Paul Lapointe was born in Chicoutimi, Quebec on Jan 30, 1905. He enlisted on February 26, 1943 and sailed overseas on July 19, 1944. He served in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany with the Royal Canadian Engineers. He returned to England on August 1, 1945 and back to Canada on January 23, 1946. Paul Lapointe passed away on November 7, 2002. This collection consists of four letters and one diary in the original French with English translations, as well as photographs and miscellaneous documents.
Title
WWII
These collections contains all materials relating to Canadian from 1939 to 1945. Some individual collections may contain materials beyond this time frame. External links in collection descriptions are to casualty and burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Flying Officer Frank Wilfred Latham was born June 11th, 1916, to parents Frank & Edith Latham, of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Prior to his enlistment he was living in Trail, British Columbia, with his wife Jean and their two children Barbara and Dennis.
He enlisted in Calgary, Alberta, in the fall of 1942 with the Royal Canadian Air Force; with Frank on active service his family relocated back to Moose Jaw. Their third child, Gary Frank, was born in July of 1944 but died shortly thereafter in late October.
Latham was serving as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner on anti-submarine patrol with the 162nd Squadron out of Iceland when on December 19th, 1944, in high winds and blinding snow their Canso aircraft (A #11061) crashed into a mountainside S.E. of Reykjavik, Iceland, killing all 8 crew members. He is buried in Reykjavik (Fossvogur) Cemetery, Iceland.
The collection includes a diary Jean Latham kept in their son Gary’s Our Baby’s Story book of his death in October of 1944, and of her husband’s less than two months later.
External links:
Flying Officer Latham's Service Record Information (Reg/Ser# J/41740) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring him can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
The collection contains three letters from Robina Evelyn Lee home to her parents in Glasgow detailing her journey from Britain to Vancouver. She was coming to Canada as a war bride after marrying Alfred Roberston Lee, a member of the Canadian Navy whom she met in Britain during the war. Also included are other items such as some individual photographs, wedding photographs, and a photograph of the ship on which she came to Canada.
Flight Lieutenant Alexander (“Sandy”) Lightbody was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, on September 9, 1920, to parents David and Margaret Lightbody. He had two younger sisters, Margaret and Jennie.
Enlisting with the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 24, 1941, Lightbody served overseas with No. 430 Squadron, working mainly as a fighter pilot deployed on photographic reconnaissance. He married Jeanne Moran in the summer of 1945; the couple returned to Canada following the end of the war.
Content notes:
Most of the letters were written by Lightbody between 1943-1945 to his sister Jennie (“Buck”) Lightbody (later m. Bromley), of New Westminster, B.C. The photographs include three full colour Air Force related pictures, as well as others of various R.C.A.F. personnel.
External links:
F/Lt. Alexander Lightbody’s service record (Serv/Reg# J12335) service record is not publicly available through Library and Archives Canada at this time.
Edward (Ted) Loney was born in October, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1943 Loney joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and served as an anti-aircraft gunner until he returned to Canada in 1946. The collection consists of more than one hundred letters.
