1969 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother – Wilhemina (Mina) Gray
Mrs. Wilhemina (Mina) Gray of Vancouver, British Columbia, was appointed 1969 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 1969, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.
On February 27, 1942, her son, Flight Sergeant John (Jack) Balfour Gray, was killed while on duty serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during a mine-laying operation. He was the first war fatality from Nelson, British Columbia.
On August 9, 1945, her second son, Lieutenant Robert (Hammy) Hampton Gray, was killed while serving with the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, during an attack on a Japanese destroyer on the Pacific Ocean. He was the last man from Nelson, British Columbia to be killed during the war and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his service.
Mrs. Gray, née McAllister, was born in Molesworth, Ontario on February 22, 1884. She and Mr. Gray had three children--Jack, Robert Hampton and daughter, Phyllis Wilma. Mrs. Gray died in Vancouver on August 21, 1977.
Grays Peak in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park in British Columbia is named in honour of Jack and Hampton Gray. There are many other memorials honouring Hampton Gray-- in Nelson, BC: the post office, plaques on the bridge at Gyro Park and on The Royal Canadian Legion building, a mural inside, by artist L.X. Forde, depicts him in action in Onagawa Bay. Gray’s Lake near Edmonton; Gray’s Walk on Elgin, Scotland—home base of the Fleet Air Arm; a memorial overlooking Onagawa Bay, Japan where he was killed; in Mississauga, Ontario, the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 789 Lt Hampton Gray squadron VC; in Nova Scotia the Gray Memorial School, now a community centre, on the Shearwater Naval Base whose opening was attended by Mrs. Gray in 1952; while a major memorial in Ottawa to wartime heroes called the “Valiant Group”, features Hampton as one of 16 Canadians honoured.
In 2005, a nephew of Mrs. Gray, filmmaker Ian Herring, made a fictionalized film about her son, entitled, The Last Battle of Hampton Gray. The biography, A Formidable Hero: Lt. R.H. Gray, VC, DSC, RCNVR, was written about Hampton by Stuart E. Soward, with a second edition in 2003.
List of National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers
(Information courtesy of the Royal Canadian Legion, Canadian War Museum and families of the National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mothers)
2010 - Present
Year | Name | City/Town |
---|---|---|
2023 | Mrs. Gloria Hooper | St. Claude, Manitoba |
2022 | Mrs. Candy Greff | Lacombe, Alberta |
2021 | Mrs. Josée Simard | Les Mechins, Quebec |
2020 | Mrs. Debra Sullivan | Saint John, New Brunswick |
2019 | Mrs. Reine Samson Dawe | St-Prosper, Québec |
2018 | Mrs. Anita Cenerini | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
2017 | Mrs. Diana Abel | Brampton, Ontario |
2016 | Mrs. Colleen Fitzpatrick | Prince George, British Columbia |
2015 | Mrs. Sheila Anderson | Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |
2014 | Mrs. Gisèle Michaud | Edmundston, New Brunswick |
2013 | Mrs. Niki Psiharis | Laval, Quebec |
2012 | Mrs. Roxanne Priede | Grand Forks, British Columbia |
2011 | Mrs. Patricia Braun | Raymore, Saskatchewan |
2010 | Mrs. Mabel Girouard | Bathurst, New Brunswick |
1990 - 2009
Year | Name | City/Town |
---|---|---|
2009 | Mrs. Della Marie Morley | East Saint Paul, Manitoba |
2008 | Mrs. Avril Dianna Stachnik | Waskatenau, Alberta |
2007 | Mrs. Wilhelmina Beerenfenger-Koehler | Embrun, Ontario |
2006 | Mrs. Alice Murphy | Conception Harbour, Newfoundland |
2005 | Mrs. Claire Léger | Stittsville, Ontario |
2004 | Mrs. Agatha Dyer | Montreal, Québec |
2003 | Mrs. Charlotte Lynn Smith | Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia |
2002 | Mrs. Doreen Coolen | Hubbards, Nova Scotia |
2001 | Mrs. Ina Galvin | Bolton centre, Québec |
2000 | Mrs. Carol Isfeld | Courtenay, British Columbia |
1999 | Mrs. Loyola Helen Park | London, Ontario |
1998 | Mrs. Anna Zuk (Prygroski) | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
1997 | Mrs. Alice Taylor | Ottawa, Ontario |
1996 | Mrs. Margaret Langille | River John, Nova Scotia |
1995 | Mrs. Elsie Wells | Edmonton, Alberta |
1994 | Mrs. Wilhelmina Baerr | Yorkton, Saskatchewan |
1993 | Mrs. Isabella Hutchings | St. John’s, Newfoundland |
1992 | Mrs. Ida Orser | Hartland, New Brunswick |
1991 | Mrs. Alice Taylor | Ottawa, Ontario |
1990 | Mrs. Elsie Pearce | Trenton, Ontario |
1970 - 1989
Year | Name | City/Town |
---|---|---|
1989 | Mrs. Rachel Morin | Rimouski, Quebec |
1988 | Mrs. Hazel Driscoll | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
1987 | Mrs. Secondina Di Persio | Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia |
1986 | Mrs. Mabel Bateman | Richmond Hill, Ontario |
1985 | Mrs. Rose Bernst | Thunder Bay, Ontario |
1984 | Mrs. Olive (Rumball) Hunter | Summerland, British Columbia |
1983 | Mrs. Constance Wylie | Vancouver, British Columbia |
1982 | Mrs. Janet Fraser | Debert, Nova Scotia |
1981 | Mrs. Isabel Harrison | Bury, Quebec |
1980 | Mrs. Greta Steeves | Elgin, Albert County, New Brunswick |
1979 | Mrs. Eliza Beatty | Carlyle, Saskatchewan |
1978 | Mrs. Janet Cantley | Montreal, Quebec |
1977 | Mrs. Mary Boutilier | Niagara Falls, Ontario |
1976 | Mrs. Olive Rae (Jubb) | Victoria, British Columbia |
1975 | Mrs. Alta Wilkinson | Ottawa, Ontario |
1974 | Mrs. Annie Margaret Rudd | Stettler, Alberta |
1973 | Mrs. Margaret Santo | Bender, Saskatchewan |
1972 | Mrs. Mary Louise McLeod | Neyaashiinigmiing, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation |
1971 | Mrs. Mary Anderson | Selkirk, Manitoba |
1970 | Mrs. Mary Josephine Meech | North Sydney, Nova Scotia |
1950 - 1969
Year | Name | City/Town |
---|---|---|
1969 | Mrs. Wilhemina Gray | Vancouver, British Columbia |
1968 | Mrs. Pearl Rich | Vancouver, British Columbia |
1967 | Mrs. Elsie Adams | St. Catharines, Ontario |
1966 | Mrs. Josephine Stephens | Toronto, Ontario |
1965 | Mrs. Nora Wagner | Teeterville, Ontario |
1964 | Mrs. Bernadette Rivait | Windsor, Ontario |
1963 | Mrs. Mary E. Stodgell | Norwood, Manitoba |
1962 | Mrs. Vitaline Lanteigne | Caraquet, New Brunswick |
1961 | Mrs. Sylvia Kimmel | Mission City, British Columbia |
1960 | Mrs. Julienne Cantin | McCreary, Manitoba |
1959 | Mrs. Dagnie Asta Anderson | Craigmyle, Alberta |
1958 | Mrs. Helen Forestell | Coniston, Ontario |
1957 | Mrs. Zylpha MacFarlane | Truro, Nova Scotia |
1956 | Mrs. Gertrude Edna Reynolds | Chatham, Ontario |
1955 | Mrs. Regina Leboldus | Vibank, Saskatchewan |
1954 | Mrs. Margaret Heeney | Ottawa, Ontario |
1953 | Mrs. Mary Casey | Ottawa, Ontario |
1952 | Mrs. Hannah McCann | Ottawa, Ontario |
1951 | Mrs. Alice Rochon | Ottawa, Ontario |
1950 | Mrs. Susan Beasley | Ottawa, Ontario |
1936 - 1949
Year | Name | City/Town |
---|---|---|
1949 | Mrs. Aline D'Aoust | Ottawa, Ontario |
1948 | Mrs. Catherine Helen MacDonald | Ottawa, Ontario |
1947 | Mrs. Martha Labarge | Ottawa, Ontario |
1944 - 1946 | Mrs. Jessie Isobel McCleery | Ottawa, Ontario |
1943 | Mrs. Edith Louisa Coldrey | Ottawa, Ontario |
1942 | Mrs. Sarah Wilkins Lamplough | Ottawa, Ontario |
1937 - 1941 | Mrs. Catherine Lewis | Ottawa, Ontario |
1936 | Mrs. Charlotte Susan Wood | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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