MERRITTON MATTERS

Serving in World War Two – The Murray Brothers` Story
In a previous issue we brought you the celebration Merritton had for servicemen, such as the Munro
family, who had returned from World War Two. Jessie Murray saw our story and contacted Merritton
Community Group member Doreen England, with whom she had gone to school, to see if we were
interested in hearing about her four brothers. Of course we were and below you’ll find an article written
by Jessie’s daughter, Wendy (Murray) Swinton and pictures of her four uncles.
It is hard to imagine how my grandparents, Jack and Mamie Murray of Merritton, must have felt
when their four eldest sons (from a family of eleven children) went off to war. John, Lloyd, Art and Al all
signed up to serve their country. John enlisted in May 1942 in the RCNVR and served aboard the HMCS
Assiniboine, a destroyer on the North Atlantic run, as well as the LaChute. He was a leading stoker on
convoy duty. Lloyd enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army in 1942 and served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy
and Europe. He was wounded April 1st, 1945. Art enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in June 1943. He
served aboard HMCS Stormount on convoy duty in the North Atlantic. My dad, Al, enlisted as a Rifleman
in the Queens Own Rifles of Canada in February 25, 1944 when he was 18 years old. He served in Europe
and was seriously wounded February 26, 1945 in Calcar, Germany.
The town of Merritton was proud of these young men who were serving their country. Fred Munson
owned the local barber shop on Merritt Street and would offer all servicemen a free hair cut if they showed
up in uniform. Once done, he would then take their picture. Today, those pictures hang proudly in the
Merritton Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 138.
Luckily my three uncles and father all survived, but not without serious injuries. Lloyd was wounded
in Northwest Europe in 1945 and, as the family story goes, it was an American doctor who saved his arm. My dad, Al, was wounded by a German
sniper. His story was written about in the book called Battle Diary by Company Sergeant-Major Charles Cromwell Martin of the Queens Own Rifles.
Here`s an excerpt pertaining to Dad. “Then about that time someone shouted something about a forward slit trench and a wounded soldier. J.A.
Riddle and I went out to take a look and we found Al Murray. Al was barely nineteen.
When we were digging in on the right flank, he and Rick Brown had made themselves
a trench they could be proud of. Still a sniper found them and put a bullet in Rick right
between the eyes. Then he got Al in the left eye. The bullet had gone right through and
out the back of his head. He looked terrible but his pulse was strong and his colour still
good, so first we took care of the sniper. We spotted him in a clump of trees about 150
yards off.”
Growing up, my brothers and I knew my father had a `glass eye` from a war injury but
we never really thought much about it and he never spoke about the war. It was not until
the 45th reunion of the war that we met Sergeant-Major Charles Martin who told us what
had really happened. After our dad passed away, it was our uncle John Murray who filled
in more of the details. John had been serving on a ship off the coast of England where the
radio operator aboard could hear messages going back to the war office in Canada reporting
casualties. The men aboard the ship would ask him to let them know about any news of their family members. John was down below when he spotted the
radio operator coming down and he wondered if it was Lloyd, Art or Al. He was informed that it was his brother Al who was seriously wounded.
Rev. Lamb from St. James Church was given the task of delivering the bad news. But my grandparents were lucky. They had four sons serving
their country and they all survived. As a parent, I could not imagine having one of my children, not to mention four going off to war. I didn’t get to
tell my Dad while he was alive, or my uncles, but I just wanted to thank them for serving our country proudly.
We thought we’d also include a picture of Jessie and Doreen because their friendship made this Merritton Matters article possible. To make it
even more ‘fun’ for these two, we’re using a picture from earlier in their friendship – 1946 to be exact. Here are Betty Milne, Phyllis Ford, Doreen
Lawrence (later to be England), Jessie Renwick (later to be Murray), Betty Craig and Joyce Freeman.
I MERRITTON MATTERS