Judy Hagen
Special to The Record
The Normandy landings were among the finest military achievements of the Second World War, and helped make D-Day one of the great days in history.
Canadians were there in strength; sailors and airmen and soldiers. Many of those Canadian soldiers were from the Comox Valley. Six of them died in the fierce fighting in the days that followed: five of our local boys were with the Canadian Scottish; the sixth was with the Royal Canadian Artillery.
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Captain John Tarbell Bryden
Captain John Tarbell Bryden was born in Cumberland in 1908. He enlisted with the Canadian Scottish on Sept. 1, 1939, leaving for Britain in the summer of 1943. He was killed in action two days after D-Day. His family received a letter explaining the circumstances of his death.
鈥淚n the savage fighting immediately following the allied D-Day assault on the beaches of Normandy, Jack was leading his men of the Canadian Scottish as they stormed a nest of German guns. He and his Company Sgt. Major C.W. Kolner, of Nanaimo, were struck by mortar fire and lay wounded on the field. In the desperate heat of the attack, before they could be evacuated for treatment, they were run over by our Canadian Tanks of the South Saskatchewan Regiment.鈥�
Captain Bryden was the great-grandson of Robert Dunsmuir, the Scottish-born 鈥渃oal baron鈥� who developed the mines at Cumberland. Dunsmuir鈥檚 eldest daughter, Elizabeth, had married into the Bryden clan.
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Private Douglas Etherington
Private Douglas Etherington was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England in 1916.
His family arrived in Canada in 1927. When Doug completed his schooling in Cumberland, he went down into the mines. He enlisted in Courtenay with the Canadian Scottish Regiment on Sept. 14, 1939, serving in Victoria and Deber, Nova Scotia before embarking for Britain in August of 1941. He died three days after D-Day.
Doug was one of four brothers: Bill also served with the Canadian Scottish and fought on D-Day, known as the campaign of 鈥淣orthwest Europe鈥�; brother Harry was sent home to work in the mines and John had been discharged as medically unfit. In 1944, Doug鈥檚 widow was living in Nanaimo.
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Lieutenant Ian Phil MacDonald
Lieutenant Ian Phil MacDonald was born in Scotland in 1920. Ian was at a dance in the old Royston Pavilion one evening early in September, 1939, when the news was announced that Canada had entered the war. Against Hitler鈥檚 Germany, Ian said he was going to join up the next day and this he did (Sept. 14, 1939) enlisting in the Canadian Scottish at Courtenay. After four years and nine months of intensive training, he fell in the savage fighting following the allied landing in France. He died four days after D-Day.
He was an only son. His mother kept this message from a fellow officer:
鈥淚 have seen where Ian is buried, it is a peaceful little spot in the corner of a wheat field, just to the west of a village called Poutot-on-Besson in Normandy. Last Sunday Father Steele, our padre, held mass for him at a moving little service very near the front and we have all prayed that he may rest in peace. Ian was killed instantly. He must never have known what happened. Up to this time he had done very well. He had proved ability under fire and was probably the best liked officer in the Reg鈥檛. His men idolized him and would do anything for him.鈥�
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Alexander McIntyre
Although his name is remembered on the Sandwick Cairn, little is known of Alexander 鈥淪andy鈥� McIntyre, who worked for Mr. Jim Mariott of Royston. As soon as Sandy heard that war was declared he joined the British Army. He was killed in the D-Day fighting. He has no known grave.
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Major Kenneth Siddon Osler
Major Kenneth Siddon Osler was born in Bournemouth, England in 1911. He was with the Royal Canadian Artillery, which embarked for Britain in February 1942. He returned to Canada to serve on war staff at Petawawa and Kingston before returning to Britain in November 1942. He was killed six days after D-Day.
Mr. and Mrs. Osler operated the Elk Hotel in Comox. Ken was educated at Shawnigan Lake School and Oak Bay High School. After he received his undergraduate science degree from the University of Washington, he was a schoolmaster at Brentwood College for seven years. At the outbreak of war, he was studying for a medical degree at UBC. He was survived by his wife and two daughters, aged 20 months and six months.
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Corporal Francis Wittham Townsley
Corporal Francis Wittham Townsley was born in Harrington, England in 1907. Before he enlisted with the Canadian Scottish Regiment at Courtenay on July 7, 1940, he had been working at #8 Mine in Bevan. When he enlisted, his wife and family moved to Fernie. He was a football player, playing on teams in England before he came to Canada, and also for teams at Fernie.
Frank died on D-Day plus one, from wounds received in the landing on Normandy beaches. He is buried in the first of the invasion cemeteries, Bey-sur-Mer, Reviers, France.
Accounts of the massive allied D-Day assault on the Normandy coast describe the ocean as crimson with blood. The Canadian Scottish who started their training here at the Native Sons Hall in 1939 played an important and costly part in that colossal offensive.
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The information about these men, whose names are on the Sandwick Cairn, has come from Ruth Masters book Lest We Forget, which is at the Courtenay Museum.
For all our D-Day stories, click here.
