Description
Mr. Spear went on to serve his country during the Second World War as an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Thomas Spear
Thomas Spear was born on October 22, 1896 in Alberta. His father was Reverend David Spear, a pioneer missionary in the Northwest Territories. As a youngster, Thomas often accompanied his father travelling in winter by horse and sleigh. When the First World War started, Mr. Spear was living in Emerson, Manitoba working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a telegraph operator. In January 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian Signal Corps and in April of that year sailed aboard The Baltic to England. Before heading to the battlefields of France, Mr. Spear was given additional training. One of the things he had to learn was the Continental Code or semaphore, which had a number of different characters from Morse Code. Mr. Spear was one of the first to learn wireless communication and eventually manned a wireless truck near the front.
Transcript
Interviewer: After you had resumed your own civil life, events in Europe again overtook you, and World War II broke out. What was your reaction when you realized that the Germans had to be fought all over again?
First of all is that we didn't finish the job. There were those in the United States, you know that were very, very, very, very sure that we should have gone further in the First World War. But I think we had had enough of it. But that didn't hinder the recruiting in the Second World War. Every town had a battalion or part of a battalion or company, platoon or, recruited. And ah, it was very high, very high emotionally.
Interviewer: What did you do?
In the Second World War?
Interviewer: Yes Sir
I was recruited for signals in the Second World War and I was offered a commission in the Royal Canadian Air Force which I accepted but found that the technology had changed so much from the First World War, that my capacity should be turned in another direction, which it was, into the administrative branch.
Interviewer: You were in your early forties by then?
Yes
Interviewer: And you are now back in the service?
Back in the service, as a pilot officer. That's the lowest commissioned rank you could get. But I'm quite proud of myself. I went into the administrative branch and was posted quite frequently. I finished up in 1946, in a Wing Commanders post.
Interviewer: That's a long way from being a private soldier in World War One to a Wing Commander in World War Two.
I should say. Wing Commanders position in World War Two, that's correct. And ah, I was proud and I got a tremendously fine letter from the Air Vice Marshal asking me to remain in the service. But I had two months to tell the CPR, the Canadian Pacific whether I was coming back to work or not and I think my wife decided for me. But anyway, she made the right decision and I came back to Canadian Pacific with a very, very happy heart, back home again.
Interviewer: And home was where?
Winnipeg.