127 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND DENOMY, Venence C. “Ven” Ven was born on July 12, 1928, in Zürich, Ontario. He joined the Canadian Army on May 15, 1951 and served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Canada and Germany until his discharge on May 15, 1963. In 1956, Sergeant Denomy attended the Water Supply Course at Engineer School in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he received the highest marks. The information he learned there came in handy years later when Ven was a member of the Chesley Public Utilities Commission. He also owned and operated a successful TV and appliance store in Chesley. Ven was a member of Chesley Legion Branch 144 for forty years before he passed away on August 20, 2003. DEWAR, Elmer W. J. Elmer was born on April 4, 1915, in Lost River, Quebec. He enlisted in the Army on August 3, 1940 and trained at Camp Valcartier in Quebec. After five to seven months of training, he traveled to Halifax for embarkation and crossed the North Atlantic Ocean in a convoy. The crossing itself took nine days. He disembarked at a Clyde estuary port in Scotland and was stationed with the Canadian Forestry Corps at Aboyne Aberdeenshire where he worked in sawmills and did forestry work such as cutting trees into logs for lumber, rail ties and crating for shipping supplies for the war effort. Elmer earned the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with a Ribbon and Clasp. He was a crack shot with a rifle and was a boxer for his unit. He was discharged on July 7, 1945 and worked as a millwright at a brickmaking plant in Kilmar, Quebec in the Laurentian Mountains. He also worked in the forest cutting logs and pulp, and used horses to pull the logs out of the bush. Elmer and his wife Frances raised 16 children. He died on September 13, 1981. DEVITT, George William George was born in Hobart, Ontario on May 15, 1917, the son of Clifford and Jean (Reid) Devitt. During World War II, George joined the Army (Regular Force) with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps on April 18, 1941. Private Devitt first trained in Toronto at the Horse Pavilion at the Canadian National Exhibition before being shipped to England where he received more training. As part of his trade, he drove ambulances and was employed in office duties. He served in the United Kingdom, France, Holland and Germany with the 7th Light Field Ambulance. Promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant, he was awarded a Mention in Dispatches for gallant and distinguished services. George had surgery near the end of the war, so when the war ended, he could not travel back right away and had to wait until April 8, 1946 to be discharged. He eventually moved to the Coldwater area where he lived and worked. He married Margaret Mabel Parker of Toronto and they had two children. He was a member and Branch Service Officer of The Royal Canadian Legion Coldwater Branch 270. George passed away on October 10, 1981, at age 64.
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