My Work in the Admissions Department

Heroes Remember

My Work in the Admissions Department

Transcript

One morning, we’d only been there maybe a day or so, a sergeant comes out and wants to know if anybody can type. I can type, and so I put my hand up, and so the next thing I know I’m working as a clerk in the admissions department of the hospital. And the other guys are going around with mops and brooms and all this nonsense. And so, I worked in the admissions, or we called it the orderly room in the Army. I worked in the orderly room for, oh I would say, three or four months, before the Vancouver Military Hospital, the construction of the Vancouver Military Hospital was completed Once it was completed then I was moved out of the orderly room and into the hospital and into the operating room to be trained as an operating room assistant. And that went along very, very well, and so that’s really where I spent the rest of the war. It was in the Vancouver Military Hospital in the operating room as an operating room assistant.

Description

Mr. Jacobs tells how he came to work in the admissions area of the hospital during his In-Canada service

Kenneth Jacobs

Mr. Kenneth Jacobs was born in 1923 in Windsor, Ontario. He attended public high school until Grade 13 and was involved in sports throughout his school years. He attended the University of Toronto with the aspiration to study medicine, however, after one year changed his career path. In 1943 Mr. Jacobs joined the army. He was posted to Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia with the Royal Canadian Artillery, transferred to the Medical Corp and accepted advanced training in Camp Borden. He then transferred to the Vancouver General Military Hospital working in admissions as a typist, then onto the orderly room as an operating room assistant. In 1945 he discharged from the army, obtained his Bachelor of Arts at Assumption College, attended University of Toronto and earned a Masters Degree in Social Work. Mr. Jacobs worked at the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, being the first black social worker at this agency. Mr. Jacobs joined the Air Force and worked in British Columbia in his social work field. In 1980, when his father turned ill, Mr. Jacobs returned to Ottawa to look after him, was employed with National Defence and established a social work centre. In 1988 Mr. Jacobs retired after 24 years of service and settled in Ottawa. Mr. Jacobs retired from the forces with the rank of Wing Commander.

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