Lest We Forget / 83 The Royal Canadian Legion Prince Edward Island Command WELSH, G. Walter WWII Walter was born on Entry Island, Magdalen Islands, Quebec on March 13, 1917, the fourth of seven children of George and Grace Welsh. He enlisted in the Army with the Royal Rifles of Canada the age of 23, and then joined the Black Watch at Dunkirk and became a Corporal. He was discharged in February 18, 1946 but not before being wounded on April 8 and July 25, 1944 in Holland. He served in the battle of Normandy and he also served in France and Germany during World War II. He received the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal of Britain, the 1945 War Medal and the Voluntary Service Medal. After the war, Walter returned home and returned to fishing. He married Helen Welsh whom he was married to for 63 years before his passing. They had six children and one adopted child. Walter was a proud Legion member for over sixty years before he passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on January 14, 2010. WEEKS, John Graham WWII John was born on April 13, 1924 and was the youngest son of the late Robert Bowness and Josephine (MacNeil) Weeks. He was a Veteran of World War II and served on the battlefields of Europe. In June 1950, he married Bernice MacArthur of Cornwall and they had two sons, Paul and David. John spent many years in the construction business and retired from A. Pickard Machinery after thirty plus years of service. John liked to make things from wood and his family has many of his projects in their homes. John passed away on March 8, 2009. THORNE (HILL), Edith France WWII Edith was born on September 2, 1914, in Charlottetown; she was the daughter of the late James Henry and Annie Gladys (MacMillan) Hill. She later had a weekly radio program on Charlottetown-based CFCYAM Radio in the 1930s, giving dramatic readings of well-known books. She went to Emerson College in Boston and earned a degree in literary interpretation, majoring in drama and speech. From 1939 to 1941, she taught at Ontario Ladies College, later to become Trafalgar Castle School, in Whitby, ON where she became head of speech and drama. In 1941, she moved to Sydney, NS to serve as a civilian navy decoder, tracking World War II convoys between North America, Great Britain and Murmansk in what was then the Soviet Union. It was in Sydney where a mutual friend introduced her to her future husband, Pilot Officer Edward Lefferts (Ted) Thorne, an Air Force doctor. She returned to Charlottetown where she worked at Wellner’s Jewelry Store. The couple had four children: Edward, Ann, Susan and Stephen. Edith passed away in 2008 at the age of 93.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==