Arthur received his discharge at Ft. Osborne Barracks in Winnipeg. He bought a quarter section in the R.M. of Odanah. The VLA would not help him because they wanted him to buy more land. He married Edith White of Franklin, Manitoba. She was a telephone operator working in Neepawa. They raised a family of five boys and three girls.
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