LEST WE FORGET 203 JAMES, Charles Wolseley WWI Charles Wolseley James was born in London, England on October 10, 1895. He was the son of Arthur and Bessie James. He emigrated to Canada with his parents who homesteaded near Bratton. His service record indicates that he was farming near Bratton, Saskatchewan when he enlisted in Saskatoon with the 46th Battalion on October 13, 1915, at the age of 20. He served between 1914 and 1919. Charles was attached to both the 46th and 65th battalions during his time in France. Charles was granted leave to marry Agnes Elizabeth Wyatt in Holy Trinity Church, Paddington, on September 9, 1918. He was wounded twice, once in 1917 and again in August 1918, when a bullet entered his left forearm above the wrist. After the war ended, he returned to Canada aboard a troop ship and was officially discharged on January 12, 1919. Agnes joined him later that year. By 1931, Agnes and Charles were farming near Bratton with their three children: Eileen, Sadie (who served with the RCAF in WWII) and Thomas. At some point the family moved to the Okanagan Valley, BC. Charles Wolseley James died on December 18, 1966. He is buried in St. Peter’s Anglican Cemetery in Summerland, BC. Agnes (Annie) passed away in 1998 and is buried beside her husband. JEBSON, Gary John Gary was born on January 21, 1951, in the town of Shellbrook, Saskatchewan. He grew up on his parents’ farm with his two brothers and one sister. Growing up, he worked on the farm looking after cattle and farming the land. He hunted and fished and had a large trap line where he caught beavers, coyotes, weasels, and mink which he then sold for money. At the age of thirteen, he built his first telescope by grinding a six-inch mirror polishing and had the surface coated. Gary went to school in Shellbrook and when he graduated high school he joined the Canadian Armed Forces with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. He went to CFB Cornwallis in Nova Scotia for basic training and from there, he went to CFB Clinton for his electronics training. While waiting for his course, he was put on janitorial duty for a while washing floors and cleaning up the classrooms. They then moved him to the Guard House where he operated the main gate and watch over the prison cells and made rounds of all buildings during night shifts from there, he worked on the headquarters’ switchboard relieving the operator for coffee and lunch breaks. They then informed him that his electronics training was moved to CFB Kingston and so he moved to CFB Kingston to begin his training. He was on the first Practical Oriented Electronics Training course. After graduation, he went to CFB Clinton for heavy radar training and from there he was posted to CFB Baldy Hugh’s in northern British Columbia on the pine tree line for NORAD then CFB Lowther in northern Ontario and finally CFB Dana in Saskatchewan. He re-enlisted and took his electronics theory course back at CFB Kingston. He worked on the FPS27 search radar and with a top security clearance, he worked on the black box as well. Gary left the military in 1975 and got a job with Sask Tel in Prince Albert. They sent him to Kingston to learn about the new telephone computer being installed by automatic electric. While there, he met Susan Baldwin who he married in 1976. They have two children, Jeffrey and Heather. He worked on that computer for a while and then they sent him to Stockton, California for the hard drive course after which they sent him to Vancouver, BC for the software course. He wrote a number of patches that were used by everyone until the switch was retired and a new DMS switch was installed. He worked there until he got a job in Outlook as a network switchman. He was sent to numerous courses in Regina and installed and maintained digital telephone switches, transport systems, fiber optics, cellular switches, and fire alarm systems before he retired in July 2013. He was looking after 72 telephone sites, cellular, and digital switches.
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