HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2006-11-08, Page 22sure.
"But, I was in love and it was a
big adventure so I went."
Because she had not been married
in England during the war, Dilys
wasn't officially considered a "war
bride," so she had to find her own
way to Canada.
She convinced a "romantic
Frenchman" at the office of the
French Line to find her passage on
a ship -that was a luxury liner con-
verted to a troop ship.
She took the eight-day journey
across the Atlantic on the Ile de
France as the onlyyoung woman
bound for Canada on board.
"It was very basic. There were six
bunks stacked up the wall and I
made friend with girls going to the
�v.
U.S.," she says.
Dilys and Grant were married on
Nov. 9 at the Anglican Church in
Seaforth and moved into a large yel-
low brick house on Main Street.
Used to indoor plumbing and the
large urban centre of London,
England, Dilys says she suffered a
bit of •culture shock moving into a
house without a bathroom or pipes
for drinking water.
"There was a two-holer in the
barn outside and we got a chemical
toilet you had to empty. And, that
was the thing I hated most about
Canada," she says.
Heated with a wood stove and
kitchen range, the large house was
never warm and Dilys was happy
See GRANT, Page 32
i9
Page 22 The Huron Expositor • November 8, 2006
n'
As Second World War ends, British girl meets
handsome Egmondville soldier at skating rin
Dilys Finnigan
was just 13 when
the Second World
War started but
by 14, she left
school and began
taking the hour-
long train ride
from Surrey,
England to work
in London doing
office work for a
pickle factory.
She wanted to
join the air force
but she was too
young. So,
instead she vol-
`unteered for the
National Fire
Service in
Rosehill.
Wearing a uni-
form and toting a
metal helmet, she
worked on the
switchboard all
night taking fire
calls, walked sev-
eral miles home
in the morning
and took the train
back to London to
work each day.
"It was a very
sad time but it was an exciting
time. I remember it just as if it were
yesterday," says Dilys, who has lived
irl Egmondville for 55 years.
"London was where all the forces
went when :they were on leave and
when you walked down Piccadilly,
you heard so many different
accents," she remembers.
She spent her teen years working
at various offices in London
throughout the war, carrying a gas
mask everywhere she went.
"It was like a small lunch box you
wore as a purse," she says.
All the while, she lived with the
fear and inconvenience of bombs
landing throughout. England.
Her journey to and from work
each day was often disrupted by a
bombed -out train station, which
meant she would have to be rerout-
ed by a bus and she recalls getting
home once at 3 a.m. because of a
bombing.
Air raid sirens were frequently
sounding and Dilys remembers
being most frightened by the buzz
bombs which made a buzzing noise
until they went silent when they
were about to drop.
"Of course, we had to go down into
the shelters if there was an air
Grant and Dilys Finnigan on their wedding day.
raid," she says.
Once, the office she was working
in was bombed and the walls were
so damaged, the staff had to move
across the street until repairs could
be made.
And, while she lived through the
fear and excitement of the war,
occasionally enjoying dances where
young soldiers on leave were also in
attendance, it wasn't until 1946 on
her 20th birthday that Dilys met
her husband Grant, a Canadian sol-
dier who'd signed on for an extra
year after the war ended.
Going to a skating rink for the
first time with a friend Pauline,
Dilys was wobbly in her rented, ill-
fitting skates and her friend tried
valiantly to hold her up on the ice.
Along came two handsome young
Canadian soldiers, offering to assist.
One was Grant Finnigan, of
Egmondville, who served with the
Royal Artillery since 1943.
"I knew him for three months
before he was sent back to Canada.
We corresponded and talked by
phone and he asked if I would come
to Canada and marry him," says
Dilys.
She says her mother was a
romantic and all for her coming to
Canada but her father wasn't so
fFree om... ankj2i veteran -1
UPCOMING EVENTS
REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
at the Cenotaph Saturday, November 11"' at 11:00 a.m.
New Years Eve Dance with The Chris Black Orchestra
Sunday, December 31s'
See our new catering facilities
•
Ts*
t We Forget.
Rental Available
for weddings, meetings
and banquets
President: Gwen Harburn
Lest We ,forge t. Poppy Chairman: Rick Fortune
Si
.. .- • . .. F"..uz�,"s ""'4/l.••••,•• 1`.w 'T..7`#W .
•