POW's Returning

Heroes Remember

POW's Returning

Transcript

That was here in Naden, it was down at the, at the dock. I think we were just working on the wards or I was in the lab, I can’t remember exactly, but, someone came rushing in and said that, there’s a repat, I think we called them repat ship, coming in very shortly, you know, let’s get down to the, down to the dock. And I think they came into just next to the graving dock there I think. So we all went down, you know, uniform whatever, we were just as we were, and in came this ship. And it was an old, it was, I have it, I wonder if I brought it, I have a picture, the newspaper clipping of it, and it was the Perida, I think it was USS Perida, something like that. It looked kind of battered, it wasn’t a big ship or anything like that. And these men you know, were just so ecstatic. They were probably falling off all overboard, you know, and they were throwing this Philippine money, they had stopped there briefly I guess on their way over. British soldiers most nearly all of them were, and I think there were others on the ship as well, but I just remember them being, you know, their heads shaved and, we knew that they had been through, been in the camps you know, and that they’d had a terrible time. In fact, spoke to several of them and one of them told me that his, actually his appendix had burst, but he’d survived it somehow. But they were treated very badly in those camps. And, and then some of, I think, yes we invited some of them to our WREN mess. Some of them, they came for supper and I remember the girl saying to the cooks, “No rice on the menu!” you know. Yeah, but it’s funny, you know I realized how much more important it is now, looking back you know, at the time you’re just trying to take it all in, the impact.

Description

Ms. Duncan talks about POW's returning from the Pacific.

Barbara Duncan

Barbara Duncan was born August 27, 1926 in Barrie, Ontario. Her father had participated in the First World War and when she decided to enlist, he figured it was the natural thing for her to do. She had tried to enlist when she was seventeen and a half but was told to finish school and try again when she was of age. When she finished school and turned eighteen she enlisted immediately. In September 1944, she was sent for training at HMCS Conastoga and from there was sent to the base in Sydney, Nova Scotia. From Nova Scotia she was off to HMCS Peregrine for five months and then off to Vancouver where she worked in the sick bay of the HMCS Discovery. After the war, she received her diploma in physiotherapy and upon graduation, gave birth to her first of five children.

Meta Data