A War Guest in Canada
About this book
During the Second World War, hundreds of children were sent from the UK to stay with family and friends in Canada as "war guests." This book collects the letters of one such war guest, young W.A.B (Alec) Douglas, who wrote from his wartime home in Toronto to his mother back home in London.
Alec wrote home every week, although sometimes he forgot to post his letters, and they were delayed, and some letters did not get through. Occasionally his godmother and host, Mavis Fry, would add comments and write her own more detailed letters. Also included are letters from Lillian Kingston, who brought Alec to North America in 1940.
This is a story of exposure, at an impressionable age, to ocean passage in wartime, the sights and sounds of New York, the totally new and unfamiliar world of Canada, the wonderful excitement of passage home in a Woolworth Aircraft Carrier as a "Guest of the Admiralty," and his eventful return to a world he had left behind three years before.
A War Guest in Canada includes a foreword by Cynthia Comacchio and an introduction by Roger Sarty.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction The Careers of W.A.B. Douglas: Sailor and Historian
- A War Guest in Canada
- Chapter 1: 1935 to July 1940: From England to Canada
- Chapter 2: August 1940: Arrival in Toronto
- Chapter 3: September to October 1940: School!
- Chapter 4: October to December 1940: Canadian Thanksgiving and Halloween
- Chapter 5: December 1940 to March 1941: First Canadian Christmas and Winter
- Chapter 6: April to August 1941: Spring Celebrations and Summer Holidays
- Chapter 7: September to December 1941: School, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas
- Chapter 8: January to September 1942: The Farm, Summer Camp, and New Experiences
- Chapter 9: October to December 1942: Victory in Mind
- Chapter 10: January to July 1943: Last Months in Canada
- Chapter 11: July to August 1943: Return to England
- Chapter 12: 1943 to 1947: Transition from a War Guest to a Canadian
