The M/S Batory sailed into Halifax Harbour April 17, 1942 with AC1 Stirling Cranston Campbell (GB1366913), a 22-year-old native of Prestwick, Scotland, aboard. He wasted no time settling into his new temporary wartime home of Canada – within 20 days of setting foot on Canadian soil he was united in marriage at Yarmouth North, NS. Although Campbell survived the war, his union did not succumbing to divorce.
As No.34 Operational Training Unit moved to Pennfield Ridge in the later part of May 1942, more unions followed commencing with Sgt. William O’Connell (R/97362) who was united to Laurette Rita Delorme August 20, 1942 at St. Peter’s Church, Saint John. This marriage was also short lived – O’Connell “Gone for a Burton” (a British English expression meaning to be missing or to die) June 15, 1943 while serving overseas with 103 (RAF) Squadron.
O’Connell was not the first or the last airmen who took what was a potentially fateful step in wartime, a decision to get married. Before doing so, an airmen was required to seek the air force’s official permission. Once they satisfied their superiors that they were free of debt and could support a wife – their principal concerns – they were granted permission to marry.
The first staff officer known to marry was F/L Denis Gordon Lacey (GB76586) (1918-2003) who was wed to his bride Constance Lynn Holt (1917-1995) at Flushing, New York (USA). They later returned to Worthing, England, raising their son and enjoying a little over 50 years of wedded bliss together.
You could fill an encyclopedia volume of wartime romances that bloomed as a direct result of the Pennfield Ridge Air Station. However, space does not allow us the room to outline every story so let us examine just a few that bubble to the surface and save others, perhaps, for another time.
LAC Clifford David Lewis (GB1279594) was wed to Mary Ella Denyer @ St. David’s Parish Church, St. Stephen in September 1943. Taffy, as he was commonly known, met his bride at Crystal Palace (roller-skating rink) in the fall of 1942. After their union they honeymooned in Fredericton. In the Spring of 1944 Taffy returned to England until he was discharge in 1946, returning to Canada and his young bride.
Jack Reid when asked “How did you meet Doris?”, his reply: “She snagged me! There was no barracks at the time, and those of us that were there stayed in tents. I didn’t know her, and the coincidence here was there was two Jack Reid’s close by. The other was a Sergeant of the DF a direction plant. She had seen the Jack Reid that ran the direction plant, but I for her. It was fate.”
Hazel Fogler, who grew up in Pennfield attending a one room schoolhouse, meet Harold Robert (Bob) Keezer who was stationed at Pennfield Ridge. During their courtship Bob would fly over Hazel’s house and drop notes of admiration attached to small rocks; this was the beginning of 51 wonderful years of marriage until Bob’s death in 1999.
At the movie theatre in St. George, LAC Charles Rowland (Roy) Swanston (GB1577187) met a young woman from Pennfield by the name of Marion Wells. Just before the close of the base, and after months of waiting for approval from the Royal Air Force, Roy & Marion were married. Three months later he was sent back to England and was transferred to the British Army, as a member of the Army of Occupation in Belgium and Germany. It was three years before he saw his wife again.
In closing we are reminded of the words of Barbara Hutton, an airmen’s widow, who reflecting over her time here remarked: “Pennfield [Ridge] was a place where a number of young people began their married/adult lives, and where a number of young men spent their last few months before their lives ended overseas. The scenery was alternately dank, dismal – and wildly beautiful. The people who lived there were sometimes kind and generous; resourceful and industrious; skillful and friendly – and at other times inhumane, indifferent to suffering, unreasonable, unpatriotic, insular and ignorant.”
Christian Larsen currently serves as President of Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society. He has been actively involved in researching the genealogical & military history of Pennfield Parish for nearly four decades. From 2009 until 2017 he hosted the annual Pennfield Ridge War Memorial Services. Recognized at the provincial & federal levels for his work with Veterans having been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012); Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (2023); Minister of Veteran Affairs Commendation (2024) & King Charles III’s Coronation Medal (2025). He can be reached at: ppmhsociety@gmail.com
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Our latest column, just 686 words in length, focuses on seven airmen who married between 06-February-1942 to 09-February-1944. These airmen only represent a small percentage of marriages that resulted from the Pennfield Ridge Air Station.
In the addendum to the book of marriages there are those airmen who married shortly before coming onto “the Ridge”. For example: Sgt. Robert John EDGAR (R/75858) (1917-1942) married his bride in the latter part of August 1941 before arriving here, with his new bride, in the second week of September 1941. They moved into a boarding house in St. George. His widow later recalled a “neat old house with no plumbing”, thus conjuring up visions of the unpleasantly primitive. Even so, the house was set in a “pretty village” where she and Bob “could watch the salmon jumping up the [nearby] river to spawn”.
On the flip side of the coin however you have airmen who were married during their two weeks Embarkation Leave received after graduating from Pennfield Ridge. One of these airmen was P/O August NOWOSAD (J/7649) who traveled to Saskatoon, SK to marry his bride, but sadly three weeks after his marriage the new groom was called home in a blinding snow storm in the Adirondack Mountains, NY (USA).
Then you have those airmen who came Canada in April 1942 aboard the M/S Batory leaving behind pregnant wives back in the UK. The newborn names are faithfully recorded in the Daily Routine Orders so they could, in return, receive their dependence allowance. One of these airmen was LAC William Henry DYASON (GB1186005) who wife Nell was 3-4 months pregnant with their first child sailed. Sadly DYASON only saw his son Michael in a photograph and DYASON now forever remains one of Pennfield Ridge Air Station’s “Forgotten Heroes” (he succumbed to meningitis in the Station Hospital, 08-January-1943).
So as the The Friendly Giant would say: Here we are inside, here’s one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in, and someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle. Now, draw near the fire, and I’ll will tell you more stories from Pennfield Ridge Air Station.