81 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND BERRY, Hermas Augustin “Joe” Hermas “Joe” was born in St Charles, Ontario on April 15, 1922. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Engineers on September 8, 1942. Hermas trained in Terrance, BC for over a year and then was assigned to 23rd Fd Coy RCE. On July 1943, they headed to England to prepare for War. He was discharged on March 19, 1946. Hermas is a Legion Life Member of Elliot Lake Branch 561 and has been a member for 67 years. He was proud to have served his country and of being a Legion member until his passing on September 8, 2013. BESTOR, Robert Robert was born in Manchester, England on February 9, 1897. He was a Bernardo Boy who came to Canada from England to work local farms in Ontario. He enlisted in the Army on October 21, 1915 and served with the 20th Battalion, C.E.F. on the Western Front during World War I. He was seriously wounded at 3rd Ypres in France and died on December 26, 1917 from his wounds. He is commemorated on the Cenotaph in Omemee, Ontario. BERTRAND, René René was born in March 1925 in L’Orignal, Ontario. He joined the RCNVR in December 1941 (sixteen years old), and served three years in the North Atlantic on two minesweepers and two corvettes, HMCS Kitchener and Belleville as Leading Seaman. He served one year on HMCS Ontario, a battlecruiser (crew 1100), in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Burma, Rangoon, against the Japanese. After A-bombs had been dropped in 1945: August 6 Hiroshima and August 9 Nagasaki, they were sent to Hong Kong for three months on occupation duty. He sailed to Canada on December 15, 1945 via Guam, Pearl Harbor to Victoria, BC. He is one of the very few Canadians awarded the North Atlantic Star and Burma Star. René was honourably discharged in March 1946 and became one of the founding members of Hawkesbury Branch 472 RCL (1947), a member for 67 years. After the war, he successfully formed a petroleum firm, married and had a wonderful family (one girl and two boys). René was mayor of L’Orignal and very active in my community and still is.
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