Volume 6 - Legion BC/Yukon Command Website

British ColumBia / Yukon CommandNelson, Wilfred MartinWilfred was born in Calgary in 1925. He served in World War Two with theNew Westminster Regiment in Canada, England, and Italy. He has been amember of Arrowsmith Legion Branch #49 in Parksville for thirty-fouryears.Nerling, BerylBeryl was born in Lumby, BC on December 24, 1924. She enlisted in the CanadianWomen’s Army Corps in Vernon, BC in June 1942. She went to Victoria, BC to bedocumented before going to Vermilion, Alberta for basic training. She wasstationed first at the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps base in Red Deer,Alberta where she worked in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps office and waseventually promoted to the rank of Corporal. A year later, she began a wirelessoperator course in Kingston, Ontario and was then posted to National DefenceHeadquarters in Ottawa where she worked receiving information from overseas inMorse code and translating it into five letter blocks. These reports, manyconcerning casualties, were then sent to the decoding branch. She was thentransferred to Suffield to work in the photography section at a gas experimentstation. Beryl returned to Lumby after being discharged in September 1945. Shehas been a member of Legion Branch #167 in Lumby for twenty-three years.Newson, Leslie FrederickLeslie was born in London, England on May 20, 1921 and enlisted in the TerritorialArmy in 1939, reporting for active duty with the Royal Electrical and MechanicalEngineers Corps on August 28, 1939. Serving first at Anti-Aircraft (AA) workshopsbuilding AA guns, he volunteered for Middle East duty and was sent to Africa inJanuary 1941 at an airstrip outside of Tobruk to support the airstrip’s AA guns. Takenprisoner on June 20, 1942 when Tobruk was taken by General Rommel’s AfrikaKorps, Leslie spent a year in a POW camp in Taranto, Italy. The POWs were movedtowards Germany as the Allies advanced and Leslie was eventually placed in a workcamp in Leipzig. When he contracted scarlet fever, he was sent to a German militaryhospital for several weeks where he was liberated by the Americans and flown to aBritish military hospital. Demobilized in 1946, Leslie moved to Canada in 1947 andnow lives in North Vancouver with his wife Gladys. Leslie has been a member ofLegion Branch #76 Qualicum for thirty years.www.legionbcyukon.ca213