As the Second World War moved into the final years, Canadians on the homefront were introduced to a new way to contribute to the war effort - by donating blood. The research by Dr. Charles Best and the Connaught Laboratories in Toronto produced a safe and convenient method for transferring the essential elements of blood in serum form to combat blood loss and shock on the front lines and military hospitals. In 1944 alone, Canadians contributed a million pints of blood destined for overseas. The St. Thomas Times Journal took the call for donations to their subscribers by illustrating how local serving men benefited from the life saving gift - they did not shrink from raising the curtain on the severity of the injuries that required such a donation. Captain Wynne Baldwin (wounded during D-Day operations), Captain Jack Jennings, (member of the Devil's Brigade-lost a leg when taking Rome), and Corporal Frank Oke, (lost a leg in Normandy while serving with the Hussars) all take the time to attest to the life-saving properties of this Canadian research.
2 Comments
When Zeppelins Bombarded the |
E.D. Mitchell, a former St. Thomas boy, writing to his folks at Eden, Ont., from Otterpool Camp, England, gives some very interesting detail of his experience when the Germans bombarded that camp from Zeppelins. Signaller Mitchell was at one time connected with the grocery firms here of Swinn Bros., J.A. McCance, Egan Bros. and Butler Bros., and will be remembered by a large number of friends. For the last five or six years he has travelled for the Swift Canadian Company out of Winnipeg and Nelson, B.C. He enlisted last June at Winnipeg, and is with the Headquarters Staff, Fifth Artillery Brigade, Second Canadian Division, as signaller and dispatch rider. In his letter he writes: |
Author
The Elgin Military Museum has a vast collection of letters, articles, poems and pictures of veterans and others who served their community over a period of two hundred years.. This blog is our way of sharing them with you.
Archives
April 2020
February 2020
January 2020
June 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
February 2018
December 2017
November 2017
June 2017
May 2017
December 2016
November 2016
September 2016
Categories
All
Air Force
Army
Bridge Too Far
Caterpillar Club
Ceremonies
Christmas
Churchill
Citations
Confidential Book Box
D Day
Devil's Brigade
Dieppe
Elgin Military Museum
Elgin Regiment
Goldfish Club
Italian Campaign
Late Arrivals Club
Letters
Merchant Marine
Military Camps
Military Cross
Military Medical Care
Momentous Events
Nursing
Obituaries
PPCLI
Radar
Red Cross
Roosevelt
Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Navy
Tanks
Trench Warfare
U Boats
WW I
WW II