Description
Mr. Ewing describes his determination to join the service which included multiple attempts at enlisting.
Kenneth Alexander Ewing
Kenneth Ewing was born in 1925, the 4th oldest of 12 children. His father was a civil engineer for the province of New Brunswick which enabled them to manage fairly well during the Depression. His father was a Lieutenant in the First World War and signed up as an engineer in the Second World War from 1942 to 1945. Mr. Ewing quit school in Grade 10 at the age of 15 to join the army. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to join the Merchant Navy and joined the militia in the spring of 1940. He then joined the N.B. Rangers (militia). In November 1940, he went active with the Royal Rifles. He did his basic training in Botwood, Newfoundland, guarding the port. He did further guard duty in Botwood, Gander, and St. John's, Newfoundland, Valcartier, Quebec, and Saint John, New Brunswick. He was posted to Hong Kong as a rifleman in "A" Company. He was taken POW and sent to a slave labour camp in Japan where he endured beatings, disease, and very poor living conditions but considered himself lucky since other Canadians had been executed.
Transcript
Enlisting at Age Fifteen
Well, I quit school to, to join the army, I was in grade 10 at the time. I was fifteen and I thought I, I should, well I guess I shouldn't put it that way, I wanted to, to join the army, so I did.
Interviewer: You joined the army at fifteen?
Yes.
Interviewer: How did you manage to do that?
Attempt Number One
Actually I, this may sound as if I didn't have a happy home life but I did, but I also, I suppose, had a spirit of adventure, some might call it foolhardiness but I, with a couple of friends, early in 1940, went down to try to join the Merchant Navy, and, we weren't successful. The, the ship that would have taken us had just sailed out of the harbour and thank God for that because it was an Estonian ship and, and it probably didn't survive too long in the, during the war.
Attempt Number Two
Well, in the spring of 1940 I joined the, the militia, the 8th Hussars, and they went active in July, I believe it was, of 1940, and of course they shipped, they shipped me home along with my brother and, one of my brothers, and quite a number of friends because, because we were underage.
Attempt Number Three
I then had an opportunity to join the New Brunswick Rangers, which I did. They were militia as well at that time, non-permanent active militia. And all of the time, of course, I wanted to be on active service.
Attempt Number Four
In November, I heard that the Royal Rifles were in Camp Sussex, which was only about twenty miles from home, and with another chap, I went up there and, and they, they, they took me, they enlisted me. So that was November 4th in 1940.
Interviewer: And your age at that time, Mr. Ewing?
Was fifteen. Well I suppose I stretched the truth a little bit, I said that I was nineteen and, and they accepted that although I'm sure that they, powers that be, knew that I wasn't nineteen but didn't realize I was young as I was. They, they probably thought that I was seventeen or eighteen.