POSTING #139

Will I End Up in the Tower of London for this Posting?

My Uncle Archie (Archibald Burnham McFarlane), who was married to my mother's youngest sister, Zilla, was playing golf with some friends on September 10th, 1939.

Suddenly a man came running from the clubhouse with the news that Prime Minister Mackenzie King had just announced on the radio that Canada's Parliament had approved his request that the nation join Britain and France in the war against Nazi Germany. (King had allowed a week to pass after Britain and France had declared war in order to establish a degree of independence from the mother country.)

Archie told his golfing partners that he would be enlisting the next day.

He didn't have to volunteer for the army. He was 28, married and working in a war-critical industry---a chief clerk with the Canadian Pacific Railway.

But he thought it was the right thing to do.

The next morning he joined the 23 (Hamilton) Field Ambulance Unit as a private. Later he would say that he had decided not to join an infantry unit because he couldn't hit the side of a barn with a rifle, and in any event he didn't like the idea of killing people, even enemy troops.

He went to Britain later that year and was to remain overseas until 1945. While overseas his skill at organization and making things happen was noted. He was moved to the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, the group responsible for procuring and making available all the material goods required by the Army, from clothing to weapons.

He rose through the non-commissioned ranks and then was returned to Canada to take officer training. He returned overseas as a newly-minted lieutenant and served with the Canadian troops in their battles in Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. By the end of the war he had been promoted to Major.

On the left, Uncle Archie, a captain at that time---from the three 'pips' on his shoulders---with an unnamed captain colleague. Date and location not known but somewhere in Europe, probably around 1943-44. Copyright.

When he was discharged in late 1945, my family went to see him in Hamilton. He had many things to show us including a Luger revolver that had belonged to a German officer. There were documents relating to awards he had received (on several occasions he had been 'mentioned in dispatches' (Wikipedia gives this definition for the use of this term in the Canadian military: "A Mention in Dispatches (in French, Citation à l'ordre du jour) is an award to recognize a mention in dispatches from a senior commander for brave or meritorious service, normally in the field".)

 In addition, there was a document presented when Archie was invested as a Member in the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King George VI at Buckingham Palace.

This is a digression, but when we saw the movie The King's Speech, I thought of Uncle Archie's description of receiving the MBE from the King. He said that the King's face was covered with a thick layer of makeup, partly he surmised because of the bright camera lights but also, he thought, to conceal the frailness of the King's health, which was obvious when he was seen close up. The war had taken a terrible toll on a person who was not very physically robust to start with. Still the King and Queen continued their regular visits to Londoners whose homes had been destroyed by German bombers.

All the items brought back by Uncle Archie were impressive---especially the German Luger---but the one that fascinated me most was this photograph.

 From left to right: Field Marshall Montgomery, Major-General A.B. Matthews (Canadian Army) and Major Archie McFarlane. Copyright.

I was three when the war started in 1939, and my first real memories of the war come from when I was 5 or 6, around 1941-42. Although I couldn't read the newspapers that came into our house I knew that the content was always about the war. Maps with arrows showing what was happening in different battle fields, pictures of planes, tanks, bombing damage. (Around this time I asked Mom what the newspapers would use on their front pages when the war was over. She paused, and then said that I shouldn't worry, there would be lots of other news stories. I remained sceptical, but she was, of course, right.)

Although the war news was heavily censored to try to bolster morale at home, it was clear from listening to Mom and Dad that things were not going well. The German armies seemed invincible as they invaded country after country.

Then there was Montgomery's victory in the deserts of North Africa over the German General Rommel at El Amein in October 1942, the "first large-scale, decisive Allied land victory of the war."

Montgomery became a hero to the public and his victory gave a huge lift to the morale of people in Britain and Canada.

He became one of my heroes.

Although we didn't know it at the time, Montgomery had detractors.

Military critics said he was conceited, opinionated and didn't work well with his colleagues.

His political master, Prime Minister Churchill apparently felt that Montgomery was too slow to go into battle. (Montgomery countered that he had to wait until his troops were all in place and fully trained.)

Montgomery ignored his critics. He spent a great deal of time visiting his officers and soldiers, trying to assess for himself how things were going, and trying to keep morale high.

I assume the above photo was taken during one of those visits.

When Uncle Archie saw me studying the photo of him and the Field Marshall, he said that the Canadian Army photographer had told him that the photo would be circulated to Canadian newspapers for publication. Some time later the photographer came back with a copy of the  photo for Archie, but said that unfortunately it would not be published. The Field Marshall, who was short, refused to have any photos released that showed him looking up at a more junior officer. As you can see the back of the photo is stamped, "Secret" and "Not to be published".

The notes show that the photo was taken on February 23, 1945, just a few months before the Germans surrendered (May 1945) Copyright.

So, the photo you have just looked at is being published for the first time---anywhere!

After 67 years, I am assuming there is some sort of Statute of Limitation that will protect me against prosecution.

But if there is no Posting next Sunday, it may be because I am being held in the Tower of London.

(Wonder if they have Wi-Fi there?)

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I have more stories about Uncle Archie (who died in 2001) and about Aunt Zilla (who died in 2004) that I will tell in future Postings.

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Montgomery was created 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein by King George VI in 1946 and remained with the British military until 1958, when he was almost 71.

An interesting---Canadian---sidebar.

In 1953 Montgomery formed a close connection with an elementary school in Hamilton Ontario.

In its article on Montgomery, Wikipedia tells how this came about:

" In 1953, the Hamilton Board of Education in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, wrote to Montgomery and asked permission to name a new school in the city's east end after him. Viscount Montgomery Elementary was billed as "the most modern school in North America" and the largest single-storey school in Hamilton, when the sod was turned on 14 March 1951. The school officially opened on 18 April 1953, with Montgomery in attendance among almost 10,000 well-wishers. At the opening, he gave the motto "Gardez Bien" from his own family's coat of arms.

Montgomery referred to the school as his "beloved school" and visited on five separate occasions, the last being in 1960. On his last visit, he said to "his" students:

'Let's make Viscount Montgomery School the best in Hamilton, the best in Ontario, the best in Canada. I don't associate myself with anything that is not good. It is up to you to see that everything about this school is good. It is up to the students to not only be their best in school but in their behaviour outside of Viscount. Education is not just something that will help you pass your exams and get you a job, it is to develop your brain to teach you to marshal facts and do things'."

Viscount Montgomery died in 1976 at the age of 88.

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See you on March 18, 2012 for Posting #140 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

Note:

Posting # 7 of The Icewine Guru blog is now up. The Guru offer his views on the birth control furor in the US and whether it was 'an epic blunder' by Obama, or a clever trap set by him for the Republicans. Click on  http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/