367 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND RAWSON, Harold Thomas Harold was born April 12, 1921 in Cockrane, Alberta. Prior to the war life was spend in and around Petrolia, Ontario working on the family farm and in the oil fields. He enlisted with the Royal Canadian Engineers, 85 Bridge Coy on November 4, 1942. He trained in Regina, Prince Albert, Chilliwack, then shipped to England on July 22, 1943. He landed in France on July 10, 1944, then onto Belgium, Netherland, and Germany returning to England in March 1945. Harold met Private June Cecilia Hotchen of Holbeach, County of Lincoln, she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Services in London, England. They married on September 20, 1945 in Fleet, County of Lincoln, arriving back in Canada on January 25, 1946, and discharged on March 15, 1946. For his service, Harold was awarded the 19391945 Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp, and the War Medal 1939-1945. Harold and June built a home south of Corunna, Ontario and had two children. Harold began working for Imperial Oil in Sarnia, in the blacksmith shop, then as a machinist until his passing on November 3, 1961. Harold was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 447. He passed away on November 3, 1961. RAWSON, Kenneth Currah “Ken” Ken was born in Petrolia, Ontario on January 12, 1924, the second youngest in a family of 11 children. Ken joined the Bell Telephone Co. of Canada in London in 1942. He joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve on January 16, 1943. During basic training, he met Margaret Phillips who later became his wife in 1945. In 1943, Ken was transferred to Digby, Nova Scotia and assigned as Ordinary Seamen to HMCS Kootenay in November 1943. The Kootenay provided escort defense to merchant convoys en-route to Great Britain. The Kootenay was reassigned to the English Channel in May 1944 to protect the western flank of the D-Day invasion fleet from anticipated U-boat attacks. The Kootenay saw action with other destroyers, sinking three German U-boats, U628, U621 and U948. Damaged by a glider bomb, the Kootenaylimped back to Portsmouth for repairs and later returned to Canada in September 1944 for a major retrofit. Ken was discharged in September 1945. He returned to work for Bell in London, Chatham and Newmarket where he and Margaret raised a family of five. Ken passed away on March 23, 2014. RAWSON (MURRAY), Janet “Nora” Nora was born in Stonewall, Manitoba, on October 30, 1915. She aspired to have a career and graduated in March 1941, fromWinnipeg General Hospital as a Registered Nurse. She joined the Canadian Army as a Nursing Sister, Commissioned Rank Second Lieutenant in September 1943. Following training at Winnipeg’s Fort Osborne Military Hospital, Nora joined the Lady Nelson Canadian Hospital Ship in Halifax. She made approximately fifteen return crossings from Halifax to England, and from there to various Mediterranean and African ports, providing nursing care to thousands of wounded men suffering from shell shock, fractures and contagious diseases. The ship featured a fully equipped operating room. During her time on the Lady Nelson, she met Staff Sargent, W. Earl Rawson and following a shipboard romance, they married on December 9, 1944. As the army had an order requiring all married nurses to resign from the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, she was transferred to the Military’s Citadel Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia until her discharge on August 6, 1945. Eventually Nora and Earl settled in Goderich, Ontario and raised three children. She also worked eighteen years at the Bluewater Psychiatric Hospital Pharmacy before retirement. Nora passed away on April 15, 1996.
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