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.

CWACs and POWs

CWACs and POWs

In the book Athene, Goddess of War, there are many stories of Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) members who had interesting experiences while serving in Kingston, Ontario, and elsewhere.

 One such story involves a particular CWAC member who, in 1942, due to a shortage of barracks in Kingston, was billeted at the YMCA.

As related by her, she had a boy friend who had a car, and whose home was in Kingston. It was a hot summer for uniforms, so in the evening they would occasionally go for a ride dressed in cool civvies. Three German prisoners had escaped from Fort Henry. Two had been recaptured, but the third was still at large. On this particular evening she and her friend, with another couple, went for a ride east of Kingston. After being stopped at roadblocks several times they returned to Kingston and parked on the waterfront. They were there about half an hour, when all of a sudden a motorcycle policeman pulled up, opened their car door, and asked for help. It was a bright moonlit night and, as the policeman had gone by them on his patrol, he had seen a movement in the grass and had returned to check it out. The movement turned out to be the escaped German who had been creeping up on their car with a knife in his hand. The policeman had caught the German, but needed their assistance in getting his prisoner back to the police station.  The policeman and the escapee then rode downtown in the rumble seat of the car. As soon as the policeman and the German were out of the car she and her friends drove away as fast as they could since they didn't want to be questioned. A few days later her friend was pulled over by the same policeman as he wanted to extend his thanks, and said if her friend ever needed help, just to call him. Her friend asked that their names be kept anonymous and explained the trouble the girls could have been in for wearing civvies. It was a front-page story in all the papers, but their names were never mentioned.

Capt George V Eckenfelder

Service from 1938 to 1945: Born in Trochu,  Alberta  in 1910, George Eckenfelder was the son of Leon C. Eckenfelder, and  Valentine Figerol.  His father came to Canada, from France, in 1904 and joined two others as a junior partner in the St. Ann Ranch Trading Company Ltd. The company formed the nucleus of the first settlement at Trochu. George graduated from the University of Calgary, with a degree in civil engineering in 1933. He gained employed in the Unemployment Relief Camps as a junior supervisory, and later joined Calgary Power as an engineer. He enlisted in the 13th District Signals (militia) in 1938 and went "active" as a second lieutenant with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division signals unit in May 1940. After six months training at Barriefield Camp, Kingston, Ontario he moved to Debert, Nova Scotia. There he was posted to 14th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery and went overseas in July 1941. In February 1943 he was sent to North Africa for battle experience with the British 1st Army. Returning to England in August 1943, he was posted to the 7th Infantry Brigade as a captain and spent three months training on the Isle of Wight before moving to a concentration area north of Southampton from which, with the Brigade Headquarters, he moved directly to their ships for the D-Day invasion. On D-Day plus 3 he was captured by a group of by-passed Germans who, despite occupying a large cave and a strong defensive position, after a day, the Germans surrendered to him as senior officer prisoner.  After Falaise the 3rd Division moved on to Boulogne and Calais, then to the Scheldt Estuary, remaining there until November  1944. He was then transferred to Army Troops Headquarters, moved to Aldershot, and returned to Canada in September  1945. Upon his return he was rehired by Calgary Power as an engineer.He died in British Columbia in 2007.

Military Oral History Collection  Link
 

CALGARY HERALD CALGARY, ALBERTA, THURSDAY, OCT. 18, 1945, PAGE 9

Link 

Snappy Sales Talk By Albertans Outwitted Their German Captors


 The story of  how two quick-thinking and quick-talking army officers from Alberta persuaded their German captors and a group of 140 enemy soldiers to surrender to them during the early days of the Normandy campaign was told in Calgary Wednesday by one of the pair who has returned to Canada.

He is Capt. George Eckenfelder of Trochu. who received his final discharge papers from the army Wednesday after serving five years with the R.C.C.S.

It was on D-Day plus 3 that 1Capt. Eckenfelder was taken prisoner outside the village of Fontaine Henri. about three miles Inland from Courseulles, where the landing had been made.

He was signals officer for the 7th 1nfantry Brigade and was on his way alone along what he had been told was a direct route to division headquarters. As he turned a corner of the road, he  was shot at by a machine gun and several snipers who were ambushed at the side of the road.

TAKEN PRISONER

Eckenfelder jumped to the ditch and attempted to fire back at the Germans, but was soon surrounded and taken to a huge cave which was a good defensive position for the Germans. The group of about 135 men and four or five officers had been left behind when the advance of the Allied forces had forced the enemy to retreat,

The cave was a large underground quarry, capable of housing 10,00o people. There were about a dozen trucks and armored cars, masses of supplies, but not very much ammunition, Capt. Eckenfelder related. A small first aid post had been set up where 20 wounded soldiers including a Canadian and a British Tommy were being treated.

"There were also large supplies of wine and cigarettes;’ he said.

“The Germans offered me some or the latter, but I preferred the Canadian brand which are much better.”

GERMANS NERVOUS

About ten minutes after Capt. Eckenfelder  had been taken to the cave, another Canadian officer and several men arrived. The officer was Lt. Howard Germen, former high school teacher of Munson and Drumheller. who had been captured in the same manner as the Trochu soldier.

The incident had occurred about 9 o’clock In the morning. and during the day mortar fire became increasingly heavy, A Canadian infantry regiment was  gradually working up to the stronghold in the cave, but at that time, the Allied prisoners did not know about it.

“The Germans got more and more nervous as the firing got closer. We helped matters, conversing in French, by telling them the roof of the cave would not stand many more mortar bombs.” Capt. Eckenfelder said.

SALES TALK WORKS

“Finally about 8 pm. the major in charge of the Germans came up to us and said. ‘we're out of ammunition and we have many wounded men; we want to surrender to you. Evidently our sales talk had some effect on him.”

Capt. Eckenfelder and Lt. Germen lined the men up and marched them outside the cave.

The German officer in charge then called to several of his men who were hidden in the woods surrounding the cave, and the whole party was marched to division headquarters.

Germen is now a major and is believed to still be in England in the Canadian Provost Corps. Capt. Eckenfelder is the son of Mrs. L. C. Eckenfelder of Trochu. He plans to return to his work at the Calgary Power Company where he was employed for seven years prior to the war.