THE FORTYNINER - Alberta Genealogy Research "The Recents"

The Forty-Niner
Three dollars and seventy-eight cents ... C.O.D.
By Denise (Juchli) Daubert
The year was 1943.
This is the likely scenario that would have unfolded
one August afternoon that year at the home of Mr.
and Mrs. William R. Campbell. The Campbell’s
home was located in Cloverdale, one of the river
valley neighbourhoods of Edmonton.
Mrs. Campbell was finishing up the breakfast
dishes. As mothers do, she probably had her
seven children on her mind – sons Angus, Rod and
Stan serving overseas with the Canadian Army,
daughters (Elizabeth and Hazel) on Canada’s east
coast serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service,
son, Bliss, who still lived at home plus daughter
Catherine who was already married and a mother
herself. Catherine’s husband, Robert Shaw, was an
instructor for the Royal Canadian Air Force on the
west coast.
Glancing out the kitchen window, she saw that a
postman was walking up their front sidewalk. He
was carrying a large parcel under his right arm.
Mrs. Campbell quickly dried her hands on a faded
dishtowel, straightened out her apron and walked
to the front door as the doorbell sounded. Ding
dong.
There stood a postman from the Post Office
Department of Canada (as it was called in the
1940’s). This wasn’t her usual postman, but one
who specifically delivered parcels. Many parcels
delivered in those days were on a cash-on-delivery
(C.O.D.) basis. Politely, the postman would have
explained that he had a parcel for 9731 – 92 Street,
addressed to a Mr. and Mrs. William R. Campbell.
Mrs. Campbell would have fetched her purse to pay
the $3.78 C.O.D. charge owing and then would have
thanked the postman as he handed her the parcel
and turned to return to his truck.
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Taking the flat rectangular package into the
kitchen, Mrs. Campbell would have read the label
with the return address. The parcel had come from
a photography studio in Ontario. What did the
parcel contain?
Mrs. Campbell would have been pleasantly
surprised to find a treasure in that cardboard box.
Here was a 16 by 22 inch full color Certificate of
Service in the Second Great European War. At the
bottom of the certificate were black and white head
and shoulder photographs of her and her husband’s
three sons in uniform.
Sons Angus (serving with the Loyal Edmonton
Regiment), Rod (also serving with the Loyal
Edmonton Regiment) and Stan (serving with the
Edmonton Fusiliers 3 rd Battalion) looked so grown
up in their uniforms. She could see that the photos
of Angus and Rod were of them singled out from
a group photograph of their respective regiments.
She would have paused looking at the photograph
of son Stan – the youngest of the three boys. His
head and shoulder photograph was of him alone
and not as part of a group photograph like his
brothers’ photographs. He looked serious as he
looked out of the photograph.
The Campbells had not ordered the certificate. How
had it ended up in their hands? There was no bill
inside the box indicating they owed any money for
the certificate. There was also no letter or note
explaining where the certificate had come from.
Had it been produced by the Canadian Government
Department of Defense? Had her sons possibly
ordered it when they were in Eastern Canada
before deployment overseas?
At suppertime that evening, Mrs. Campbell would
have proudly shown the certificate to her husband
and their son and probably called daughter
Catherine to come over so that she and their grand-