CASUALTY LISTS
Musings, 03:28 hrs. PST, 25 January 2006, Wednesday, epoch studio and The ANNEX, 4.8`C partly cloudy
We were talking about swimming, I not sure how the conversation got around to that but it aroused a memory from my childhood.
We got talking about how we learned to swim and I recalled that I learned at Lake Winnipeg in the summer of 1942. My Dad had been commissioned at the outbreak of the war and, being too old to go overseas, was training officer cadets at the University of Manitoba. One of the young men he was training was from a well placed Winnipeg family who had a summer cottage at the lake and his family generously allowed us to spend the summer there.
Now I may have this wrong about the name but I think the young man's name was Duncan Duncan. It sticks in my mind but remember I was only six years old at the time. Anyway he used to come out to the lake on weekends and stay in the cottage with my mother and my brother and me. He was a sailing enthusiast and was on the water in his boat most of the weekends when he wasn't teaching me and my brother to swim.
Now Lake Winnipeg is a shallow lake with sandbars in the middle of the lake from the runoff of the Red river and can be a tricky place to sail. Duncan had taken me out on his boat and we ran aground out in the middle of the lake about a mile from shore, The boat capsized and I got caught under the sail. Duncan dove under and fished me out and then being an extremely strong swimmer escorted me back to shore alternating me swimming and then I would put my hands on his shoulders and he would tow me for awhile and when I had caught my breath let me swim on my own.
I remember how calm and unruffled he was and he deposited me on the beach and then swam back out and retrieved his boat. When the story was related to my Dad, he said that Duncan was going to need those qualities in the fight ahead. Duncan was posted overseas
as a second Lt. and joined The Royal Winnipeg Rifles in the third Canadian Infantry Division
for the landing in Normandy.
Unfortunately Duncan was killed by a sniper's bullet on D day +2. When the news got back to us my Mom came out to the farm were I was boarding and told me. By this time I was somewhat used to getting those type of messages when friends of my Dad were killed or wounded but for me Duncan was very special and I still tear up when I think about it. Duncan was an only child as I recall and his family published a book of his childhood pictures and letters. We had the book for years and it was one of my favorite possessions but was one of the things we lost in the forty eight Fraser valley floods.
Duncan, you are still in my heart, I wouldn't be on this mortal coil if it wasn't for your heroism.
Now sixty four years later I can still conger up your face and remember how much fun we had that summer.
Ciao, JWL
We were talking about swimming, I not sure how the conversation got around to that but it aroused a memory from my childhood.
We got talking about how we learned to swim and I recalled that I learned at Lake Winnipeg in the summer of 1942. My Dad had been commissioned at the outbreak of the war and, being too old to go overseas, was training officer cadets at the University of Manitoba. One of the young men he was training was from a well placed Winnipeg family who had a summer cottage at the lake and his family generously allowed us to spend the summer there.
Now I may have this wrong about the name but I think the young man's name was Duncan Duncan. It sticks in my mind but remember I was only six years old at the time. Anyway he used to come out to the lake on weekends and stay in the cottage with my mother and my brother and me. He was a sailing enthusiast and was on the water in his boat most of the weekends when he wasn't teaching me and my brother to swim.
Now Lake Winnipeg is a shallow lake with sandbars in the middle of the lake from the runoff of the Red river and can be a tricky place to sail. Duncan had taken me out on his boat and we ran aground out in the middle of the lake about a mile from shore, The boat capsized and I got caught under the sail. Duncan dove under and fished me out and then being an extremely strong swimmer escorted me back to shore alternating me swimming and then I would put my hands on his shoulders and he would tow me for awhile and when I had caught my breath let me swim on my own.
I remember how calm and unruffled he was and he deposited me on the beach and then swam back out and retrieved his boat. When the story was related to my Dad, he said that Duncan was going to need those qualities in the fight ahead. Duncan was posted overseas
as a second Lt. and joined The Royal Winnipeg Rifles in the third Canadian Infantry Division
for the landing in Normandy.
Unfortunately Duncan was killed by a sniper's bullet on D day +2. When the news got back to us my Mom came out to the farm were I was boarding and told me. By this time I was somewhat used to getting those type of messages when friends of my Dad were killed or wounded but for me Duncan was very special and I still tear up when I think about it. Duncan was an only child as I recall and his family published a book of his childhood pictures and letters. We had the book for years and it was one of my favorite possessions but was one of the things we lost in the forty eight Fraser valley floods.
Duncan, you are still in my heart, I wouldn't be on this mortal coil if it wasn't for your heroism.
Now sixty four years later I can still conger up your face and remember how much fun we had that summer.
Ciao, JWL
posted by John-Ward Leighton at 11:14 AM
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