425 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND SMITH, Cyril Cyril was born on June 4, 1919 in Doncaster Yorkshire, England then immigrated to Canada at the age of seven with his parents and his brothers Leslie and Lawrence. In 1939, Cyril and his brothers volunteered for military service. They trained at Wosley Barracks in London and then spent the war years, 1939 to 1945, overseas with II Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. Cyril was a dispatch carrier and drove a Norton motorcycle. They advanced through England, France, Belgium, Holland and were in Heidelberg, Germany when the war ended. Cyril said he always had enough food but the worst part was finding a dry place to sleep, many times he woke up in water. He spent a week in a hospital when he skidded his motorcycle into a truck. Packages of food, smokes and letters from home were the highlight of the soldier’s lives. Soldiers were treated like royalty when the liberated Holland and Cyril spent a long while there waiting to be sent home. He was discharged in August 1945 and returned to Canada to farm. He later became a DND firefighter at Camp Ipperwash and was transferred to CFB Shilo, Manitoba in 1971. He retired and moved back to Thedford where he passed away on June 8, 2005. He was a member of Thedford Legion Branch 278. SMITH, Gordon W. Gordon Walter Smith was born October 31, 1925 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. At the age of 15 and at the end of August 1941, he went on a merchant ship named the S.S. Loyalist. He served in the Navy during World War II from 1941 to 1945. After two weeks, he was transferred to S.S. Vineland which was hauling bauxite to Portland, Maine. After delivering the bauxite returning empty, the S.S. Vineland was torpedoed and shelled by U154-Captian Walter Kohl. Gordon spent three days in a life boat and was spotted by a fishing boat from Grand Turks. They were towed to Grand Turks, where Gordon spent two weeks before he boarded a Dutch Ship to Curacao; from there he boarded a captured German ship back to Halifax, Nova Scotia and home. After his discharge, he went to Northern Ontario where he worked at Inco for 36 years before retiring. He married and had three daughters. He has been a member of Onaping Falls Legion Branch 503 for fifty years. SMITH, George Herbert George was born on September 5, 1915 in Port Colborne. He enlisted in the Navy on November 6, 1942 with RCNVR. He served as a Lieutenant on The Pas and HMCS Truro on the High Seas and Canada during World War II. He was discharged in 1946. He was a member of the Legion Branch 56 Port Colborne/Humberstone. George passed away on January 18, 1980.
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