WW2 - Canada, Dad on leave at home

It's not Memorial Day in Canada - we honour our veterans on November 11th each year.  But this photo of my Dad from WW2 is a lovely one.

He's home on leave January 1943 with one-year old first child, my big sister, and he's in uniform. I wonder if he's arrived home recently or is on his way back soon? Luckily Mom dated the photo on the back.

Dad never went overseas, and by the end of the war, he ended up trained to work on the new RADAR back East in Nova Scotia.  RADAR stands for "RAdio Detection And Ranging", and is now used as a noun: radar.

Their dog, Buddy, is partly behind him, as both Dad and Leita face the camera - I'm sure Mom is taking the photo.

And do you see behind them? That horse-drawn wagon?  Yes, that's how milk as well as ice was delivered to homes.  I think horse-drawn delivery stopped around 1948, in Vancouver BC.

Honour to all the veterans, from all countries, whatever their work, wherever they served.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Dad, 1943

Wordless Wednesday... well, almost!

This is Dad when he was doing some training with dogs for service in the war. He said he loved this part of his training - although he spoke very very little about his military service. "Oh yeah, the heavy ack-ack training was interesting..."  he'd toss off and change the topic. Heavy ack-ack - Heavy anti-aircraft artillery guns. Here's a very interesting link about training in Canada on these guns, on the Memory Project.

After this time, he was trained in reading the new invention - RADAR - in Halifax, tracking the convoys coming into Halifax from the open seas. I must - MUST - get his military record. Apparently they did some testing of him (IQ test, perhaps?);  and as a result of the findings, he was put on the RADAR after specialized. training.

The joke between him and mom was that he went in with lots of curly hair and no glasses, and came out with bald spots (although I see a bit of receded hairline) and needing glasses all the time - from the effects of watching the RADAR.

This photo was part of a Christmas card which has my name as well as my older sister's name, and since I was born in 1943, I'm assuming that the photo might have been taken that year as well. Of course, it could have been taken at an earlier time as well.

Dad:  Johnny Gillespie, b.7 April 1907, Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Immigrated 1914 to Canada with family; d.19 Sep 1975, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.