My father, Frederick Blair LaBrish, elder son of Frank and Kate (nee O'Hara).

A fourth generation Canadian whose forefathers came from Jersey, he was born in Montreal.

He joined the RCAF at the outbreak of the war and served in England, North Africa, and Malta as navigator in Wellingtons and B17s.   

He was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1944, and almost made it through the war, but his plane was lost without a trace somewhere over the Atlantic December 15, 1944.

She was Grannie's youngest, and was just a baby when her father was killed in the first World War.  

She was born in Worcester Park, Surrey  on August 1, and came to Canada  as a child of  5.  

She was the most clever, talented and beautiful mother that anyone could ever hope to have.

When the second World War broke out my aunt, Veronica (Ronnie to everyone), left her job as a teacher to join the Air Force.

She served both here in Canada (Gander & Halifax) and overseas, and at the end of the war she got her B.Com. at Queens, married and had one son.

But her great love was teaching, and so she returned to her vocation and taught in Pickering until she retired.

My uncle, Arthur, joined the Army.  

He served overseas "for the duration", and was several times Mentioned in Dispatch.  Happily, he survived the war.  

When the war ended he returned to Regina for a time.  But his heart belonged to England, so leaving his Canadian seedlings he went back to England, remarried, raised a family there, and died there.