HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS1

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

We returned home last night after visiting my daughter Beverly and her family in England for the past 12 days. My son-in-law, Greg Hunter, is a proud member of the Royal Air Force and is currently stationed at RAF Northwood, northwest London, next door to former WWII fighter base RAF Northolt. In fact their house is almost under Northolt's main runway. 32 (Royal) Squadron is stationed at Northolt so my guess is that the Queen was flying over our head on a number of occasions. We managed to tour Windsor Castle. Here I saw several King's Colours and Regimental Colours of Canadian Regiments but could not get close enough to identify them. Surprised to see that King George V and his bride are buried in St. George's Chapel at the Castle. My grandfather felt that meeting the King during October, 1915 on the Battlefields of Belgium was one event he would cherish forever. He was one of 50 men from the 3rd (Toronto) Battalion chosen to meet the King. Shortly afterwards he was captured and spent the next three years in German Prison Camps.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES, KEW, LONDON 

I was determined to visit the British National Archives in Kew Gardens while on vacation and my wish was granted. What a place! In a nutshell, very modern, pretty, everyone on staff very helpful and I obtained much of the information I was looking for (but not all). In future days I will tell the story of another Sergeant from my grandfather's photograph from the 3rd Battalion, Sergeant Alan Reeve #9485 (later to become 2nd/Lt. Alan Reeve, R.F.C.) Santa also brought me a present a bit early - copy of the 246th (Nova Scotia) Nominal Roll and Reinforcement Draft. Hopefully this can be added to the on-line collection early in the New Year. Later!