War stories

Two stories not from the front lines

Ann Raby is 97 years old, and although she will apologize for her mind being slow these days, she does not lose a step in recounting her life during the war and how her family came to the County.

95-year-old Albert Wilkinson, or “Wilkie” to some, with his wife, Ada. They recently celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.

Raby’s mother had married twice. She had married to a man who died in the first year of WWI. She was left with four young babies on her own and times were very, very tough. But she eventually remarried. Raby’s father was in the forces, stationed in Egypt. He served most of his time in Cairo and was late coming home from the war because he was on a team tasked with protecting the all-important Suez Canal. They met after the First World War was over, but it was a time in Ireland when the riots were escalating and they both decided Ireland was not the place for their growing family. They took advantage of an immigration scheme going on at the time and landed in Picton. Normally, you did get not to choose your destination, and it wasn’t a given that your family would be able to stay together through the process, but Raby’s parents got lucky. Mr. and Mrs. Young were the original owners of the Claramount Inn, and they decided that they wanted to have a family come and live on the property. The Claramount had a large estate and Raby’s mother was hired to do daily work in the main house. Her older brother Bill was trained to look after the grounds. Mr. Young was a prominent lawyer in the area at that time and Raby credits his involvement in also bringing her two step-sisters, May and Lily, over from Ireland. The whole family worked the property for many years until the Depression when the Youngs met the same fate as countless others at that time and had to shut down.

Just prior to 1938 the Loch Sloy airbase became a bombing and gunnery school, and that’s where Raby met her husband. He was assigned to the headquarters for transportation and spent some time on the ground crew there as well. They met at a social function on the base. After they got married they were transferred overseas to Lancashire, England where she lived with her husband’s oldest sister, whose husband was also away in the war.

“At that time they were calling on any able-bodied person who didn’t have dependants. They had to be in some kind of service to aid the war. I didn’t have any children and I was healthy, so my husband’s mom and dad were afraid that I would be sent off to the Land Army. I was not much taller than I am now and weighed about 95 pounds. I got lucky and started working at a factory making aircraft compasses,” says Raby.

Raby says the fact that her family was able to stay together through those transitions and move to a new community together was instrumental in how her life turned out. As for her career, Raby retired in 1984 with 41 years of service given to Bell Canada. She still has the gas mask given to her when she was living in Ireland, which was mandatory for everyone to possess at the time.

97-year-old Ann Raby smiles as she recalls memories of meeting her husband at a dance in Loch Sloy many years ago.

Albert Wilkinson—better known as “Wilkie” to his friends—is 95 years old. He and his wife, Ada just last week, celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. Wilkinson is one of the oldest veterans in the County. He was stationed in Moncton, New Brunswick—which is where he met Ada—and worked at a repair facility for military aircraft. Wilkinson went to Germany, and after WW2, he was sent to help with the occupation of Germany. He was stationed at a NATO air base where they had three squadrons of Spitfires. Wilkinson points to his ears.

“We didn’t have ear protection at that time and I probably wasn’t the only who ended up hard of hearing from those engines,” says Wilkinson.

Even though the war ended, there was still lots of activity and some dangerous situations for the three Canadian bases stationed in Germany at the time.By this time, Wilkinson was married to Ada, so she and their nine-year old daughter travelled to Germany with him and stayed on the base.

“We took advantage of the situation and went camping a lot. We bought a tent as soon as we were over there and whenever Wilkie was off duty we would travel to different places like Switzerland and Norway,” says Ada.

He spent three years there, and eventually came back to Canada because his father’s health was failing. When Wilkinson arrived, he was stationed in Toronto, and his job was certifying that arm manufacturers had enough professionalism to handle the orders coming in.

They inspected all the units once a year. He inspected 63 firms every year along the 401 corridor. Even after he retired he had a small business inspecting manufacturing facilities to see if they were prepared to do business with the government.

When asked about his memories of the war, Wilkinson mentions how he used to carry a picture of his father with him. His dad lost three of his brothers at Vimy Ridge and the reason he wasn’t there with them was that he was the victim of a gas attack the day before and was in the hospital recovering, which took a few months.

In total, Wilkie spent six years in the service from 1939 to 1945. He says that while he enjoyed the service, he didn’t like some of the transfers. But serving his country was the most important thing at the time and he was happy to do it. Wilkie and Ada live together in Wellington.

Both Raby and Wilkinson come from a time when, if a call was sounded, you answered. There was a something bigger at stake and, for most, there was no option, or even a decision to be made. Serving your country is what you had to do if you were able-bodied and of sound mind. Even though most stories come from the front lines, it’s amazing to think how the war crept into the lives of every person on the planet at the time. Whether you were directly fighting or not, you were helping the cause. We must never forget the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who did all they could to help win the war.