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Heroes Remember

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Transcript
We marched from the station down to the armouries, people lined up there. Every once in a while some young woman, mostly young women come charging through the crowd grab her husband, like that so happy then kind of disrupt the parade. And we got down to the armouries there, and we had to go get our ration coupons and so on that took time. But they had little places fenced off for the parents, or families there, certain initials, you know. And I remember hearing over the tannoy system my brother Jack, he just got home a week before I did, he got home a week before Christmas I got home a week after. He spent six years and four months in army, and most of it six years overseas, that's a long time for eighteen years old when you start. And he's a, I decided to get in touch with him like that. I got these papers and I went down to look for the T's, I had to laugh my mother she saw me, she broke her way out come running down and Dad grabbed her and said, "You're suppose to wait here." didn't make any difference. So we got on the, Jack showed up then and a friend of mine Paul O'Shea showed up he owed me a couple of pounds, he gave that to me and said he'd keep in touch but we never did. And it was an awful night coming home the roads weren't cleared and we ran into another car down here at Tividale, he was coming one way we were going the other way there, we were only going about five miles an hour so we just touched right in the middle of the road. And we finally got home after several hours. My sister in law, my brother Ted had married an English girl, and he had one week with her, before he went to Italy and was killed. And she saw me come in like that and she said, "Hello, Glen," went upstairs balling her head off. I asked her the next day what happened. "Well," she says, "You look so much like your brother Ted." And kind of a hard thing to see, I guess. My brother Jack and a fella here in town at the time they were very good friends and Jack went in the army the day war was declared and so did my brother Ted, Ted was killed in Italy. Jack come home after six years and four months in the army, he met this fella up the street here. Art says, "Hello Jack haven't seen you around for a while." Jack says, "No, I was in the army." "Oh," he says. He says, "Your..." I forget how he put it first of all, he says, "What did you get out of it?" Jack said, "Well, not too much I guess," he says, "a bit of experience maybe." He says, "You're nothing but a bum," Art said to my brother Jack. Jack said, "Well what do you mean?" "Well," he says, "you got nothing to show for it." He says, "You spent all that time in the army," he says, "you have nothing to show for it." He said, "I waited for the war to be over and I joined up," he says, "I got a farm out of it." He said, "You're nothing but a bum." Jack got a wee bit mad, he says, "You know Art," he says, "maybe your right. But," he says, "I got one thing that you can can't do." Art says, "What is that?" Jack says, "I can look in the mirror in the morning without being ashamed of what I see in there." Never spoke to him again.
Description

Mr. Tomlin describes the happy, poignant and bitter aspects of returning home after the war.

Glen Tomlin

Mr. Tomlin was born in Clinton, Ontario, in 1923. His family moved to Harriston when he was very young. Once he was old enough he worked in a box factory earning $7/week for 60 hours of labour. Despite having had rheumatic fever, which made it impossible for him to walk at a marching pace, Mr. Tomlin was accepted by the army, where he trained as a field gunner. He later switched to infantry, joining the Hard Light Infantry, 9th Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division. Mr. Tomlin's service saw him in several combats in Northern Europe, often engaging the enemy at very close quarters. Mr. Tomlin now resides in Palmerston, Ontario.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:59
Person Interviewed:
Glen Tomlin
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Canada
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Highland Light Infantry
Rank:
Private
Occupation:
Gunner

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