Manitoba HKVA President’s Report *

George Peterson

Greetings to one & all as I wonder if summer has arrived at last.

April 9^th attended the 89^th Annual Memorial Parade of the Canadian battle for Vimy Ridge during the First World War. This parade was held in Vimy Memorial Park in Winnipeg and for a change the weather was nice with a fair crowd in attendance.

April 12^th went to Maple Leaf School on McIvor Ave in North Kildonan at 5:30 p.m. to visit a grade six class. The children have worked very hard and long hours on a project of the World War II and it was very interesting to see the results.

April 20^th meeting of Joint Vets Council at Rockwood discussed more associations coming on board.

April 25^th JVC parade committee meeting re annual Decoration Day parade and services on May 28^th at Brookside Cemetery. We have been advised that VAC will only pay half of the cost of providing the big screen at our Remembrance Day services this year.

Juliet has informed me of the passing of Lionel Speller and Jack Rose both were in the RCCS and lived in BC. Fred Ryman and Maurice Lapointe of the WG’s passed away also and they lived in Winnipeg. May They Rest in Peace.

May 7^th Juliet drove me to attend the WG Cadet Inspection and Awards parade at Minto Armouries, where I presented a framed certificate to the most efficient cadet.

May 11^th at 8 a.m. attended the Vac Prairie Advisory Council meeting in Winnipeg at which we discussed the new Vet’s Charter that took effect May 1^st – to the best of my knowledge this will not affect any HK vet.

May 11^th had an appointment with my knee doctor and I am finally on the list for an operation to replace my right knee joint. I asked him if he would consider doing both at the same time but he said definitely not.

May 12^th Mr. Hugh MacKenzie, President of the Manitoba Branch of the Korea Vets Assoc. of Canada, took me and 2 other people to Devils Lake, North Dakota. I had been invited to speak at the Devil’s Lake Branch of the KVA of America meeting. This is the branch that made a donation to the memorial project. I also attended a Dakota Bull Session held each year by the American Naval vets. It was a very interesting visit.

May 23^rd another JVC meeting re parade on the 28^th.

May 27^th Viet Nam memorial service at Brookside. I was unable to attend but our Colour Party were there.

May 28^th attended the services at Brookside in between the thunderstorms. We were luck that it didn’t rain during the services.

June 1^st Padre Shields and Donna Remillard came to my house to count the votes for the Deputy Director of the HKVCA in Manitoba. Eirik Bardal was elected and the ballots were shredded.

June 3^rd attended a meeting of JVC to review the parade on May 28^th at Brookside, some very good comments were made about future parades.

June 6^th I accompanied Bob Nisbet and John Gillis, both veterans of the Korean War, to Maple Leaf School where we spoke to another grade six class and related our stories. We were very well received and during the question and answer period, I was amazed at the knowledge of these young people.

June 7^th meeting of our memorial committee, we were pleased to welcome three members of the Viet Nam Vets Association of Canada. Several things were discussed and it was agreed that we meet with Jane Saxby in regards to our request for the property in Brookside Cemetery.

June 8^th HKVA lunch and I want to give this report to Carol to be published in the newsletter.

To all of you who have been under the weather, I wish a speedy recovery and to every one of you, enjoy a good summer. May the wind always be at your back and the road you travel be smooth.

In all sincerity and comradeship – George.

Juliet Lafortune

Hello to one and all

I started this letter once and lost it in my computer somewhere so here I go again.

George Peterson and I have been busy going to Memorial Parades, he keeps me hoping. Grant Shepherd laid a wreath on behalf of the Hong Kong Veterans on May 14th for the Legions Memorial Day.

I've been working along with the Joint Veteran Committee on different Memorial projects and have enjoyed meeting more veterans from each organization. George volunteers my services (which I don't mind). My daughter Bev Rowden helped us with the seating and handing out the wreaths on June 11th at Brookside.

I want to take this time to stress to all of you how important it is to keep up your memberships. I know Barry sends out reminders to you, but if someone in your family has forgotten to send their dues in please remind them. This organization would not exist if it weren't for our Veterans making the path for us. Let’s keep together and keep their memory alive. Still to this day the few men we have left push themselves and attend as many functions as they can, let’s show them the honour they so deserve and keep their memory alive. I realize that many of you have lost your fathers, mothers or both and feel there is nothing left for you. I too have lost both my parents and continue to try and keeps the Veterans Memory alive No you are not me, and maybe some of you are still angry inside of what you went through as a child growing up watching your family go through difficult times because of what your father went through in HONG KONG, but you need to remember we have some members who hardly knew their fathers and lost them in HONG KONG and are very active members. WE CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST; WE CAN ONLY DO SOMETHING WITH THE FUTURE. We are family, we have a common bond so let’s stick together and make those changes in the memory of our father, uncles, grandfathers, brothers etc. Please renew you memberships and get other people to join. Spread the word around about the HKVCA and HKVA.

Here are some dates for you to keep in mind, write them on your calendars. HKVCA MEETINGS starting SEPT 6th, NOV.1^st, JAN 3rd 2007, MARCH 7th, MAY 2nd 7 pm St James Legion. TEA & TIDBITS to be held SEPT 16th & DEC 16th 12 pm to 4pm and of course our Luncheons on the 2nd Thursday of every month at 12 pm.

I would like to thank Leif Johnson, Manager of St James Legion for accommodating us for all our meeting and luncheons and Sue from the Cafeteria for making us Great food at great prices - Thanks to all the Staff, they are very good to us.

More dates for you - July 23 Belgian Legion on Provencher Blvd 1 pm, Aug 13th 1 pm All Saints Church Hall VJ Day Celebration and of course Oct 21st  Reunion for the HONG KONG VETERANS .

The elections are now over here in Manitoba and your Board is as follows:

George Peterson, HKVA President Manitoba Branch

Juliet Lafortune, Regional Director in Manitoba

Eirik Bardal, 1st Deputy Director

Vince Lopata, 2nd Deputy Director

Barry Mitchell, Treasurer

Carol Hadley, Secretary

Donna Remillard, Bursaries

I would like to congratulate Eirik on winning the election and thanks to all the people who sent in their votes.

I just received an email from my daughter Bev Rowden who has been doing communications for us and because of personal reasons can no longer do this. She says she'll miss talking to you and hope you all keep well. We are in need of someone to take the communication position - hopefully someone out there will volunteer.

  Thank to all of you in taking the time to read the Newsletter, Carol goes to a lot of work making sure it gets done and also thanks to Patricia Bale, Pam Heinrichs and Carol in their ongoing work in Educating the public on the story of the HONG KONG VETS.

Our thoughts and prayers to the families who have lost their HK fathers and to the families of the HKVCA who have lost a member of their family.

May GOD Bless you all and Keep you Safe. 

Juliet Lafortune, Regional Director MB 338-3353

! ! !

Geoffrey Marston, C66584, RRC died March 8, 2006

Maurice LaPointe, H6677, WG, died March 30, 2006

James Guthrie, E-29911, RRC, died April 10, 2006

Harold Heath, E-29840, RRC, died on April 13, 2006

Lionel Speller, K-83926, R.C.C.S died April 30, 2006

Jack Rose, K-34771, R.C.C.S, died May 18, 2006

Frederick Ryman, H6790, WG died May 29, 2006

Robert Jim Fleming, B-38364, RRC, died June 07, 2006

Violet Mitchell wife of James Mitchell died in 2002

Mary Hall, widow of William Hall, is deceased

Margaret (Peggy) Wright wife of Stanley Wright RRC

Myrtle Inche, widow of Kenneth Inche, died May

2004

Aini Dissing, widow of Eric Dissing, died April 28, 2005

Bert Worthington, longtime friend of the HKVA died April 10, 2006.

Edison Yeadon, QC Honorary Member, died May 10, 2006

Carol Michelin, granddaughter of HKV Elmer Cole died May 31, 2006

! ! !

Barry Mitchell

Greetings to our members everywhere. It’s a beautiful summer day in Winnipeg with no bugs and a soft breeze, so let’s hope it stays that way for another half year or so. I wish!!

Let me extend a great big thank you to all those who responded to our push to bring in fees for this year and to catch up on those who had dragged behind a little. We have now heard from many, if not most, of you and we can now make a pretty good estimate of how many we have on our team.

We had to make some executive decisions, however, as to just how lenient we were going to be with overdue memberships and unfortunately we had to drop almost 20 people from our mailing list. These are folks who have not responded to our pleas for dues for three years so I’m sure you will agree that we have been most patient. There are still others who are holding out for some reason and we will be taking another hard look at our roster in another six months or so.

In terms of numbers, Manitoba now has an even 200 "Regular" members plus, of course, our veterans and widows. To date 153 of those have paid their dues for 2006 or about 77%. That’s not bad but you can see that the number was a lot lower before we removed those with the long-term dues owing. We mail out over 350 newsletters every three months so we continue to reach a good many folks with our news and views. I would like to see 100% paid up for all our members and we will continue to strive to reach that number.

Our membership remains at $15.00 per year and we ask that make out your cheque to HKVCA and mail it to P.O. Box 381, Winnipeg, MB R3C 2H6.

The National Executive of the HKVCA has placed membership on its priority list of items to be addressed as concern has been expressed about our diminishing numbers across Canada. It seems that with the passing of veterans, some families lose interest in our Association and that is certainly an understandable reaction. However, should we members be more aggressive at encouraging our children to sign up and as well should we be seeking out the grandchildren of our vets? Do we make it clear that you don’t have to be related to a veteran to become a member and do we welcome any "friends" who might be interested in our cause? Perhaps our organization is destined to fade away, just like our old soldiers, I don’t know. What do you think? Why not let me know at P.O. Box 381 or by email at bcmitchell@shaw.ca.

Just a few notes to pass along this time……… First, I want to acknowledge a very kind message I received from Mae Stephens of Kennewick, Washington. Her husband John passed away some time ago but she welcomes our newsletter as a way of keeping in touch with the HK family and took the time to tell us so. Also, it was the way she chose her words that impressed upon me just how important communication is. We enjoy putting our little letter together and it’s gratifying to know that once in awhile we can get a smile out of the readers……. John Matthews, son of Cliff Matthews, WG, dropped us a line to let us know that father Cliff is in the Victoria Hospital here in Winnipeg and is awaiting placement in a personal care home….Received a thoughtful message from Esther LaPointe in Kelowna, BC to advise us of the passing of husband Maurice (WG) on March 30^th. There were a number of family members in town at the time and now there are five generations to keep Esther company.

That’s it for now. I will keep you up-to-date on how we make out with our dues, new members and while I didn’t mention it this issue, how we are making out with the sale of our merchandise. Keep smiling and have a great summer.

Carol Hadley

Plans continue in Alberta/Saskatchewan Region as they prepare for the 2007 National Convention. Information will be out soon but in the meantime – book the dates on your calendar – August 15 – 19, 2007. Calgary is a wonderful place to have a summer vacation – so start planning now – hope to see you all there.

After ten years of operation and many administrative changes in the Commemorative Association, the National Executive has reviewed the Mission Statement to see if it still reflected our aims. We found that it was very close and with some tweaking have accepted the following:

We are still reviewing the goals or action items that we follow and will report back to you when they have been ratified.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Lionel Speller, MM, RCCS, President of BC Branch of the HKVA. He is the only non officer member of the RCCS to receive an Award of Honour for his actions in the Battle of Hong Kong. He also had 60 years service with the Royal Canadian Legion. Lionel received the news that he will be inducted in the Hall of Valour just prior to his demise. We will remember them.

A message from our website – an inquiry for information about George Sokalski.

I am hoping to find information about my grandfather, George Sokalski, who was a private in the Winnipeg Grenadiers. He died in a Japanese prison camp in May of 1944. I don't know a lot to this point and am hoping maybe someone remembers his name being mentioned. Thanks a lot. Mark

I received a note from Dennis Bell to say that Veterans Affairs Canada has posted his uncle, Gordon Bell’s story on their website – you can view it at this link:  

The Manitoba HKVCA Education Committee were part of the displays for the River East "Heritage Days" on May 4^th at the University of Winnipeg. The youth throughout Winnipeg participate by creating a display on a person, an edifice, an event or something of interest to them that is historic and involves this community. Over the past few years I have been amazed at the wonderful work that our young people do in their creativity and research for their exhibition. We have made presentations to the winners of the World War II category and this year we were pleased to award HKVCA pens and journals to winners in the scavenger hunt.

We continue our search for a display wall for this project and into ideas for the boards to be professionally done. If anyone has a line on this type of work – please call me. The committee will be meeting soon to formulate ideas for the SAG conference to be held in November this year and it would be wonderful to have a new look to our display.

Our website (www.hkvca.ca) continues to grow with veterans and members contributions. Our HK wives and widows, too, have a story to tell, especially of that uncertain time and we hope that they will contribute also. This is a wonderful resource for teachers and students who are looking for information on the people involved in the Battle of Hong Kong events. Our deep gratitude is extended to our Web Master, Linda May and Jim Trick’s assistance for their diligence in keeping our website functional and informative. If you have some information that you wish to share through the website, please contact an Executive member and assistance will be given you.

The Regions of the HKVCA post their newsletters on the website – Ontario Region have their June newsletter there now for anyone to read. There is a lot of information to read about – so take a look at this link:

http://www.hkvca.ca/newsletters/ON/Ontario_newsletter_jun_06.pdf .

Many of our members have met Ron McGuire at the various National Conventions with his wonderful display of postal history. Ron has worked tirelessly since he joined our Association in 2002 and we thank him sincerely for all he has done.

One area that you may not be familiar with is his work with the Canada Veterans Hall of Valour that is located outside of Ottawa - http://www.canadaveteranshallofvalour.com/ Through his efforts we have S.Sgt Charles A. Clark, DCM-CPC; Corp. Kenneth S. Cameron, MM-RCOC; and "Sgt" Gander, Dicken Medal, RR of C mascot inducted in the Hall of Valour. He has received confirmation that Robert "Flash" Clayton will be inducted for his 60 years of hard work for the HKVA and the Royal Canadian Legion and Jessica Clayton (Flash’s wife) as she represents the wives of the Hong Kong vets that helped the men rehabilitate when they returned to Canada. Jessie is a veteran, having joined the CWAC in January of 1943. She was a tenor drummer in the CWAC band that entertained the troops in Canada, United States, Britain, and Western Europe. The band also did War Bond campaigns, many parades, sports events and the Royal Review of Wimbleton. She also has 30 years service in the Royal Canadian Legion. This induction will be May 12, 2007 and they will be the first couple in the Hall.

Announcements will be made soon of the nominees for the 2008 induction. Well done Ron!

I am pleased to announce that "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" is finally available. This books was written by Tony Banham, a Brit in Hong Kong who has done extensive research on the Battle of Hong Kong. One of our Manitoba Hong Kong vets, Grant Shepherd of the Royal Navy, is one of the survivors of the Lisbon Maru, and is featured in the book. If you are interested in a copy, it is orderable from this link or any bookstore: http://www.hkupress.org/default.asp.

In January my computer went down and I lost my email addresses also the emails that contained loads of information. Some items I stored in a separate folder to use in the newsletter. So if you have sent me something interesting and you don’t see it in print – please resend it and I will use it next time.

© © © ©

- Donna Remillard

The Winnipeg Grenadiers Hong Kong Trust Fund provides financial assistance to the direct descendants of the Winnipeg Grenadiers HK Veterans for their pursuit of higher learning. All donations are most gratefully appreciated. Cheques should be written to Winnipeg Grenadier's Hong Kong Trust Fund (not HKVA).

Application inquiries and donations to this fund may be directed to: Donna Remillard, 303 - 740 Kenaston Boulevard, Winnipeg, MB R3N 1Y3 sellers@mts.com. Tel: (204) 489-0008.

© © © ©

A man was called in for an audit by the IRS. So, he asked his accountant for advice on what to wear. "Wear your worst clothing and an old pair of shoes. Let them think you are a pauper," the accountant replied.

He then asked his lawyer the same question, but got the opposite advice:

"Don't let them intimidate you. Wear your best suit and an expensive tie."

Confused, the man went to his Parish Priest who would surely know the correct answer. He told him of the conflicting advice he had received, and asked what he should do.

"Let me tell you a story," replied the Priest. "A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. Her mother advised, "Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck and wool socks." But when the woman asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice: "Wear your sexiest negligee, with a V-neck right down to your navel.'"

The man did not understand. "But, Father, what does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?"

"It doesn't matter what you wear," replied the Priest, ......"You're going to get screwed."

· · · · ·

I was in the Express Lane at the store, quietly fuming.
Completely ignoring the sign, "6 Items or less", the woman ahead of me had slipped into the check-out line pushing a cart piled high with groceries.
Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward, looked into the cart and asked sweetly, "So, which six items would you like to
buy?"

· · · · ·

Because they had no reservations at a busy restaurant, my elderly neighbour and his wife were told there would be a 45 minute wait for a table. "Young man, we're both 90 years old," the husband said. "We may not have 45 minutes." They were seated immediately.

· · · · ·

All eyes were on the radiant bride as her father escorted his daughter down the aisle. They reached the altar and the waiting groom - - - the bride kissed her father and placed something in his hand. The guests in the front pews responded with ripples of laughter. Even the priest smiled broadly.
As her father gave her away in marriage; the bride gave him back his credit card.

· · · · ·

Three friends from the local congregation were asked, "When you're in your casket, and friends and congregation members are mourning over you, what would you like them to say?" Artie replied, "I would like them to say I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man." Merle commented, "I would like them to say I was a wonderful teacher and servant of God who made a huge difference in peoples lives." Don said, "I'd like them to say, "Look! He's moving!"

· · · · ·

· · · · ·

· · · · ·

MEMBERSHIPS ARE DUE.