Major G.G Thomson

Major G.G Thomson

George Graham Thomson was born in Bawlf, Alberta on 13 August 1909; the oldest of Elizabeth and Arch Thomson’s three children.

At the turn of the 20^th Century, traveling by harvest train to Alberta, Graham’s father had journeyed west from Ontario.

In 1905, after obtaining his teaching diploma in Camrose Alberta, Arch got a job at the nearby village of Killam and Elizabeth went west and married him. They then moved to nearby Wavey Lake, Alberta where Arch both taught and farmed.

In 1920 the family moved to Kingston, Ontario where Graham’s father began selling life insurance for the Standard Life Insurance Company before taking over the J.K. Carroll Agency and starting a real estate and insurance business.

Growing up in Kingston, Graham attended Victoria Public School, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, and Queen’s University. His athletic pursuits included basketball, tennis and softball. Indeed he played on the Queen’s Senior Basketball Team, was a Kingston tennis champion and pitched for the Wally Elmer Red Indians, playing alongside some of Kingston’s great athletes such as Bob Elliott and Harold “Bucky” Buck.

In 1933 he joined the Non-permanent Active Militia as a member of the Princess of Wales Own Regiment (Machine Gun) (PWOR (MG)).

That same year, during the Depression, Graham left his studies at Queen’s University to work for a time as an assessor for the City of Kingston. He then joined his father’s business.

On 27 November 1937, in Chalmer’s United Church, he married Mildred Mahood whose father owned Mahood Drug Stores. Mildred, or Midge as she was affectionately called, was a close friend of Graham’s sister Betty, and the two families lived a short distance apart on University Avenue
. They had three children – Susan, George and Jane – who graced them with eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Mildred die in 1997.

In 1939 he joined the Canadian Army (Active Force) as a Lieutenant and in 1940 was posted from the PWOR (MG) to No 3 District Depot, Fort Henry, Ontario, and transferred to the Canadian Provost Corps.

On 21 March 1941, as recounted in the book Escape From Canada! The Untold Story of POWs in Canada 1939-1945, Graham was instrumental in the recapture at Clayton New York of Bernhardt Gohlke and Helm Rottmann, two prisoners of war who had escaped from Fort Henry.

In July 1941 he was promoted Captain and transferred to the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. He was then taken on strength of the 4th Infantry Divisional Signals, just before it moved from the Kingston area to Debert, Nova Scotia.

In February 1942 the 4th Infantry Divisional Signals was renamed the 4th Armoured Divisional Signals and in the autumn of that year Graham reached England as one of its members.

Graham served as the Adjutant of the Unit from June 1943 to September 1944 during which time its members supported the 4th Armoured Division’s operations in (France, Belgium, Holland and Germany)

In December 1944 he was posted to the No 1 Canadian Signals Reinforcement Unit, Aldershot, England. Shortly after his arrival he was promoted Acting Major, and went on to serve as the Unit’s Administrative Officer until May 1945.

By July 1945 Graham had been posted as Administrative Officer to No 1 Lines of Communications Signals, Breda, Holland and promoted to Major.

On 21 September 1945 he disembarked from a ship at Quebec City and shortly thereafter he was attached to the Canadian Signals Training Centre, Vimy Barracks, where he served until he was Struck Off Strength to the Reserve Active Officers’ General List in May 1946. He retired in Kingston in July of that year.

In 1947, upon the death of his father, Graham found himself in charge of Thomson Real Estate and Insurance Limited. Shortly thereafter Harry Jemmett joined with Graham to form Thomson and Jemmett Insurance. Much more recently Thomson and Jemmett Insurance amalgamated with Vogelzang and Associates Insurance Brokers to form Thomson Jemmett Vogelzang Insurance Centre.

In 1975 Graham asked his son-in-law, Terry Stafford, to take over the real estate business and he was pleased when his grandson, Brian, joined the business and became the fourth generation of Thomson men in real estate.

In addition to his military contribution to Canada, and his business contribution to the citizens and institutions of the Kingston, Ontario area, Graham has been a wholehearted volunteer who has played a leadership role in numerous community, cultural and religious associations and organizations. Of these, the following three are particularly significant to him.

Firstly, Graham and his family have been associated with the YMCA for much of their lives. While President of the YMCA he oversaw the merger of the YMCA and the YWCA in 1950. Indeed, as early as 1925 he began volunteering as the senior counselor at the first RKY Camp – a summer camp sponsored by the Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and the YMCA that has been an important resource for hundreds of Kingston boys and girls who would otherwise not have had a camping experience.

Next, the more Graham gained from the community the more he wanted to give back by doing things of interest to it. One such thing was working with his good friend Padre Laverty to head up the fund-raising campaign for the establishment of the Outdoor Centre at the Cataraqui Conservation Authority on the 100 acres of spectacular recreational land it affords the citizens of Kingston.

Finally, in addition to being a founder and president of the Kingston General Hospital foundation, he has been a fundraiser for and Director of the Military Communications and Electronics Museum that is situated on the north side of Highway 2 across from the entrance to Vimy Barracks. It is a one of a kind museum that he and others have worked hard to create.

On 27 November 2002 Graham was one of the 63 Kingstonians awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of their contribution to citizens, their community, or to Canada.