For the month of November 2022 Chestermere Historical Foundation mounted a display at the Chestermere Public Library honouring Chestermere servicemen with materials from the Ellis, Clayton, and McElroy families; Everett McElroy’s WWII kit bag, Ken Clayton’s WWII dress jacket and bionoculars, he served in the 1st Hussars, and a photo of Hector McElroy who was a wireless operator in the Royal Canadian Navy.
The cabinets displays also featured information about the crash of a Harvard trainer nearby, the story can be read here Harvard story Check out the letter opener made from a piece of the plane. Information about the three pilots is below. Other artifacts depict Chestermere life during wartime. There is a unique display contributed by Don Lemna, CHF member, about the Princess Patricia Light Infantry. This consists of a number of World War ll Commonwealth decorations or medals, a scroll commemorating the death of L/C Martin, who loss his life in the battle for Dieppe in 1940, a display of Canadian military trade qualification and finally a cap badge from the First Canadian Parachute battalion and Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry web belt from the second world war. The framed piece is an autograph book from the early 1920s when the Prince of Wales asked winners of the Victory Cross to travel to England to raise funds for injured veterans. This book contains the signatures of those Canadian (and British) soldiers who came from Canada to support this request. The cap badges represent the different regiments these men were serving when they were awarded the Victory Cross.
Below is a collage of photos of those materials which you can view from November 3rd to November 30th. Some items will be on display at the presentation on November 15th.
