Lest We Forget - Volume 19 www.legionnl.ca 5 Provincial President, Nathan Lehr presents a plaque to Veteran, Robert Grant, congratulating him on his 100th birthday! Robert was born in St. John’s on June 22, 1919. He moved to Corner Brook with his family when he was a teenager. He was 20 years old and working in the Company Store when the call for volunteers, to enlist in the war effort, was issued in 1940. Robert was one of the 212 who joined the second draft which consisted of young men from Western and Central Newfoundland. He left home from Montreal on Mother’s Day 1940 and boarded the ocean liner, The Duchess of Richmond, for Liverpool. One of the towns they were billeted in was Lesmahagow, Scotland. A close bond soon developed between the Regiment and the Town. In February 1942, the Regiment, now called the 166 (Nfld) Field Regiment, arrived in North Africa. By this time Robert was a Gun Sergeant on a 25 Pounder. By battle’s end, 24 Newfoundlanders had lost their lives. In the fall of 1943, Robert and his comrades were off to another campaign; this time in Italy. They were involved in battles such as the taking of Casino, where their unique skills at high angle elevation shooting was highly sought. Robert lost many close comrades during the war but none closer that his brother, Doug, who was shot down and killed over Dunkirk, France in 1943 as a member of the Royal Air Force. Another of his brothers, John, fought in the Royal Navy and was torpedoed several times. In 1945 Robert returned to Lesmahagow and married his fiancée, Anne Wardrop, whom he had met years earlier and kept in contact. They returned to Newfoundland and took up residence in Corner Brook where they raised one son, Ian. Anne passed away in 2002. Robert is a resident of the Veterans Pavilion in Corner Brook.
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