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VETERAN COMES HOME TO COLLINGWOOD TO HONOUR FATHER, UNCLES
Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin, Ontario, Canada
Nov 7 2014
Paul Brian, Enterprise-Bulletin
Many Canadians who served in the military during the First World War
never came home, but one local family had the blessing of seeing all
six of its sons return, something that was highlighted in an Oct. 24
wreath-laying by one of their descendants, veteran Harvey Ridgway.
Ridgway laid a wreath at the Collingwood Walls of Honour Oct. 24,
paying tribute to his father Tom Ridgway and Tom's five brothers
and three brothers-in-law who served in the First World War and all
came home.
The wreath-laying came ahead of Gaslight Tour's season opener, a
re-enactment of Collingwood residents who deployed in the war and an
honouring of local veterans.
"I left Collingwood and joined up in Hamilton and I went to British
Columbia and to Australia," Ridgway said,
Ridgway joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a submariner (at the time
the Naval Service of Canada) in 1953 and served until 1980.
Ridgway said he was inspired to join the military because of his
father Tom Ridgway.
The Ridgway family, of two parents, six sons and three daughters,
immigrated directly to Collingwood from the United Kingdom in 1907.
They came specifically because of the shipyards, which they felt
would always provide work for their sons.
"It was great that Harvey wanted to pay homage to his father's memory,"
said Cathy DeRuiter, a Ridgway descendant who helped organize the
family reunion of sorts, noting she was touched by his placing of the
wreath in honour of his father and uncles (her grandfather was one of
Tom's brothers). "Our family history is so bound up with the history
of Collingwood, and all of them went to World War One," she added.
Tom and his five brothers pursued a variety of military careers during
the First World War. One brother, Eddie, fought at the Somme, while
another John was in the medical corps and another, Ernest, became a
regimental sergeant-major.
Tom Howard, the husband of one of the Ridgway girls was one of the
"Hungry Nine," those of the first recruits to join up right at the
outbreak of the First World War.
Tom Ridgway's history, though was perhaps the most striking of all
the brothers.
"Tom had the most interesting career, he fought at Vimy Ridge and
then after Vimy Ridge, he was recruited for a very hush-hush mission
called the Dunster Force," DeRuiter said.
Dunsterforce was named after British General Lionel Dunsterville,
a childhood friend of The Jungle Book writer Rudyard Kipling and
leader of the clandestine crew of hardened fighters.
The Dunsterforce was a secret squad of Commonwealth soldiers including
26 Canadians who infiltrated dangerous areas of the Caucasus and Middle
East to help prevent Turkish advances against an increasingly-exposed
British front after masses of Russian troops began deserting during the
Bolshevik Revolution, potentially allowing Turkish and German troops
to attack British-held areas of the Middle East and Caucasus. Tom,
24, who had been a pipefitter at the shipyards in Collingwood, became
a bomb-maker for the Dunsterforce and ended up in a coastal oil town
of Baku on the Caspian Sea.
"The recruits didn't even know where they were going. They ended up
going to the Middle East to modern-day Azerbaijan in the town of Baku,"
DeRuiter said.
Travelling by truck, camel, horse and mule, the men ended up
fighting in the wider Battle of Baku in September, 1918, between the
Ottoman-Azerbaijani coalition forces and the Bolshevik-Dashnak Baku
Soviet forces, later succeeded by the British-Armenian-White Russiane
forces under Dunsterville. Ultimately, the men escaped under heavy
fire from enemy gunboats, retreating from what would later become
the beginning of the Armenia-Azerbaijan war, ongoing in varied form
to this day.
Years later, Tom's service at Vimy Ridge would even be recognized by
the King.
"Tom was also invited by King Edward VII when they did the dedication
of the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France, because it took a long time
for them to build it, so they didn't do the dedication until 1936
or something like that," DeRuiter said. "He was part of the honour
guard invited by the King, so that's kind of special."
After coming home to Canada following the war, Tom became a chauffeur
for Sir Henry Pellatt, the designer of Casa Loma in Toronto. Fortune
took a turn for the unexpected, however, when Pellatt lost his money
in real estate speculation and ended up poorer than his own driver.
"When Sir Henry Pellatt lost all his money and became destitute, Tom
took him in to his home and that's where Harvey was then a little boy.
So Harvey used to call Henry Pellatt 'grandpa.' He was sort of part
of the family," DeRuiter explained. "And then in the end Sir Henry
Pellatt who had been this very famous man feted by kings and queens
and was the Crème de la crème of society ended up dying virtually
penniless in the arms of his chauffeur, Tom."
With adventures and stories like that in their family history,
Oct. 24 was quite the night to get together as an extended family
and talk about memories and share photographs.
At the museum night there were 23 direct descendants of the Ridgways
and their three brothers-in-law present, many of whom DeRuiter had
never met before from across Ontario. DeRuiter had done an online
write-up about the event which then it circulated out amongst relatives
who ultimately decided to attend the Gaslight Tour event Oct. 24.
Two prominent Ridgway relatives were unable to attend: DeRuiter's
first cousin Lynn Johnson, creator of the For Better or Worse comic
strip, nor was Steve Williams, the head animator for LucasArts, the
production company of Star Wars creator George Lucas. Williams was
nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the Mask and invented
the animation behind Jurassic Park.
"They kept passing it on and passing it on and pretty soon we had
all these people coming I'd never even heard of before," DeRuiter said.
"We did end up having a lot in common and after the museum there
we went over to my brother John Saunders' to their home and spent
the evening together and got to know each other and brought our old
photos. I had to make out a family tree chart, because I couldn't
figure out how who do you belong with?"
Then on Saturday the extended family also went to the All Saints'
Anglican church cemetery on Raglan Road in Collingwood.
Coming back to Collingwood where his mother and father are buried
and where he also got a chance to see many of the new branches on
his family tree meant a great deal to Ridgway.
"I was brought up in Collingwood and it brings back a lot of memories,"
Ridgway said. "It's a great honour to come and honour my father and
his five brothers and all veterans who served in the Great War."
http://www.theenterprisebulletin.com/2014/11/07/veteran-comes-home-to-collingwood-to-honour-father-uncles
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin, Ontario, Canada
Nov 7 2014
Paul Brian, Enterprise-Bulletin
Many Canadians who served in the military during the First World War
never came home, but one local family had the blessing of seeing all
six of its sons return, something that was highlighted in an Oct. 24
wreath-laying by one of their descendants, veteran Harvey Ridgway.
Ridgway laid a wreath at the Collingwood Walls of Honour Oct. 24,
paying tribute to his father Tom Ridgway and Tom's five brothers
and three brothers-in-law who served in the First World War and all
came home.
The wreath-laying came ahead of Gaslight Tour's season opener, a
re-enactment of Collingwood residents who deployed in the war and an
honouring of local veterans.
"I left Collingwood and joined up in Hamilton and I went to British
Columbia and to Australia," Ridgway said,
Ridgway joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a submariner (at the time
the Naval Service of Canada) in 1953 and served until 1980.
Ridgway said he was inspired to join the military because of his
father Tom Ridgway.
The Ridgway family, of two parents, six sons and three daughters,
immigrated directly to Collingwood from the United Kingdom in 1907.
They came specifically because of the shipyards, which they felt
would always provide work for their sons.
"It was great that Harvey wanted to pay homage to his father's memory,"
said Cathy DeRuiter, a Ridgway descendant who helped organize the
family reunion of sorts, noting she was touched by his placing of the
wreath in honour of his father and uncles (her grandfather was one of
Tom's brothers). "Our family history is so bound up with the history
of Collingwood, and all of them went to World War One," she added.
Tom and his five brothers pursued a variety of military careers during
the First World War. One brother, Eddie, fought at the Somme, while
another John was in the medical corps and another, Ernest, became a
regimental sergeant-major.
Tom Howard, the husband of one of the Ridgway girls was one of the
"Hungry Nine," those of the first recruits to join up right at the
outbreak of the First World War.
Tom Ridgway's history, though was perhaps the most striking of all
the brothers.
"Tom had the most interesting career, he fought at Vimy Ridge and
then after Vimy Ridge, he was recruited for a very hush-hush mission
called the Dunster Force," DeRuiter said.
Dunsterforce was named after British General Lionel Dunsterville,
a childhood friend of The Jungle Book writer Rudyard Kipling and
leader of the clandestine crew of hardened fighters.
The Dunsterforce was a secret squad of Commonwealth soldiers including
26 Canadians who infiltrated dangerous areas of the Caucasus and Middle
East to help prevent Turkish advances against an increasingly-exposed
British front after masses of Russian troops began deserting during the
Bolshevik Revolution, potentially allowing Turkish and German troops
to attack British-held areas of the Middle East and Caucasus. Tom,
24, who had been a pipefitter at the shipyards in Collingwood, became
a bomb-maker for the Dunsterforce and ended up in a coastal oil town
of Baku on the Caspian Sea.
"The recruits didn't even know where they were going. They ended up
going to the Middle East to modern-day Azerbaijan in the town of Baku,"
DeRuiter said.
Travelling by truck, camel, horse and mule, the men ended up
fighting in the wider Battle of Baku in September, 1918, between the
Ottoman-Azerbaijani coalition forces and the Bolshevik-Dashnak Baku
Soviet forces, later succeeded by the British-Armenian-White Russiane
forces under Dunsterville. Ultimately, the men escaped under heavy
fire from enemy gunboats, retreating from what would later become
the beginning of the Armenia-Azerbaijan war, ongoing in varied form
to this day.
Years later, Tom's service at Vimy Ridge would even be recognized by
the King.
"Tom was also invited by King Edward VII when they did the dedication
of the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France, because it took a long time
for them to build it, so they didn't do the dedication until 1936
or something like that," DeRuiter said. "He was part of the honour
guard invited by the King, so that's kind of special."
After coming home to Canada following the war, Tom became a chauffeur
for Sir Henry Pellatt, the designer of Casa Loma in Toronto. Fortune
took a turn for the unexpected, however, when Pellatt lost his money
in real estate speculation and ended up poorer than his own driver.
"When Sir Henry Pellatt lost all his money and became destitute, Tom
took him in to his home and that's where Harvey was then a little boy.
So Harvey used to call Henry Pellatt 'grandpa.' He was sort of part
of the family," DeRuiter explained. "And then in the end Sir Henry
Pellatt who had been this very famous man feted by kings and queens
and was the Crème de la crème of society ended up dying virtually
penniless in the arms of his chauffeur, Tom."
With adventures and stories like that in their family history,
Oct. 24 was quite the night to get together as an extended family
and talk about memories and share photographs.
At the museum night there were 23 direct descendants of the Ridgways
and their three brothers-in-law present, many of whom DeRuiter had
never met before from across Ontario. DeRuiter had done an online
write-up about the event which then it circulated out amongst relatives
who ultimately decided to attend the Gaslight Tour event Oct. 24.
Two prominent Ridgway relatives were unable to attend: DeRuiter's
first cousin Lynn Johnson, creator of the For Better or Worse comic
strip, nor was Steve Williams, the head animator for LucasArts, the
production company of Star Wars creator George Lucas. Williams was
nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the Mask and invented
the animation behind Jurassic Park.
"They kept passing it on and passing it on and pretty soon we had
all these people coming I'd never even heard of before," DeRuiter said.
"We did end up having a lot in common and after the museum there
we went over to my brother John Saunders' to their home and spent
the evening together and got to know each other and brought our old
photos. I had to make out a family tree chart, because I couldn't
figure out how who do you belong with?"
Then on Saturday the extended family also went to the All Saints'
Anglican church cemetery on Raglan Road in Collingwood.
Coming back to Collingwood where his mother and father are buried
and where he also got a chance to see many of the new branches on
his family tree meant a great deal to Ridgway.
"I was brought up in Collingwood and it brings back a lot of memories,"
Ridgway said. "It's a great honour to come and honour my father and
his five brothers and all veterans who served in the Great War."
http://www.theenterprisebulletin.com/2014/11/07/veteran-comes-home-to-collingwood-to-honour-father-uncles
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress