133 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND FORTIN, Joseph James Joseph was born in Ottawa, Ontario on July 20, 1925. As an orphan at the age of five, he and his three sisters were moved to Windsor, Ontario to live with their uncle. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy from June 2, 1944, until February 27, 1946. During that time, he was commissioned on various corvette boats most notably the SS Camrose. He was afraid of heights but when ordered to take his turn to take watch in the crow’s nest on the boat, he did, but he white knuckled and had to be helped down and never had to do watch again in the nest. After his service, he married and raised his family in LaSalle, Ontario. He retired from the City of Windsor as a Supervisor of the Water Division in 1990. He would never talk about his time in the navy. Joseph passed away on October 26, 1994, at the age of 69. FOSTER, Hugh H. Hugh was born on November 14, 1919 in Hamilton, Ontario. He enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1943 and served with the National Selective Service, Division C, during World War II. He was discharged in 1944. Millbrook Branch 402 of The Royal Canadian Legion counted him amongst its members for ten years. Hugh passed away on May 26, 1997. FOXON, Leonard Francis “Frank” Frank was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, on October 12, 1891, to George Foxon and Mary (Chandler). He had five siblings; Jim, Tom, Ken, Floss, and Dorothy. A blacksmith by trade, he immigrated to Tillsonburg, Ontario in 1911. There he met Gertrude Alice (Scarborough) and they married in December 1914. Gertrude went totally deaf in 1915 and was pregnant when Frank enlisted in the Army (Regular Force) on February 4, 1916. He was posted with the 120th Battalion of Hamilton and sailed on the SS Empress of Britainarriving in Liverpool on August 24, 1916. After an illness in hospital, Frank was transferred to the 1st Battalion Machine Gun Company on March 28, 1918 and fought in France and Belgium. He returned to Canada aboard the HMT Royal George and was discharged in Hamilton on May 16, 1919. They had three children; Velma, Francis and Elsie. Frank was a loving father and devoted husband who took it upon himself to teach Gertie to lip read. They moved to Toronto where he trained as a sign painter and later opened the Foxon Sign Co. He was also a talented watercolour artist. Frank passed away on December 4, 1965 at St. Michael’s Hospital after aortic surgery and is buried at Prospect Cemetery in Ontario.
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